Creating PDF's from docs with multiple sections

[Dieter Buchner]

I am using the lastest version of Word for Mac. When I print a document with
more than one section, it prints all the pages in the first section and then a
print dialogue window pops up saying:"The options in this dialogue apply to
suction number 2.When I click the Print button it proceeds and stopps again
with the same message for the next section. The regular print out works but
when I print to ADOBE PDF printer, only the first section is converted into a
pdf file. It effectively means I have been unable to create a pdf file of the
whole document.
Any advice?
Dieter from Maui

 

[Bill Weylock]

There may be a good way to get around this, but for now I would simply print
one section to PDF, then print another, then another ....

If you have so many that you would have a serious issue with that, I just
don't know what to tell you. Sorry.

Before you print like that, of course be sure your pagination and numbering
are rock solid.

It seems very possible to me that the Print to PDF capability is just not
sophisticated enough to "get" sections. They aren't pages, aren't docs ....


Best,


- Bill

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

Please always state you version of Word, some questions can't be answered at
all if you don't. For example: This answer is specific to Word 2004: it's
not useable for anything else.

I just printed a four-section document to PDF from Word 2004 and it worked
perfectly. I did get a warning that the footers of each section were
outside the printable area, which I should have, because they are in that
document. But the footers appeared perfectly in that PDF.

Not only that but the OS X.3.4 PDF is 388 kb compared to the Word document's
260 KB, a big improvement on OS X.2's PDF

So I am not sure what is happening for you, but I suspect you are attempting
to use Adobe's PDFMaker add-in. Don't do that: that thing doesn't work
properly anywhere, PC or Mac, and as far as I know, is not compatible with
Word 2004 at all.

What I do is simply use File>Print, choose a printer to format the document
for, then click the Save as PDF button on that dialog.

Hope this helps

I am using the lastest version of Word for Mac. When I print a document with
more than one section, it prints all the pages in the first section and then a
print dialogue window pops up saying:"The options in this dialogue apply to
suction number 2.When I click the Print button it proceeds and stopps again
with the same message for the next section. The regular print out works but
when I print to ADOBE PDF printer, only the first section is converted into a
pdf file. It effectively means I have been unable to create a pdf file of the
whole document.
Any advice?
Dieter from Maui

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Bill Weylock]

Wasn't my issue. I use Acrobat Professional and was only trying to imagine
what his problem might be.

So not only did I not specify which of my applications was presenting the
problem, I did not ask anything. Not sure whether those two negatives make
me ok with you?

 

[Bill Weylock]

John -


Just realized you were actually answering his question and just got the name
wrong. NP


Best,


- Bill

 

[Robert Weems]

In the print menu use "save as pdf" this should give you a separate pdf
document for each section. If you have full version of acrobat, you can
then combine these using the Document menu. If you do not have full version
of Acrobat, there is a freeware program called "CombinePDFs"from Monkeybread
Software that can be downloaded from www.versiontracker.com that seems to
work well.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

[copied directly to you only because it has been days since original post,
but *please* reply to thread on Mac.word newsgroup if you still need help,
and also see other replies to your post there]

By latest version do you mean Word 2004?

And you have Adobe Acrobat installed, or are you using the "Save as PDF"
function from the Mac OS?

Certain types of section breaks (portrait to landscape, maybe others) caused
"save as pdf" to create multiple PDFs in Word X, but this sounds like a
slightly different problem, as it appears you are using Acrobat and I don't
think anyone has reported the Print Dialog window that you mention. I think
there is something strange about your document, since it won't print
normally on paper either. You aren't supposed to get messages for each
section.

Can you test another multi-section document and report what happens?
(preferably an uncomplicated one mostly full of text)

How many sections does your doc have, and why are you using the breaks?
(Sometimes it is possible to eliminate the problem by getting rid of the
breaks)

Maybe the document is corrupt?
The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.
A paragraph mark is a gray ¶. Click on ¶ on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further info:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

DM

 

[Richard Houle]

Actually, if you print a document to PDF (using MacOS X Printing feature)
you may end up creating one PDF file per section. I actually experienced
this *bug* when using custom paper sizes. If you uses the Microsoft's Word
custom paper size dialog, it does that. Because, after each section, word is
sending a paper resize message to the printer. MacOS X interprets it as a
second document.

If you opens TextEdit and creates a new paper size in the Page Setup dialog,
magicly, you ends up having a new choice in Word standard paper sizes combo
box. If Word thinks it's a standard paper size, it generates a single PDF
files for each of your sections.

Hopes that helped.
Richard Houle

[copied directly to you only because it has been days since original post,
but *please* reply to thread on Mac.word newsgroup if you still need help,
and also see other replies to your post there]

By latest version do you mean Word 2004?

And you have Adobe Acrobat installed, or are you using the "Save as PDF"
function from the Mac OS?

Certain types of section breaks (portrait to landscape, maybe others) caused
"save as pdf" to create multiple PDFs in Word X, but this sounds like a
slightly different problem, as it appears you are using Acrobat and I don't
think anyone has reported the Print Dialog window that you mention. I think
there is something strange about your document, since it won't print
normally on paper either. You aren't supposed to get messages for each
section.

Can you test another multi-section document and report what happens?
(preferably an uncomplicated one mostly full of text)

How many sections does your doc have, and why are you using the breaks?
(Sometimes it is possible to eliminate the problem by getting rid of the
breaks)

Maybe the document is corrupt?
The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.
A paragraph mark is a gray ¶. Click on ¶ on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further info:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

DM

I am using the lastest version of Word for Mac. When I print a document with
more than one section, it prints all the pages in the first section and then
a
print dialogue window pops up saying:"The options in this dialogue apply to
suction number 2.When I click the Print button it proceeds and stopps again
with the same message for the next section. The regular print out works but
when I print to ADOBE PDF printer, only the first section is converted into a
pdf file. It effectively means I have been unable to create a pdf file of the
whole document.
Any advice?
Dieter from Maui

 

[John McGhie]

Duh! Sorry about that Bill, I'm getting a bit dyslexic in my dotage.

My apologies

John -


Just realized you were actually answering his question and just got the name
wrong. NP


Best,


- Bill

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

So you are saying you can sometimes work around this bug by creating a
custom paper size in Text Edit? Thanks very much, nice trick!

DM

Actually, if you print a document to PDF (using MacOS X Printing feature)
you may end up creating one PDF file per section. I actually experienced
this *bug* when using custom paper sizes. If you uses the Microsoft's Word
custom paper size dialog, it does that. Because, after each section, word is
sending a paper resize message to the printer. MacOS X interprets it as a
second document.

If you opens TextEdit and creates a new paper size in the Page Setup dialog,
magicly, you ends up having a new choice in Word standard paper sizes combo
box. If Word thinks it's a standard paper size, it generates a single PDF
files for each of your sections.

Hopes that helped.
Richard Houle

[copied directly to you only because it has been days since original post,
but *please* reply to thread on Mac.word newsgroup if you still need help,
and also see other replies to your post there]

By latest version do you mean Word 2004?

And you have Adobe Acrobat installed, or are you using the "Save as PDF"
function from the Mac OS?

Certain types of section breaks (portrait to landscape, maybe others) caused
"save as pdf" to create multiple PDFs in Word X, but this sounds like a
slightly different problem, as it appears you are using Acrobat and I don't
think anyone has reported the Print Dialog window that you mention. I think
there is something strange about your document, since it won't print
normally on paper either. You aren't supposed to get messages for each
section.

Can you test another multi-section document and report what happens?
(preferably an uncomplicated one mostly full of text)

How many sections does your doc have, and why are you using the breaks?
(Sometimes it is possible to eliminate the problem by getting rid of the
breaks)

Maybe the document is corrupt?
The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.
A paragraph mark is a gray ¶. Click on ¶ on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further info:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

DM

I am using the lastest version of Word for Mac. When I print a document with
more than one section, it prints all the pages in the first section and then
a
print dialogue window pops up saying:"The options in this dialogue apply to
suction number 2.When I click the Print button it proceeds and stopps again
with the same message for the next section. The regular print out works but
when I print to ADOBE PDF printer, only the first section is converted into
a
pdf file. It effectively means I have been unable to create a pdf file of
the
whole document.
Any advice?
Dieter from Maui