Creating pdfs from chrome plugin no longer works

Report · Jul 11, 2016

I have long been using the acrobat chrome plugin to turn webpages into pdfs. But now, when I try to "print" out a web page, it seems to print but never asks me where to safe it and then disappears. And there pdf is not saved anywhere.

You can see what I mean in this screencast.

Kindly advise how to fix this.

Christoph

Report · Jul 12, 2016

Hi Christoph

Please try the following steps:

1. Chrome -> Print -> Print using system dialog -> Select 'Adobe PDF' in list of printers -> Go to 'Preferences'

2. Verify the dropdown list for 'Adobe PDF Output Folder'. The option selected should be 'Prompt for Adobe PDF filename'.

3. Select Ok and retry your steps for printing to Adobe PDF.

Let us know the result.

Thanks

Arnab

Report · Jul 12, 2016

Hi Arnab,

Thank you for your assistance. Unfortunately, I cannot follow your instructions because the option “Print using system dialogue” does not exist when I select “Adobe PDF” as printer. But I was able to verify the “'Prompt for Adobe PDF filename'” setting by going through “Printers and Devices” on the control panel. It was set correctly.

Christoph

Report · Jul 13, 2016

Hi Christoph

Thanks for the quick response. Can you check if the webpage is being printed to pdf and getting saved to 'Documents' folder?

Also try and use the Acrobat plug-in in Chrome. Select the Acrobat icon in Chrome's plug-in toolbar and select 'Convert Webpages to PDF'.

Thanks

Arnab

Report · Jul 13, 2016

Hi Arnab,

No, unfortunately the webpage is not getting saved to the document folder.

I’m not sure what you mean by “Also try and use the Acrobat plug-in in Chrome”. This is what I have been using all the time.

But I tried selecting the Acrobat Icon in the Chrome toolbar and use “Convert Webpages to PDF” and it worked. Unfortunately, this path does not include a print preview and other options available through the print command. So I would still like to get the original print command to work again.

Thanks,

Christoph

Report · Jan 11, 2017

+1 Expanding on Christoph's explanation.

The chrome plugin: create pdf & add to pdf is not working for me.

Printing to pdf is not a suitable alternative, because the webpage links are not

captured and there is no possibility to ADD to a PDF using the "print to pdf" option.
The "print" option often mangles web pages badly. Introduces or loses text,

fails to capture image or YouTube frames.

Environment: Win10, Chrome 55.0.2883.87, Acrobat extension 15.1.0.3

Note: on the same machine, Acrobat Create PDF 2.0 (Oct 2016) extension mostly works on firefox 50.1.0

Are there any Adobe fixes or extensions available for chrome that work?

Chrome failure example:

- Gmail, select a message, choose "Print All" on the message

- Cancel that print dialog

- Use Chrome extension "Add to PDF"

- On firefox, I get the actual message content

- On chrome, I get a gmail Sign In / Create an Account page titled

"Free Storage and Email from Google"

Extraordinarily frustrating after selecting 20 or more messages in Chrome

to capture and later discover I captured none of them;

then try to remember what messages I was trying to capture in the first place.

I have used Acrobat Pro every day for years.

Once circumvention to plugin capture failures, especially if JavaScript is involved,

is to do a browser "Save As full web page". and then use Acrobat to

"Add to PDF from a Web Page" and browse to the .html file saved by the browser.

Note: Trying to capture web pages from Acrobat often fails because of

site requirements to login or support cookies. This fails in two situations:

- clicking a PDF link and selecting "Add to PDF"

- Selecting Tool "Add to PDF from Web Page"

I have tried nearly all of the PDF capture extensions out there

and all have limitations compared to the Adobe plugins.

Report · Jan 11, 2017

Hi

Which Acrobat version are you using?

Please ensure you have all the latest updates installed for Acrobat.

Thanks

Tanvi

Report · Jan 11, 2017

Acrobat XI Pro 11.0.18 ( Updated to 11.0.19 just now )

Acrobat Reader DC 15.023.20053

How do I stay aware of Acrobat updates?

Most software I use these days will nag me when an update is available when I launch or auto-update.

Launching the Updater directly from Acrobat will likely cause

a conflict for the updater, which necessitates a Windows ReBoot.

Can Adobe make that updater a little smarter to avoid that?

I manually terminated Acrobat when the Updater window changed to "Installing update..."

Install succeeded; no reboot needed.

I used the Acrobat jive forum update email to test the plugin on Chrome.

Adobe Chrome extension remains at 15.1.0.3

gmail / print all / adobe / create pdf from web page

Does not display the email contents; the PDF contains a Google "Meet your new inbox" message.

Acrobat About shows Version 11.0.19

Report · Jan 11, 2017

That's expected behavior. Chrome extension for Acrobat XI is not able to convert web pages that require login credentials. So you would be getting either the login page or home page converted when you give such web sites for conversion.

Ideally the behavior from Chrome extension for Acrobat XI would be same as that when you create PDF from within Acrobat via File > Create PDF From Web page workflow.

Thanks

Tanvi

Report · Jan 12, 2017

I disagree.

This is exactly the circumstance when you must initiate the PDF creation from

the plugin, and not from the Acrobat "Create PDF from Web Page".

I am already logged in to the gmail application on chrome.

I use the "Print All" option of gmail to create a new browser tab with just the message;

Running the adobe extension on a visible gmail message would capture the

gmail application itself into the PDF ... that works, of course, but adds

additional gmail application frames to the PDF that are not wanted.

Chrome extension works correctly on all applications I use that require login;

- my bank

- my investment broker

It is only gmail msg window that fails, and only on Chrome.

If I can see it on screen, I should be able to create a PDF from that screen.

I already know the extension requires a lot of work to properly render

screen shots to PDF. The extension often fails on web pages that include YouTube

on the page, or Twitter text on the page of, for example, the New York Times.

These things fail on both firefox and chrome, usually in different ways.

It seems to me this is a simple parsing error by the extension on chrome.

Have you actually tried this yourself with firefox and chrome?

Report · Jan 12, 2017

This link may be relevant to this topic. I have no way of knowing.

Adobe angers Chrome users by bundling browser plugin with security update | Ars Technica

What I do know is that updating Acrobat XI to 11.0.19 did not resolve my problem

with gmail "Print All" web capture of the resulting chrome browser tab.