Convert To PDF Add In Rearranges Tabs In Excel Workbook

[Yung5E82]

Good afternoon, everyone,

I have a (possibly) strange question.  I have the Acrobat add in installed in Excel (O365) and, previously, it used to work fine.  Recently, when I use the add in to convert multiple tabs in Excel to PDF, it scrambles my tab order after it converts.  (Recently = over a year ago.  :))  For example, my tabs are A, B, C, D, E, F before conversion.  After conversion, it may be rearranged as D, E, A, B, F, C.  I have not yet found a pattern.  The only thing I can discern is that the tabs are rearranged each time.

It doesn't happen if I only convert one tab at a time or if I use the print to Adobe PDF feature. Anyone know who to fix this?  I can still work but it's become a bit of an annoyance having to rearrange my tabs back to how they were before conversion.

Thank you kindly!

[Amal.]

Hi Yung,

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble. We need some more information for a better understanding.

• Is this an issue with a particular Excel workbook or with all the workbooks? Please try with a different workbook and check.

• Are the tabs in the Excel workbook gets rearranged after you create the PDF out of it? If yes, please check for any missing/pending updates for the MS office and try updating it and reboot the computer once.

• Also make sure you have the Acrobat DC updated to the recent version 22.1.20117 (Win), 20112 (Mac). Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

• You may also try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights in Win or enable the root account in MAC and try using the application there and check.

Regards

Amal

[Yung5E82]

Good morning, Amal,

Thanks for your response.  I had to reach out to our help desk folks for help with your last suggestion of creating a new profile.  When I spoke with them, they kind of took over this issue and are working through it.  Thanks again for your suggestions!

[Melissa27985741vyl0]

I am also having this issue and have the latest version of Adobe. Any time I use the Save as Adobe PDF option, after the pdf has been created, the first several tabs of my excel workbook will be moved.  Usually to near the end of the workbook.  I can find no rhymn or reason for why this is happening. I've tried making sure I'm on the first tab of the workbook or on a blank tab or even the last tab but it doesn't seem to matter where I am in the workbook, tabs are moved.  This wasn't a huge issue before my current job because I was the only one in the workbook and could move everything back where it belonged.  Annoying but workable.  My new job uses a Sharepoint system so any changes are saved immediately and another employee could essentially open the file I'm working in and become upset if the tabs are out of order.

Is there a fix for this??  Or a workaround?  Other than pdf'ing each page individually then compiling (which is not efficient when there are 30+ tabs), I don't know what else to do.  Help??

[Joanne31805152l1fw]

All workbooks.

Yes the tabs rearrange after creating a PDF in the add in.

I cannot update.  I get an 1328 error that a patch will not update.

Unfortunately, I cannot make changes to this computer.  It is a work device and the only thing I might be able to do is uninstall and reinstall.

[Amal.]

Hi there

You may try to download the patch manually from the link https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html and see if that works.

~Amal

[Amal.]

~Amal

[Laura33879665ywg3]

I am having this issue as well.  It appears that the tabs I've selected to become an Adobe PDF file are grouped together at the front of the workbook and the non-selected tabs are now after the selected tabs.  They are out of the original and desired order in the workbook.  Updates to Adobe and MS Office are current.  A co-worker said he's having the same issue.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Would you mind sharing the version of the Acrobat Pro you are using? To check the version, go to Help > About Acrobat  and make sure you have the application updated to the recent version 23.06.20380 Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

Also, please share a small video recording of the steps you are doing for more clarity.

~Amal

[Melissa27985741vyl0]

So, we discovered a potential reason why the tabs move around.  Under your Page Setup, in the Print quality bar, each tab needs to be the same dpi.  If they are different, than the majority of tabs with the same dpi will stay in their original locations while any others will be moved in order of dpi (ex: 600 dpi will be moved to the beginning before 1200 dpi tabs).   I've now added to my review of tabs to make sure the dpis are all set at 1200 dpi and have not had any issues with tabs moving!  

Maybe this can be addressed in the programming so that it doesn't matter what dpi is used (I still haven't figured out what the default is) so the issue of moving tabs will be taken care of. 

Hope this helps everyone!

~Melissa

[Laura33879665ywg3]

This seems to have fixed it.  I selected all tabs and changed the dpi to 1200 then printed it again.  This time the tabs stayed in the correct order after printing to Adobe PDF.  Thank you so much for the assistance with this issue, it was becoming very frustrating!

[Abambo]

The dpi value should be irrelevant. If it influences the order, than it's a bug. 

(BTW: 300 dpi should be enough, and it will only be relevant to pixel images. Vector and text will print fine at any setting.)

[Laura33879665ywg3]

Agreed, seems ridiculous, but the recommendation worked.

[Laura33879665ywg3]

While changing the dpi on each sheet seemed to work initially, the issue has reappeared and the tabs continue to be rearranged when I make a pdf file of selected sheets from excel workbooks.

[Laura33879665ywg3]

The version in use is the one you noted 2023.006.20380.  The problem occurs when using the menu item Acrobat in Excel > Create PDF.

[dreamkar]

I am having the same issue. Dpi is the same for each sheet, so that is definitely not the issue for me. 

[Laura33879665ywg3]

Any recommendations for fixing this issue, it's very inconvenient having to rearrange all the tabs after making a PDF from an excel workbook with many tabs?

[Christine35504479fb4s]

This happens to our Save As PDF procedures from Excel also. This started to occur when we switched to OneDrive/Sharepoint cloud files and, possibly more important to the point, when the Excel docs became an AutoSave document. When they were on our local mapped server drives, they were not autosave. AutoSave might be causeing the issue but, it is extremely cumbersome to turn off autsave for individual documents in the Cloud.

[randerson@MME · Accepted solution]

This!

Thanks for sharing.  This solved it for me.   It's the AutoSave that does it.

Workaround.  I open the file in the Desktop App, temporarily shut off auto save with the convenient slider at the top, Save As PDF or the tabs I want, then turn auto save back on after it is done.  Works Great!!

[Joanne31805152l1fw]

This did not work for me.  1 have 20 tabs on a spreadsheet and if i only PDF 2 of them, one of them goes to the beginning of the tabs.

[excited_Dazzle4242]

I'm also having this problem. Adobe Acrobat (64-bit) (24.005.20414). All of my DPI are the same across tabs. The first 5 tabs of my workbooks move to the end of the workbook.

[AnandSri]

Hello @excited_Dazzle4242

I hope you're doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response and the trouble.

Please ensure you have the latest version of Acrobat installed on the machine: 25.001.20531 (Win) | 25.001.20529 (Mac), planned update June 10, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, restart the app and the machine, and try again.

If the issue continues, please provide the following information: the current version of the operating system on your device, sample files, and the logs from the affected machine. To collect the logs, download and run the Log Collector tool. Make sure to select all log options and attempt to reproduce the issue. After that, close the Log Collector tool; it will generate the logs along with a log ID. Please share this log ID with us for further investigation.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.