Can't Save As PDF Word documents after Big Sur 11.2.3 Update

A_Castaner wrote:

I can no longer save as PDF Word documents after I updated Big Sur. There are two options when saving as PDF: (1) "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility; and (2) Best for printing. The first one works but changes the font type one some documents. When selecting "Best for printing" and clicking on "Export" a pop up comes up stating: "The document "X - Compatibility Mode" could not be save as "X".

This problem does not occur on other Office apps such as Excel, Power Point, etc.

I called Microsoft support and they said it was a Mac issue. I called Apple support and they said it was a Microsoft issue because the "Save As PDF" option was working on other Office apps. Can anyone tell me how to solve this problem?

Verify your Microsoft /Office software is up to date.

The current Office for Mac; Office 365 or Office 2019 (One-time purchase) are OK with Catalina/Big Sur

If you have Office 2011 for Mac or before WILL NOT run, For Catalina Office 2016 for Mac needs to be v15.35 or later.

Big Sur compatibility—Microsoft recently announced that it was officially ending support for Office 2016 for Mac on October 13, 2020. Apple Silicon compatibility in Office 2016 is questionable. Office 2019 no issues.

Big Sur—Microsoft 365 for Mac apps that run natively on Macs with M1.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/12/15/4-ways-microsoft-365-is-improving-the-experience-for-mac-users/

the App Store apps will require you to subscribe to Microsoft 365; Unless you buy from Microsoft:

How do I upgrade Office?

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/how-do-i-upgrade-office-ee68f6cf-422f-464a-82ec-385f65391350

compare:

https://products.office.com/en-us/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?&activetab=tab:primaryr1

Office Home & Student 2019:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-student-2019/cfq7ttc0k7c8?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Office Home & Business 2019: This stand alone includes Outlook—

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-business-2019/cfq7ttc0k7cq?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

To activate a Microsoft Office 365 subscription you simply enter the email address you used when you extended the subscription with Microsoft.


Using the same versions, I don't get any errors exporting either a current Word document nor an older format document (opened in compatibility mode).

Does it happen for all documents, or just one or a few?

If only a few, any consistency in the documents? e.g., source, styles, fonts?

If you Print the document and use Save as PDF from the PDF Services popup menu, do you get the same error?

Open Word them click File>Print and you're supposed to get a Print options window. It's not showing. I know it's a problem with Word. I had dowloaded it from Office365.com so I then downloaded it from the Apple App Store to see if that would solve the problem. The problem is still there.

As noted, I don't have a problem with Word, so it is possibly some problem with the preferences, or other support files, but I have no idea what that would be. While I still have Word installed, I hardly ever use it, so I've not kept up with how Office stores its support files. The apps are sandboxed, now, so perhaps removing the Word Container from ~/Library/Containers might resolve the problem. You will lose all preferences you have set. I have never had any other problem removing a sandbox Container, but I've never removed an Office container, so your mileage may vary.

The Print window does not even come up.

Which print window? It sounds like you are seeing the PDF services popup menu, so what window doesn't open?

Sounds like you have a problem with your Word app.

If all other Office apps work, and all other apps also work, then it is a problem with Word.

Save as PDF is a function in Word.

Apple’s implementation to convert to PDF is through the Print process. Unless the Print to PDF fails, that is a Microsoft problem.