word 2003 to pdf conversion

word 2003 to pdf conversion

I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
output.

The converters have you print to their pdf printer.

does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

Thsnks.

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

I wouldn't waste your time.

I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. They 
do usually get the text, and a vague shot at formatting, but it's such a 
mess that it's most times better to use pdftotext and edit it, or simply 
have the document re-typed from scratch.

The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back into 
cows. Even with "structured" PDF, it's still the *result* of processing 
text, and in that process it has lost pretty much any connection with 
how the source document was created.

///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Peter Flynn <peter.nosp@m.silmaril.ie> wrote in
news:6uhdukFfbhbpU1@mid.individual.net: 
> I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. (...)
> The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back
> into cows.

There is no "basic problem" - there is a basic success! People have used 
Word to PDF converters with great success for years.

-- 
Matti Vuori, <http://www.kotiposti.net/~xmvuori/index-e.htm>

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Matti Vuori wrote:
> Peter Flynn <peter.nosp@m.silmaril.ie> wrote in
> news:6uhdukFfbhbpU1@mid.individual.net: 
>> I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. (...)
>> The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back
>> into cows.
> 
> There is no "basic problem" - there is a basic success! People have used 
> Word to PDF converters with great success for years.

I do apologise. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour, or lack of sleep, 
but I completely misread the OP.

I was addressing PDF-to-Word, not Word-to-PDF. Duuh.

Back to sleep
///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

I have excellent results with Word 2002 and PDF-XChange by Tracker Software.
http://www.docu-track.com/

You might check with Microsoft to see if their PDF add-on will work for you.


-- 
Don - PDF-XChange Pro®/PDF-XChange Viewer Pro®
Vancouver, USA



"Dan from Boston" <danfromboston2@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:20090130161552.264$5o@newsreader.com...
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written 
> in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
>
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
>
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
>
> Thsnks. 

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Hello,

On 30 Jan 2009 21:11:59 GMT, danfromboston2@yahoo.com(Dan from Boston)
wrote:

>I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
>Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
>output.
>
>The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
>
>does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

Not until you tell us which converters you've tested, and which
problems exactly arise.
Maybe you installed the converters while logged in with restricted
user rights; in this case the printer driver cannot be correctly
installed. Most installations require full administrator rights.


Wilfried Hennings
Please reply in the newsgroup, the reply address is invalid.

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
> 
> Thsnks.

Did you try Adobe Acrobat?

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

(Right, now to answer the real question :-)

1. Adobe used to do a print-to-PDF but last time I looked,
    it was only for Mac OS X.

2. Microsoft provided one for Windows, but if it's anything like their
    print-to-Postscript one, I can well understand it falling over.

3. Adobe do a print-to-Postscript driver which works fine,
    and you can then use Acrobat or ps2pdf to create the PDF file.

4. Open the document in OpenOffice. It has an Export-to-PDF function
    built in.

5. There are a dozen or maybe more little homebrew converters from
    various sources. I haven't tried any of these, and you don't say
    which ones you have tried.

Bear in mind that with all of these, all you will get is a PDF 
representation of your Word document, complete with all formatting 
errors and inconsistencies, including those created by Word that are not 
visible, even in Word itself. This is possibly OK if all you want to do 
is ensure that the document is non-editable (eg for sending to clients, 
competitors, etc). It will be inadequate if you are trying to create a 
document for publication purposes, for which you need additional software.

///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
> 
> Thsnks.

Your lack of success surprises me.

I am not a frequent user of MS Word, but I do have a Word document
from a local nature reserve to hand, so I've just done run some trials 
with it.
ALL of the following five PDF methods looked fine, and none of them
made the machine hang.
(By the way, my machine _does_ hang from time to time with large
PDF files, particularly when I am using a memory-hungry application
at the same time -- Eclipse being the worst offender. I wonder if
lack of memory is your real problem. )

This is on a fairly modest windows machine. It has Acrobat
Professional 8 and the Adobe pdf printer that came with it
installed. Also a couple of other PDF printers (SolidPDF and doPDF)
and two Open source applications with built-in PDF functionality.

# -----------------------------------------

Original document: 913408 bytes

PDF printers
   Adobe 82282 bytes
   SolidPDF 73923 bytes
   doPDF 139888 bytes

Convert to .sxw (Open Office)
   .sxw 22874 bytes
   pdf from .sxw 121093 bytes

Import the .sxw into Scribus
   scribus 282638
   pdf from scribus 445995 bytes


# -----------------------------------------

so, they are all different sizes, and all smaller
than the original word document.

But ... they all work !


Bye for now,
Ken.

word 2003 to pdf conversion

I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
output.

The converters have you print to their pdf printer.

does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

Thsnks.

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

I wouldn't waste your time.

I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. They 
do usually get the text, and a vague shot at formatting, but it's such a 
mess that it's most times better to use pdftotext and edit it, or simply 
have the document re-typed from scratch.

The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back into 
cows. Even with "structured" PDF, it's still the *result* of processing 
text, and in that process it has lost pretty much any connection with 
how the source document was created.

///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Peter Flynn <peter.nosp@m.silmaril.ie> wrote in
news:6uhdukFfbhbpU1@mid.individual.net: 
> I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. (...)
> The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back
> into cows.

There is no "basic problem" - there is a basic success! People have used 
Word to PDF converters with great success for years.

-- 
Matti Vuori, <http://www.kotiposti.net/~xmvuori/index-e.htm>

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Matti Vuori wrote:
> Peter Flynn <peter.nosp@m.silmaril.ie> wrote in
> news:6uhdukFfbhbpU1@mid.individual.net: 
>> I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. (...)
>> The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back
>> into cows.
> 
> There is no "basic problem" - there is a basic success! People have used 
> Word to PDF converters with great success for years.

I do apologise. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour, or lack of sleep, 
but I completely misread the OP.

I was addressing PDF-to-Word, not Word-to-PDF. Duuh.

Back to sleep
///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

I have excellent results with Word 2002 and PDF-XChange by Tracker Software.
http://www.docu-track.com/

You might check with Microsoft to see if their PDF add-on will work for you.


-- 
Don - PDF-XChange Pro®/PDF-XChange Viewer Pro®
Vancouver, USA



"Dan from Boston" <danfromboston2@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:20090130161552.264$5o@newsreader.com...
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written 
> in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
>
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
>
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
>
> Thsnks. 

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Hello,

On 30 Jan 2009 21:11:59 GMT, danfromboston2@yahoo.com(Dan from Boston)
wrote:

>I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
>Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
>output.
>
>The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
>
>does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

Not until you tell us which converters you've tested, and which
problems exactly arise.
Maybe you installed the converters while logged in with restricted
user rights; in this case the printer driver cannot be correctly
installed. Most installations require full administrator rights.


Wilfried Hennings
Please reply in the newsgroup, the reply address is invalid.

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
> 
> Thsnks.

Did you try Adobe Acrobat?

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

(Right, now to answer the real question :-)

1. Adobe used to do a print-to-PDF but last time I looked,
    it was only for Mac OS X.

2. Microsoft provided one for Windows, but if it's anything like their
    print-to-Postscript one, I can well understand it falling over.

3. Adobe do a print-to-Postscript driver which works fine,
    and you can then use Acrobat or ps2pdf to create the PDF file.

4. Open the document in OpenOffice. It has an Export-to-PDF function
    built in.

5. There are a dozen or maybe more little homebrew converters from
    various sources. I haven't tried any of these, and you don't say
    which ones you have tried.

Bear in mind that with all of these, all you will get is a PDF 
representation of your Word document, complete with all formatting 
errors and inconsistencies, including those created by Word that are not 
visible, even in Word itself. This is possibly OK if all you want to do 
is ensure that the document is non-editable (eg for sending to clients, 
competitors, etc). It will be inadequate if you are trying to create a 
document for publication purposes, for which you need additional software.

///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
> 
> Thsnks.

Your lack of success surprises me.

I am not a frequent user of MS Word, but I do have a Word document
from a local nature reserve to hand, so I've just done run some trials 
with it.
ALL of the following five PDF methods looked fine, and none of them
made the machine hang.
(By the way, my machine _does_ hang from time to time with large
PDF files, particularly when I am using a memory-hungry application
at the same time -- Eclipse being the worst offender. I wonder if
lack of memory is your real problem. )

This is on a fairly modest windows machine. It has Acrobat
Professional 8 and the Adobe pdf printer that came with it
installed. Also a couple of other PDF printers (SolidPDF and doPDF)
and two Open source applications with built-in PDF functionality.

# -----------------------------------------

Original document: 913408 bytes

PDF printers
   Adobe 82282 bytes
   SolidPDF 73923 bytes
   doPDF 139888 bytes

Convert to .sxw (Open Office)
   .sxw 22874 bytes
   pdf from .sxw 121093 bytes

Import the .sxw into Scribus
   scribus 282638
   pdf from scribus 445995 bytes


# -----------------------------------------

so, they are all different sizes, and all smaller
than the original word document.

But ... they all work !


Bye for now,
Ken.

word 2003 to pdf conversion

I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
output.

The converters have you print to their pdf printer.

does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

Thsnks.

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

I wouldn't waste your time.

I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. They 
do usually get the text, and a vague shot at formatting, but it's such a 
mess that it's most times better to use pdftotext and edit it, or simply 
have the document re-typed from scratch.

The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back into 
cows. Even with "structured" PDF, it's still the *result* of processing 
text, and in that process it has lost pretty much any connection with 
how the source document was created.

///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Peter Flynn <peter.nosp@m.silmaril.ie> wrote in
news:6uhdukFfbhbpU1@mid.individual.net: 
> I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. (...)
> The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back
> into cows.

There is no "basic problem" - there is a basic success! People have used 
Word to PDF converters with great success for years.

-- 
Matti Vuori, <http://www.kotiposti.net/~xmvuori/index-e.htm>

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Matti Vuori wrote:
> Peter Flynn <peter.nosp@m.silmaril.ie> wrote in
> news:6uhdukFfbhbpU1@mid.individual.net: 
>> I've tried several of these and have yet to see one work properly. (...)
>> The basic problem is that it's like trying to turn hamburgers back
>> into cows.
> 
> There is no "basic problem" - there is a basic success! People have used 
> Word to PDF converters with great success for years.

I do apologise. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour, or lack of sleep, 
but I completely misread the OP.

I was addressing PDF-to-Word, not Word-to-PDF. Duuh.

Back to sleep
///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

I have excellent results with Word 2002 and PDF-XChange by Tracker Software.
http://www.docu-track.com/

You might check with Microsoft to see if their PDF add-on will work for you.


-- 
Don - PDF-XChange Pro®/PDF-XChange Viewer Pro®
Vancouver, USA



"Dan from Boston" <danfromboston2@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:20090130161552.264$5o@newsreader.com...
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written 
> in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
>
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
>
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
>
> Thsnks. 

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Hello,

On 30 Jan 2009 21:11:59 GMT, danfromboston2@yahoo.com(Dan from Boston)
wrote:

>I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
>Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
>output.
>
>The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
>
>does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

Not until you tell us which converters you've tested, and which
problems exactly arise.
Maybe you installed the converters while logged in with restricted
user rights; in this case the printer driver cannot be correctly
installed. Most installations require full administrator rights.


Wilfried Hennings
Please reply in the newsgroup, the reply address is invalid.

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
> 
> Thsnks.

Did you try Adobe Acrobat?

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?

(Right, now to answer the real question :-)

1. Adobe used to do a print-to-PDF but last time I looked,
    it was only for Mac OS X.

2. Microsoft provided one for Windows, but if it's anything like their
    print-to-Postscript one, I can well understand it falling over.

3. Adobe do a print-to-Postscript driver which works fine,
    and you can then use Acrobat or ps2pdf to create the PDF file.

4. Open the document in OpenOffice. It has an Export-to-PDF function
    built in.

5. There are a dozen or maybe more little homebrew converters from
    various sources. I haven't tried any of these, and you don't say
    which ones you have tried.

Bear in mind that with all of these, all you will get is a PDF 
representation of your Word document, complete with all formatting 
errors and inconsistencies, including those created by Word that are not 
visible, even in Word itself. This is possibly OK if all you want to do 
is ensure that the document is non-editable (eg for sending to clients, 
competitors, etc). It will be inadequate if you are trying to create a 
document for publication purposes, for which you need additional software.

///Peter

Re: word 2003 to pdf conversion

Dan from Boston wrote:
> I've tried three different Word to PDF converters with documents written in
> Word 2003 - none of them work. They either hang word or produce no pdf
> output.
> 
> The converters have you print to their pdf printer.
> 
> does anyone know anything about this, and how to correct it?
> 
> Thsnks.

Your lack of success surprises me.

I am not a frequent user of MS Word, but I do have a Word document
from a local nature reserve to hand, so I've just done run some trials 
with it.
ALL of the following five PDF methods looked fine, and none of them
made the machine hang.
(By the way, my machine _does_ hang from time to time with large
PDF files, particularly when I am using a memory-hungry application
at the same time -- Eclipse being the worst offender. I wonder if
lack of memory is your real problem. )

This is on a fairly modest windows machine. It has Acrobat
Professional 8 and the Adobe pdf printer that came with it
installed. Also a couple of other PDF printers (SolidPDF and doPDF)
and two Open source applications with built-in PDF functionality.

# -----------------------------------------

Original document: 913408 bytes

PDF printers
   Adobe 82282 bytes
   SolidPDF 73923 bytes
   doPDF 139888 bytes

Convert to .sxw (Open Office)
   .sxw 22874 bytes
   pdf from .sxw 121093 bytes

Import the .sxw into Scribus
   scribus 282638
   pdf from scribus 445995 bytes


# -----------------------------------------

so, they are all different sizes, and all smaller
than the original word document.

But ... they all work !


Bye for now,
Ken.