Convert Word to PDF loses formatting

[Lionel Messi]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to convert a Word document (.docx) to PDF but major formatting changes happen, such as displaying document hyperlinks as error (Error reference not find) and table formatting is majorly affected. I tried everything - converting on Adobe Acrobat, converting using .doc, and converted it numerous times to no avail. It is a 92-page, 26k-word document so it'll be time-consuming to individually change every table and hyperlink. I really want to submit the document ASAP and need to do so as PDF.

 

[Dave Braine]

Have you tried via the Print Menu>PDF>Save AS PDF?

 

[chabig]

I don't think Mac Word supports exporting hyperlinks in pdf export. You'd have to take the document to a PC and do there.

 

[Lionel Messi]

Have you tried via the Print Menu>PDF>Save AS PDF?

Yes I have. Same problem!
[doublepost=1481499638][/doublepost]

I don't think Mac Word supports exporting hyperlinks in pdf export. You'd have to take the document to a PC and do there.

Alright, guess I'll go to the library to try it out on a PC. It's really stupid for Microsoft not to support it when they claim they are the better word processor.

 

[chabig]

Microsoft has provided Office on the Mac forever, but they sure treat us second class when it comes to features.

 

[JohnDS]

I open Word documents in Pages then export from Pages to PDF. That preserves the hyperlinks.

 

[Lionel Messi]

I open Word documents in Pages then export from Pages to PDF. That preserves the hyperlinks.

Fonts and formatting get messed up when opened in Pages and it's hectic to rectify 92 pages, including photos, tables and graphs. I'm not too concerned about hyperlinks support but more about table formatting and the error (Error reference not found) that replaces all hyperlinks.

 

[campyguy]

Word guru chiming in here. So, you're upset that your namesake didn't win the Ballon d'Or again? My guy Ronaldo did, again - that written...

Word 2016 does preserve hyperlinks, but you're going about it the wrong way. First, MS's Mac team completely rewrote how their Mac apps function (there's no supporting "Office" folder/directory to support all of the apps - each MS Office for Mac app is pretty much self-contained. Second, the "document" you compiled isn't a "Word" document - it's been that way for several years now in that it's a "package" and you're looking at a formatted XML file contained in that package that may (the package file) contain resources that are referred to or linked to completely within that "package" file; you can Control-Click on a Word/Excel/PPT file and see the "Show Package Contents" option available.

Knowing the "First" and "Second" offer a bit of insight into how MS addressed how to process output. Word is a word processor and a "can opener" for flies, a tool - to me. That supplementary "Office" file contained converters, and Office for the Mac didn't use the same means for background processes as the Windows apps did, but the newer Mac Office suite is more in line in this regard. And, yes, the Mac Office suite is gimped IMHO and I use only the Windows versions but I still read the supporting documentation of the Mac apps (I have employees to support as a company owner...). That written...

First, you'll need at least Word 15.23.1 installed, in a Left-to-Right version of Word (I haven't tested Right-to-Left versions of Word) - the Macro is installed in that, and newer versions of Word. Next, you'll need an internet connection as you'll have to connect to MS's Service servers.

To address your question/situation - (1) open your Word document. (2) Use the Save As… Command. In that Dialog Box, about halfway down you'll select the (3) PDF Export Format, and in the following dialog you'll (4) select the "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility" option that utilizes MS's conversion servers (this is that the Windows Word app uses for hyperlinks and other features). You'll now note an "Export" option in place of the Save/Save As option. (5) Choose a file location and file name (I always see the file name "Section" as default for documents with embedded Sections), and (6) choose Export. After a short time, you should see a file in the place and with the name you've chosen that includes functioning hyperlinks and other embedded features.

I haven't been to Barcelona since 1990, and I want to return someday soon. For this, if it works for you, I'll ask for a coffee at El Magnífico and a read of your next published work! Cheers, and I hope this bit helps...

 

[Lionel Messi]

First, you'll need at least Word 15.23.1 installed, in a Left-to-Right version of Word (I haven't tested Right-to-Left versions of Word) - the Macro is installed in that, and newer versions of Word. Next, you'll need an internet connection as you'll have to connect to MS's Service servers.

To address your question/situation - (1) open your Word document. (2) Use the Save As… Command. In that Dialog Box, about halfway down you'll select the (3) PDF Export Format, and in the following dialog you'll (4) select the "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility" option that utilizes MS's conversion servers (this is that the Windows Word app uses for hyperlinks and other features). You'll now note an "Export" option in place of the Save/Save As option. (5) Choose a file location and file name (I always see the file name "Section" as default for documents with embedded Sections), and (6) choose Export. After a short time, you should see a file in the place and with the name you've chosen that includes functioning hyperlinks and other embedded features.

I haven't been to Barcelona since 1990, and I want to return someday soon. For this, if it works for you, I'll ask for a coffee at El Magnífico and a read of your next published work! Cheers, and I hope this bit helps...

Not upset about the Ballon d'Or! Messi still has one more trophy than Ronaldo and he will get it for the sixth time next year.

Thanks for taking the time to write this! Interesting to see how Word processes exports. I tried your approach but unfortunately it did not work. There was no option to select "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility". I had to resort to rewriting every one of the hyperlinks again and it was cumbersome process, but at least my work is preserved. I tried online conversions, Google Drive conversions, downloaded Acrobat Reader to try to convert but all resulted in the same errors. I promised to buy you as much coffee as you want if it does work, but for writing this great post, I will still do. Until we meet in Barcelona, take care of yourself!

P.S.: I've been super busy for at least a week so I did not get the time to write this post earlier!

 

[campyguy]

Not upset about the Ballon d'Or! Messi still has one more trophy than Ronaldo and he will get it for the sixth time next year.

Thanks for taking the time to write this! Interesting to see how Word processes exports. I tried your approach but unfortunately it did not work. There was no option to select "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility". I had to resort to rewriting every one of the hyperlinks again and it was cumbersome process, but at least my work is preserved. I tried online conversions, Google Drive conversions, downloaded Acrobat Reader to try to convert but all resulted in the same errors. I promised to buy you as much coffee as you want if it does work, but for writing this great post, I will still do. Until we meet in Barcelona, take care of yourself!

P.S.: I've been super busy for at least a week so I did not get the time to write this post earlier!

About Messi and Ronaldo, they're so much fun to watch along with others including Özil, Van Persie I haven't enjoyed watching football as much since I was in high school when Pele, Eusébio, Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff, and Maradona were masters on the pitch... BTW, I went to college with Tiffeny Milbrett, Shannon MacMillan, and Kasey Keller - those were fun days on campus... Back to it!

There's a bit I'm not clear on - you are running Word 2016, is that correct? If so, do check the version of Word that you are using - only the newer versions of 2011 and 2016 are capable of embedding hyperlinks, and I checked it again just this morning. BTW, an update (15.29.1) further enhanced this PDF Export capability - the MS Bulletin and how to export to a PDF (US links) are below:
https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...542-9954-7e3209681a41?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...your-Mac-aa183751-1f09-4b8b-88a4-099a0c7528da

I created a dummy file and used the Save As… Command, then selected "PDF" from the Pulldown Menu, and took a couple of screenshots. I hope this helps! Happy Holidays!!

 

[Lionel Messi]

About Messi and Ronaldo, they're so much fun to watch along with others including Özil, Van Persie I haven't enjoyed watching football as much since I was in high school when Pele, Eusébio, Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff, and Maradona were masters on the pitch... BTW, I went to college with Tiffeny Milbrett, Shannon MacMillan, and Kasey Keller - those were fun days on campus... Back to it!

There's a bit I'm not clear on - you are running Word 2016, is that correct? If so, do check the version of Word that you are using - only the newer versions of 2011 and 2016 are capable of embedding hyperlinks, and I checked it again just this morning. BTW, an update (15.29.1) further enhanced this PDF Export capability - the MS Bulletin and how to export to a PDF (US links) are below:
https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...542-9954-7e3209681a41?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...your-Mac-aa183751-1f09-4b8b-88a4-099a0c7528da

I created a dummy file and used the Save As… Command, then selected "PDF" from the Pulldown Menu, and took a couple of screenshots. I hope this helps! Happy Holidays!!

Yes, I appreciate great football! A few other great players like Neymar, Ibrahimovich and Griezmann are enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately I'm much younger than you are so wasn't around when the greats you mentioned were playing! Quite interesting you had interacted with national footballers.

Yes, I was always running the latest version of Word 2016. I tried your method and the online conversion did show up this time, but still showed the error. Every single conversion I did showed the same error and affected formatting of some tables too. One important note is that when I covert to PDF, the error also shows on the Word document so I have to undo it. It's very strange! BTW, the assignment was submitted by changing all the hyperlinks as there is no way around it.

Happy (belated) Holidays to you too!!

 

[campyguy]

Yes, I appreciate great football! A few other great players like Neymar, Ibrahimovich and Griezmann are enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately I'm much younger than you are so wasn't around when the greats you mentioned were playing! Quite interesting you had interacted with national footballers.

Yes, I was always running the latest version of Word 2016. I tried your method and the online conversion did show up this time, but still showed the error. Every single conversion I did showed the same error and affected formatting of some tables too. One important note is that when I covert to PDF, the error also shows on the Word document so I have to undo it. It's very strange! BTW, the assignment was submitted by changing all the hyperlinks as there is no way around it.

Happy (belated) Holidays to you too!!

I'll be back in the office in a few days, and take a look at any workarounds my assistants may have come up with - no worries, I enjoy solving puzzles…

There was one more football player that I went to college with, he played on the US Olympic Team in 1992 in your town - Yari Allnut. Yari and I hung out on occasion, but he was very reserved and intense. I felt sad for him when he was drafted by the New England Revolution, they pretty much just sat him on the bench unlike his former team in Rochester, where he was a shining star and fun to watch. One day, not too far now, you'll be telling "kids" stories about those guys Messi, Ronaldo, Özil that you watched 20-30 years ago…

 

[Lionel Messi]

I'll be back in the office in a few days, and take a look at any workarounds my assistants may have come up with - no worries, I enjoy solving puzzles…

There was one more football player that I went to college with, he played on the US Olympic Team in 1992 in your town - Yari Allnut. Yari and I hung out on occasion, but he was very reserved and intense. I felt sad for him when he was drafted by the New England Revolution, they pretty much just sat him on the bench unlike his former team in Rochester, where he was a shining star and fun to watch. One day, not too far now, you'll be telling "kids" stories about those guys Messi, Ronaldo, Özil that you watched 20-30 years ago…

We'll see if your assistants find a workaround for this error, but I doubt it. I'm sure it is a bug Microsoft has to fix.

You went to a very interesting college, made many good athletes! It really sucks when good or potentially good players are benched. They start to quickly lose their magic and it makes it harder for them to get back to being good and definitely do not reach 'great' status. This happened to James Rodriguez, bought for a crazy sum of money when he played great football for his national team (in the World Cup) then benched after not giving him time to adapt. Now he is slowly getting back to playing well in Madrid. Two to three decades don't sound too far from now. I won't be very old then but hope I will have old kids (and grandkids!). Can't wait to tell these stories!

 

[campyguy]

We'll see if your assistants find a workaround for this error, but I doubt it. I'm sure it is a bug Microsoft has to fix.

¡Hola! Sorry for the delay in getting back to this matter, we have taken a look at this a few times over the past few weeks and still do not have an answer. I do, however, have a suspicion and related question - one of my assistants remarked that he had problems with an export a couple of months ago, and the paper was A4-sized for an overseas client, and I just ended up sending the Word file instead. He told me that the online conversion works much better now though it's a bit slow sometimes, and we're working with the Windows version of Word; I tried it with the Mac version this morning (both "Paper" and A4 layouts) and the conversion was perfect. My questions would be which size paper is/was being used and have you considered that if you're using non-standard fonts that this could be causing your issues? Sometimes we use non-standard fonts but with the Windows version of Word we can embed non-standard fonts into the document. Cheers!

 

[Lionel Messi]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you too! Error persists... the document was always A4. I tried with US Letter and still the same errors as described in post #11. Used both online and local conversions. The fonts used are all Calibri (Body) or Calibri Light for some headings, and of course Cambria Math for the equations - so standard fonts. Guess there is no workaround for this issue as you and I tried everything in our hands! Pages for Mac offers better support in this aspect, plus a simple interface when writing. I will make sure to use it next time in a project as large as this as I can't afford to fix a 90-page document!

Thanks for your assistance in this matter, @campyguy. I guess you saw the 'impossible' comeback Barcelona did a couple of days ago. Great team. Hope we actually meet up in Barcelona (if I we're there at the same time) because you sound like a genuine person.

 

[campyguy]

No worries, I'm a bit sad that your problems with this matter continue. I've not used Pages, despite it being installed on my Mac - I've used Word for Windows so long it's generally my tool for word processing and Scrivener is what I use for my technical documentation. Good luck with Pages, but I'll post back here if I come up with something on my end!

As to that game, what a match. PSG must be gutted. That ref Aytekin likely will need to wear a disguise at the French border for the rest of his life after that call on Suarez going down! Not to take away from Barça - what a match! I'm looking forward to the matches against Sevilla and Real Madrid. It must have been quite the party there after the match! Cheers!

 

[Lionel Messi]

I've even used Google Docs' table of contents on small documents (less than 20 pages) and it worked fine even when converted to PDF, so it is disappointing that Word faces some issues with that. I'll definitely check out Scrivener, looks great from first looks.

Yes, what a great match! One of the best I have seen. Decisions happen fast and it is not unusual for false penalties to be given, even with the technologies in place. I don't blame the ref! Yes, they will be great matches (against Sevilla and RM) and I look forward to victories. I am confident we can make it because the gap is small and Madrid will probably slip in a couple of games - against Atletico, Barcelona, Sevilla or Valencia. Plenty of opportunities

Cheers, @campyguy!