Default Page Size

Something to try.

Edit > Preferences > select Category "Convert To PDF"
In the 'Converting To PDF' list, scroll to and select Microsoft Office Excel.
Click on the [Edit Settings] button.

In the 'Adobe PDF Settings for supported documents' dialog,
observe the selected Distiller job option (default is 'Standard') that is present as the value for "Adobe PDF Settings:"

Click on the adjacent [Edit] button.
Adobe Distiller's 'Adobe PDF Settings' dialog appears.
The 'General' settings show by default.
See if the Default Page Size is other than what you want.
Edit if needed and "Save As" to give yourself a new Distiller job option.

Something else to note.
In a job option's 'General' section you can also set the desired PDF Version that you want the Distiller output PDF to be.
Whenever you process "input" through this Distiller job option the output PDF will be of the selected PDF Version.
Note that older versions will not have features unique to a newer version.

With Acrobat onboard, when you "print to PDF" or use the PDFMaker, the source "input" is going to go through a Distiller job option.
Getting this "input" lined up to pass through the desired job option assures you get what you expected.

As you noted, changing the selected job option via Acrobat -
File > Print > Properties ...
will persist only for the time Acrobat is open. Close Acrobat, reopen, & Acrobat pulls its default, not what you edited earlier.Consider opening Adobe Distiller.
Click Settings > Edit Adobe PDF Settings
What is now displayed is the configuration setup for the job option that was shown in the previous dialog's "Default Settings".

That's ok. Look through General, Images, Fonts, Color, Advanced, & Standards if curious.
Or, at bottom left, check the 'Show All Settings" and select "Standard" (if not already shown).
In 'General' set desired Default Page Size and desired Compatibility (PDF Version).
Do a Save As & give the new job option a unique name (i.e., jo_Excel).
Back out of Distiller.

Now, go into the 'Printers' section of Windows.
XP:
(XP) Start > Printers and Faxes >
(Vista) Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > PrintersSelect Adobe PDF
Right Click > select Properties
In the dialog that appears, locate and click on the button [Printing Preferences].
In the Adobe PDF Printing Preferences dialog:
Observe value for 'Default Settings' - use drop-down menu to select "jo_Excel'.
Click OK.

Back in the Adobe PDF Properties dialog -
Click on Advanced tab.
Locate and click on the [Printing Defaults] button.
Use the 'Default Settings' drop-down to select "jo_Excel".
Select OK.

Note that performing one of the two steps above does not change what is "held" in the other step.
So, do both.

Last but not least; make "Adobe PDF" your default printer driver (printer).
Windows applications, particularly MS Office applications are immediately aware of the designated default printer when they "wake up".
The application executes your layout, format, etc. directions in context of this awareness.
Changing printer (printer drivers) can & often does affect the print job output.
May be minor and not noticed. May be significant.
Most times, most print output (imprint to paper or content into PDF) may have [i]something[/i] affected.

So, if you are making PDF files each day you would benefit from having Adobe PDF as your default printer.
Or, if you know that, for a particular work session, you are going to output PDF, then make Adobe PDF the default
before opening any application(s).

Whenever you need to print to a local or network printer, select it from the print dialog.

Regardless, whenever changing the printer from whatever is the default, always do the application appropriate
"update" of fields, macros, etc. to get the application (and the open file) 'aligned' to the new printer.

Be well...

THANK YOU for so many options... Here is the result.

I went through and checked all the options you listed and they all had either the 8.5 x 11 or letter but yet still showed 11 x 17 when I would try to PDF.

I then made the adobe printer the default printer, and it still had the 11 x 17.

I noticed in the "advanced tab" that the driver showed "Adobe PDF Converter" with new driver next to it.

I clicked on new driver and picked another PDF converter driver that came with my system just to clear out the adobe driver.

I rebooted the system, went back to the advanced tab, changed it back to the Adobe PDF converter driver. Rebooted again....

and it works, it now shows "letter" for the page size.

Thanks for all your detail!