My Acrobat Pro DC cannot convert Office Word file.

[linusw45053101]

An Error message appears when dragging doc/docx files into Acrobat DC Pro: "Adobe Acrobat could not open '*.docx' because it is either not a supported file type or..."

And I cannot find "Microsoft Office Word" in Acrobat Preferences>Convert to PDF, while Excel, Powerpoint, Project, and Visio are there.

My Office version is 2016 Pro, and the Word application has "Acrobat" Tab functionally working to convert to PDF.

Any help to solve the problem?

I have tried to repair Acrobat and Office, no result.

[ls_rbls]

Hi,

Have you tried clicking on HELP---> Repair Installation"?

Also, you mentioned that you have Acrobat Pro DC, which version update?  Try updating to its latest version which was released for May 2020.

In addition, you may want to manually update MS Windows, and manually update your MS Office. This will bring all your programs to their current version.

Last ,  check if you have more than one word processing application installed in your MS Windows machine. If you do (or even if you don't), verify that the correct file association for .docx  is set to open with MS Word as the default program for these type of files and not another program.

[linusw45053101]

Hi,

Thank you for the suggestions.

The repair installation doesn't work.

My Acrobat is the latest version 2020.009.20063

My Windows 10 and Microsoft Office are in the latest versions. There is only one version of Office installed and the file type is correctly associated.

The wonder is why Office can export PDF by the PDFMaker Addin but Acrobat cannot open/convert word files (doc/docx) directly?

[ls_rbls]

Just today another optional update was released addressing additional known issues.

I would suggest that you try and apply the two updates that were released for May 2020. 

Two of the known issues addresses fixes for the PDF Maker add-in for MS Outlook and with MS Excel. 

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html

[linusw45053101]

Thanks for the info.

Just did, with no effect though.

[ls_rbls]

I just had a user yesterday that was having issues trying t o install Acrobat Pro  from the Technical Communication Suite.

He never confirmed why he wasn't using Adobe Acrobat Standard 2017 which comes in the media set to install the bundle of licensed products.

Instead,  he was stubbornly manually forcing an installtion of the old and supported Acrobat Pro XI. I did remember mentioning that having two different products from two different tracks can be problematic and require some installtion repairs.

So long story short, he said that he managed to resolve the issue by uninstalling the Adobe PDF Maker add-in 2015 that came with the Technical Communication Suite in that media set, which later allowed him to reinstall his old version of Acrobat in that computer.

So maybe, I am thinking if you're able to follow similar approach by unintsalling the PDF Maker add-in completely.  Then perform  a repair or a fresh installation of Acrobat.

Reinstalling in this manner should bring back the default Acrobat Distiller conversion settings and default preferences that (for some mysterious reason) you're missing.

[linusw45053101]

Hi thank you.

Do you mean that I should manually delete the PDF Maker add-in folder in the installation directory and let Acrobat repair it?

I will give a try.

[ls_rbls]

Yes because, let's say (or just assume for troubleshooting purposes) that this is the issue, then that means that  this PDF Maker add-in is conflicting with the .msi setup program.

The setup program will keep detecting it when you try to repair an installtion and will not update appropriately with the version of Acrobat that you're trying to repair.

In MS Word, use the Options menu to remove the add-in from the the list there first.

The PDFMOfficeAddin.dll    is found in this path: 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\PDFMaker\Office

I would backup  all the files in this folder first and place them on a separate folder in your dektop. 

In case the repair installation doesn't do anything , then proceed with an uninstall and reinstall procedure but using the Acrobat Cleanup Tool: https://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html?PID=5140752

This will completely remove old traces of the software and prepare your system to accept a fresh installation.

I would also avoid reinstalling from the Creative Cloud Desktop app (if that is what you've been using). I would disable it during these procedures.

To test with best success results sign-in to the creative cloud with your AdobeID and download Acrobat from here: https://creativecloud.adobe.com/

After Acrobat is installed you should notice that the setup program (AcroPro.msi) in a MS Windows 10 computer is found in this path (or similar):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Setup Files\{AC84AB86-12368-HHHH-1240-1C1G152F2200}

You can double-click on the AcroPro.msi file to manually repair but is basically the same Microrost Setup installation package program that runs when you do it from "Help" -->>> "Repair Instalaltion" in Acrobat.

Or,

Choose to run the Setup.exe program if installing for the first time again.

NOTE: You may also want to sign in here https://account.adobe.com/plans/

and check at the bottom of that page if your current subscription is activated in more than one computer device. If you do see more than one computer device activated with the same subscription deactivate the devices that you're not currently signed in; levae active only the device that you're currently using. 

[linusw45053101]

Hi, Tried everything above. I even reinstalled my Office again. I don't think its PDFMaker problem now.

is there any key in Regeiddt that controls the recognition of Word filetype for Acrobat?

[ls_rbls]

The key is here in this registry path: 

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin

According to Microsoft guidance check if the value is set to 0. If it is change its key value to "3".

You can find more valuable troubleshooting information here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/acrobat-pdfmaker-office-com-addin-keeps-disab...

More about Incompatibilities here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/miscellaneous/incompatibilities-between-office-...

And also refer to this Adobe Guidance: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-acrobat-pdfmaker-problems-office.html

[andrewr8640145]

hi adobe,

i have the same problem; i have uninstalled office and reinstalled tried all repairs to adobe you suggest; i have updated adobe. i have removed preference files. tried everything; can you please fix this for me, i pay my subscription every month and expect things to work, and I shoudnt be spending my time to fix.

[Emilie27497494sc9s]

Bumping this discussion. I also have the same issue with converting Word doc to PDF. Tried everything that was suggested to no avail. Acrobat Pro Desktop App says "An unexpected error occurred. PDFMaker was unable to produce the Adobe PDF." Adobe Acrobat web version works, as well as PDFMaker on Microsoft Word. 

[OisinFrost]

I have the same problem. It's driving me nuts. I'm at the point that I'll ditch Acrobat in favour of Drawboard Pro (which I use to make hand markups of engineeing docs).