ETD Technical Support - Converting your document into a PDF
| This tutorial shows you the various methods for converting your MS Word document into a PDF file. Beginning Steps
There is a problem with PDFs created with Word 2007!When a PDF, created in Word 2007, is saved as a new filename or location all the links created by MS Word are broken. We recommend that you do not use the Word 2007 "Save as PDF" feature until further notice. Instead, open Adobe Acrobat directly and "Create PDF from file." We will continue to research this issue and keep you posted WARNING TO ADOBE ACROBAT 7.0 USERS! We have noticed a problem when PDF Maker 7.0 converts master documents into PDFs. The "Enable accessibility and reflow with a tagged PDF" option is causing a corruption of the original master document and subdocuments! A summary of the problem is listed below. As an initial preventative measure, go to the "Acrobat PDF" pulldown menu in MS Word, choose "Change Conversion Settings..." and click on the "Settings" tab. Then, UNCHECK the "Enable accessibility and reflow with Tagged PDF" option. By doing this you will in part prevent the corruption error. Below is a screen capture of the interface you will see:
In addition to disabling the "Enable accessibility and reflow with Tagged PDF" option, please follow the steps below to prevent corruption of your original thesis/dissertation master/subdocuments. Statement of the Problem:Normally, when using PDF Maker, a master and subdocuments are converted to PDF, any internal hyperlinks are created automatically, a linked PDF is created and the original document is saved. Unfortunately PDF Maker 7.0 is doing the following:
Restoring the document to its original condition is time consuming, so we have come up with a temporary solution that should work for you. Solution (until Adobe fixes the problem):
Hopefully this will help you to safely convert your document to PDF and successfully submit it to the Editorial Office for review. If you need any assistance, or your document has already experienced an .RTF corruption because of Adobe Acrobat 7.0, contact us at the following:
Step 1 - Beginning StepsBefore you convert your document into PDF there are several things you must do first.
You can do this easily in Microsoft Word by highlighting the text you want to change, and clicking on the FONT COLOR SELECTION button in the Formatting Toolbar. An image of this can be seen below:
Step 2 - PDFMaker 6.0 and Modifying Conversion SettingsConverting the document into a PDF (Portable Document Format) is very simple using the current technology available. We will first discuss how to quickly convert the document, and then we'll show you how to modify the conversion settings so that you can customize your conversion. To convert the document into a PDF and subsequently modify it later on, you will need Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.0 (or higher) installed on your computer. We have the program installed in our ETD Lab as well as all the CIRCA Public Labs. You can use it at those locations free of charge. All you will need is your GatorLink account to log on to the computer. The program we will use to perform the conversion is the PDFMaker 6.0 plug-in that Adobe makes for Microsoft Office. If you perform a CUSTOM Installation of Acrobat 6.0, you will have the option of adding this plug-in to all the MS Office applications. Then, upon restarting MS Office, you will see the following menu in your menu bar: Note: This plug-in is macro based, so you'll have to turn on the macros for this Adobe product within MS Word. The greatest advantage of using PDFMaker 6.0 is that it will create internal cross-referenced links within your PDF automatically. This is provided that your table of contents, footnotes and references are dynamically cross-referenced within your document. The formatting templates for theses and dissertations use this technology for the Table of Contents (TOC), List of Tables (LOT) and List of Figures (LOF). By using PDFMaker 5.0 in conjunction with the formatting templates for MS Word, the amount of time you spend between conversion and submission can be dramatically reduced. Note: If you're using LateX, you can use the hyperref package to do the same thing. If you're using Corel WordPerfect 12, the "MS Word Compatibility" toolbar will allow you to convert documents to PDF and automatically link the TOC, LOT and LOF. Pre-programming BookmarksBy slightly modifying your conversion settings in PDFMaker 6.0, you can add or remove various features in your PDF. Below is an example of one of the features you can configure. If you want PDFMaker 6.0 to create subheading bookmarks for you during the conversion process, go to your menu bar in MS Word and choose Acrobat - Change Conversion Settings.... Then click on the Bookmarks tab and click on the checkbox next to the Heading Style you would like PDFMaker 6.0 to convert for you. You will also have to select the heading level you would like it to assign to the subheading. For example, if you're using Version 7.2 of the MS Word Formatting Template:
Below is a picture of what your menu will look like, and we've drawn arrows to the corresponding level selections. Here is what your bookmark tab in the final PDF will look like (your text will differ but it will correspond to your chapter titles and subheadings). Converting Using Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker 6.0 Plug-InAfter you've thoroughly checked your document, and made any items that you plan to have linked blue, you're ready to convert your thesis/dissertation into a PDF. To convert your document, simply click on the Convert to Adobe PDF menu option in the Acrobat menu item in MS Word. When PDFMaker asks you to save your PDF file, give the file your "lastname_firstinitial.PDF". So if your name were John Doe or Jane Smith, your filename would be doe_j.pdf or smith_j.pdf respectively. During the conversion process, you'll see a progress bar that resembles the image below: The time it takes for this process to complete will vary depending on the size and complexity of your document. For rather simple documents (with only a few images, footnotes and TOC links) the process takes on the order of 3-5 minutes. For extremely complex documents that are over 200 pages long, this process may take as long as 15 minutes. The more footnotes and internal cross-references you have the longer the process will take. When the conversion has completed, the progress indicator will disappear. Note: If the conversion is taking and extremely long time (more than 20 minutes), cancel the operation and go to the Office tab within the Change Conversion Settings... menu, and uncheck the "Enable accessibility and reflow with a tagged PDF" checkbox. This option primarily allows your document to be reformatted for handheld digital assistants (Palm Pilots, etc), and it makes your document readable by screen reading software for the blind. You may however want to keep this option active if you intend for your document to be viewable by the visually impaired. Additional modifications to multiple-line hyperlinks may be necessary. Review the PDF Modification tutorial for information on that. Converting Using Adobe Acrobat DistillerWhen you install Adobe Acrobat 6.0 on your computer, you will get an Acrobat Distiller print driver. This will allow you to convert any document into a PDF document. To convert your document using the Adobe Acrobat Distiller print driver, simply go to File - Print and choose the Acrobat Distiller printer from the menu. An example of that menu is displayed below: Note: This simply converts the document into a PDF. No cross-reference links or bookmarks are created within the document. That feature is only available using the PDFMaker 6.0 plug-in within MS Office. Creating Links ManuallyIn order to create links manually you will need the FULL version of Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional (or higher) installed on your computer. There are three reasons why you would have to create links manually:
Unfortunately only Microsoft Office applications can utilize this plug-in. Creating links manually is a simple process. However, depending on the complexity of your document, it can be quite time consuming. The Graduate School Editorial Office requires you to link:
Anything beyond that is optional (i.e. references, webpages, footnotes). If your document has a relatively simple arrangement, creating links manually will be less time consuming. When using the FULL version of Adobe Acrobat 6.0, you will see the following toolbars: Advanced Editing:
Advanced Editing (with TouchUp menus displayed):
Basic:
Navigation:
To create a link, first click on the Link Tool and then draw a rectangle around the text you want to be linked. This will create a zone where if a user should click their mouse cursor, it will automatically take them to the section you determine (or open a file or webpage). Here is a list of the Link Properties you should assign to your first link. The properties will then be used for all links you create during that session.
Appearance Type = Invisible Rectangle
You can then use the thumbnails to navigate to the section where you'd like the link to go, and you can click Set Link. NOTE: You have to be in Single Page view to make a Go-To Link. Any other view such as Continuous Page or Continuous-Facing Page will produce an error message, requesting that you switch to Single Page View for the most predictable results.
Linking to Other DocumentsLinking text within your PDF to other documents is fairly simple. If you're linking to another file: Note: Make sure the file is in the same folder (directory) as your PDF document. The link you create will be relative, so in order for the PDF to find the file, they should be in the same relative location. To link to a sound, image or a website, choose the appropriate option from the Actions - Select Action pulldown menu seen below: Below is an image showing the remaining menu items visible when "Open a web link" is selected:
If you still have challenges with your document, please feel free to contact us at etd@grove.ufl.edu, visit the ETD Consulting Lab in The Hub, Room 224 or call 392-HELP (4357) and choose option 5. |
