You're right I did switch from the beginning of the thread. Thanks for pointing that out.

For those wondering how to convert to pdf without errors like I had and to secure the file...

I found a couple online doc to pdf converters that seemed to fix my initial problem.
Just search 'free online word to pdf converter' and you'll find a bunch.

However, none of these offered a way to secure the file though, so for that I found free downloadable software called PDF security 1.0 which works like a charm.