In Word, I used to be able to save my documents as PDF files by pressing Alt-F,E,A (I don't remember exactly what menu choices they represent as I don't have time to bother reading that stuff once I know how to do it. But the first one was the File menu, then maybe Export... but whatever).



Recently I installed Acrobat, and it broke.... MS Word! Now I can't use that method to export to PDF. I guess it installed some kind of extension (or something) which doesn't just take more keystrokes. It's also slower and doesn't retain my old settings (like turning off "View after saving", which keeps being set even though I turned it off).

Is there any way to get back to the old menu system so I can quickly and easily save as PDFs?

What you have been using have been Ribbon shortcut triggered by the Alt key. These are tied to what is in the Ribbon. The File backstage is a part of that Ribbon even though it looks very different.

Adding Adobe added a command to that Backstage tab.
Export has also changed choices.

• Alt, F, E, P will get you to the button to create a pdf/xps document. (PDF by itself is not on this menu now.)
• Alt, F, Y, 3 should bring up the Adobe Acrobat save dialog.
• Alt, F, A, Y, 7, P will give you the Word SaveAs pdf dialog set for pdf.
• Alt, F, P, I will give you the Print Dialog's select printer and let you pick Adobe PDF from Acrobat or Microsoft Print to Pdf, at least on my computer.

The above key chains are one key, followed by the next, not with everything pressed at the same time. It is important if you want to learn a new one to look at your screen to get the next one to show up. The Alt key triggers the Ribbon tips. It shows letters and numbers for the various tabs and QAT buttons. If you press the H key, it activates the choices on the Home tab. "I" activates the Insert tab, etc.

You could also assign a QAT button or a custom keyboard shortcut to saving as pdf.

• Modifying the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) in Microsoft Word
• Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts in Microsoft Word 2007-2024 (365)

I know that it is irritating when Microsoft changes something around that you have used forever. I've been using Word for more than 30 years. Get used to it.

Thanks. I knew some of that. I was playing dumb because I didn't really care what the menus were and also because I don't always understand people's answers and I hoped that doing so would encourage people to clearly explain the steps necessary (just the way you did!). But still, lots of good info in there.

The problem is that all of those methods are still slower. I'm not just talking about "more keypresses". I mean the export process is slower, too. The dialog that opens up always has "Open new document" (I don't remember the exact text) and doesn't save in the correct directory, which also always has to be changed. Is there a way to remove that add-in? I didn't ask for it. I don't want it.

EDIT: Worst of all, it requires me to save the document before printing to PDF, and that really interrupts my work flow. I write quizzes in Word. I have the solutions on the back pages. I can't print the solutions. So I delete those pages and print, this way the page count is right. But I don't want to save the version with the solution pages deleted. So I close and don't save. But now, I'm forced to save that. It's a ridiculous requirement, and I want to go back to the old way.

Thanks.

Even after you save, you can use Undo to recover the answers after creating the pdf.

True, but again that adds extra steps. And for some odd reason you have to hit control z multiple times to undo a large delete.

If you have it on your QAT, click on the little triangle to get a dropdown list that lets you take it back multiple steps with a single click.


If you go back too far, the ReDo button (arrow going clockwise) can bring changes back. Play with it.

More issues with creating PDFs using Acrobad: The PDF file it creates does not open inside an website called Canvas (it's a "learning management system", for schools).