pdf Toolbar Always Loads

[Jim]

I have Office: Mac 2004 Student and Teacher Edition and no matter how
many times I uncheck Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker in Customize Toolbars/Menus,
it will not stay unchecked. Every time I load any of the Office apps,
the Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker toolbar is visible and the checkbox that I
unchecked is checked again. How do I keep it unchecked?

Does this mean that even if Microsoft fixes the problem that I'm stuck
with it because of the Student and Teacher Edition? TIA... Jim

 

[Mickey Stevens]

This page on the Word MVP FAQ site discusses add-ins with regard to Word for
Mac.
<http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Add-Ins.htm>

This is the troubleshooting procedure they give:
" Quit Word and open Word¹s Startup folder: /Applications/Microsoft Office
(X or 2004)/Office/Startup/Word. Drag the contents to the Desktop. "

Basically, all you need to do is remove the PDFMaker toolbar from that
folder to keep it from launching.

 

[Jim]

Thanks for solution. Does this mean that by removing the file, creating
pdf files via Print window is the only way to do so?.. or is there a
Menu command that I have not found yet that will do the same as the
buttons on the removed Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker toolbar?

Also, does removing similar file for Excel and PowerPoint eliminate the
pdf toolbar from these apps as well? TIA... Jim

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Thanks for solution. Does this mean that by removing the file, creating
pdf files via Print window is the only way to do so?.. or is there a
Menu command that I have not found yet that will do the same as the
buttons on the removed Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker toolbar?

There is no built-in way to do it other than via the OS option in the print
dialog. I don't have Adobe Acrobat, so I don't know if Acrobat offers
another way to create PDFs from Word. Maybe someone in the Word newsgroup
<microsoft.public.mac.office.word> or the Adobe Acrobat forum knows.

Also, does removing similar file for Excel and PowerPoint eliminate the
pdf toolbar from these apps as well? TIA... Jim

I think so.

 

[Jim]

I have discovered that users that have Adobe Acrobat installed are able
to create a pdf file that is different... and smaller than a pdf that is
created by the "Save As PDF..." in the Print window. This is accessed as
a printer selection called "Adobe PDF" in the Print window.

I created a pdf each way from the same document. One was 76 KB and the
other was 540 KB... Jim

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Yes, creating via Adobe is different than creating via the OS mechanism,
that's why they can charge more money for it. Not using this exact
configuration myself (yet), but I believe Acrobat has two ways to create
PDFs--PDFMaker (the toolbar) and Distiller. The Acrobat help should have an
explanation of the differences. You can use Distiller w/o the toolbar.

Apparently if you have room to drag the Adobe toolbar to the end of a
different toolbar, it may stay there and annoy you less. Or there is a way
to run a macro on startup that will hide the toolbar for you, but should
leave the printer selection available, but someone else will have to help
with that....

Conventional wisdom on this problem is that Adobe writes sloppy add-ins that
don't behave properly, and do things like show up even though you uncheck
it. It behaves the same in WinWord.

Does this mean that even if Microsoft fixes the problem that I'm stuck
with it because of the Student and Teacher Edition? TIA... Jim

I am not sure what you mean by this....STEs are not usually upgradable
(upgrade defined as buying a new version at less than full price) but they
are updatable (update defined as a downloaded patch that fixes a bug, but is
not a new version). Does that clarify?

DM

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Yes, creating via Adobe is different than creating via the OS mechanism,
that's why they can charge more money for it. Not using this exact
configuration myself (yet), but I believe Acrobat has two ways to create
PDFs--PDFMaker (the toolbar) and Distiller. The Acrobat help should have an
explanation of the differences. You can use Distiller w/o the toolbar.

It has more than that:
- the toolbar
- the Virtual Acrobat PDF printer (through the Print pane as well)
- using the System PDF flasher and optimizing in Acrobat itself
- flashing the file to a .ps file and dumping this one on Distiller.

Acrobat offers a lot of features the System PDF don;t have. There are a
lot of optimizations you can perform. The system can also compress the
poctures the way Acrobat does but only Acrobat can create files using
the latest PDF formats a, optimize the fonts that are embedded, remove
duplicate items in the code, make a secure PDF, PDF forms, embed
thumbnails, create bookmarks, enble html links, embed media (eg
movies)......

Apparently if you have room to drag the Adobe toolbar to the end of a
different toolbar, it may stay there and annoy you less.

It slows down Office and it's useless IMVHO.... The nasty thing has to
go !! :-<

Next time you launch Acrobat, a warning will pop-up offering you to
reinstall the plug-in. Disable the option and ask the application never
to ask you again.

Or there is a way
to run a macro on startup that will hide the toolbar for you, but should
leave the printer selection available, but someone else will have to help
with that....

I wouldn't do that (and you still have the functions through the Print
Pane anyway).

Conventional wisdom on this problem is that Adobe writes sloppy add-ins that
don't behave properly, and do things like show up even though you uncheck
it. It behaves the same in WinWord.

Yeah, I won't argue with this statement :->>> Don't get me wrong, I love
Acrobat, I just happen to hate the toolbar.

I am not sure what you mean by this....STEs are not usually upgradable
(upgrade defined as buying a new version at less than full price) but they
are updatable (update defined as a downloaded patch that fixes a bug, but is
not a new version). Does that clarify?

It's not related to the S&T edition. This version is not different
(except for the price) from the regular one. Anyway, It's not an Office
bug, it's an Acrobat bug.


Corentin