Converting Word to PDF ruins formatting...please help!

[kgbf]

I'm using Microsoft Word 2016 on a work laptop, and whenever I save to PDF, the formatting gets completely ruined. It's a staff bio doc that consists of a title, a space after the title, then a simple one-word column with each row consisting of a paragraph wrapped around a photo. I've also inserted lines (shapes) between each person's bio. 

When I save it to PDF (which is absolutely necessary because I'm also using a brand/company font), words from the page 2 move up to page 1, messing up the lines and spacing for the rest of the document. (On certain pages further within the document, I've added extra spacing to properly align photos with text.)

I've spent hours already trying to fix this issue, and implemented tips from other threads to no avail. I attempted to save it as a Microsoft PDF instead of printing it to PDF, saving it as a 93-2007 doc file instead of docx...nothing works. Something that should take 30 seconds is taking forever...does anyone know of another solution? What's causing this? Thanks in advance!

[gary_sc]

HI kgbf,

How are you creating your PDF? When you say you are "save to PDF," that says to me that you are not using the Acrobat Ribbon to do the work. If you are using Microsoft PDF, than (assuming that you are on a PC), you essentially did nothing different than when you did the "save as PDF."

Do you have Acrobat or Acrobat Pro on your computer and if so, did you use the Acrobat Ribbon to access the PDF creation or not. BTW, I'm NOT talking about Acrobat Reader which does not have the capability to create PDFs, only read them, comment on a PDF, and/or fill out forms.

If it makes you feel any better, both Apple's and Microsoft's PDF generation has issues that can from minimal to severe. 

[kgbf]

I am saving from within Word 2016, and I have Adobe Acrobat DC. And yes, I am using a PC. The methods I have tried: 

• File --> Save as Adobe PDF
• File --> Save As --> PDF
• File --> Print --> Microsoft Print to PDF
• File --> Print --> Adobe PDF Printer

I just tried 'Create PDF' from the Acrobat tab and had the same (incorrect) results.

Is it something to do with the tables or spaces I'm using? Also, in the first four methods, the print preview looks good, but it saves/prints to PDF with formatting changes.

[gary_sc]

Can you please share with me one of your word documents and one of the PDFs that was generated from the file? I have a hunch but need to see these files to verify.

If you want, you can DM me with the files. I PROMISE I will not share or distribut them, chances are the content will be meaningless to me.

Thanks,

[kgbf]

Sure! I will DM them.

[gary_sc]

Hi kgbf,

OK, the problem is NOT with Acrobat (regardless of creation), Apple, or Microsoft. (How do I say this pleasantly), the problem is with you. Or rather, I need to teach you a few thing on how to BEST use Word to help prevent these things from happening.

I think I've identified the problem(s), and they are minor and easily fixed: but in Word, nothing in Acrobat. I have DMed you back your two documents, I've fixed one of them through page 6. If I misunderstood exactly how you want these to appear, forgive me but the problem showed up when I opened them on my Mac and the letter/paragraph spacing moved things around a bit from what you had, and that's the problem (as I see it).

First the great news: things you are doing very correctly: you did not center things by tapping the Space bar oodles of times for something to be moved into (about) the middle of a page, you used tabs properly, you only had one space after a sentence, etc. These are all fantastic. THIS is what I was expecting to find in your document and was very pleased to not find these issues. However, there were other things I "think" I see caused the main problem, and one other things you should learn: Styles and how to use them.

Here's the main thing. When you are done with one item and do not want the next item to start on a page and bled over to the next page, you want to enter a "New Section, aka a page break. The keyboard shortcut on the Mac is Command-Return, on the PC I believe it's Control-Enter.

Here's the menu approach:

This will force the page to jump to the next page after this is entered. You can add more text on top of this but nothing below it ON THAT PAGE. This will force no entry to be chopped into two page, you maintain control on the distribution of the content.

Next, le me show you how to be efficient and more professional looking: Styles. I've sent you back your original document and I've added two styles. One is called "body" and that your body content. All I've done is to add 6 points of space after each paragraph so that you do not need to hit the Enter key twice when you want to start a new paragraph and have a space in-between. This is much more professional looking. 

I did the same thing with your titles, I called this Style "name-office" where I added 12 points after the paragraph to give you your greater space after. 

I also set this up so that after typing in the name-office content, when you tap the Enter key, it will automatically switch to the Body Style. When you need to enter a new person, you will have to select the "name-office" Style from the Ribbon.

Here's a screenshot of what these look like on a Mac, I do not know what it looks like on a PC (note: if your window is too narrow for these to show, you will see a dropdown. If you can, widen your window to more easily access them.

To use Styles, simply place your cursor IN the paragraph that you want affected and select the style you want. If you wish to affect more than one paragraph, what I do is to select at least some of all the paragraphs that I want selected so it would be some of the first and some of the last and anything in-between. Then select the desired style.

Please let me know how this works out, was this the correction you needed?