Hatrack River Forum: Help in creating Adobe PDFs

This is topic Help in creating Adobe PDFs - a computer question in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

I have a question regarding a problem with a couple of programs. Does anyone know the answer?

I have a 70 page booklet in Word, and I need to turn it into a PDF file. I print to Adobe PDF, but the links do not work in the new PDF file. There are links on almost every page, and I will print it to Adobe PDF several times in next while as I update the document, so I really don't want to add in the links by hand. Does anyone know how to make sure the links work in the PDF? Is it because I am using the print function? I can't find anything in the help for Word, and the help for Acrobat is just terrible and I can't find anything there, either.

*flounders* And, I think it's laughing at me. *pout*

[ November 04, 2005, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

I'm hoping I didn't push anyone away who has an answer with the disclaimer above. Of course I didn't mean you. [Smile]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

What version of Word and Adobe Acrobat do you have?

I would try the macro from the Adobe toolbar in Word (it may not be showing, right click on a toolbar and choose PDFMaker to show it) or the Adobe PDF menu in word.

I don't know if it will work, but it's something to try while we research.

Posted by TheHumanTarget (Member # 7129) on :

Kat,
Check the print options under the setup tab of Adobe. It may be an option that is turned off.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Are these links to outside web sites or intra-document links?

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

It's really bizarre, but I don't have either the menu or the toolbar. I definitely have it in other documents, but not this document.

I'm going to try to copy and paste the document into a new one, just in case the toolbars are linked to the document, and since it is so old it won't show up.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

The toolbars can be controlled by the underlying template as well, although I've never had the Adobe one disappear.

In fact, sometimes I have serious disagreements with it when I try to make it go away.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

Okay, even in new documents the macros and toolbar won't show up, although I have Adobe Acrobat 6.0. Maybe it got corrupted?

I have already checked the print options, and turned all of them off and on. It didn't do anything.

There was one that said "Update Links", but even when clicked, the links still did not work. They are blue and underlined, but not links.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

The Adobe one has dissapeared completely.

Grrr...I have a pile of things to do today, and I've been wrestling with this document for the past four hours.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

...Hatrack? [Frown]

Does anyone know?

Oh, I just knew I scared away the gurus with disclaimer.

I've given up, though. I can't find the place to fix it, so it will have to wait for Monday and in the meantime I am getting upgraded to Acrobat 7.0, so with any luck the new batch of bugs will not include this one.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Everything I found that might help suggest using the Conversion Settings item in the Adobe PDF menu in Word. [Dont Know]

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

Yeah, I think my Acrobat is corrupted. So, put off fixing it until Monday, publish it now without the links, and get upgraded in the meantime.

Thank you, Dagonee and Human. [Smile]

Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :

What happens with you use Acrobat to convert the Word file (ie. from inside Acrobat, you Create a PDF from a File)?

This is a really stupid question (and will show my very limited familiarity with pdfs), but is it even possible to have links within a pdf document (since a pdf is essentially a document that's been turned into an image)?

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

I tried creating the PDF from inside Acrobat, and the same thing happened.

There is a button there called "Settings" but it was grayed out, which led me to believe it's the piece of hud I'm working with that's the problem, and that upgrading might fix it.

It is very possible to have links. You can also make forms and limited workbook functions.

Posted by dropofTapioca (Member # 7867) on :

What about trying an alternate 'word to pdf converter'? It's worth a shot.

I use freeware called 'gotopdf', which can be found at www.go2pdf.com/product.html. Brief instructions: After download and installation, open the word document, open the print window, change printer to 'Virtual PDF Printer', then press 'Print'. A 'Save As' window will appear, and then proceed from there.

Links in the word document are preserved in the pdf file by gotopdf. Or at least it does for me.
Hope this helps.

Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :

I exclusively use Open Office. I have never had a problem with links or PDF conversion. Open Office has a built in PDF converter/exporter in the menue.

EDIT: By "had no problem with links," I mean that the links in OpenOffice works. I haven't tested PDF. Sorry.

[ November 04, 2005, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: lem ]

Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :

I just tested it and the links in the PDF document worked. Open Office will read word documents.