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text/table shifts

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2009-02-11 04:55:15
jvlag3
Registered: Feb 4 2009
Posts: 2

Our Office is running both MS Office 2003 (local) and Office 2007 (remotely) and with Abode Acrobat 9 Professional when in Word and use the “print function” (CTRL-P) and select Adobe PDF (rather than using the “Convert to PDF”) we run into problems inside the PDF document.

Once into the PDF document we use bookmarks and link the document internally and externally. The problem is when we need to make minor corrections inside the PDF document (say changing a word to blue or minor text editing) after we save the document, the tables and/or text in PDF move/shift. This problem was not found in Acrobat 7 Professional.

If we use the “convert to PDF” feature this problem is avoided, but would like to understand what caused this problem.

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2009-02-11 09:23:49
#1
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
Acrobat is not a content creation/editing tool, so "Abode" doesn't make any excuses about problems with editing content. You are supposed to modify the original document and then reconvert it. Printing, or converting, to PDF is called "refrying" the PDF. If you search on this term you'll find lots of heated discussion. Leonard Rosenthal (who if you didn't know is "the" PDF Guru) is extremely negitive on it, but like you, everyone else seems to think it pretty useful.

Editing the content of a PDF adds in lots of new information that can shift the boundaries around objects. Also, Acrobat tries to draw relationships be between objects and place them together. The combination of these two actions can cause the placement coordinates for some items to grow out of control. How it all happens depends on the particular version of Acrobat, the modifictaion, and the placment and arrangment of elements on a page.

Refrying on the other hand, has the effect of picking all the content apart and rebuilding it. Again the exact affect depends on the version of Acrobat involved.

But the moral is, don't make minor changes. Go back and modify the original document.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

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