PDFMaker was unable to save the file. Please save the file and run PDFMaker again

[user987654321]

2024 OCT 08:

I use MS Word 365 to create and revise documents. The document is a Word 97 doc. When a revision is complete, it is converted to PDFs using the  "Create PDF" button under the Acrobat tab in MS Word.  I will get the folloing message:

"Acrobat PDFMaker needs to save the file before continuing. Do you wnat PDFMaker to save the file and continue?:

Normally, when I click yes and the PDFMaker would then convert the document. 

This and a few previous occasion, after clicking yes I receive the following message:

"PDFMaker was unable to save the file. Please save the file and run PDFMaker again."

I have tried saving/saving to different locations/updating/reinstalling/checking com add-ins, essentially all of the obvious items revealed in various Google search shows many posting of questions and "solutions" or answers. I have tried many, but none of them solved the issue.

I am using Windows 10 Enterprise, with Adobe Acrobat Pro and Microsoft Office 365 licenses.

[S. S]

Hi @user987654321,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble, and the delayed response.

In case you are still looking for a solution, you might want to try the below steps:

Repair Office and Acrobat Integration

It's possible that the integration between Microsoft Office and Acrobat has become corrupted. You can attempt a repair on both applications to fix any issues.

For Office 365:

• Open the Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
• Right-click Microsoft Office 365 and select Change.
• Choose Quick Repair or Online Repair and follow the prompts.

For Acrobat:

• Open Acrobat and go to Menu > Help > Repair Installation.
• Follow the prompts to repair the Acrobat installation.

Remove/Reinstall the Acrobat PDFMaker Add-in

Try disabling and re-enabling the add-in or reinstalling it.

To disable/enable PDFMaker:

• Open Word 365.
• Go to File > Options > Add-ins.
• At the bottom of the window, select COM Add-ins and click Go.
• Uncheck Adobe PDFMaker Office COM Add-in and click OK.
• Restart Word, then go back and re-enable the add-in by following the same steps and checking the Adobe PDFMaker box.

To reinstall the PDFMaker Add-in:

• You can reinstall the PDFMaker add-in by going to the Acrobat installation folder on your system and running the installation for the Office add-ins (or use the Acrobat installer to repair the installation).

Also, please ensure you are on the latest version of Acrobat (2024.005.20xxx) for the best experience.

To do so, go to Menu > Help > Check for Updates.

Hope this helps.

-Souvik

[HustonCMichael]

Is their away to disabling Microsoft office integration, but still have Acrobat? I currently have  JAMF (my OSX MDM) auto delete my office startup folder each day. Since my University doesn't allow macros.

• A policy or setting that would tell acrobat not to install macros.
• "linkCreation.dotm" only cause errors when macros are turned off.

[S. S]

Hi @HustonCMichael,

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for writing in!

If you are still looking for a solution, this is what you can try:

Go to Terminal and run the below code:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist bDisablePDFMaker -bool true

What it does and how it works:

• Instructs Acrobat to skip enabling the PDFMaker plug-in for Office apps.

• Prevents linkCreation.dotm from being placed into Word’s Startup folder.

• Works for new installs and after Acrobat repairs, but not retroactively — you still need to remove any existing .dotmfile.

If deploying through Jamf, you can try something similar to the script below:

#!/bin/bash
# Remove existing template
rm -f "/Applications/Microsoft https://adobe.ly/4oDo8Ih"

# Set Acrobat preference to disable PDFMaker
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist bDisablePDFMaker -bool true

exit 0

Note: You must push this as a Before script in your Jamf policy that runs at login or on install.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Souvik.