Loss of "Save as PDF" function

[Gaueko]

I allowed an Adobe update on October 10th without paying much attention to it. When I next went to save a document as PDF, I was relayed to an Adobe website and asked to subscribe to Acrobat Pro.



I removed Acrobat Pro and found that the Save as PDF function no longer worked at all. (I received a "Could not open file" error.)

I went and downloaded Acrobat Reader DC and can now Save as PDF, but no longer have the options to prevent file compression. Those options are simply not available in Word anymore. As such, my PDF sizes have dropped from ~1.25 MB to 321 KB and the documents look awful.

Is there a way to restore this function? It seems odd to me that a major aspect of Word is tied to a 3rd party.

Any help or advice will be appreciated!

[gmayor]

Word 2007 and later have a built-in PDF function. It is rudimentary compared with Acrobat, but is capable of good results if you pay attention to the options.

It seems that you were using (dare I say) an unlicensed version of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe frequently checks to ensure that your use if legitimate. If it finds that yoiur use is not legitimate or you update to a newer version that is unlicensed, it will shut you out of the program until you buy it.

Adobe Reader is a free application to view PDF files. It does not create PDF files.

[Charles Kenyon]

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Originally Posted by Gaueko

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I removed Acrobat Pro and found that the Save as PDF function no longer worked at all. (I received a "Could not open file" error.)

***

Graham's response has been my experience.

Are you talking about Save As PDF under the File button or are you talking about the Acrobat Tab?

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or file type in the Save As dialog:

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[Gaueko]

I have never used Acrobat for PDF editing, but have a different/cheaper purchased program. I don't think that's relevant to the current issue.

I had been using the "Save as..." "PDF or XPS" option as alluded to above. Had been doing so for maybe seven or eight years. There was always a distinct "Save as..." "Adobe PDF" option that would prompt me to upgrade my trial version of Acrobat. That latter option no longer appears, and the tried and true method no longer offers the options that Graham has referred to. I am very familiar with them as I save graphics-heavy files to PDF several times a week (and then use the aforementioned program to replace any images that were still "damaged" by the conversion).

EDIT: I think I've answered Charles' question above, but to be sure: I am not using the Adobe tab, but the normal "save as" function.

[Charles Kenyon]

If you are interested, Adobe Acrobat 8 professional was available for free download from the Adobe site. It is the full version, not a trial. It works with recent versions of Word, at least through Word 2010. It does not add a tab, though; it is the 2006 version. Here is one post that tells how to get it. I last checked that this works about 2 years ago.

[Gaueko]

Thanks, but I'm really not interested in owning any version of Acrobat. I just want to be able to save to PDF without compressing my images, as I have been doing forever.

Would a screenshot or something help to prove that I no longer have those options?

[Glxblt76]

If you can't produce any .pdf from your word, a quick fix might be the online converters like >> this one <<. Dozens of things like that are around in the Internet.