TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Word - Disappearing Acrobat toolbar (again) - but worse than usual
Subject:Re: Word - Disappearing Acrobat toolbar (again) - but worse than usual From:"Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 21 May 2008 12:25:39 +0100
RANT MODE | ON
The PDFMaker add-in for Office is the most obnoxious, badly-behaved
piece of software it has ever been my misfortune to come across. It is
a disgrace that such a piece of excrement should have escaped from a
major software company. It is even more of a disgrace that through
several versions of Acrobat, the PDFMaker has found new and innovative
ways of messing up the settings of Word and of any other add-in that
is loaded.
Only because I am reasonably charitable can I put this down to mere
incompetence. If I were in the habit of believing in conspiracy
theories I would think that Adobe was doing it deliberately in order
to make it impossible for others to make a living doing Word templates
and add-ins.
I make Word templates and add-ins for a living. Combating the
depredations of PDFMaker has probably taken up more of my time than
any other individual problem, and it is all dead time - expended just
to prevent PDFMaker from stopping my code from doing what it is
supposed to do. No feature has been added (unless you count keeping
PDFMaker under control as a feature). I cringe whenever I see that
Acrobat is downloading an update, wondering whether it is going to
include some other new way for PDFMaker to make a nuisance of itself.
RANT MODE | OFF
Thank you. I feel better now.
The problem, as I'm sure you realise by now, is that the PDFMaker
add-in is messing up. It is possible to write a little bit of VBA code
that lists the COM add-ins loaded, identify PDFMaker, unload it and
then reload it. This will cause it to reset its toolbar & menu
settings, probably in the process messing up those of any other
template loaded. Do this when your custom template is not open!
It is also possible that PDFMaker has caused some corruption in
normal.dot. It does that from time to time, which is another very good
reason to base your documents on a separate template. Close Word,
delete normal.dot and restart Word.
Regards
Jonathan West
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
