Forum Discussion
Table of contents links not working when save as PDF
I have to be able to print several different versions of this document, with different sections selected, such as "S1,S4-S10" and "S1,S11-S20" etc. So saving as PDF won't work, since I cannot selectively save sections. Only a custom print, to a PDF printer will work.
None of the TOC or intradocument links work when printing to the printer "Microsoft Print To PDF".
This is a very, very big problem for me. Any help very gratefully received.
Use Export -> Create PDF/XPS and choose the Standard (Publishing online and printing) option.
The Print to PDF approach tends to include only what is necessary for printing - not document structure information.
See how it goes.
Clouded_Agaricthanks. However I found there are a couple issues with this approach.
1. After you set "Save as type" to PDF, then an "Options" button appears on the Save As dialogue, and from there you can select a page range, start to end. However, you can't enter a selection of pages, such as using section identifiers, as in "S1,S10-S20", which you can from a print dialogue.
2. The image quality is poor. Of course I selected the option to optimize for "Standard (publishing online and printing)", however the image quality degrades significantly. This document has a lot of images designed to be zoomed in for more detail, and they are much more fuzzy. The advantage of printing to the printer "Microsoft Print To PDF" is that image quality is retained, without any degradation. That is probably also why in my tests those PDF's are much larger.
- Found some information in an old post (has been replied to more recently):
https://superuser.com/questions/645657/export-word-document-with-high-resolution-png-to-pdf
Also, check the Options when you export - Optimise image quality?- So after considerable research, the situation is that there is no Word->PDF solution that will (1) print a selection of pages as desired, (2) in high image quality, (3) with links.
The "Microsoft Print To PDF" pdf printer will print in high quality image, and any selection of sections or pages as desired, e.g. "S1,S5-S10". But no intra-document links, such as from the table of contents.
The Save as PDF will save links. However you have to save the entire thing, since there is no ability to select sections as in printing "S1,S5-S10". And the image quality is downgraded.
There is a PDF printer I found called "doPDF" that will install a ribbon option in MS Office, with a function called "Save as PDF". It will save links, and give you the option of choosing the quality of the export, with higher quality images with of course a larger file. However, in this mode, as a ribbon option, it does not enable selective printing as in "S1,S5-S10".
Bottom line, if you need selective printing, go with "Microsoft Print to PDF" or doPDF in the PDF printer mode, but be aware no links.
If you need links and high quality images, and just need the entire document without selective printing, go with the Save as PDF function in the ribbon add-on from doPDF.
If you need links and very high quality images is not an issue, just use the built in Save as PDF.
If only the Microsoft Print To PDF function supported both intra-document links, and high quality images, all problems would be solved.