Why does Word split document at section break when saving to PDF?

Question

When I try this my MSWord document (3.4MB) gets split into three pdf files: 2.3MB, 440KB and 2.1MB. I have page and section breaks throughout but why is MSWord choosing to split up my file at these points? Is this happening because of some file size restriction?

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Answer 1

It's a problem with the Apple Print System and it has been around for a long time; it is the default maker of the PDF when you save. If you have Adobe Acrobat and create your PDF from it or save from Word as an Adobe PDF you won't have the problem.

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat you can also use Preview.app to open the first of the separated PDF files and drag the other PDF files into the first, appending them to the end.

FWIW... Given that this is a long standing problem, it has had many answered posts about it on this forum. A simple search would have gotten you the answer a lot quicker.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

I've found at solution that works for me - YMMV - Word 2011 for Mac, OSX 10.10.5

I found that the problem in the document can be in a different place that where the problem looks like it is.  Specifically, I had a document with section/page breaks throughout, but it would chop the document into two files after the first page.

Strangely, I've been working on this 200 page document for months without any issues - and suddenly it started happening.

My solution was that I had a page break on its own - i.e., nothing else on the page (at page 168 in the document) and that was causing the issue.  I added a few CRs on that page and the problem went away.

This is obviously a weird issue, and this solution might not work for you.  But at least check to see if you have any page or section - next page breaks on their own.

BTW - this was a particularly bad problem for me because I needed to create a CMYK PDF (vs RGB) and the CMYK driver on Mac overwrites PDFs without checking - so it would create the first page, then immediately overwrite it with the rest of the doc, so the solution listed above of merging the resulting PDFs became impossible.

Yes, I do, as I added a section break in order to add a blank page in order for the book to come out correctly. I'll take the additional page out but I don't see how this will correct it. However, I have seen and struggled with word's awesomeness when it comes to adding mysterious pages, repaginations, changing odd-even pages, changing the breaks, so I'll give this a try. I've only spent 7 hrs on it today and it was supposed to take about 15 minutes so I could get to the printer. Awesome.

Answer 3

But how to you add a page if you have to so your book comes out correctly? I first noticed that word had added a page and that screwed me up. Then, I fix all the page numbers, headers and footers and the footer went wonky and reset itself to 0. I had to fix all by hand, 140 pages and 35 sections since "document" setting wouldn't work. Now I did a test on the first ten pages and I get 6 pdfs so i guess it's getting better. Only on a deadline that's all. No issue at all on three other books. Just since Monday, August 7, 2017

Answer 4

Never had the problem before. Been using Mac since 2002. Word did something screwy with all my footers and I had to fix 42 on a 130 page document. And this is still happening.

Answer 5

I've found at solution that works for me - YMMV - Word 2011 for Mac, OSX 10.10.5

I found that the problem in the document can be in a different place that where the problem looks like it is.  Specifically, I had a document with section/page breaks throughout, but it would chop the document into two files after the first page.

Strangely, I've been working on this 200 page document for months without any issues - and suddenly it started happening.

My solution was that I had a page break on its own - i.e., nothing else on the page (at page 168 in the document) and that was causing the issue.  I added a few CRs on that page and the problem went away.

This is obviously a weird issue, and this solution might not work for you.  But at least check to see if you have any page or section - next page breaks on their own.

BTW - this was a particularly bad problem for me because I needed to create a CMYK PDF (vs RGB) and the CMYK driver on Mac overwrites PDFs without checking - so it would create the first page, then immediately overwrite it with the rest of the doc, so the solution listed above of merging the resulting PDFs became impossible.