Cannot convert Word document to PDF using Acrobat 9 Pro

[airam_22]

I've been having trouble converting Word documents to PDF using Acrobat 9 Pro. I am using MS Word 2003 and my OS is Microsoft XP; and Distiller 9 is also installed. I've also installed the following patches: AcrobatUpd912_all_incr, AcrobatUpd920_all_incr, AcrobatUpd930_all_incr, and AcrobatStdUpd910_T1T2_incr. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling Acrobat 9 Pro to no avail. I also reworked my Word document thinking that it may be corrupt and I still get this error message whenever I convert the Word document to PDF: Microsoft Office Word has encountered a problem and needs to close.

However, when my other co-worker using Acrobat 9 Pro and MS Word 2003 with Windows 7 converted the same file on her machine, she did not encounter any problem.

Does anyone has an idea how to resolve my problem with regard  converting  Word document to PDF? When I was using the Distiller bundled with Adobe Framemaker 8, I  didn't encounter this kind of problem when converting Word documents to  PDF.

[Bill12]

I assume you are using PDF Maker. Try printing to the Adobe PDF printer. You might also check for updates to OFFICE 2003 -- there have been several.

[airam_22]

Thanks, Bill. We also tried that, using Adobe PDF as the default printer. (Whenever Word document is being converted to PDF, the system automatically changes the default printer to Adobe PDF.) We have also tried uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe Pro 9 and  administered an Add/Remove action for MS 2003 using Office 11 CD. The  document using modified styles and formatting were successfully  converted to PDF but after two tries, PDF conversion fails and MS Word  crashes. I also noticed that after Word crashes, the zwAdobef appears on  the Font dropdown menu of MS Word. I tried searching for instances of  zwAdobef in the document and font size 1 by pressing CTRL + F and  selecting Formatting > Font > zwAdobef and Font size 1, but the  application did not find any instances of zwAdobef in the document. I  don't know what else to do to resolve this problem. I ran several tests today and here are the results of the tests I made based on the assumption that the failure to convert to PDF is caused by file size or use of modified styles and formatting:

Office Version: Microsoft Word  2003

OS: Microsoft   XP

Acrobat Version: Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

Scenarios	Results
Copied Content and Pasted it on new document   without formatting and graphics, file size: 141KB	PDF conversion successful
Document using style and formatting with   Helvetica Neue font, file size: 3.84MB	PDF conversion failed and MS Word crashes
Old document, lots of graphics included,   file size: 2.92MB	PDF conversion successful
Old document, file size: 974KB	PDF conversion successful
New document using new styles and   formatting, file size: 359KB	PDF conversion failed and MS Word crashes
Document after reinstalling Helvetica font   in WINDOWS font folder, file size: 141KB	PDF conversion failed and MS Word crashes

[wychegnome]

This problem is not confined to Acrobat 9 - it affects Acrobat Pro 8  as well.

It seems to have started recently (June)  about the same time security updates were issued for the flash player  and Acrobat.

What I get when trying to convert a  Word (2003) or Excel document to PDF amounts to dumb insolence. The  process starts then ends quickly and Acrobat has opened up with no  document on display. No error message either. When repinting to Acrobat I  do get error messages claiming that my copy of Acrobat is not activated  - which is a blatant lie. Acrobat then pops up over the error message  and selecting Help > Activation shows that both Activate and  Deactivate are greyed out.

Restarting the computer  resolves the problem for a while as calling up Acrobat after the restart  and checking Help > Activate now produces activate in greyed out  state but deactivate as a usable link - which is how it should be.

Somewhere  along the line 24-48 hours after restarting the computer a link  somewhere is being broken allowing Acrobat to lose contact with whatever  file holds the activation detail.

What link is this?

Where is it or where is it  supposed to be?

How can I stop it from breaking?

And how  can I restore it without either repairing Acrobat (which requires a  restart) or simply restarting the computer.

[Bill12]

The most basic way to produce PDFs is to print to the Adobe PDF with print-to-file selected. Open that file in Distiller to complete the conversion. If there is an issue, you should either get an error when printing to file OR with Distiller. This may help isolate the problem.

[airam_22]

Still no luck in converting a Word document using modified styles and formatting. Before converting, I ran Repair for Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro as when I did such action yesterday, PDF conversion was successful even with Word document with modified styles and formatting. However, today, PDF conversion failed and MS Word crashes. This time, an error message window appears. The following message is shown: AcroTray has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Bill, as for what you have suggested -- The most basic way to produce PDFs is to print to the Adobe PDF with  print-to-file selected. Open that file in Distiller to complete the  conversion. If there is an issue, you should either get an error when  printing to file OR with Distiller. This may help isolate the problem. -- When I launch Distiller 9 (which I presume is bundled with Acrobat Pro 9 that I installed), I only see the window where you can set the Adobe PDF Settings. Should I change any Adobe PDF Settings in Distiller? My current Adobe PDF Settings is Standard. Thanks.

[SimonATS]

Bill means you should try and print the Word document which fails to the Adobe PDF printer. If this conversion also fails, whatever the issue, it's not to do with PDFMaker.

If you're able to print to the adobe PDF printer, then try using the pdfmaker again, but before you do, disable the enable for accessibility option in the PDF conversion settings.

[Bill12]

AcroTray is fundamental to the completion of creating a PDF using the Print option. In Distiller, you should be able to select File>Open and select the file you produced. The file will likely have a prn extension on it (the default), but is actually an PS file. The job.options Standard should do, but I prefer something such as the print or press options (actually I use a job settings from a journal). If there is a problem with the PS file, then the Distiller run should show it during processing. Assuming this works, then you have an issue with AcroTray and may need to stop it and restart it (it is located in the Acrobat folder).

[Bill12]

I tend to use something similar to Press or Print job settings so that I get all fonts embedded. However, when you are having font problems you might try the smallest size option that does not embed fonts. If that works, but standard does not, it is a good indication that the fonts are an issue. If it works the same either way, then fonts may not be the crashing issue. There have been messages about activation before and I think there are some knowledgebase articles about the issue. I have never had the problem, but run a corporate version that does not require the activation.

The AcroTray message is strange as your other tests did not suggest that as a problem. AcroTray is what is used to bring up Distiller in the background to finish the printing process.

With PDF Maker and AA9, the process apparently no longer uses the printer driver. I am not sure what was changed, but that is what I was told.

Not much help, but might give you some ideas.

[Bill12]

I use a special settings file from a publisher, but the press and print options provide full font embedding in most cases -- often a problem for folks viewing PDFs with Std settings. To open the file in Distiller, use File>Open and select the file. If you did not change the extension to PS, then you will need to select the file that likely has a PRN extension (it should still be a PS file). That should work with Distiller and create a PDF or give you an error.

[Guest]

I am also experiencing the same problem.  (i.e errors in converting Office 2003 documents to PDF with Acrobat 9 Pro.)  Previously, I used Office 2003 and Acrobat Pro 8 without problems.  Now, converting a Word 2003 document to PDF with Acrobat 9 Pro results in sections of the converted PDF being omitted.  As a attorney, this error is potentially "nuclear" for me in terms of the ramifications.  Please provide a fix ASAP.

[TekRytr]

I have Acrobat Pro 9 and I convert lots of Word docs to PDF all the time. For a big release at work, I had to convert 25 documents to PDF all at once.  They all worked except for four docs all written about the same product. I checked user groups and forums, I reinstalled Acrobat, I did the MS Word "detect and repair", I copied all the content into a new document and re-saved, I tried "Print to PDF", I tried Save-As PDF, nothing helped - I kept getting the same error message that "Acrobat failed to create a PDF file". But all of the other docs on my list converted fine. And then I finally narrowed it down - it was ONE FONT that was preventing the conversion. I write software application documentation and I had a Vijaya font on the title page of just those 4 documents.  When I changed that font to Candara or something less esoteric, it PDF'd fine. So if for some odd reason Acrobat won't convert your Word doc to PDF, check your fonts.

Note: Acrobat Pro 8 is a LOT less fussy about font selection.

[Pukawa59]

I too am having this problem, particularly when trying to do a mail merge to PDF through AA9Pro.  I have two machines, both with Word 2003 on XP.  One stopped producing PDFs and crashing Word about two months ago, but the other continued with no problem until a week or so ago.  Using the same document, one machine produces the error log:

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
%%[ Error: syntaxerror; OffendingCommand: -        0      ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

The other produces the error log:

%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: setdistillerparams; ErrorInfo: CalCMYKProfile U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
Error accessing color profile: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

A different letter also crashed with the same error log contents.

I tried merging the letters to a new document and printing that, but got a different error log:

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
%%[ Error: syntaxerror; OffendingCommand:   "      - "        -    ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

I've reinstalled AA9Pro; I've reinstalled the whole Office suite on both machines, but the problem persists.  The frustrating thing is that production of PDFs from a mailmerge is a fundamental part of our business, and everything was fine until recently.  I thought it might have something to do with a couple of plug-ins to AA9 (Quite Imposing & PitStop), so I removed those and again reinstalled AA9.

No improvement.

The first machine to start crashing has Photoshop CS5 installed, so I thought that that might be an issue - but when the other machine began behaving the same way with no PS installed, I'm starting to believe that it surely just has to be an issue with one of the recent AA9 updates, doesn't it?

The only way we are currently able to mailmerge to PDF is with JawsPDF installed on a third PC.

I really wish Adobe would do something (anything!) to recognise the problem and give us a solution.

[AbhigyanModi]

Try:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/328/328791.html

[Edjako]

MSWord 2007 and Acrobat 8 issue

I'm using MSWord 7 with Acrobat 8.2.5 Pro on a Windows 7 machine.  The problem is documents that I have converted in the past now wont.  I tried several of the suggested solutions except a complete reinstall.  I also tried repair within Acrobat as well as repair in Program Manager.

One suggestion was to print to Adobe Printer.  The message I get below refers to Cambria font.  1) the MSWord equations are in Cambria Math font and hasn't been as issue for several years.  2) this particular document does not contain Cambria font, the entire document is in Arial.

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
%%[Page: 1]%%
Cambria not found, using Courier.
%%[ Error: invalidfont; OffendingCommand: xshow ]%%

Stack:
[142 89 53 93 79 53 66 0]

%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%

Upgrading to Acrobat 9 doesn't appear to be a solution.

Ed

[AbhigyanModi]

Looks like there is a problem with fonts installed with Office. Try repairing Office.

[Edjako]

I first tried the diagnose and repair within Office - No difference.

Next I did the MSOffice repair in Program Manager.  The only difference is that the Acrobat menu dissapeared.  I was unable to enable by selecting PDFMaker.  So as Administrator, I had remove it and add the dll back.  This still didn't fix the problem.  I also get error messages:

• Office Word has stopped working
• Word experienced a serious problem with acrobat pdfmaker office com addin and asks if I want to disable it

Now what?

[TekRytr]

Not sure if you've done this yet, but if I were in your situation I would likely uninstall both Word and Acrobat and then reinstall both.  I would also scan through the document I'm trying to PDF to see if there are any weird fonts or other internal coding that Acrobat might be sensitive to.  Another idea - after you completely uninstall Acrobat, trying installing Acrobat 8 instead of 9 when you reinstall.  It's much less fussy.  Good luck!

[eagreer]

I just spent more than 90 minutes watching Adobe Pro 9 choke on a Word document. I'm running CS4, not CS5. It eventually finished, but it was grueling. I'm running Off 2010 64-bit, but my document was saved in 97-2003 .doc format, not a new .docx format.

I also have Nuance PDF Converter Pro. I used it and it took about 2 minutes. I printed the first 10 pages of each, held them up to a light, and they were identical. Guess the sub-$100 software isn't that bad.

[camilleclintone]

You can use a Word to PDF Converter. The program was working fine with Word 2003, 2007 and 2010.

Converting Word document to PDF is one function, and there are more created formats under "Options" button like JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PS, EPS, etc.

[Seth0D44]

Hi!

Thanks for your suggestion let me try again because in the first instance it worked.