Word doc with imbedded excel shows as black box

Hi ToddF,

Acrobat 8 did not support Vista try this again with the Acrobat 8.1 update (which supports Vista) to see if it eliminates the problem.

Hope this helps,
Lori

Hi ToddF,

Have you tried loading the Microsoft Office 2003 Hotfix? Here is the URL for more information:
[url=http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837256]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837256[/url].

Also, there is a Hotfix for Vista to resolve some printing issues at:
[url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930627]http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930627[/url]

Please keep us posted,
Lori

Hi ToddF,

I just wanted to bring your attention to a potential workaround for this black box issue on Vista that Eugene posted at:
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/ask_an_expert/questions/view/3824/]http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/ask_an_expert/questions/view/3824/[/url]

Thanks,
Lori

Hi. I've got WinXP pro, office 2007, Acro 8.1 pro and tries to print a word file with embedded excel in it. No success, I get the black box syndrome.. :(

The Word/Excel doc I'm trying to pdf is originally made in an Office 2003 environment so I tested to create a brand new 2007 word file and embed a 2007 excel object into it. No problem!

I then tried to do Save-As Word 2007 *.docx file (i.e. to convert the Word 2003 file) and then pdf. Still black box. Opened up the the (now) 2007 Word file, double clicked on the Excel object for editing, marked/copied it into an new/empty 2007 Excel sheet. (Formulas and formatting became copied too.) Now I deleted the old (2003?) Excel object in the 2007 Word file, then marked and copied in the 2007 Excel cells (now converted from excel 2003?) back into the (saved-as) 2007 Word file, again as an embedded excel object. Printed, and voilà: It worked.

Seems that it's not only a Vista problem... Seems as if there also might be problems with the Acrobat plugin to Office 2007 when it comes to treat Office 2003 docs.

I really don't approve of all the manual work for this workaround. Please find a better solution/fix for us!

Comments?

Dear Lori Kassuba,
I'm not ToddF.
I don't have Office 2003.
I don't have Vista.
Please read my comment/question again.

Lori,

I am also having this problem with Word 2007 and Windows XP. I have Acrobat Professional 7. I have a linked excel chart and it prints as a black rectangle.

I suspect the problem may be a Microsoft problem. I see the same thing occur if I print the object to a postscript printer.

I think this black box business may simply be an undocumented feature that they'll end up charging more for in a future version now that the word's out. I'm using WinXP. I get these boxes in some places on the page when I simply print some PDFs with Arcobat Pro 7.0. If I print them with Reader 8.0 they print fine. In either case they don't have the boxes when simply viewing them on the screen. Although I don't mind using Arcobat Pro 7.0 for everything except printing, and Reader 8.0 for only printing, there seems to be a problem having them both installed on the same computer. For a while they worked independently but now all I get is Arcobat Pro 7.0, no matter which one I try to run. I've even gone directly to the .exe for Reader 8.0 but it still starts Arcobat Pro 7.0. Go figure! I have a 2nd computer with only Reader 8.0 on it so I now simply print all PDFs from there using Reader 8.0 and it works fine, but what a pain!

The black box problem seems to be related to use of postscript. Although the problem does not appear in every instance when an Excel worksheet is linked into Word (currently using Office 2007, but we've experienced same problem with Office 2002/XP), the common denominator seems to be postscript.

When we print hardcopy to a postscript printer or convert to PDF using Acrobat , the problem appears. PCL printers (e.g. HP Laserjet 5) work fine. The Microsoft PDF addin for Office 2007 eliminates the black box, but we notice fidelity loss in the linked Excel objects, such as normal text appearing as bold in the Microsoft generated PDF.

So far, the best workaround I've found seems to be Scansoft PDF Converter. This product generates a clean accurate PDF than can then be sent to a postscript printer for a clean hardcopy. I'm using Scansoft Professional v3 successfully, but more recent versions (v4 or V5) seem to work OK as well. Not a perfect solution here but we've got to deliver our reports, and this gets it done until Adobe/Microsoft figure out a better answer.

Here is my scenario. A document in 2007 Word contains embedded excel cells. This requires, not simply, a copy and paste but a copy and paste special as an embedded object. When we pull up the doc on a system running Office 2003 (instead of 2007) and convert it to a PDF some of the embedded excel stuff displays as a black box.......and some doesn't. The only thing I can surmise is that the embedded cells that are viewable were created on Office 2003 and the black boxes were created on Office 2007 (there has been alot of modifications to the document over time). Perhaps it is a compatibility issue with Our Office 2007 and Adobe 7.0 when converted on a machine loaded with Office 2003? Or maybe it is an Adobe 7.0 vs .xlsx issue?

Upgraded to Office 2007, now Word documents created in Office 2003 with embedded Excel Worksheet show up black.