MS Word conversion to pdf problems

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Camille - 26 Aug 2007 22:54 GMT

Using MS Word 2004 on MacBook (OSX 10.4.10), I am having many
translation errors when converting (via the Print dialog box) to pdf.
The most recent type of error was that it intermittently omitted some
borders that were all in place nicely on the Word document. I've had
much worse problems in converting complex graphics from Word to pdf.
(What a nightmare; for many of the problems, starting over and
completely reconstructing the graphics sometimes helped, but not
consistently.)

Any suggestions?

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John McGhie - 27 Aug 2007 10:52 GMT

Hi Camille:

Let's eliminate a "corrupt document" by Maggie-ing the document:

1) Create a new blank document and save it

2) Carefully select all EXCEPT the last paragraph mark in the bad document.

3) Copy

4) Paste into the new document.

5) Save and quit Word.

Now try the new document: What changed?

Warning: Step 2 must be done exactly as written no 'alternatives' or it
won't work :-)

Cheers

On 27/8/07 7:24 AM, in article
1188165277.866713.149640@q3g2000prf.googlegroups.com, "Camille"
<wainwric@comcast.net> wrote:

> Using MS Word 2004 on MacBook (OSX 10.4.10), I am having many
> translation errors when converting (via the Print dialog box) to pdf.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Any suggestions?

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+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@mcghie.name

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Elliott Roper - 27 Aug 2007 11:59 GMT

> Using MS Word 2004 on MacBook (OSX 10.4.10), I am having many
> translation errors when converting (via the Print dialog box) to pdf.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Any suggestions?

In addition to John's suggestion, you might try creating the PDF in a
two step process. First save PDF as postscript. Then, open the
resulting file using Preview.app. Finally save that as your PDF.
If any of your graphics were eps (Encapsulated PostScript) that
technique works around a misfeature in Word which sends the low
resolution preview to PDF instead of the eps.
Some applications create eps with truly awful previews that might mess
up as you describe.

Once in a while Preview.app goes insane, omitting lots of glyphs and
substituting others while displaying a perfectly good PDF file. I have
always successfully recovered from that by quitting Preview and
re-opening the file.

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Mac Forum / Applications / Word / August 2007

MS Word conversion to pdf problems