Distiller by itself cannot process Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect documents, as we hope you understand.

In Corel WordPerfect, you would print to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance and that would funnel the generated PostScript to the Distiller. In Microsoft Word, you would either (1) print to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance and that would funnel the generated PostScript to the Distiller or (2) preferably with more recent versions of Word and Acrobat, use the PDFMaker capabililty that is installed as a plugin into Word to save as Adobe PDF.

Assuming you are printing or saving per above, we would need more information to assist you. OS platform (version of Windows), vresions of the applications, version of Acrobat? Any error messages?

          - Dov

If I understand you correctly, when you attempt the print operation to the Distiller printer, simply nothing happens? Did it prompt you as to where to place the PDF file? No error message from any system component? No hidden dialog boxes? If you have the System Task Manager running, do you see the Distiller (acrodist.exe) running?

Continually uninstalling and reinstalling software may make you feel comfortable, but rarely solves anything in the case of Acrobat. Have you recently installed any strange fonts?

          - Dov

Hmmm. This isn't a simple problem then.

I assume all other printing works (i.e., live printing to other printers installed on your system)? You haven't updated any printer drivers or applications? The same problem occurs with Microsoft Word or any other application (including really simple applications such as Notepad); you can do real printing but creating a PDF file by printing to the Distiller printer yields nothing?

The uninstalling and reinstalling you did effectively totally reset the PostScript printer driver instance so that should be clean. You've installed no other software including oddball fonts? Any other system problems occurring that might show up on a system error log?

At this point, it sounds like anything and everything that could be checked has effectively been checked. That's why it seems like I am grasping at straws. A system that is running XP and an over 10 year old copy of Acrobat 5 could be experiencing either hardware or operating system software issues that manifest themselves as failure to produce PDF or for that matter any number of other issues. Other seemingly non-related symptoms could help track this down if there is any further clues you could provide. Otherwise, I am somewhat stumped. What you are experiencing is obviously not normal behaviour or one that we have seen often before.

               - Dov

With all honesty, given how old your version of Acrobat is (current version of Acrobat is 10.1.x and yours is Acrobat 5, a version that is approximately 10 years old), I honestly don't think that Adobe Tech Support is going to be able to assist you much. And I don't think that the $39 guarantees that they have any idea what may be wrong with your system. What you describe is not a common, known problem. At best, they would ask you the same questions I have to try to figure out what currently doesn't work, what does work, and what has changed anywhere on your system since it worked last.

The one pass at uninstalling and reinstalling didn't solve the problem and that would have reset any and all Acrobat software. You claim you haven't installed any other software in the meantime.

Beyond that you have to look at all types of generic issues such as disk space availability, corrupted fonts and/or system files, etc. You may need to look at the various Windows system event logs to see if anything really strange happened between the time it worked and the time it doesn't.

Additional things I would check. Perchance your print dialog isn't set to print to file? That would cause PostScript to be generated, but not to be sent to the Distiller. Also look for any unexpected .ps files in your My Documents directory. That would be indicative that the base driver is working, but somehow it isn't connecting to the Distiller. Assuming that the print to file option isn't an issue, you could try that option, creating a PostScript file, and then seeing if the Distiller can successfully process it and if not, what type of log file is produced with errors. BTW, another thing to check would be if there are any .log files where with the same base file name as the expected PDF file would have been. That would be indicative of the Distiller failing with a PostScript error.

If none of these issues somehow ring a bell, I'm pretty much out of tricks other than having hand's on with your system (sorry, that's a bit out of my realm at Adobe). Maybe other participants in this forum have additional things for you to look at and try.

          - Dov

Please let us know what you eventually find. Always love to find new solutions to oddball symptoms that otherwise defy reason.

          - Dov

I honestly don't think the Distiller itself is your problem. Try running the Distiller application from the Windows Start menu. If it starts up and gives you a window, then it is probably OK. I think that something to do with how the Distiller Assistant PostScript driver instance is hooked in is the cause of the issue.

Quite frankly, the Distiller is one of the most stable and solid pieces of Acrobat. It is changed the least from Acrobat 5 to Acrobat 10.

You could conceivably download a free trial of Acrobat X Pro <https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=acrobat_pro&loc=e n> (there is no trial version of Acrobat X Standard) good for 30 days, but you would need to totally uninstall your copy of Acrobat 5 first. I honestly don't know if that would solve your problem which may be in the bowels of Windows and it driver/spooling system itself.

Also note that at this point, regrettably, there is no upgrade price available for any version of Acrobat earlier than Acrobat 7. You would need to buy a whole new copy of Acrobat.

By the way, how old are the copies of Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect that you are currently running? Want to make sure of compatibility.

          - Dov