DOC to PDF without PostScript 2

[jdemmi]

I know that Adobe Distiller requires that the document was created with a PostScript printer in order to convert it to PDF.....but does anyone know a way to overcome this hurdle? Even if it means using another product.

My problem is that I have THOUSANDS of documents (already existing) that are not PostScript and need to convert them to PDF. I do NOT want to have to manually PRINT them to to a file as PostScript.

Any help???

 

[Ecaboodle]

What kind of documents are they, if they are word for PC then word will convert them with out making a PS file.

If you are working on an Apple Mac then when Acrobat is install you will find a printer under chooser, called Acrobat PDF Writer' you can use. If you can't fix it in 20 call someone who can.

 

[jdemmi]

They are all PC based file formats. Several types (TXT, DOC, XLS, HTML, etc). I know you can MANUALLY convert thenm in Word....but that is the hurdle...we are trying to avoid the MANUAL process. Let me remind you that I have in excess of 4000 documents to convert.

 

[Ecaboodle]

That I know of there is only one program that can take all kinds of file formats into it. It is use by big corp companies like Glaxo Welcome.

http://www.liquent.com/pubsol_regpubsol_cdx_features.asp

Check this link out. It's not a cheap package. If you can't fix it in 20 call someone who can.

 

[treesprite]

You can handle this programatically with Visual Basic.

Create a VB Project
Add AdobePDFMakerX to the VB Project references.

'Items needed to convert Word Doc to PDF
Dim strPDFDoc As New AdobePDFMakerX.Word
Dim strPDFName As String 'Format: "C:|My Documents\Test.pdf"
Dim strWordName As String 'Format: "C:\My Documents\Test.doc"

'Then within a loop that cycles thru all of your Documents

'Convert the document to PDF format
Set strPDFDoc = CreateObject("AdobePDFMakerx.Word&quot
If strPDFDoc.CreatePDF(strWordName, strPDFName) Then
Wait (10)
else
there was a problem
goto error_cond
End If

'End Loop

 

[Deadline]

Hi Sprite,
I followed your logic, and the following is the code that I did...I actually, attempted to do this for a single file.

Please take a look :

Public Sub Main()
Dim strPDFDoc As New AdobePDFMakerX.Word
Dim strPDFName As String 'Format: "C:\My Documents\Test.pdf"
Dim strWordName As String 'Format: "C:\My Documents\Test.doc"
strPDFName = "C:\TestFile1.pdf"
strWordName = "C:\Documents and Settings\rr\My Documents\TestFile1.doc"
     If strPDFDoc.CreatePDF(strWordName, strPDFName) Then
         MsgBox "Success"
     Else
         MsgBox "Error"
     End If
End Sub

But, when I went and searched in C:\ I didn't find the resultant file... Why ?? Please help. Desperate...

Thank you...
RR

 

[Deadline]

Hi..
I checked in Adobe SDK documentation top to bottom.. But could not find a mention about the interface AdobePDFMakerX. So please share a successful, working VB code that converts a file to PDF. Please.. A little desperate here...

Thank you...
RR

 

[skatz]

Has anyone actually gotten OLE to run PDFMAKER? I've been trying, using Delphi, with code similar to that above, but it only sort-of, sometimes, halfway works. It seems like it should be easy, but it is not. Seems that the way to get the Bookmarks and links to work automatically when converting a Word document to PDF is to use PDFMaker. Distiller (which needs a postscript to start with) or PDFWriter won't set up the Bookmarks and links for you - they are separate from the standard Poscript output, so they don't go through. So, PDFMaker is what we need - has ANYONE succesfully automated it?

Please let me know.

 

[jfhewitt]

What about a Word macro to loop thru a file list??

 

[skatz]

That was also a thought that I had, but as I was hoping for something better. Has anyone done this with a macro?

 

[jfhewitt]

I haven't tried it with a list, but an active doc can be printed to PDWriter. You would have to create a subfolder with the files you want "printed" and delete the top file each loop.

 

[skatz]

I found the solution. A company in the Netherlands made PDFLinks, which is an alternative to PDFMaker. Like PDFMaker, it puts the links and table of contents info into links in the PDF, converting the text itself by printing to a Postscript file and using Distiller. Unlike PDFMaker, which just runs on the current document, though, PDFLinks runs on the current document, or, if no document is open, lets you select a directory to convert. The macros are password protected, so I can't see how it was done, but it works, so who cares!

The best part is that it is free for download! See

http://www.byteryte.nl/html/tooling.html,

and go down to the PDFLinks section.

 

[jfhewitt]

Found this on another forum:
Open printers from start menu and select Distiller properties. Go to Adobe PDF Settings tab and clear "prompt for PDF name" checkbox.

Set distiller print options as required.

Close properties and make shortcut from distiller printer on desktop.

Open Word and shrink to quarter-screen (this saves Word opening & closing as the docs print).

Double-click on Distiller printer shortcut to open.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder containing your Word docs.

Select and drag the files into the Distiller printer window - accept the "Do you want to print multiple files" query.

Docs will now open in Word, print to the desktop and then close - one after the other.

You will end up with a pile of pdfs on the desktop.

 

[skatz]

Sounds like a great idea, except that (I think) I won't get the hyperlinks converted.