Converting Tables from Microsoft Word to PDF

Save as PDF Download

If you have Microsoft Word 2007 and want to save documents as PDF files download the Save as PDF Office 2007 Add In from the Microsoft downloads site.


EXERCISE: Open the practice file TableWithBookmarkForTitle.zip and follow along with the instructor.

  1. Go to the Office menu, ALT+F, Save As (F), PDF or XPS (P)

OR

  1. Press ALT+F to open the Office menu, and choose A for Save As.
  2. Press TAB to move to the Save As Type combo box, and choose PDF (*.pdf).

Either of these two options produces a PDF file from the same source, PDF Producer for Microsoft Office Word 2007.

Acrobat Professional

If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional installed on your computer you can use Acrobat to produce PDF files. Using the practice file above in Microsoft Word, do the following:

  1. Press ALT+F, Save As (F), Adobe PDF (A).

This option produces a PDF file from Acrobat PDF Maker for Word.

Differences Between Files Created by Acrobat PDF Maker and PDF Producer for Microsoft Word

The first immediate difference you notice is the difference in file sizes. The file created by Acrobat is much smaller. The file created by PDF Producer Word 2007 is more than 500% larger:

Why is this?

If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional (I'm using version 9) open both files you just created with it so you can take a look at the tags tree:

  1. In Adobe Acrobat open the View menu, (ALT+V), choose Navigation Panels submenu (N), and then choose Tags (G). The Navigation Panel opens with focus on the tags tree.
  2. Expand the tree with RIGHT ARROW or left click the plus sign next to the word Tags to open the tags tree.
  3. Press the APPLICATION key, usually the third key to the right of the spacebar on most keyboards, or RIGHT CLICK with a mouse on the word Tags. A context menu appears.
  4. Choose Highlight Content in the menu (H). The context menu closes. Now as you navigate the tree view Acrobat highlights the corresponding content in the document. This makes it easier to see visually where you are in the document in relation to the tags tree view.

A picture showing the tags tree created by saving a Word document with a table using Acrobat PDF Maker.

A picture showing the tags tree created by saving a Word document with a table using Acrobat PDF Maker



A picture showing the tags tree created by saving a Word document with a table using PDF Producer for Word 2007.

A picture showing the tags tree created by saving a Word document with a table using PDF Producer for Word 2007



Notice the presence of a <Span> tag at the end of each table row in the PDF file created by PDF Producer for Word 2007. It appears that PDF Producer adds more, perhaps unnecessary, code to the final PDF.

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