Word -> PDF output is HUGE on the Mac

[rolltide92]

When I try to print Word documents with equations as PDFs on the Mac,
the resulting PDF files are huge, frequently 5 times larger than the
PDFs for the same file produced in XP. Selecting "compressed PDF"
doesn't seem to help.

I assume this has something to do with how Win Word encodes the
formulas in PDF vs how the Mac does it, but regardless it is a pain.

Has anyone had this problem, and you have any ideas for making smaller
PDF output files from Word?

Thanks

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

What is the method you are using to create the PDFs on each computer? Also,
which versions of Word, and which OS versions?

And how were the equations created? If graphics, what format are they?

I sure don't know the answer, but I'm thinking all that info will be
required for anyone to give anything useful.

 

[rolltide92]

Hi Daiya,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the lack of info. It's Mac OS X 10.4.2
and Word 11.1.

I was printing by using the "Save as PDF" dialog box in the Mac print
screen. However, what I discovered is that with Acrobat Pro installed,
I could print through the Acrobat PDF software printer and this seemed
to solve the problem.

Using "Save as PDF" on a document with a moderate number of equations
gave a PDF file that was 1.4MB. Using the Acrobat PDF printer I was
able to get it down to 660K with no apparent loss in quality. By
selecting "Smallest File Size" under PDF options I got it down to 428K
(with some minor fuzziness on some of the images).

It would still be nice to get a small file size using the "Save as PDF"
method, but for now this solution is working for me.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Hi Daiya,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the lack of info. It's Mac OS X 10.4.2
and Word 11.1.

I was printing by using the "Save as PDF" dialog box in the Mac print
screen. However, what I discovered is that with Acrobat Pro installed,
I could print through the Acrobat PDF software printer and this seemed
to solve the problem.

Using "Save as PDF" on a document with a moderate number of equations
gave a PDF file that was 1.4MB. Using the Acrobat PDF printer I was
able to get it down to 660K with no apparent loss in quality. By
selecting "Smallest File Size" under PDF options I got it down to 428K
(with some minor fuzziness on some of the images).

It would still be nice to get a small file size using the "Save as PDF"
method, but for now this solution is working for me.

This is a known issue. The Save As PDF function is a feature of the Mac OS -
not of Office. The extremely large size PDFs resulting occur (relatively
depending on the document's size and complexity, of course, so sizes will be
much larger for Word docs than for simple text editors) not only in Tiger
but also Panther and Jaguar. It's a convenience offered by the Mac OS and
requests for improvement should be directed to Apple, naturally. MS Office
merely incorporates it as part of its Save dialog.

The only remedy is to do what you did - use the commercial Adobe Acrobat
application (Adobe invented pdf format, I believe, and has been creating pdf
documents for years). Unfortunately the Mac version of Acrobat is missing
many features that the Windows version has, in particular the automatic
conversion of Table of Contents links and of bookmarks from Word documents.
However the Mac version does avoid the other problem of the built-in OS
"Save As PDF" which creates separate PDF files for each section of a Word
document: Acrobat creates only one PDF file.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I suspected. I think the different file sizes are just part of the
difference between using something a company throws in for free and
something you pay a substantial amount for. Thanks for the
confirmation--I'm sure your details will help the next person with this
problem.

DM

 

[mmmmark]

This is a known issue. The Save As PDF function is a feature of the Mac
OS -
not of Office. The extremely large size PDFs resulting occur (relatively
depending on the document's size and complexity, of course, so sizes will
be
much larger for Word docs than for simple text editors) not only in Tiger
but also Panther and Jaguar. It's a convenience offered by the Mac OS and
requests for improvement should be directed to Apple, naturally. MS Office
merely incorporates it as part of its Save dialog.

The only remedy is to do what you did - use the commercial Adobe Acrobat
application (Adobe invented pdf format, I believe, and has been creating
pdf
documents for years). Unfortunately the Mac version of Acrobat is missing
many features that the Windows version has, in particular the automatic
conversion of Table of Contents links and of bookmarks from Word
documents.
However the Mac version does avoid the other problem of the built-in OS
"Save As PDF" which creates separate PDF files for each section of a Word
document: Acrobat creates only one PDF file.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

Actually, Paul, OS X has facilities within it to customize the quality of
the images so the filesize can be ratcheted down. It is highly confusing,
hidden and a bit arcane, but once you get by that it actually works.

Since I'm not sitting at a Mac right now, the instruction will be somewhat
vague... Open the Colorsync utility and you can set up a custom profile
filter. As you pore through the options, you can see all sorts of settings.
By adjusting the file quality of the graphics, you can reduce their size.
You can make profiles, named similarly to Acrobat (i.e. full quality,
smallest file size) or whatever floats your boat.

When you are in the print dialog box, you need to pick colorsync, then the
profile you just made. Voila, when you save, the file size will correspond
with the profile filter you just set up.

If there are questions, I'll post better instructions when I am at home in
front of my Mac.

-Mark

 

[james.wondrasek]

When I try to print Word documents with equations as PDFs on the Mac,
the resulting PDF files are huge, frequently 5 times larger than the
PDFs for the same file produced in XP. Selecting "compressed PDF"
doesn't seem to help.

I assume this has something to do with how Win Word encodes the
formulas in PDF vs how the Mac does it, but regardless it is a pain.

Has anyone had this problem, and you have any ideas for making smaller
PDF output files from Word?

Thanks

Check this link out:

http://www.penmachine.com/2005/02/how-to-make-pdf-files-smaller-in-mac.html

It will take a bit of fiddling to get a result you like. I would
recommend
relying more on JPG compression instead of Down Sampling or Constrain
Image Size.
If you are not going to be printing in colour, then convert everything
to
greyscale.