PDFMaker is unavailable in a Microsoft Office 2007 Application after installing Acrobat 8.1
Recently I have been getting questions about Office 2007 on Windows and having the PDFMaker Buttons disappearing when you upgrade to Acrobat 8.1, read on to see a couple of ways to fix this problem.
First off here is a little back ground on what goes on when you install Acrobat 8.1 in the Office 2007 environment.
Acrobat 8.1 installs a COM add-in file to the Acrobat 8.0/PDFMaker/Office folder. This file provides PDFMaker icons and menu commands for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher and Project. The COM add-in file must be checked into the Windows registry before it appears in applications.
PDFMaker icons don’t appear in the toolbar if an Office application crashes and disables the COM add-in file.
Other COM add-in files and macros may conflict with the COM add-in file for PDFMaker and may prevent the Convert To PDF icons from appearing in the toolbar.
So with all of that, you can try one or more of the following solutions:
Solution 1: Enable PDFMakerOfficeAddin from the Microsoft Office application’s Disabled Items list.
- Open the Microsoft Office program (Word, Excel, Publisher, or PowerPoint).
- Click the Office button, then click the [application name] Options button.
- Click Add-Ins.
- From the Manage dropdown list select Disabled Items and click Go.
- Check the list for PDFMakerOfficeAddin:
- If it is listed, then select it and click Enable. Close all dialog boxes and restart the Office application
- If it is not listed, then make sure that PDFMOfficeAddin.dll is located in the ‘…/Program Files/Adobe/Acrobat 8.0/PDFMaker/Office’ folder. If the file is missing, then reinstall Acrobat.
Note: Microsoft Office Applications disable add-ins as a failsafe if the application is prematurely closed (for example, if the system wasn’t shut off properly or the application crashed).
Solution 2: Add the COM add-in file to the Windows registry.
- In Windows Explorer, locate the COM add-in file (PDFMOfficeAddin.dll) and note the exact path, which may include spaces.
- Choose Start > Run.
- Type
regsvr32followed by a space, and then type the path that you noted in step 1, in quotation marks. For example:regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\PDFMaker\Office\ PDFMOfficeAddin.dll " - Click OK, and then start the Office application.
Solution 3: Check if Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Add-in is present in the list of available COM Add-ins for the Office Application.
- Launch Microsoft Office program (Word, Excel, Access, or PowerPoint).
- Click the Office button and choose ‘[Application name] Options’.
- Click Add-Ins.
- From the Manage Dropdown list select COM Add-ins and click Go.
- Check the list for PDFMakerOfficeAddin and the checkbox in front of it is checked.
- If the checkbox is not checked then check it, click OK and restart the Office application.
- If the Office application doesn’t allow you to check the checkbox and you have already tried Solution 1, then select Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Add-in, click Remove and follw the next step.
- If Adobe PDFMaker COM Add-in is not present in the list of available add-ins, then click Add and navigate to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\PDFMaker\Office\. Select PDFMOfficeAddin.dll, click OK, then restart the Office application.
Solution 4: Run Repair Acrobat Installation while no other applications are running.
- Quit all applications and restart Windows.
- Start Acrobat.
- Choose Help > Repair Acrobat Installation and follow the on-screen instructions.
- After the repair is complete, restart your computer.
Solution 5: Remove and reinstall Acrobat in a simplified mode.
Device drivers and software that loads automatically with Windows (for example, screen savers and virus protection utilities) can conflict with the Acrobat installer and cause problems. To prevent conflict, reinstall Acrobat while Windows is in Simplified mode. In Simplified mode, nonstandard device drivers and startup software are disabled.
To remove Acrobat:
- Move any personal files out of the Acrobat application folder and its subfolders.
- Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel, and double-click Add Or Remove Programs.
- Select Adobe [Acrobat product], and click Remove. Follow the on-screen instructions to remove the application.
- Restart the computer.
To reinstall Acrobat in a simplified mode:
- Quit open applications.
- In Windows Explorer, move all icons and shortcuts from the following folders to another folder:
- Documents and Settings/All Users/Start Menu/Programs/Startup
- Documents and Settings/ [user profile] /Start Menu/Programs/Startup
- Restart Windows.
- Right-click the taskbar and choose Task Manager.
- Click the Applications tab.
- Select all applications that are running and click End Task.
- Double-click the Setup.exe file on your installation media and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
- To re-enable the startup items when you’re done installing, move the icons and shortcuts you moved in step 2 back to their respective Startup folders.
Whew, I hope that helped, and if this did not help you I have a reg hack that will fix it for sure, so, if you made it through all 5 steps and it did not work send a comment and let me know! Here is a link to the issue on our web site.
Thanks all and remember to keep some life in your life
Tim Huff
Adobe Systems
