Rants, Raves and Revelations
Links in Acrobat 8 and Kinks in MS Word
by Harry doc Babad and Derek C. Caudill
Since this is a writing and writer’s issue, macC Volume II, I thought we’d share both my misadventures with MS Word save copy feature and provide the answer to Mike Hubbartt, our editor’s question of about maintaining links when converting an MSW or Word formatted .rtf document to Acrobat.
These were too much fun to hide in my usual longish tips and hints columns, so they’ll be our latest revelation.
Solving The Thrice Cursed MS Word “Can’t Delete Backup” Message
Research results, cure and procedure developed by Derek.
Every once in a while I get a problem that I cant solve. The Hints book ms I own don’t help and when I was for feedback from either the McMUG or macCompanion staff I come up dry. That’s when I turn to a friend, Derek C., who has a knack for ferreting teckie information from the web about things Macintosh that glitch. Somehow he knows how to both how phrase the question and as always more patience then I do in searching for a solution.
The Problem
My most important, much to my regret, application Microsoft Word 2004, is sick. No not dying, that would be a mixed blessing, just sick, sick, sick!
One does try to save documents when done with them — at least I do. After all you might want to either add to your purple prose or recheck it in the future.
Every time I
try to save a document when closing it, I get this furschulgena XXW#$@XXX message. This goes on, despite
rebuilding my preferences and even despite doing a complete reinstall including
updates to the current version, my MS Word is sick. [No I don’t use AppZapper
or the uApp.app for the deinstallation — See the macC review index for my
reviews of these products. I have too much invested in customizing my version
of word. A full application removal would force me to spend several hours
rebuilding them.
MSW Save Preferences I Use — With respect to MSW Save preferences settings — MSW > File > Preferences > Save — I do have create backup copy enabled and Auto Recover turned off. I killed the latter when I started having problems that froze MS Word, in the middle of typing. After attempted recovery of my text always failed, I gave up on this so-called protective feature. Using the auto-save, led me to having to re-input my thoughts. (That solution, after the fact, also turned up in a hint I read somewhere – instant gratification.)
The Symptoms
If I save a file and then close it, I get the following (see Image) message.
If I close an unsaved document, sometimes it does what I expect it simply saved. However at times, I get the dumb message even when I don’t save a document.
With no MSW documents open, if I quit MS Word, I get the same dumb message.
Indeed, with MS word booted, if I try to shut down my computer, or to just restart it, it will not restart unless I jump thought the same old "can't delete" dialog hoops.
But if that’s not enough, there’s the indignity of dealing
with a second dialog window to get the document saved or MSW to quit. This
puppy can’t even be dealt with the enter key, you must mouse it out of
existence. …And unless you’re a MS Basic programmer, don’t press the help
button.
So this became a “call for Derek’s help” problem.
Derek found the first vague lead to my problem at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887298/en-us?spid=2490&sid=216. I envy his patience. After 15 minutes on the Microsoft site, I start having reality withdrawal symptoms.
“Harry, he first asked — have you messed up the “normal Template?” After all, It’s likely the same one that I (doc) created when first installing MS Word X. “Your normal template file might have gotten corrupted somehow. Now why didn’t I think of that? After all, the dialog box does have the word normal in it.
Derek wrote;
“Try doing this;
Quit all running MS Office applications.
Navigate to the /Users/user_name/Documents/Microsoft User Data folder.
Remove the Normal template file to your desktop.
Restart Word 2004, it will create a new Normal template.
Quit Word and see if you get the error.
If you don't get the error, reopen Word, create a new document and just type some gibberish, and then save it to see if you get the error after you close the document.
If you still don't get the error, open a copy of a document you had been working on previously, one where you experienced the problem. Make a few changes, and then save it, and then close the document.
If you still don't get the error, have Word open, and try to restart your computer, if you don't get the error, then it seems that the problem is fixed.”
The Results
— It worked!
The bad news, it demolished, yes obliterated, all my custom settings. Who would guess Microsoft’s great secret. The customization you create for MS Word, are stored in the normal template. Humbug! But I keep screenshots and list of shortcuts so I was able to reset these customizations. [I also keep a copy of the .plst file and my custom dictionary]
But it took about 45 minutes, playing enie, meanie, minie, mo in the customization windows.
Maintaining Link or Adding Links to a PDFs Created from MS Word Documents
Question
Despite having active links in my MS Word [MSW] documents (.doc or .rtf) format, these do not always transfer to the pdf file I create for document distribution. [Mike]
The Answer
Background — One can create three kinds of active links in any MS Word document.
Full Internet and email addresses such as that activate your selected browser or email client.
Web Links —http://www.macCompanion.com or www.macCompanion.com Email Addresses —feedback@maccompanion.com. Or… Links embedded in a sentence such as the MacUpdate site, which when clicked translates to and activates an internet or email link http://www.macupdate.com/ |
In addition one can use links in MSW to move to other parts of your document. A good example of this is the creation and use of Table of Contents for a long document to speed navigation between sections. But that’s another future tip topic. Okay, more fussy details.
Ways of Creating PDF from a Word Document
Assuming you own Acrobat, now version 8, there are three ways to create a PDF from a MS Word document; [I’m using Word 2004, but the earlier version “X” also works.]
- You can print to PDF using Apples print utility.
- You can use the Adobe installed plugins to print your document to pdf. That uses a tool called Acrobat PDF Maker.
- You can use Acrobat’s Create a PDF from file function.
In addition you can create or activate a link, from within an Acrobat document. Simply select and create a link, as I explain below. |
Doc’s Test Results
I created a test set of links using two formats for Internet URLs, an email addressed and the phase to URL examples I used in the tip introduction.
In either the .doc or .rtf examples both using the Apple or the Acrobat plugin worked. The traditional links (URLs and emails) were active. However, Acrobat will not allow you to convert either a Macintosh .doc or .rtf document to PDF by way of its file menu.
Nothing I tried kept the MacUpdate (the words) linked to the sites URL. The word MacUpdate is not recognized as a link in the PDF.
Creating a Link In Acrobat 8 Is Also Easy
Open your PDF document. 
Go to (Tools > Advanced
Editing > Link Tool) — Follow the Adobe provided instructions…
First, use the marquee tool to highlight text you want to create into a link. Set your appearance preference and say “okay”.
Type in the link, or better yet paste it in — you’re done.
Enjoy! …Doc
