HTML links to PDF converted from Word (Full Version)

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Starhugger -> HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 15:43:41)

This is not web design issue, as such, but it's related since the end product involves an HTML/CSS web page. I am really hoping someone here can help me with this. I'm at the end of my rope.

I've been developing an Index for a very large multi-file manual for a client. It was originally designed in Word for hardcopy printing. At the last minute the client decided they wanted to convert the Word files to PDF and put it online. So I'm creating an Index in HTML/CSS that loads the appropriate document for the requested section, chapter and sub-topic. Straight HTML links formatted with pretty basic CSS.

The Word documents are being converted into PDF using Acrobat 7 (which my colleague has; I don't have access to it on my computer). I am creating an HTML Index listing that links to a particular page within the PDF file, where the user can find the word/phrase/topic. There are 114 document files in all (Word/PDF).

Here's the problem: Trying to convert Word to PDF is proving to be a MONSTER! [sm=evileek.gif] The Word footers contain page numbers along with some text, both in separate text boxes. But when the document gets converted to PDF, the page numbers are missing, sometimes along with the text. Or they appear on page 3 but not on pages 1 or 2. Or something equally infuriating!

My colleague and I have played with it and found the only way to get everthing to translate into PDF is to completely reformat the Word footers without text boxes, but it involves a huge amount of changing various settings to get it to behave. And because it involves selecting various objects, I can't macro it to save time. Therefore these changes would have to be done manually on 114 files!

I tried creating a template out of the document that I got to work, hoping I could just pour the content into it from the old document, but the styles don't seem to be consistent across all documents, so the pagination gets thrown off -- hence, all my hours of work putting an Index together goes down the toilet. [sm=fie.gif]

And if we can't get the page numbers to convert with the documents, then I also can't link to the exact page in the document from the Index (plus there won't be page numbers). And of course, the completed project was promised for last week...

And I'm not even counting the problems we've had getting IE (the client's browser of choice) to jump to the right page in PDF, even when the page number conversion does behave...

I'm ready to consider suing Microsloth for all the time we've spent on this, trying to get Word to behave properly!!

Is there anyone out there who has any experience with this and could help? I would name my firstborn child after you if I thought I might ever have one.
[sm=bowdown.gif]

Starhugger



Nicole -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 16:15:37)

Hi Starhugger,

Sorry I can't help with the problem you've mentioned, but I can tell you that I've used ScanSoft PDF Create many times before without any problems.

I'm sure some of the documents I've converted have had page numbers too, so if you have time it might be worth your while looking into this software.



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 16:28:48)

Thanks Nicole. I can't afford to lay out $50 without being able to try it out first. I've tried various other converter software and find they often don't seem to work very well for me. I see people raving about PrimoPDF, for example, but I've never got it to work. It catches the graphics but not the text. ?!

Starhugger



womble -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 16:53:12)

I use PDFCreator (free) on my laptop, and I prefer it over the paid one I've got on my PC which I can't remember the name of at the mo (the pdf software, not my PC - she's called Diva [:D])



rubyaim -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 17:11:02)

Starhugger, it sounds a little like the Word footers / sections have not been set up correctly.

Something else worth looking at is the physical size of the page(s) for print - if it does not print the footers correctly to PDF then this could be out a little. You could try scaling the paper to A4 (or Letter or whatever the standard paper size is in your neck of the woods) when you print to PDF. Check your margins as well.

If mucking around with the page size and margins does not work then take a very close look at the footer / section setup in Word.



jaybee -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 17:13:59)

When you install Acrobat you have the option to add the Acrobat convert buttons to the Word toolbar. I just open the Word document then hit the acrobat button and it does it all for me.

http://www.pdfzone.com/article2/0,1895,1834394,00.asp



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 17:45:15)

Thank you to everyone for replying! [:)]

Thanks Womble. I just downloaded it and am about to try it.

Jaybee, thanks for the tip about Acrobat. I'll mention it to my colleague who has the Acrobat. She says she just prints to PDF format, using a driver that Acrobat installs for access from Word. I've never actually used Acrobat Writer.

Sally, you're probably right about the footers. Let me tell you more details about the document setup. The page numbers have been put in a text box, which has a coloured background. But text just WILL NOT wrap around those suckers (I tried), despite Word settings that tease you into thinking it will. So I suspect that's why someone before me must have put the footer text ("Such and Such Manual") into a second text box, so that it would align properly next to the page number square. (These documents have been worked on by many people over about 2 years.)

So what we have are two text boxes inside the footer area (ya I know, a nightmare; you don't know the half of it...), side by side. When my colleague converts a document into PDF, the coloured squares come out okay, but no page number (at least not usually on the first and second pages). The text may or may not be there either. My colleague has tried ordering the page number box "to front" and "in front of text," and sometimes it changes something but not enough to work properly. I suspect it may be a conflict between which text box has dominance, but I have no idea how to fix it without major surgery.

The only way I got the conversion to work was to start from scratch with the footers, delete the text boxes, and create an indented footer margin (from the outside edges) to align the text; then hang the inserted page number box outside the margin. The inserted page number comes in its own frame, which can be sized and given a background colour. This (along with a few other adjustments) converts perfectly. But to do that manually on 114 pages will take until Christmas 2008. And because you can't select objects from inside a macro, I can't macro it to save time. Sigh...

So that's what I'm up against.

SH



jaybee -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 17:51:24)

Sounds like your colleague hasn't installed the Word bit she's just using the PDF printer driver which I always found a bit odd. The convert to pdf button is a heck of a lot more reliable.

Something you could try, turn off the footers. Save the document under a new name. Open it and add new footers.



rubyaim -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 18:14:01)

It sounds as if real footers may not be in use if you have to change 114 pages. Or is it a large document with 114 seperate section footers?

Text boxes in footers can be tricky, expecially if a few people have had a go at a document. Are fields being used for the page numbering?



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 18:51:03)

Okay, my firstborn child will be named... Womble! [sm=banana.gif]

I tried the PDFCreator and IT WORKS!!!!!

We're still having some problems getting the HTML link to jump to the specified page on my colleague's browser, but it works fine on mine, so I think it must be something about her system.

Thank you O Wombly Diva!!!!!
[sm=bowdown.gif]

SH



jaybee -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 19:01:33)


quote:

Okay, my firstborn child will be named... Womble!
I think the poor thing might be better off if you called it Rachel. Unless it's a boy of course.



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 19:03:23)

quote:

ORIGINAL: jaybee

I think the poor thing might be better off if you called it Rachel. Unless it's a boy of course.

Hey, a promise is a promise. [:D]

SH



rubyaim -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 19:12:09)

quote:

Hey, a promise is a promise


'Womble Starhugger' has a certain ring to - though you may need to spell it Womb'le just to be a little different [:D]

My son has a girl named Di'anne in his class at school and her mother got upset when I spelt it Dianne on a party invitation [&:]



womble -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 20:30:35)

[sm=boogie.gif] Oooooooh! A baby Starhugger named after little old Wombley! Yay! [img]http://ecanus.net/smileys/grin-blue2.gif[/img]

Hmmmm, Womble Rachel Starhugger - it's got quite a nice ring to it...
And just what's wrong with calling a boy Rachel, huh Jaybee? You never heard of the boy named Sue, or even the girl called Johnny? (Waterboys circa some time in the '80s)

Actually, had I been a boy I was going to be Richard. My dad wanted to call me Raquel (obviously not if I'd been a boy though) as he quite liked Raquel Welsh, but my mum put her foot down with a firm hand.

Anyway, back to pdfs, I like PDFCreator as well because it'll print direct from a web browser which is v. useful because I haven't got a printer hooked up to my laptop, so when purchasing online and stuff when you get to the bit where it says "This is your receipt, so print it off so you know what that strange name on your bank statement is", I just click 'print' on the browser and it saves it to a pdf file that I can file in a folder and then completely forget about when the statement comes and I'm thinking, "Huh?" [:D]

/toddles off to bed whistling "A Girl Called Johnny"



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 20:31:46)

Hmmm... Womble may need to wait a bit. [;)] I'm running into a glitch, and I'm not sure if it's the converter or IE or Acrobat Reader. Has anyone ever tried to link to a specific page inside a PDF file via HTML? You can do it using this kind of command: 

<a href="filename.pdf#page=8">linktext</a>


But I'm seeing very weird and inconsistent results with this. When I run it on my laptop that has IE6 (the client's version of IE, with no immediate plans to upgrade) and using Acrobat Reader 5.1, it all works perfectly. It jumps to "page 8." But when I run it on my desktop computer that has IE7 and Acrobat Reader 7, it only lands on the first page. The PDF file is loaded, but it usually won't jump to any page other than the first page. My colleague is seeing similar problems on her machines that run IE6 with Acrobat Reader 7.

Has anyone ever found bugs with Acrobat 7 in terms of linking to a page within a PDF document from HTML? I haven't found anything online that talks about this yet, but I'm beginning to wonder if that might be the problem. I had assumed it was IE7 (natural assumption...) since it worked on IE6 on my other computer, but Acrobat 7 seems to be the common denominator of the problems so far.

I don't think it's anything to do with the converter, since it does work fine on one machine...although the converter has options to specify compatibility with only Acrobats 3, 4 or 5. I don't see any updates on their website, so I don't know if A7 just does things differently and I need to convert using a later compatibility.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for the help!

Starhugger



rubyaim -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 20:50:16)

I had to work around this by using a named destination rather than a page number. Adobe support has this info:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/326332.html

and

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/317300.html

I bet you will be pleased when this project is finished [:D]



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 20:59:17)

[:@] Grrr! I can't use named destinations because I don't have Acrobat Writer, and my colleague isn't technical enough. We've been through that option and decided it just wasn't feasible.

"Pleased" doesn't even scratch the surface!!

Have you found page-destination problems with certain versions, Sally? Do you think that's what's causing the problem?

SH



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 21:14:23)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rubyaim

I had to work around this by using a named destination rather than a page number. Adobe support has this info:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/326332.html

and

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/317300.html

I bet you will be pleased when this project is finished [:D]

Thanks Sally. [:)] The first link recommends you switch to a different browser. (!) That's the heck of it -- it works perfectly in Firefox! Unfortunately, the client's computers have only IE6. I don't know what version of Acrobat Reader they're using. I'll find out tomorrow. Their tech guy keeps a tight rein on which updates he'll allow on their machines, so at least they'll be consistent.

That first link says to upgrade to version 8, but I don't think there's a Reader v.8 yet. Geesh, and I thought Microsloth was bad...

SH



rubyaim -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 21:15:35)

Only 7 - I wasted hours on it thinking I'd done something wrong [:'(]

I don't actually link to places in a PDF often at all. We placed all our training manuals on the Intranet but I ended up changing them all from Word to html and using print style sheets. Would this be an option you could use for this project?



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 21:29:05)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rubyaim

Only 7 - I wasted hours on it thinking I'd done something wrong [:'(]

Oh I'm so glad I'm not the only one!

quote:

I don't actually link to places in a PDF often at all. We placed all our training manuals on the Intranet but I ended up changing them all from Word to html and using print style sheets. Would this be an option you could use for this project?


Unfortunatley, no. There isn't the budget for it. That's why they wanted to just convert it all into PDFs and link to those. We're linking to specific pages because of the Index. With sub-topic documents being up to 11 or 12 pages long, we thought we'd help narrow down the search for the user by linking to the page, since it's not feasible to create named destinations. Ha! No good deed goes unpunished.

I suspect we'll wind up delivering a system that WILL link to the specific page when Acrobat finally works the bugs out. Or maybe we'll luck out and find the client is running some other version of Acrobat. (crossing fingers)

SH



rubyaim -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 22:30:33)

quote:

That first link says to upgrade to version 8, but I don't think there's a Reader v.8 yet.


It's available for download (Pre-Release) but I've not tried it.

Adobe have more than a few problems with 7 so hopefully 8 will be out officially soon .... and hopefully they will have fixed all the problems [8|]

Dave posted a link to Foxit Reader in this thread in the lounge, maybe you could test it and see if the page links work? If so it could be something your client could use.



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/3/2006 23:54:34)

Thanks Sally. I somehow doubt the client would want to use Foxit Reader but I'll mention it as an option. It looks like we've just been treading a path that is well worn by many before us. [&:] At least we know it's not us now! I thought I was going nuts! (Well, I am, but that's another story...)

Big Starhugger
...who is expecting a little wimble [:D]



Kitka -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/4/2006 4:54:35)

quote:

Big Starhugger
...who is expecting a little wimble :)


Hey! Hearty congratulations! When is the little darling due? We should throw a virtual OutFront baby shower.

However ... now we are left to wonder what sort of shenanigans you and Womble have been getting up to recently - and across the pond too [sm=yikes.gif] [sm=lol.gif]



womble -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/4/2006 11:11:07)

[sm=yikes.gif] Now what I get blamed for? [:D]

[sm=theyareontome.gif]



Kitka -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/5/2006 3:50:42)

quote:

...who is expecting a little wimble

quote:

[sm=yikes.gif] Now what I get blamed for? [:D]


Maybe I am a little confused (erm - make that a lot "confuzzled"). Isn't a wimble just a cute name for a baby womble??

If not, I am sorry for any confuzzlement (if that makes any sense) [:o] [&:]



womble -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/5/2006 11:11:23)

Nah, a wimble's wot a nun wears ain't it? [8D]



Starhugger -> RE: HTML links to PDF converted from Word (12/5/2006 13:04:43)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kitka

Maybe I am a little confused (erm - make that a lot "confuzzled"). Isn't a wimble just a cute name for a baby womble??


Kitka, don't pay any attention to Womble. You're right. A wimble is indeed a baby womble. She just doesn't want to pay wimble support. You'll notice she tried to say it was something to do with celibate nuns... [8|]

SH



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