'Save as PDF' splits MS-Word Sections into separate PDFs

I'm not at my Mac now, so I can't verify this. But I think I would have noticed something like this since I've printed lots of Word documents with lots of sections to PDF files. I'm skeptical.

You can install the CUPS-PDF virtual print driver.

There are numerous PDF utilities on iUseThis.

Hi Nigel,

I just created a new document in Word 2004. I typed in one line of text then inserted a page-break section, and typed text on the second page.

When I print, and save to PDF, it generates one PDF document with 2 pages in it.
I have routinely saved-to-PDF larger 20 or 30 page Word documents with multiple sections, and they have saved to single PDF files.

Have you installed something different or extra to allow PDF generation?

I am currently using Leopard, but this also worked the same in Tiger and probably earlier.

As a work-around, open one of the PDF files in Preview, open the side tray (if it's not already) and drag the other files into their prospective locations in the tray. Then save the PDF and they'll all be in one file.

David

Word will generate a seperate PDF document when printing a section if the section has a different format then the preceeding section. You can use Page Setup to force the sections to have the same format.

I hope this helps.

I'm all for Apple in most cases, but I really like Word. Perhaps this really is a "feature" instead of a bug. What happens if you have a printer that supports multiple paper sizes and send it a PDF with all the sections in one file? I think the Word behavior would have a better chance of printing out the way you intended. I don't have a printer fancy enough to test that hypothesis, but it is possible.

In many cases, you can use NeoOffice to produce single PDF files for Word documents with multiple page layouts (the problem seems to lie in Word, which seems to send a separate print job for each layout).

Are the page breaks for pages of different orientations, one portrait, one landscape? If so, this is a known Apple problem, and a workaround is to use Acrobat to generate the PDFs.

That make sense. Still, I would prefer any of the numerous PDF manipulation utilities over Acrobat.