Converting Office X files on the Mac

If you’re using Microsoft Office X for Mac OS X (and you have to because Acrobat 6 runs only on OS X), you have access to both the Convert to Adobe PDF and the Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail buttons on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint after you install Acrobat 6.0 on your computer. Note that although PDFMaker 6 does not support the review and commenting features found in the Windows version, you can use these buttons to convert Office documents to PDF files and e-mail them as you would using Office for Windows. You do not, however, have access to an Adobe PDF menu as you do in the Windows version of Office. This means that you have no way to change the conversion settings as described previously in this chapter. Mac users (I can hear you screaming at Adobe for Acrobat feature parity with your Windows brethren) can, however, choose Acrobat Distiller 6 preset Conversion Settings or any custom conversion settings you’ve created in the Print dialog box of your Office X program. To do so, follow these steps:

1. With your Office X document open, choose File➪Print or press Ô+P to open the Print dialog box.
2. Select Adobe PDF on the Printer drop-down list.
3. Select PDF Options on the drop-down list labeled Pages and Copies. The PDF Options command is added to the list when you choose Adobe PDF as your printer. After selecting PDF Options, the Print dialog box .
4. Click the Adobe PDF Setting drop-down list to select a preset Distiller Conversion Setting or one you’ve customized. If you hover the mouse pointer over a conversion setting in this list, a screen tip displays the directory path for that conversion setting’s location on your hard drive. You also have the option to choose Launch Nothing or Acrobat on the After PDF Creation drop-down list to specify whether or not you want to view your converted Office document PDF in Acrobat.
5. Click either the Save as PDF or Print button to open the Save to File dialog box. If you want to see how your converted Office document is displayed in Acrobat, click the Preview button.
6. Type a filename in the Save As text box, choose a location for the finished PDF file (the default is your desktop), and click the Save button to convert your Office Document to PDF. PDF files that are created from Office X documents do not retain their document structure tags. This means that those PDF files will not have the capability of being reflowed in Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Converting Office documents to PDF and sending them for review

The third option for creating a PDF file with PDFMaker enables you to create a PDF from an Office document and use the resulting PDF file to initiate a review cycle by sending it out to reviewers. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF and Send for Review in the Office application or click the Convert to Adobe PDF and Send for Review button on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar. If you haven’t saved your document, an Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog box prompts you to do so. Click Yes. The Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box appears.
2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and select the folder in which to save it on your hard drive. If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same name as its Office counterpart but with the .pdf filename extension. Note that by default, filename extensions aren’t displayed in Windows XP.
3. Click the Save button to close the Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box and start the conversion process. When the PDFMaker finishes distilling your Office document, it opens the Send by E-mail for Review dialog box. Note that if you haven’t entered a return e-mail address in Acrobat Preferences, you will be prompted to enter one prior to seeing the dialog box.
4. Enter e-mail addresses of those you wish to send the PDF file to for review, a subject, and message in the appropriate text boxes. The standard e-mail address text boxes (To, Cc, and Bcc) are provided. The Subject and Message to Reviewers text boxes have default entries that you can use or edit.
5. Click the Send button to close the Send by E-mail for Review dialog box. An alert from your e-mail client program appears, asking you to verify that you want to send an e-mail with the attached PDF file.
6. Click the Send button (again) to send out the attached PDF file for review. The Send for Review dialog box, also appears in Acrobat 6 when you choose File➪Send by E-mail for Review. For a complete rundown on commenting and reviewing features in Acrobat 6 as well as the Acrobat Comments menu that appears in Microsoft Word.

You can add to the notes, links, and bookmarks that are carried over from the original Word document in the converted PDF document using the annotation features in Acrobat 6

The PowerPoint-specific application settings

The following PowerPoint-only options appear in the Settings tab on the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box when you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings in Microsoft PowerPoint:

• Save Slide Transitions in Adobe PDF: Ensures that the animated transitions setup in a PowerPoint presentation are carried over in the converted PDF file.
• Convert Multimedia to PDF Multimedia: Ensures that all multimedia elements in a PowerPoint presentation are converted to Adobe Multimedia in a PowerPoint-generated PDF file. Adobe Multimedia format adds interactive features to graphics, sounds, and movies that enhance their appearance in PDF documents.
• PDF Layout Based on PowerPoint Printer Settings: Ensures that page layout in a PowerPoint-generated PDF file mirrors the printer settings specified in the PowerPoint presentation.

Using the Bookmarks tab in PDFMaker

The Bookmarks tab is unique to the Word version of the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box. Its options enable you to convert the headings and paragraph styles found in the original Word document into bookmarks in the resulting PDF document.
The Bookmarks tab contains the following options:

• Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks: This option automatically converts all Word Heading styles used in the original document to bookmarks in the final PDF document. When this check box is selected (as it is by default), all Heading styles used in the document are selected in the list box below. To restrict bookmark conversion to just particular heading levels, deselect the check boxes for all the Heading styles you don’t want used in this list.
• Convert Word Styles to Bookmarks: This option automatically converts all styles (not just the heading styles) used in the original Word document to bookmarks in the final PDF document. When you select this check box, the check boxes for all the styles used in your document are selected in list box below. To restrict bookmark conversion to just particular paragraph styles, deselect the check boxes for all the individual styles you don’t want used in this list.
  

While there are no Excel-specific options on the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box when you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings in Microsoft Excel, there is an important new command on the Adobe PDF menu —Convert Entire Workbook. The default PDF conversion setting for an Excel document converts only the active worksheet. If you want to convert all the worksheets in your Excel workbook to Adobe PDF, choose this command

Using word tab in PDFMaker

The Word tab in the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box contains a bunch of check box options that enable you to control what Word-specific information is carried over to the new PDF documents you’ll be generating.
The Word Features area on the Word tab contains the following settings for converting very specific word processing features into PDF equivalents:

• Convert Comments to Notes: Converts all comments added to the Word document into notes in the resulting PDF document.
• Convert Linked Text Boxes to Article Threads: Convert all notations made in the text boxes found in the Word document into articles that control the way the text is read in Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6.
• Convert Cross-References and Table of Contents to Links: Changes all cross-references and any table of contents found in the Word document into active hyperlinks in the resulting PDF document.
• Convert Footnote and Endnote Links: Converts all footnotes and endnotes in the Word document into active hyperlinks in the resulting PDF document.

The Comments area of the Word tab displays all the comments in the current Word document and lets you choose how they will be displayed in the converted PDF document. You can choose whether or not to include the comments, whether they appear open, and also specify a background color.

Using PDFMaker Security tab

The Security tab in the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box contains options that enable you to password-protect the converted PDF file (so that only the people you give the password can open the file) and set the file permissions (which control how the document can be edited and whether or not it can be printed). The options on this tab are identical to the ones found in the Adobe PDF - Security dialog box. Note that the Security tab options are exactly the same whether you are converting a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document to PDF.

Using PDFMaker Security tab

The Security tab in the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box contains options that enable you to password-protect the converted PDF file (so that only the people you give the password can open the file) and set the file permissions (which control how the document can be edited and whether or not it can be printed). The options on this tab are identical to the ones found in the Adobe PDF - Security dialog box. Note that the Security tab options are exactly the same whether you are converting a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document to PDF.

The Security tab in Adobe PDFMaker

The Security tab in the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box contains options that enable you to password-protect the converted PDF file (so that only the people you give the password can open the file) and set the file permissions (which control how the document can be edited and whether or not it can be printed). The options on this tab are identical to the ones found in the Adobe PDF - Security dialog box. Note that the Security tab options are exactly the same whether you are converting a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document to PDF.

Using the settings tab of Adobe PDFMaker

The Settings tab of the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box enables you to change the Adobe PDF settings (now called conversion settings in PDFMaker). As when using Acrobat Distiller to create your PDFs, the default preset job option is Standard when you first open the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box. You can use the Conversion Settings drop-down list to select one of the other preset Adobe PDF Settings (PDFX1a, PDFX3, Press Quality, Smallest File Size, or Standard) or to select any of the custom Adobe PDF Settings that you create. In addition to being able to select different settings in the Conversion Settings drop-down list, you have a number of check boxes in the PDFMaker Settings and Application Settings areas on the Settings tab. The following gives a rundown on the options that appear whether you’re using Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint:

• PDFMaker Settings: Select the View Adobe PDF Result check box to immediately view your converted PDF in Acrobat after distilling. Select the Prompt for Adobe PDF File Name check box to have the Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box open prior to converting your Word document. To convert the document-specific information (such as the Title, Subject, Author, and Keywords information found on the Summary tab of the document’s Properties dialog box) to metadata in the new PDF file that can be indexed and searched (see Chapter 13 for information on searching), select the Convert Document Information check box. Note that the PDFMaker Settings area also includes an Advanced Settings button. Clicking this button opens the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box in Acrobat 6 where you create customized Adobe Distiller conversion settings.
  
• Application Settings: Select the Attach Source File to Adobe PDF check box if you want to attach the Office source file as a comment in your converted PDF document. Select the Add Links to Adobe PDF check box to convert the hyperlinks in your Word document to Adobe PDF links. Select the Add Bookmarks to Adobe PDF check box to convert the headings and paragraph styles in a Word document to bookmarks in a PDF document. The Enable Accessibility and Reflow with Tagged PDF check box lets you create tagged PDF documents from the Word document structure. To customize one of the preset Adobe PDF Settings and thereby create a new custom job option, select the preset that uses settings closest to the ones you want in the custom job option in the Conversion Settings drop-down list and then click the Advanced Settings button to open the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box for the selected preset.

The Adobe PDF Settings dialog box that PDFMaker opens in your Microsoft Office program contain the same tabs (General, Images, Fonts, Color, and PDF/X) with the same options as the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box that the Acrobat Distiller opens when you select its Settings➪Edit Adobe PDF Settings menu command. As is true in the Acrobat Distiller, the particular values and settings that are selected on the individual tabs of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box depend upon which preset you select when you open the dialog box with the PDFMaker’s Advanced Settings button (refer to Chapter 4 for detailed information on how to modify these settings). After customizing the settings on the tabs of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box, you save these settings by clicking the Save As button and then naming the custom Conversion Settings. As with the Acrobat Distiller, any custom Conversion Settings you save are automatically added to the PDFMaker’s Conversion Settings drop-down list as soon as you close the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box.

Customizing the PDF conversion settings

PDFMaker enables you to change and customize the distilling settings used in any of your Office-to-PDF file conversions. To customize the distilling settings, you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings from the Office application program’s menu bar to open the Adobe PDFMaker. Note that the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box that opens when you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings from the Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint menus has only the two tabs: Settings and Security.

A separate Bookmarks tab is unique to Microsoft Word and provides the ability to select specific headings and paragraph styles in your Word document that can be converted into bookmarks in the resulting PDF file. In addition, you won’t find an application-specific when using Excel or PowerPoint. Application-specific options in those programs are either minimal enough to include in the Application Setting area of the Settings tab (as is the case with PowerPoint) or as a new menu option (as is the case with Excel) when using PDFMaker.

Converting and e-mailing PDF files

When converting an Office document to PDF, the PDFMaker offers you the option to automatically send the converted file as an attachment to a new e-mail message. You can use this option to quickly send a PDF version of an important Office document to a coworker or client who needs the information delivered in the cross-platform PDF format.
To convert the document currently open in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint into a PDF document and immediately send it off attached to a new e-mail message, follow these steps:

1. In the Office application, choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail or click the Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail button (the second button) on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar. If you haven’t saved your Office document, Acrobat PDFMaker will prompt you to do so. After clicking Yes to save the current Office document, the Save PDF File As dialog box appears.
2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and select the folder in which to save it on your hard drive. If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same name as its Office counterpart but with the .pdf filename extension. If you’re using Office XP, the filename extension may not be displayed along with your title in the File Name text box, but PDF Files is automatically selected in the Save as Type list box below.
3. Click the Save button to convert the file and then launch your e-mail program.
4. Fill in the e-mail addresses of the recipient(s) in the To and Cc text boxes, as required, and then describe the contents of the message in the Subject text box in the message header before writing a memo to the recipient(s) in the body of the message.
5. Click the Send button to send the e-mail message to the designated recipient(s), complete with the attached PDF document, and then return to your Microsoft Office program.

Automatically viewing the converted PDF in Acrobat

If you’d like to view the converted PDF file automatically in Acrobat 6 as soon as the PDFMaker completes the Office-to-PDF file conversion in your Office application, select the View Result in Acrobat option before you invoke the Convert to Adobe PDF button or select the Convert to Adobe PDF item on the Acrobat menu. In the Office application, choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings to open the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box. Select the View Adobe PDF Result check box on the Settings tab and click OK. When the View Result in Acrobat option is turned on, PDFMaker converts the current Office document, displays the Save PDF File As dialog box, and then automatically launches Acrobat 6 (if it’s not already running in the background) and displays the converted PDF file as the current document in the Acrobat Document window.

Using PDFMaker in Microsoft Office for Windows

With the release of Acrobat 6, gone are the days of having to select the Acrobat Distiller as the name of your printer in the Print dialog box in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint in order to convert the native Office document file format into PDF (although you can still make perfectly good PDF files that way).
All you have to do in order to convert the current document open in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint into a PDF document is follow these three simple steps:

1. Choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF in the Office application or click the Convert to Adobe PDF button on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar. An Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog box appears, telling you that PDFMaker needs to save the document before continuing and asking whether or not you’d like to save the document and continue. Click Yes. The Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box appears.
2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and select the folder on your hard drive in which to save it. If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same name as its Office counterpart but with the .pdf filename extension. Note that by default, filename extensions aren’t displayed in Windows XP.
3. Click the Save button.

PDFMaker does the rest. As it converts the open document in the Office application to PDF, an Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog box appears to keep you informed of the progress in converting the document’s text and graphics in a progress bar. As soon as PDFMaker finishes the document conversion indicated on the progress bar, this Acrobat alert dialog box disappears. To view the PDF document you just converted, launch Acrobat 6, and then choose File➪Open and select the newly converted PDF file (or better yet, open the PDF file’s folder in the My Documents or the My Computer window and then just drag its file icon onto the Acrobat desktop shortcut).

Reading converted PDF in Palm OS using Plucker

Plucker is a toolset for reading HTML documents on Palm OS devices. Plucker Distiller prepares your HTML and packs it into a Palm PDB file. Plucker Desktop is a graphical interface for managing Distiller. Plucker Viewer organizes Plucker documents on your Palm so that you can read them. Desktop and Distiller run on your host machine, while the Viewer runs on your Palm. Plucker is free software.

Visit http://www.plkr.org and download the Plucker Desktop installer for your platform. Launch the installer and it will unpack all three components. You must supply information about your target Palm device, but do not worry about getting locked into these preferences. You can configure document conversion settings individually later.

If the Plucker Desktop gives you regular errors that the locale cannot be set, select Options Preferences Interface and uncheck the "Translate interface into the local language" checkbox.

Plucker Desktop organizes local files and remote web pages into channels. To create a channel for your HTML file, drag-and-drop it into Plucker Desktop. After you name the new channel, its configuration window opens. Here are a few items of particular interest:

Limits
For converting a traditional document (as opposed to a web site), increase the Maximum Depth to ensure that all your links get followed. Set Stay on Host to keep Plucker from following any Internet references.

Images
Images can quickly bloat your document file size. Tune these settings to match your document's requirements.
Under Advanced Image Handling you can set the maximum dimensions for image thumbnails. Any image larger than this gets downsampled to fit. Thumbnails are displayed inline with your document and can be linked to a larger image.
The original, standard Palm OS display is 160 160, so thumbnails shouldn't be wider than 150 pixels on these models (to leave room for the scrollbar). The newer, high-resolution display is 320 320, which can accommodate a 300-pixel-wide thumbnail. Using the smaller, 150-pixel width ensures your images are fully visible on all Palm OS devices. The viewer trims thumbnails that are too wide to fit on the screen. When fidelity is essential, use the other settings in this window to link the thumbnail to a larger image that the user can pan.
High-resolution Palm OS devices should use the "hires" versions of the viewer and SysZLib library.

Output Options
ZLib compression works much better than DOC compression does. To read ZLib-compressed documents you must run Palm OS 3 or later (OS 3 premiered in 1998 on the Palm III) and have the SysZLib shared library installed on the device. SysZLib comes packaged with Plucker Desktop.

Destination
Specify the location where the output document will be put.

Create the Plucker document by selecting the channel and then selecting Update Update Selected Channels.

Preview your Plucker documents on your PC by installing the Palm OS 5 Simulator. Download it from http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/simulator/.

For best results, the input should use old-fashioned HTML 3.2 text-styling tags (e.g., ) instead of CSS styling.

Create an HTML Edition from StarOffice and OpenOffice

Like Word 2002, StarOffice enables you to Save As . . . HTML, but it then replaces the currently open source document with the new HTML document. Close this new document because you should edit only the source.Customize HTML output options from Tools >Options . . . >Load/Save, especially the HTML Compatibility section. I like to set the HTML Compatibility Export to HTML 3.2 when creating material for handheld reading.

Convert Word Documents to HTML with wvWare

wvWare can convert Microsoft Word documents to several formats, including HTML. It is a command-line tool developed on Linux that has been ported to Windows. It is free software and can be found at http://wvware.sourceforge.net.

Create an HTML Edition from Microsoft Word:Mac v.X

Word:Mac does not have a built-in Save As Filtered Web Page option, but it does include a Save Only Display Information option under File Save As Web Page that accomplishes a similar result. The Web Options button on that dialog also enables you to choose how some aspects of web page creation are handled.

How to Create an HTML Edition from Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003?

In Word 2002 and 2003 you can save your document as a web page or a filtered web page. A Word web page includes extra document information in case you want to edit it in Word later. A filtered web page omits this extra information, making it more suitable for distribution.

1. If you have been making changes, save your source document now (File Save). Otherwise, your changes will be lost.
2. Select File Save As . . . .
3. In the "Save as type" drop-down box, select Web Page, Filtered.
4. A dialog will open, warning you that this format doesn't contain Word's special tags. Confirm that this is acceptable by clicking Yes.
5. The side effect of this Save As . . . operation is that you are no longer editing the source document in Word. Instead, you are editing the filtered HTML document you just created. Close this document, because you should make edits only to the source.
   

Customize HTML output options by selecting Tools Options . . . General Web Options . . . . For example, you can enable old-fashioned HTML 3.2 text styling by disabling Rely on CSS for Font Formatting.