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MikeZeroOneLLC
MikeZeroOneLLC
New Participant
November 27, 2017
Answered

Text missing after conversion to PDF

  • November 27, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 22277 views

Using Acrobat Pro DC.  Latest version is installed.  I have searched everywhere, tried too many things to list.

The following occurs for both me and one of my users running the same versions of Windows and Office.  Her Acrobat is probably activated with their site license but I think otherwise it's a very similar version.

For just this one specific docm. document, everything except the numbering on the left side and graphics is missing after converting to a PDF.  I've tried using both the Microsoft and Adobe drivers from within Word.  I've tried "Save as",converting it from the Print options, ran the repair function from within Acrobat, changed the dpi in the Adobe driver settings, changed docm to docx, as well as regular old doc, and probably more.  Still, the problem persists.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Dov Isaacs

If you are seeing the same problem with both Microsoft's save as PDF and the Acrobat PDFMaker facility, the problem has nothing whatsoever with Adobe Acrobat, but what is being “fed” to these PDF creation facilities.

It would be necessary for you to post an example of such a Word document for any of us to meaningfully assist you.

          - Dov

2 replies

MikeZeroOneLLC
MikeZeroOneLLCAuthor
New Participant
December 1, 2017

Reporting back to share my findings for future Googlers:

For this particular document, I finally found out that there was a document property that had been entered into the header in Word, that did not exist.  The procedure was as follows:

1. Copy all text, graphics, everything, to a new Word document and save it with the original extension, docm.

2. Convert to PDF.  PDF displayed an error in the header: "Error! Unknown document property name."

3. Now we know something is wrong with the header.  Went back to the document I created and pressed ALT+F9 to show field code.

4. Found { DOCPROPERTY JobName \*MERGEFORMAT } in the header.  Couldn't find that property in the settings, so I removed the field code and replaced it with plain text with the same formatting at the rest of the header.

5. Converted to PDF and all was normal.  We can infer that the document was a mashup of text and formats copied from multiple sources, and that particular document property simply does not exist in Word 2016 by default.

    Dov Isaacs
    Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
    Brainiac
    November 27, 2017

    If you are seeing the same problem with both Microsoft's save as PDF and the Acrobat PDFMaker facility, the problem has nothing whatsoever with Adobe Acrobat, but what is being “fed” to these PDF creation facilities.

    It would be necessary for you to post an example of such a Word document for any of us to meaningfully assist you.

              - Dov

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    MikeZeroOneLLC
    MikeZeroOneLLCAuthor
    New Participant
    November 27, 2017

    I can't release the actual document, as it happens to be a legal contract.  I tried to create something similar for testing, but it works just fine.  Considered that Acrobat was not the problem and tried making an XPS.  XPS also came out stripped of the same content.  Thank you for helping me narrow it down.  Perhaps the document is too complex for these conversions.

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