RE: Cry for Help: Bookmarks Bypassed in Word-to-PDF conversion

["Bill Swallow" <wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com>]

::: It takes forever (hours, we're talking) to go through the 
::: process -- I'm
::: assuming due to the many cross-references. 

Printer Properties > Advanced > Spool print documents so program
finishes printing faster

::: If I have another Word document open and minimized during 
::: the conversion, I
::: can't restore it. If I have another Word document open in 
::: the background,
::: the conversion is somehow hijacked from the 
::: document-in-process to other
::: one, and I wind up with a PDF of a completely different 
::: document than I had
::: started with. God forbid I should try to open another Word 
::: document during
::: the conversion -- Word crashes completely with a fatal error.

You shouldn't try launching applications and such when printing to a
virtual driver. Your computer is doing all the work... Sending,
spooling, printing, etc... Wait until it's done. Use the time wisely -
plan a coffee break or something if it takes a very long time.

::: Then, when the conversion is complete, I check the 
::: PDF...and find that
::: bookmarks in the navigation pane are missing: Heading 3's 
::: that should be
::: followed by multiple Heading 4's, aren't. This isn't 
::: consistent, also --
::: there are Heading 3's whose subheads did carry over into 
::: the PDF bookmarks.
::: I've checked the styles in Word; all's well there and in 
::: the Word TOC.
::: Technically, as far as I can see, the Word document is 
::: error-free and
::: functional; its only unusual point is its size. 

What kind of processor/RAM/HD space are you working with?

::: A friendly Techwhirler contacted me after my initial 
::: request for Acrobat
::: lists (thank you!) and suggested that I try the Print 
::: option using the
::: Distiller driver...this wiped out my bookmarks completely from the
::: Navigation pane.

Yes, Word seems to like PDFWriter.

::: I tried re-applying the Heading 4 style to every instance 
::: (405!) in the
::: document; this corrected the problem, and when I went back 
::: to correct a
::: pagination error in that version of the Word TOC, and 
::: re-converted to PDF, I
::: lost the same bookmarks again.
::: 
::: Can anyone offer any hints as to what I can do to ensure a complete
::: conversion of this doc, and what is causing all the 
::: intra-Word document
::: conflicts during the conversion?

Well, if the problem is size-related, you may want to break up the Word
file into several smaller documents, create PDFs, and then use Acrobat
to merge the PDFs.

B I L L   S W A L L O W
Information Design & Development Professional
tel/fax: 518.371.1867    wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com
List Owner: HATT, WWP-Users, InFrame
Co-Moderator: SingleSourcing-Mgmt
WebWorks Wizard     Editor of InFrame Magazine



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