Word to pdf conversion advice appreciated

Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

My apologies if this is a really basic question, but I've searched for the 
answer and can't find it.

I'm using Word 2000 and Adobe Reader 9.  I regularly email Word documents 
(just text, no pictures) to a friend but find that the formatting often 
suffers, so I thought I'd try converting to pdf with a program called simply 
"Word to PDF Converter".

This seems to do an excellent job except that, when the sent pdf file is 
opened and printed, the font size is reduced.  Even with the print option 
Page Scaling set to "none" the size is still smaller than the 12pt Courier 
New of the original.

Is there any way around this?

Many thanks.

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Maybe try a different pdf converting application.  Many folks like and use 
the free Primopdf which can be obtained at

www.primopdf.com

I use pdf converting and viewing software by Tracker Software. Excellent 
software; their PDF-Viewer Pro is the best available.

http://www.docu-track.com/


-- 
Don
Vancouver, USA


"Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:bNydnavLgOmsf2bXnZ2dnUVZ8sadnZ2d@brightview.co.uk...
> My apologies if this is a really basic question, but I've searched for the 
> answer and can't find it.
>
> I'm using Word 2000 and Adobe Reader 9.  I regularly email Word documents 
> (just text, no pictures) to a friend but find that the formatting often 
> suffers, so I thought I'd try converting to pdf with a program called 
> simply "Word to PDF Converter".
>
> This seems to do an excellent job except that, when the sent pdf file is 
> opened and printed, the font size is reduced.  Even with the print option 
> Page Scaling set to "none" the size is still smaller than the 12pt Courier 
> New of the original.
>
> Is there any way around this?
>
> Many thanks.
>
>
> 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Don,

Many thanks for that; I'll try both suggestions.

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Don,

I've now tried Promo PDF - and I'm getting the same puzzling result: the 
on-screen display of the file is spot-on, with the text occupying exactly 
the same area of the page as it does in the Word file, but when I print it, 
the text becomes substantially smaller and the margins larger.  It's as if 
the PDF software can't cope with the same printable area on the A4 sheet as 
Word can and is adjusting things to suit itself.

This happens whatever Page Scaling setting I select, even "None".

It's very strange...

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Could it be the computer that is opening the file doesn't have the font 
Courier New and is defaulting to another font?


-- 
Don
Vancouver, USA



"Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:Hr6dnZ4UsZ_MrGHXnZ2dnUVZ8o2dnZ2d@brightview.co.uk...
> Don,
>
> I've now tried Promo PDF - and I'm getting the same puzzling result: the 
> on-screen display of the file is spot-on, with the text occupying exactly 
> the same area of the page as it does in the Word file, but when I print 
> it, the text becomes substantially smaller and the margins larger.  It's 
> as if the PDF software can't cope with the same printable area on the A4 
> sheet as Word can and is adjusting things to suit itself.
>
> This happens whatever Page Scaling setting I select, even "None".
>
> It's very strange...
>
> Bert
> 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Don Schmidt wrote:

> Could it be the computer that is opening the file doesn't have the font 
> Courier New and is defaulting to another font?

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately, the receiving computer 
definitely does have the correct font.

I've posted the question on the PrimoPDF forum to see if anyone there has 
any idea what might be going on.  If I get an answer, I'll post it here just 
in case anyone else might be in the same position.

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Don,

I've just noticed something strange.  Though my Word files are all for A4 
paper, the pdfs converted with PrimoPDF are reported as being 8.5 x 11 
inches.  Clearly this is what's affecting the printing - but why is it 
happening and is there any way of changing it?

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Try this:

Start
Settings
Printers and Faxes

Right click on your pdf printer
Properties
Printing Preferences

Here you should be able to change the page size


-- 
Don
Vancouver, USA

"Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:PpadnUWpSZcg5GHXnZ2dnUVZ7rqdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk...
> Don,
>
> I've just noticed something strange.  Though my Word files are all for A4 
> paper, the pdfs converted with PrimoPDF are reported as being 8.5 x 11 
> inches.  Clearly this is what's affecting the printing - but why is it 
> happening and is there any way of changing it?
>
> Bert
> 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Don,

> Try this:

Thanks!  Yes, stupidly I had the pdf reader set up to default to US page 
dimensions.

Unfortunately, changing that hasn't solved the problem: even with the proper 
A4 setting and no page scaling, a print out from the PDF file is *still* 
reduced in size.

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

This is got me; I created a Courier New 12pt font document in Word, 
converted it to a pdf file and the newly created pdf file displayed as 
Courier New 12 pt text.

If you would like, send me a sample of a Word Courier New 12pt font file and 
I'll create a pdf file and send it back to you.

I'm at

dschmidt AT pacifier DOT com

-- 
Don
Vancouver, USA


"Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:i-2dndnqMZJUCWHXnZ2dnUVZ7qWdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk...
> Don,
>
>> Try this:
>
> Thanks!  Yes, stupidly I had the pdf reader set up to default to US page 
> dimensions.
>
> Unfortunately, changing that hasn't solved the problem: even with the 
> proper A4 setting and no page scaling, a print out from the PDF file is 
> *still* reduced in size.
>
> Bert
> 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Don,

Thanks for the reply; I'm sorry to have been so long in responding, but the 
flu caught me.

> If you would like, send me a sample of a Word Courier New 12pt font file 
> and I'll create a pdf file and send it back to you.

That's a generous offer, but I don't think I need to take you up on it, as 
least not at the moment: it's looking as though my whole idea of emailing 
PDFs rather than Word docs simply isn't practical for reasons quite other 
than the formatting issues.

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

In article <hradndv9E49BtJXWnZ2dnUVZ8smdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>,
 "Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> That's a generous offer, but I don't think I need to take you up on it, as 
> least not at the moment: it's looking as though my whole idea of emailing 
> PDFs rather than Word docs simply isn't practical for reasons quite other 
> than the formatting issues.
> 

This response may be a bit irrelevant, since I don't think I'm on any 
your email lists -- but I expend a fair amount of energy here trying to 
persuade people and organizations who want to email documents to me 
to send them in PDF,  RTF, or just text format -- NOT in various other 
formats.  (Any emails that arrive with .xls  or .docx attachments go 
straight to the Trash, unread; those with .doc or .ppt attachments go to 
the Junk mailbox and may or may not get looked at.)

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Thanks for that.  As it happens, the organisation to which I fairly 
regularly have to send material actually asks for DOC files prepared in 
Word.  The problem I've had is that my careful formatting sometimes doesn't 
remain intact in the sending, which is why I thought about trying to 
persuade them to accept PDF.  But using PDF, as I wrote above, has thrown up 
a different problem.

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:19:13 -0000 "Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> Thanks for that.  As it happens, the organisation to which I fairly 
> regularly have to send material actually asks for DOC files prepared in 
> Word.  The problem I've had is that my careful formatting sometimes doesn't 
> remain intact in the sending, which is why I thought about trying to 

Right.  MS-Word is *NOT* really WYSIWYG!  This is not really news.  

> persuade them to accept PDF.  But using PDF, as I wrote above, has thrown up 
> a different problem.


> 
> Bert 
> 
> 
>                                                                            

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller@deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
                                                                                                        

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Bert Coules wrote:
> Thanks for that.  As it happens, the organisation to which I fairly 
> regularly have to send material actually asks for DOC files prepared
> in Word.  The problem I've had is that my careful formatting
> sometimes doesn't remain intact in the sending, which is why I
> thought about trying to persuade them to accept PDF.  But using PDF,
> as I wrote above, has thrown up a different problem.

I have clients with similar requirements, and I don't author anything in 
wordprocessors at all (almost all DocBook or TEI). I've had good success 
with transforming via XSLT to very carefully crafted XHTML with an 
embedded CSS stylesheet, and then renaming the output to end in .doc so 
that Word opens it without blinking and treats it as a .doc file :-)

///Peter

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Bert Coules wrote:
> My apologies if this is a really basic question, but I've searched for the 
> answer and can't find it.
> 
> I'm using Word 2000 and Adobe Reader 9.  I regularly email Word documents 
> (just text, no pictures) to a friend but find that the formatting often 
> suffers, so I thought I'd try converting to pdf with a program called simply 
> "Word to PDF Converter".
> 
> This seems to do an excellent job except that, when the sent pdf file is 
> opened and printed, the font size is reduced.  Even with the print option 
> Page Scaling set to "none" the size is still smaller than the 12pt Courier 
> New of the original.
> 
> Is there any way around this?

Open the document in OpenOffice and click Export PDF.

///Peter

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Peter Flynn wrote:

> Open the document in OpenOffice and click Export PDF.

I don't possess Open Office.  Is its PDF converter really superior to the 
several standalone utilities?

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:57:51 -0000 "Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> Peter Flynn wrote:
> 
> > Open the document in OpenOffice and click Export PDF.
> 
> I don't possess Open Office.  Is its PDF converter really superior to the 

Open Office is a *free* download.

> several standalone utilities?

Since Open Office is a *free* download there is nothing stopping you
from just downloading it and trying it for yourself.

> 
> Bert 
> 
> 
>                                                                                                                    

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller@deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
                                               

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Robert Heller wrote:

> Since Open Office is a *free* download there is nothing stopping you
> from just downloading it and trying it for yourself.

No indeed, and I shall probably do exactly that.  But I am slightly dubious 
about introducing another link into the conversion chain, since  instead of 
Word-to-PDF presumably I'd be doing Word-to-Open-Office-to-PDF.

Bert 

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Bert Coules wrote:
> Robert Heller wrote:
> 
>> Since Open Office is a *free* download there is nothing stopping you
>> from just downloading it and trying it for yourself.
> 
> No indeed, and I shall probably do exactly that.  But I am slightly dubious 
> about introducing another link into the conversion chain, since  instead of 
> Word-to-PDF presumably I'd be doing Word-to-Open-Office-to-PDF.

But you were already planning on Word-to-Something-to-PDF anyway.

///Peter

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:21:37 -0000 "Bert Coules" <mail@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> Robert Heller wrote:
> 
> > Since Open Office is a *free* download there is nothing stopping you
> > from just downloading it and trying it for yourself.
> 
> No indeed, and I shall probably do exactly that.  But I am slightly dubious 
> about introducing another link into the conversion chain, since  instead of 
> Word-to-PDF presumably I'd be doing Word-to-Open-Office-to-PDF.

Have you considered that maybe MS-Word is the problem in the first
place?  That is that your 'careful formatting' in MS-Word is not really
being saved by MS-Word?

Here is a clue:  MS-Word determines the 'formatting' it does based on
the default printer and other 'external' factors.  When you change
printers or in fact send a MS-Word document to another computer, with a
*different* printer attached, the formatting changes due to the change
in printers.  Yes, MS-Word in fact does this.  Formatting also changes
due to different versions of MS-Office, different versions of MS-Windows
(and/or when going to (or from) a Mac).  Other factors like the
installed set of fonts also have an effect.  Basically, you *cannot*
count on any *exact* formatting done in MS-Word once the document leaves
your computer.  You *can* be sure of the formatting of a PDF file
though.  If you have some exacting format you need to convey, it
probably makes sense NOT to depend on the MS-Word formatting.

> 
> Bert 
> 
> 
>                                                                            

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller@deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
                                                                                                           

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

On Nov 21, 4:21=A0pm, "Bert Coules" <m...@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:
> Robert Heller wrote:
> > Since Open Office is a *free* download there is nothing stopping you
> > from just downloading it and trying it for yourself.
>

 > No indeed, and I shall probably do exactly that.
 > But I am slightly dubious about introducing another link
 > into the conversion chain, since =A0instead of
 > Word-to-PDF presumably I'd be doing Word-to-Open-Office-to-PDF.


Bert,

There are two classes of software companies.

(1) The ones which are interested in you successfully achieving
fidelity in you conversions, proper sizes, fonts preserved, WYSIWYG,
etc.

(2) The one which is interested in forcing you to make continuous
upgrades and sabotage any format or protocol (this is documented by
whole countries, in courts) which is not controlled by them.

Adobe Corporation and the folks from OpenOffice (Sun) are in the first
group.

A certain company from Redmond, WA (and its downstream ecosystem) are
in the 2nd. group.

HTH,

-Ramon

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Ramon F Herrera wrote:
> On Nov 21, 4:21�pm, "Bert Coules" <m...@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:
>> Robert Heller wrote:
>>> Since Open Office is a *free* download there is nothing stopping you
>>> from just downloading it and trying it for yourself.
> 
>  > No indeed, and I shall probably do exactly that.
>  > But I am slightly dubious about introducing another link
>  > into the conversion chain, since �instead of
>  > Word-to-PDF presumably I'd be doing Word-to-Open-Office-to-PDF.
> 
> 
> Bert,
> 
> There are two classes of software companies.
> 
> (1) The ones which are interested in you successfully achieving
> fidelity in you conversions, proper sizes, fonts preserved, WYSIWYG,
> etc.
> 
> (2) The one which is interested in forcing you to make continuous
> upgrades and sabotage any format or protocol (this is documented by
> whole countries, in courts) which is not controlled by them.

There is an elusive third class: those trying to achieve the conversion 
or persistence of the identity of your information rather than its 
appearance (or rather more often, those interested in identifying your 
information by interpreting its appearance, given that most people think 
about appearance first and identity afterwards, if at all).

It depends which is more important to you: the fact that XYZ is the 
title of the fifth chapter, or the fact that it's printed in 42pt pink 
College Gothic with a striped blue and yellow background?

///Peter

Re: Word to pdf conversion - advice appreciated

Bert Coules wrote:
> Peter Flynn wrote:
> 
>> Open the document in OpenOffice and click Export PDF.
> 
> I don't possess Open Office.  

It's free. Just download it.

> Is its PDF converter really superior to the several standalone utilities?

I haven't made a formal comparison, but it produces acceptable 
formatting for wordprocessed documents. If you need full typeset 
quality, then it should be done with something else (eg LaTeX).

///Peter