Creating High Quality PDFs from Word 2010

[BrazzellMarketing]

I just "upgraded" to Windows 7 and Office 2010 all at once. Among the many new shortcomings I'm encountering is the inability to create high quality PDFs from Microsoft Word 2010. The save as PDF option only allows low quality and standard (which is also pretty low). How does one create a high quality PDF from Word 2010?



BTW - I'm also running Adobe Creative Suite 3 on this machine.

[JimP]

I, too, just upgraded to Win7 / Office 2010. I do not use the "save as" option for .pdf. I have Adobe Acrobat Professional installed that allows me to "print to" Adobe pdf. I find the results much better. With you having another form of Adobe installed, I am assuming you have that option as well. However, I am not sure that quality is up to the standards you are accustomed to or not. Worth a try...

[BrazzellMarketing]

CS3 comes with Adobe Acrobat Professional 8. I'm guessing you have a newer version installed. The PDF printer does nothing when printing from Office 2010. When I try to create a PDF from Acrobat Pro 8, I get a "not a supported file type" error. What version of Acrobat Pro are you running. I may have to upgrade to CS5 to make Adobe cooperate with Microsoft.

[JimP]

I was using Acrobat Professional 9.0 but, when our network upgraded to Windows 7 and Office 2010, they downgraded to the Standard version (Properties menu identifies it as Version X). I did have some issues converting some files (MS Visio) to .pdf but, the quality was always there.

[BrazzellMarketing]

I just looked and see Adobe Reader X installed on my new PC as well. I'm not sure how to make it responsible for the PDF printer instead of Professional 8. I'll poke around. Advice welcome.

[Ridgerunner]

Don't use save as in MSword to create the PDF. Use acrobat and "combine" the word file and save it as a new pdf.

[BrazzellMarketing]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner

Don't use save as in MSword to create the PDF. Use acrobat and "combine" the word file and save it as a new pdf.

Tried it. No go. When I try to create a PDF from any Office 2010 file by first opening Acrobat 8 Pro, I get a "not a supported file type error."

[Ridgerunner]

You can't open acrobat then do a file/"combine" process? Acrobat will "combine" just about any file type. Make sure you're trying the combine function, not create. Could it be that acrobat 8 is too old and won't recognize a docx file? Try saving the document as an older type .doc file and combining it in acrobat maybe? I'm reaching here; haven't played with my office10 much as of yet and am not looking forward to it one bit.

[BrazzellMarketing]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner

You can't open acrobat then do a file/"combine" process? Acrobat will "combine" just about any file type. Make sure you're trying the combine function, not create.

No dice. Just tried it. My .docx files are not even appearing in the menu selection for combine files. In Adobe Acrobat, the file type selection menu does not have an "all file types." It only has an "all supported file types." It's hiding all Office 2010 files that I have created since switching to Windows 7 (64-bit) and Office 2010 simultaneously.

[JimP]

I am going to jump back in here again. I, too, just migrated from WIN XP to WIN 7 64-Bit and from MS Office 2007 to MS office 2010. I do NOT use the "Save As" function for .pdf's because of poor quality (specifically, when color graphics are involved). I ALWAYS print to ADOBE PDF (from the printer drop down menu)...which is nothing more than a pdf converter and have always had good quality IMO. I don't know much about Adobe Creative Suite but, if it is similar to most Adobe products, it should have ADOBE PDF in the printer drop down menu. If so, try it. If not...I am at a loss.

[JimP]

Originally Posted by JimP

I am going to jump back in here again. I, too, just migrated from WIN XP to WIN 7 64-Bit and from MS Office 2007 to MS office 2010. I do NOT use the "Save As" function for .pdf's because of poor quality (specifically, when color graphics are involved). I ALWAYS print to ADOBE PDF (from the printer drop down menu)...which is nothing more than a pdf converter and have always had good quality IMO. I don't know much about Adobe Creative Suite but, if it is similar to most Adobe products, it should have ADOBE PDF in the printer drop down menu. If so, try it. If not...I am at a loss.

I forgot to mention that when you use the print to ADOBE PDF method, a menu will be generated for you to save the .pdf to your file location (it doesn't actually print to anything).

[BrazzellMarketing]

Originally Posted by JimP

I forgot to mention that when you use the print to ADOBE PDF method, a menu will be generated for you to save the .pdf to your file location (it doesn't actually print to anything).

Thanks. That doesn't work on my system currently. The PDF printer just seems to ignore the print commands from Office 2010 software. I noticed that your new system is running Adobe Acrobat Reader X, and not the Creative Suite you used to have. Based on your input, I have a theory that if I uninstall the current PDF printer and try to re-install it through Acrobat X, it might help. I haven't had a chance to test that theory yet.