Word to PDF without print driver

[roman modic]

Hello!

It's great that new Word 2007 will have "Publish to PDF"
add-in, which creates PDF files *without using printer driver*.

Currently I use FinePrint pdfFactory to convert .doc files
to PDF, but it is implemented as "virtual printer" driver.
http://www.fineprint.com/
Similar solution is free PDFCreator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDFCreator

Is there an add-in that enables to save Word files
as PDF for older versions of Word (2000/XP/2003), that
does not rely on printer driver?

BTW, it seems that "Publish to PDF" functionality
will be implemented as additional download&install
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406051.aspx

Also I would like to know, since Open XML support
( and ODF support, that will base on Open XML awareness) will
be added to older Word version ),
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/converter.mspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/07/05/657510.aspx

The Open XML formats that are going to be the default in Office 2007 are going to be the most important in my mind. It's the Open
XML formats that allow us to build the ODF support (and will open doors to a number of other formats as well). The PDF and XPS
functionality would be another example of new formats we're providing this release.

whether PDF support will be added to Word XP/2003

Thanks, Roman

 

[Jezebel]

Creating a PDF is precisely a printer driver function, implicitly so in
W2007, and explicitly so in all prior versions. A PDF is in effect a capture
of the application's print output.

Hello!

It's great that new Word 2007 will have "Publish to PDF"
add-in, which creates PDF files *without using printer driver*.

Currently I use FinePrint pdfFactory to convert .doc files
to PDF, but it is implemented as "virtual printer" driver.
http://www.fineprint.com/
Similar solution is free PDFCreator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDFCreator

Is there an add-in that enables to save Word files
as PDF for older versions of Word (2000/XP/2003), that
does not rely on printer driver?

BTW, it seems that "Publish to PDF" functionality
will be implemented as additional download&install
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406051.aspx

Also I would like to know, since Open XML support
( and ODF support, that will base on Open XML awareness) will
be added to older Word version ),
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/converter.mspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/07/05/657510.aspx

The Open XML formats that are going to be the default in Office 2007 are
going to be the most important in my mind. It's the Open XML formats that
allow us to build the ODF support (and will open doors to a number of
other formats as well). The PDF and XPS functionality would be another
example of new formats we're providing this release.

whether PDF support will be added to Word XP/2003

Thanks, Roman

 

[roman modic]

Hello!

Creating a PDF is precisely a printer driver function, implicitly so in W2007, and explicitly so in all prior versions. A PDF is
in effect a capture of the application's print output.

Not at all! I can "print", or better said, publish to PDF (save as PDF) in
Word 2007 with print spooler disabled (no printers installed):
http://doknir.blogspot.com/2006/08/word-2007-docx-and-iso-19005-pdfa.html

Moreover, since PDF is created inside Word 2007, the result is (will be)
way better, because Word has more information about structure
and fonts (Unicode) of the document than printer driver will ever have!

But it is IMHO also true that it is more dificult to implement such capability.


Regards, Roman

 

[Graham Mayor]

I understand that the PDF function has been pulled from the latest beta of
2007 but is available as an add-in, which suggests it isn't part of the
application at all (life's too short for playing with beta software).

As for Word understanding about fonts and layout - historically it has
obtained all this information from the printer driver, which is why layouts
change when different printer drivers are used.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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