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Subject:Re: 'Adobe PDF' problem with Word From:"Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org> To:Techwr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:41:40 +0000
On 28/11/2007, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com> wrote:
> I have discovered that since getting my new system, the "Adobe PDF" menu
> no longer functions in Word 2003. I can open Acrobat 8 Reader and
> Acrobat 8 Standard. Any ideas?
>
>
Adobe is the worst offender I have ever come across with regard to the
design of its Word add-ins messing up the user interface changes made
by any other add-in present. For my own add-ins I work very hard to
ensure that they act as a "good neighbor" and ensure that they do not
do unfriendly things like make changes to normal.dot or overwrite menu
changes made by other add-ins. The PDFMaker addins are extremely bad
neighbors and stomp all over changes made elsewehere, for instance not
making the slightest attempt to check whether a menu has been added to
the menu bar before putting their own menus on, overwriting anything
there already.
Each version of PDFMaker seems to mess things up in new and innovative
ways. In my add-ins I now have to make separate checks for whether
Acrobat 6, 7, or 8 is installed, and take different actions
accordingly to clear up the mess left behind by PDFMaker. Even now, I
have yet to entirely sort out the unholy combination of PDFMaker 8
being installed and Word being used as the email editor for Outlook.
If you use Word as the Outlook email editor, and first open Word in
order to create an email, the add-ins are loaded but Word doesn't
permit their initialisation code to run. I don't think the PDFMaker
addin anticipates this possibility, even in Version 8.
So, I would recommend you try the following
1. Close Word, and make sure that there is no invisible instance of
WINWORD running in the Task manager
2. Restart Word. If the problem goes away, and you have Word as your
outlook editor, then that is probably the source of your problem. To
workaround it, always open Word *before* you open Outlook to read or
edit an email.
3. If the problem doesn't go away, close Word and rename normal.dot to
normalold.dot.
4. Restart Word, and see if the problem goes away. If it does, the
problem was probably down to PDFMaker having corrupted normal.dot. You
may find yourself having to repeat this action on occasion,
particularly if Word crashes and you have to close it using Task
Manager.
5. If the problem doesn't go away, go to Tools, Templates and add-ins,
and uncheck all other add-ins. If the problem then goes away, you have
a conflict between PDFMaker and one or some combination of those
add-ins. Try reloading them one at a time and see if you can identify
the culprit.
6. If the problem still doesn't go away, you might have a conflict
between PDFMaker and one or more other COM add-ins. To get at the list
of COM add-ins, go to Tools, Customize, and add the "COM Add-ins"
button to the Tools menu, and then click the COM Add-ins menu item to
display the list of COM add-ins. Disable them all and see if the
problem goes away. Add them back in one at a time as for the ordinary
add-ins.
7. If the problem still doesn't go away, then you may have a corrupt
installation of the PDFMaker add-in. Uninstall both Acrobat 8 and the
Acrobat 8 Reader, and then re-install Acrobat 8 only.
If the problem still doesn't go away, then you have exhausted the
range of problems I have experienced with PDFMaker, but I would be
interested in finding out what finally works for you. It might help me
further harden my own add-ins against the depredations of PDFMaker.
Thank goodness Microsoft decided to include PDF export capabilities in
Office 2007, so Adobe will never have to create a new version of
PDFMaker for Office 2007. That is one major problem I will not have to
address. Office 2007 has quite enough challenges already (though that
is a story for another day!)
Of course, if all you want is a plain PDF file without the headings
getting added as bookmarks, you don't need the Adobe PDF menu or
PDFMaker at all. Just go to File, Print, select Adobe PDF as the
printer, and click OK. A perfectly good PDF file is created.
Regards
Jonathan West
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