PDF Maker Add-In

[ludy23]

I have a machine with Windows 8, Office 2013 and Acrobat X.  I'm having trouble with the PDF maker add-in.  In Word and Excel, the add-in is listed as "active" but I have no Acrobat toolbar and it does not appear on the ribbon.  In Outlook, the add-in is listed as "inactive".  It allows me to check the box to activate it, but remains in the "inactive" list regardless of how many times I try to activate it.  We have another machine in the office that uses the same hardware and same software versions, and the add-ins work on it just fine.  I have run updates on the office and Acrobat software, uninstalled and reinstalled, and ran "repair" on both multiple times and still have the same issue.  Help!

[Guest]

If you crashed Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook the setting may be stuck in the MS Office registry to keep it disabled.

[ludy23]

Thanks!  The initial installation of Office failed because of a power outage, so it sounds like that could be my problem!   Can you tell me how to modify the registry?  I haven't worked much with Windows 8 so I don't even know how to access the registry - clicking "start" and entering "regedit" in the run line clearly won't work in Windows 8.  Any advice you can give will be helpful! 

[Rave · Accepted solution]

Hi ludy,

Acrobat X is incompatible with Office 2013.

Please refer : http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/compatible-web-browsers-pdfmaker-applications.html

[ludy23]

Then how do I have another machine running Office 2013 and Acrobat X with functional add-ins?  Clearly it is not imcompatible.  I will look elsewhere for a helpful response. 

[Rave]

Hi Ludy,

If you insist that the plugin is working fine on the othe rmahine then you can try the following:

Check the status of the add in Office 2013 >File > Options > Add ins > COM Addins > Go,

The add in tries to configure for the first time and if proper permissions are not there, it fails to load and Office disables the add in.

• Try launching Office 2013 as Administrator, i.e. right click on Office icon and select 'Run as Administrator' and then check.
• Do also create a new user account and check the behavior.
• Also update Acrobat 10 to the latest version and check.
• Try repairing Acrobat by going to the help menu > Repair acrobat.

In addition to the above you can check the following within the Office Application :

• Enable PDFMakerOfficeAddin from the Microsoft Office application's Disabled Items list.

1. Open the Microsoft Office program (Word, Excel, Publisher, or PowerPoint).
2. Open any Blank document and Click the 'File' menu button, then click the ' Options' button.
3. Click Add-Ins.
4. From the Manage dropdown list select Disabled Items and click Go.
5. 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 10.0/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). 

Add the COM add-in file to the Windows registry.

1. In Windows Explorer, locate the COM add-in file (PDFMOfficeAddin.dll) and note the exact path, which may include spaces.
2. Choose Start > Run.
3. Type regsvr32 followed 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 10.0\PDFMaker\Office\ PDFMOfficeAddin.dll "
4. Click OK, and then start the Office application.

Check if Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Add-in is present in the list of available COM Add-ins for the Office Application.  

1. Launch Microsoft Office program (Word, Excel, Access, or PowerPoint).
2. Click the Office button and choose '[Application name] Options'.
3. Click Add-Ins.
4. From the Manage Dropdown list select COM Add-ins and click Go.
5. 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 10.0\PDFMaker\Office\. Select PDFMOfficeAddin.dll, click OK, then restart the Office application.

[ludy23]

Actually, I must apologize. The user, without my knowledge, apparently purchased and installed the Acrobat 11 upgrade without permission, so it appears that you are likely correct. Have a good day.

[Robert_McMurry]

I came across this post searching for an answer to a similar problem on a machine with Windows 7 (32 bit), Acrobat 11, and Office 2013.  It is possible that installation of Office was interrupted.  User was trying to enable the PDFMaker Add-In from within Outlook 2013 and it kept crashing and/or being disabled automatically upon startup. Ultimately the fix was to re-register the Add-in manually. Run from a command prompt: regsvr32 "%programfiles%\Adobe\Acrobat 11.0\PDFMaker\Mail\Outlook\PDFMOutlookAddin.dll"  and restart outlook.