adobe crashes word documents when reaching the tags stage

[Guest]

I'm having a recurring problem for some word documents when I try to convert
them to a pdf. This doesn't seem to happen all the time, but often in
documents that have a lot of formatting and graphics in them. Has this
happened to anyone else? I have Adobe 7 professional and word 2003. I've
tried to catch when it crashes, and it seems to crash when it reaches the
"generating tags stage". Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
KM

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi:

Yes, this happens to us all. Adobe PDF maker is very flaky, particularly
when handling complex documents.

1) The editing and formatting of a document must be pristine for PDF Maker
to complete any sort of sizeable document. (All formatting done by styles,
no linked styles, all cross references resolving correctly, no dud
bookmarks, not tracked changes unresolved... You know the drill.) Get the
internal structure of that document "perfect" or you haven't a chance.

2) The bigger the document, the more memory you need. Consider 512 MB to
be a minimum under Windows XP. If you are doing documents larger than a
couple of hundred pages, use a gig of RAM.

3) During the process, Adobe will create SEVERAL large work files. If
you're tight on disk space, or your disk is fragmented, you're not going to
make it. Run defrag and keep at it until that disk is clean.

4) You need to shut down all other applications while PDF Maker is running.
Particularly Outlook: Outlook holds a hidden instance of Word open in the
background: you will get lockups and freezes. Try to have Word as the only
application open while generating large PDFs.

However, I am afraid that it's point "1" above that's most likely to be the
problem. If you have been editing that document a lot, and particularly if
you have been dragging things around, or using direct formatting, the
internal structure of the document is simply too complex for PDF Maker to
handle.

Decide if you REALLY need clickable hyperlinks in your PDF

If you could live without them, then you do not need to use PDF Maker at
all. Use File>Print from Word and choose "Adobe PDF" as the "printer".
That job will complete very quickly, almost as fast as a normal print job,
and it will hand you a PDF at the end of the process.

You will not get any hyperlinks. You can put them in by hand later, using
Acrobat. This is a bit of a pain because you will have to add a hyperlink
for every entry in the table of contents, but at least you will be able to
get your PDF to happen.

Sorry. Hope this helps

I'm having a recurring problem for some word documents when I try to convert
them to a pdf. This doesn't seem to happen all the time, but often in
documents that have a lot of formatting and graphics in them. Has this
happened to anyone else? I have Adobe 7 professional and word 2003. I've
tried to catch when it crashes, and it seems to crash when it reaches the
"generating tags stage". Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
KM

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Guest]

Thanks very much indeed. I wish I had posted many days ago and saved myself
a lot of hours. Your suggestions for what to do reflect many of the issues
I've found when trying to do this, including issues with Reviewing. Again,
Thank you.
KM

Hi:

Yes, this happens to us all. Adobe PDF maker is very flaky, particularly
when handling complex documents.

1) The editing and formatting of a document must be pristine for PDF Maker
to complete any sort of sizeable document. (All formatting done by styles,
no linked styles, all cross references resolving correctly, no dud
bookmarks, not tracked changes unresolved... You know the drill.) Get the
internal structure of that document "perfect" or you haven't a chance.

2) The bigger the document, the more memory you need. Consider 512 MB to
be a minimum under Windows XP. If you are doing documents larger than a
couple of hundred pages, use a gig of RAM.

3) During the process, Adobe will create SEVERAL large work files. If
you're tight on disk space, or your disk is fragmented, you're not going to
make it. Run defrag and keep at it until that disk is clean.

4) You need to shut down all other applications while PDF Maker is running.
Particularly Outlook: Outlook holds a hidden instance of Word open in the
background: you will get lockups and freezes. Try to have Word as the only
application open while generating large PDFs.

However, I am afraid that it's point "1" above that's most likely to be the
problem. If you have been editing that document a lot, and particularly if
you have been dragging things around, or using direct formatting, the
internal structure of the document is simply too complex for PDF Maker to
handle.

Decide if you REALLY need clickable hyperlinks in your PDF

If you could live without them, then you do not need to use PDF Maker at
all. Use File>Print from Word and choose "Adobe PDF" as the "printer".
That job will complete very quickly, almost as fast as a normal print job,
and it will hand you a PDF at the end of the process.

You will not get any hyperlinks. You can put them in by hand later, using
Acrobat. This is a bit of a pain because you will have to add a hyperlink
for every entry in the table of contents, but at least you will be able to
get your PDF to happen.

Sorry. Hope this helps

I'm having a recurring problem for some word documents when I try to convert
them to a pdf. This doesn't seem to happen all the time, but often in
documents that have a lot of formatting and graphics in them. Has this
happened to anyone else? I have Adobe 7 professional and word 2003. I've
tried to catch when it crashes, and it seems to crash when it reaches the
"generating tags stage". Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
KM

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Guest]

Hi!

1) What version of Word are you running?
2) What version of Adobe Acrobat?

I also had this problem with 2 large documents saved in Word 2003. In my
case, I think the problem was not Adobe but Word. Word was not opening
correctly.

I was able to get around the problem by saving my documents in Word 2000. I
then opened Adobe (7.0.7) and was able to create tagged PDF documents
successfully.

Might be worth a try!

Thanks very much indeed. I wish I had posted many days ago and saved myself
a lot of hours. Your suggestions for what to do reflect many of the issues
I've found when trying to do this, including issues with Reviewing. Again,
Thank you.
KM

Hi:

Yes, this happens to us all. Adobe PDF maker is very flaky, particularly
when handling complex documents.

1) The editing and formatting of a document must be pristine for PDF Maker
to complete any sort of sizeable document. (All formatting done by styles,
no linked styles, all cross references resolving correctly, no dud
bookmarks, not tracked changes unresolved... You know the drill.) Get the
internal structure of that document "perfect" or you haven't a chance.

2) The bigger the document, the more memory you need. Consider 512 MB to
be a minimum under Windows XP. If you are doing documents larger than a
couple of hundred pages, use a gig of RAM.

3) During the process, Adobe will create SEVERAL large work files. If
you're tight on disk space, or your disk is fragmented, you're not going to
make it. Run defrag and keep at it until that disk is clean.

4) You need to shut down all other applications while PDF Maker is running.
Particularly Outlook: Outlook holds a hidden instance of Word open in the
background: you will get lockups and freezes. Try to have Word as the only
application open while generating large PDFs.

However, I am afraid that it's point "1" above that's most likely to be the
problem. If you have been editing that document a lot, and particularly if
you have been dragging things around, or using direct formatting, the
internal structure of the document is simply too complex for PDF Maker to
handle.

Decide if you REALLY need clickable hyperlinks in your PDF

If you could live without them, then you do not need to use PDF Maker at
all. Use File>Print from Word and choose "Adobe PDF" as the "printer".
That job will complete very quickly, almost as fast as a normal print job,
and it will hand you a PDF at the end of the process.

You will not get any hyperlinks. You can put them in by hand later, using
Acrobat. This is a bit of a pain because you will have to add a hyperlink
for every entry in the table of contents, but at least you will be able to
get your PDF to happen.

Sorry. Hope this helps

I'm having a recurring problem for some word documents when I try to convert
them to a pdf. This doesn't seem to happen all the time, but often in
documents that have a lot of formatting and graphics in them. Has this
happened to anyone else? I have Adobe 7 professional and word 2003. I've
tried to catch when it crashes, and it seems to crash when it reaches the
"generating tags stage". Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
KM

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Guest]

We believe we’ve found a solution. A documentation technician at our company
had 30 page Word document with complex formatting. While using Adobe PDF
(maker) to convert the file, it also stopped during the ‘tag’ processing.
The employee felt all formatting was absolutely necessary for the document,
and did not want to strip it down – also would be too many hyperlinks to
repair. In the end, turning off the tag setting before the conversion, then
enabling the tag setting in Adobe Acrobat after the conversion, worked.

Turning Off Tags – In Word for example, Adobe PDF drop-down menu, choose
Change Conversion Settings. Toggle OFF the ‘enable accessibility and reflow
with Tagged PDF’. Then do your conversion.

Turning On Tags – Open PDF in Adobe Acrobat, Advanced drop-down menu, choose
Accessibility. Choose Add Tags to Document (it takes a minute). Then also
under Accessibility, choose Quick Check to confirm document ok.

Hi!

1) What version of Word are you running?
2) What version of Adobe Acrobat?

I also had this problem with 2 large documents saved in Word 2003. In my
case, I think the problem was not Adobe but Word. Word was not opening
correctly.

I was able to get around the problem by saving my documents in Word 2000. I
then opened Adobe (7.0.7) and was able to create tagged PDF documents
successfully.

Might be worth a try!

Thanks very much indeed. I wish I had posted many days ago and saved myself
a lot of hours. Your suggestions for what to do reflect many of the issues
I've found when trying to do this, including issues with Reviewing. Again,
Thank you.
KM

Hi:

Yes, this happens to us all. Adobe PDF maker is very flaky, particularly
when handling complex documents.

1) The editing and formatting of a document must be pristine for PDF Maker
to complete any sort of sizeable document. (All formatting done by styles,
no linked styles, all cross references resolving correctly, no dud
bookmarks, not tracked changes unresolved... You know the drill.) Get the
internal structure of that document "perfect" or you haven't a chance.

2) The bigger the document, the more memory you need. Consider 512 MB to
be a minimum under Windows XP. If you are doing documents larger than a
couple of hundred pages, use a gig of RAM.

3) During the process, Adobe will create SEVERAL large work files. If
you're tight on disk space, or your disk is fragmented, you're not going to
make it. Run defrag and keep at it until that disk is clean.

4) You need to shut down all other applications while PDF Maker is running.
Particularly Outlook: Outlook holds a hidden instance of Word open in the
background: you will get lockups and freezes. Try to have Word as the only
application open while generating large PDFs.

However, I am afraid that it's point "1" above that's most likely to be the
problem. If you have been editing that document a lot, and particularly if
you have been dragging things around, or using direct formatting, the
internal structure of the document is simply too complex for PDF Maker to
handle.

Decide if you REALLY need clickable hyperlinks in your PDF

If you could live without them, then you do not need to use PDF Maker at
all. Use File>Print from Word and choose "Adobe PDF" as the "printer".
That job will complete very quickly, almost as fast as a normal print job,
and it will hand you a PDF at the end of the process.

You will not get any hyperlinks. You can put them in by hand later, using
Acrobat. This is a bit of a pain because you will have to add a hyperlink
for every entry in the table of contents, but at least you will be able to
get your PDF to happen.

Sorry. Hope this helps


On 11/3/06 9:28 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "KTM"

I'm having a recurring problem for some word documents when I try to convert
them to a pdf. This doesn't seem to happen all the time, but often in
documents that have a lot of formatting and graphics in them. Has this
happened to anyone else? I have Adobe 7 professional and word 2003. I've
tried to catch when it crashes, and it seems to crash when it reaches the
"generating tags stage". Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
KM

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410