Stop PDFMaker for Office from Closing Files When Saving as PDF

[ScwB00]

Seriously, it's 2020 now and the PDFMaker plugin still requires files to be saved, closed and re-opened when you make a PDF in Excel, Word, etc. Other PDF-saving methods do not require this, they simply "print" a PDF like any rational plugin would do. Saving, closing and re-opening files becomes painful when you're dealing with large, slow files, especially if you are using a remote/VPN connection to files. Please re-write the PDFMaker plugin to take the more sensible approach.

[swapnilsrivastava · Accepted solution]

Hi There,

Thanks for reporting the issue here.

MS Excel and other MS apps have a PDFMaker plugin with Acrobat installed which creates PDF as per the Adobe Acrobat quiality not prints; so they file needs to be saved before converting to PDF. 
Also, if one does not want to save the file, can use Adobe PDF Printer; which we provide with every Acrobat's installation on the machine(s).

Open the Excel file > Click on Print Button (or Ctrl+P) > Select Adobe PDF Printer from dropdown > Select a location and Print

Regards,

Swapnil Srivastava

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Just to clarify some of the details...

There are many different types of PDFs made for specific purposes and based on international standards (file requirements). Some are:

• PDF/A = archival material
• PDF/E = engineering
• PDF/X = press quality for the printing & graphic arts industry
• PDF/UA   = universal access for accessible files
• And several more.

Most non-Adobe PDF-making programs don't create PDFs to these standards.

Printing to a virtual PDF printer, whether Adobe's or other PDF company's, is the lowest level of PDF possible; it just records the same data that would be sent to a desktop laser or inkjet printer. Usually that means low-quality graphics and dead, non-editable text.

Sometimes that's all you need, other times it doesn't. When you need a better quality PDF, always use one of these methods:

1. A PDF plug-in, such as Adobe's PDF Maker
2. File / Save As and select any of the PDF options installed on your computer.
3. File / Export and select any of the PDF options.

[ScwB00]

Thanks for the information, however I still do not understand why Adobe PDFMaker forces the underlying Excel file to close and re-open. Sure, save it if necessary, but why force it to close? The other options listed (File / Save As with another PDF option, and File / Export) do not require this. Despite everything mentioned above, I still cannot see why the file must be closed. That seems like poor programming design to me.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

That part is wierd!

But I've never had Excel require closing the file when I export a PDF.

Log this as a bug in the UserVoice website, https://acrobat.uservoice.com/ so that Adobe's engineers can look into it.

[ScwB00]

Thanks. I've done that. I'm surprised it doesn't close yours though. It has always done that for me for years and on different computers, so I have to assume it's by design rather than an unintentional bug.