One-click workflow from Office to PDF
Excerpted from “Adobe Acrobat 7 Tips and Tricks: The 150 Best” by Donna Baker.
It’s never been easier to create Adobe® PDF files from within Microsoft Office applications, such as Word or Excel. When you install Adobe® Acrobat® 7.0, it adds the PDFMaker 7 toolbar to most Office applications. You use the toolbar to configure PDF settings and quickly create Adobe PDF files.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create Adobe PDF files from within Word, Excel, Access, and Project. It can be as easy as a single click of the mouse!
Convert a Word document (Windows)
One of the most common programs used in conjunction with Acrobat is Microsoft Word. You can use the PDFMaker that Acrobat automatically installs into Word to quickly generate a PDF version of a document.
The Standard conversion setting, the default used by PDFMaker, produces a PDF file that is both suitable for printing and small enough for easy distribution. Once you specify the settings, they remain until you adjust them again. Converting a Word document to a PDF is a one-click process.
When your document is ready for conversion, save it and then click Convert to PDF on the PDFMaker 7.0 toolbar or choose Adobe PDF > Convert to Adobe PDF. Using the default PDFMaker settings, a Save As dialog opens displaying the same name as your Word document; change the file’s name and location if necessary and then click Save to close the dialog and convert the file.
View PDF conversion settings
To view the settings, choose Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings to open the dialog (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Choose the basic conversion settings from the Conversion dialog.
The dialog displays four tabs: Settings, Security, Word, and Bookmarks. The default settings for PDFMaker are shown in Figure 1. Click the Conversion Settings pull-down arrow and choose an alternate group of settings. Regardless of the options you select, the basic Settings tab selections remain the same.
Here are some tips for working with the basic conversion options:
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The Settings tab of the Conversion Settings dialog is divided into two sections. The PDFMaker Settings are common throughout the PDFMaker tools in different programs; the Application Settings change depending on the program you are working in.
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Deselect View Adobe PDF result if you want to convert the file but don’t need to work with it in Acrobat immediately. By default, a converted document is automatically displayed in Acrobat. If you are converting a very large document or using a slow computer, deselecting this option can prevent some processing errors.
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If you consistently convert documents using the same name as the source Word document, deselect the Prompt for Adobe PDF file name option. Deselecting this option saves a step.
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Leave the Convert Document Information option selected because you may need to use the information in Acrobat. It doesn’t affect the processing time or file size appreciably and can save you time later.
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If you make changes to PDFMaker settings and want to revert, click Restore Defaults.
Choose PDF conversion settings
Each PDFMaker installed into the various Microsoft Office programs includes different settings that vary according to the program’s features. In Word you can convert content such as bookmarks and comments, as well as text.
Choose Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings to open the dialog. Click the Word tab to display Word-specific options (Figure 2):
Figure 2: Convert comments in your document to notes in the Adobe PDF document.
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To preserve comments in your converted Word documents, click Convert displayed comments to notes in the PDF. Comments in the source document are listed in the Word tab, as shown in Figure 2. Click the X to select or deselect comments you want to convert with the document. Click Notes open to display the comments’ contents in the PDF, select the color icon to choose your note color. After conversion, the Word comment displays as a note comment in the PDF document at the same page location.
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If your document contains cross-references or a table of contents, you can preserve your work and transfer it to the PDF document by choosing Convert cross-references and table of contents to links. You can also preserve footnotes and endnotes in a converted Word document by selecting Convert footnote and endnote links.
Generate bookmarks
The Word PDFMaker gives you two choices for generating bookmarks, depending on your document’s structure. Bookmarks are created from document styles or from headings you select from the default template. Open the Conversion Settings dialog and click the Bookmarks tab (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Use either styles or headings as the source for bookmarks in your PDF document.
Click either headings or styles, and then click to select or deselect specific levels or styles to use for conversion.
Convert a Word document in Mac OS X
When you install Acrobat 7 on a Mac on which Microsoft Office with SR1, SR2, or SR3 is running, you’ll find a two-button toolbar added to Word, consisting of the Convert to PDF and Convert to PDF and Email icons.
The Convert to PDF icons launch Distiller and let you define conversion settings, unlike when you’re working in Windows®, where PDFMaker maintains the settings within the Office program.
Choose the conversion settings you want to use; the options include Standard, Press Quality, High Quality Print, and Smallest File Size in addition to the options used for standards-compliant versions.
Convert an Excel, Access, or Project document
Earlier versions of Acrobat included a PDFMaker for Excel; version 7 also includes a PDFMaker for both Access and Project. For all three programs, the PDFMaker’s Conversion settings dialog includes only two tabs: Settings and Security.
Convert an Excel document
The Adobe PDF menu in Excel contains a workbook command. Choose Adobe PDF > Convert Entire Workbook to convert the contents of an .xls file to a single PDF document.
Choose conversion settings in Excel
Choose Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings in Excel to open the Conversion Settings dialog.
Figure 4 shows the Application settings on the Settings tab of Excel’s Conversion Settings dialog. Choose the Fit Worksheet to a single page option to rescale the contents of your Excel worksheet to fit one page. Converting an Excel spreadsheet also converts bookmarks and notes, if you select those options.
Figure 4: Choose comment and worksheet conversion options in the Excel PDFMaker Conversion Settings dialog.
Convert an Access document
The Adobe PDF menu in Access includes one report option. (Figure 5). Choose Adobe PDF > Convert Multiple Reports to Single PDF to combine an Access project’s reports into a single PDF document.
Figure 5: You can combine reports in a single PDF file exported from Access.
The Access PDFMaker has a limited number of options. In the Application settings on the Settings tab, you can choose to include bookmarks or attach the source file to the PDF.
Convert a Project document
The Adobe PDF menu in Microsoft Project includes the three basic conversion options available in Windows: converting to PDF, converting and emailing, and converting and sending for review. In the Conversion Settings dialog, the Application settings include only one option for attaching the source file to the PDF and making the project fit on one page.
