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sarah_5270
New Participant
April 24, 2025
Question

Save as Adobe PDF Function Defaulting to .docx in MS Word

  • April 24, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 1197 views

Hello,

 

I am assisting an end-user with using the "Save as Adobe PDF" function within Microsoft Word. Specifically, when using the functionality, Word asks to save, then it prompts a File Explorer window with the default file extension being .docx. This end-user has to manually change it back to PDF and click OK for the functionality to work as expected.

 

This occurs with all Word documents across a laptop and desktop both running Windows 10 Pro. I have confirmed that the end-user has the most recent versions of Office and Adobe Acrobat. They are licensed for Adobe Acrobat Pro and have the licensed version installed on both machines.

 

Could the issue be caused by a setting syncing across both devices?

 

Thank you.

1 reply

T
Community Manager
Tariq AhmadCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 24, 2025

Hi @sarah_5270, 

 

Thank you for reaching out. 

When you open a Word Document (.docx) file that hasn't been saved yet or has been previously saved but has changes made, the document defaults to a prompt for save when you choose File > 'Save as Adobe PDF.'

So, it is a design behavior to save Word files first before you convert to PDF format. 

 

Let us know if you have further questions.


~Tariq

    S
    sarah_5270Author
    New Participant
    April 24, 2025

    Hi Tariq, 

     

    Thank you for your guidance. I think we were misunderstanding how the feature works. 

     

    Sometimes when I save a .docx through "Save as Adobe PDF" and then Word opens the new PDF in Acrobat, the PDF does not autosave in the same location. It gives it a temporary name and I have to manually save it. Is this normal as well?

    ls_rbls
    ls_rbls
    Adobe Expert
    April 25, 2025

    ++Adding to the topic, 

     

    Using this feature in Microsoft Word automatically saves files to the cloud by default, and it doesn't save to your computer locally by default.

     

    If you don't want this to happen every time you choose  to "Save as Adobe PDF", you must manually tweak the Save setting directlly on Microsoft Word => File = > More => Options ===>> Save => "Customize how documents are saved." => "Save Documents" :

     

    See the example slide below. 

     

    1. Uncheck (if desired ) "AutoSave files stored in the Cloud by default in Word.

    2. Check the tickbox " "Save to Computer by default" and choose a "Default local file location"ile location" ==> click OK to commit changes and restart Word.

     

     

    NOTE: Configuring where your Word document files will be saved by default is a global setting that also affects where Word documents will be saved by the default using the "Save As" method.

     

    In both cases, the purpose of  "saving as" in computers is to give the User the  ability to change the original file name to something else, making an exact file copy of the original document with a different name, to change the location where the file is saved, and to also change the file type with another file type extension. 

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