Problem converting Excel documents to PDF

Question

I'm having a problem converting Excel documents to PDF in landscape orientation when I am running Excel on a Mac which has all of the latest OS version and updates. The files in question are saved in landscape orientation. But now after a recent update, and in the process of saving the Excel file as a PDF, the PDF saves the document in portrait orientation, meaning that what is supposed to fit on one page in landscape orientation is now showing up as data spread across two pages. In addition, after the conversion to PDF, the Excel file shows borders that appear to be in portrait orientation, although I can clearly see from the menu that landscape orientation is selected. Even when I save the document appearing in portrait orientation and then I reopen the affected files, it will open in landscape orientation, but then go to portrait orientation if I try to convert to PDF again.

I hope this makes sense. I would appreciate any info on how to resolve this problem.

Thanks!

Moe

Answer 1

The problem persists when trying to convert to PDF inside an Excel document, but I have found a workaround until the problem is fixed. Thing is, you would need a subscription to Adobe Acrobat DC Pro or otherwise have the ability to create a PDF.

So from Adobe Acrobat, you would choose File->Create->PDF From File. Browse to your Excel file, and it will convert to PDF correctly that way.

I hope this helps anyone else who is having this issue.

Answer 2

I just encountered this bug. It was there some time ago, but I thought it was fixed. Sigh. My workaround is to open the .xlsx file with LibreOffice, save as pdf, and it is landscape. No muss. No fuss.

Answer 3

Dear Waquas,

Thank you for your reply.

1. The problem is only on MS Excel and not on MS Word
2. The version of the Mac OS I am using is Mac OS Monterey 12.5.1. I have the same problem on another device, my Mac Laptop running Big Sur 11.6.8 (the laptop is an older model and not compatible with OS Monterey but it has the latest updates). The version of Office I am using is 16.64 and it is the same on both Macs
3. I cannot recall after which type of update triggered the problem. I assumed it was when Office updated since I got the pop up window of the new features after the office update before I encountered the problem. But I haven't needed to convert Excel documents into PDF files for about a month. So whatever versions of Mac OS and Office that were current one month ago were not causing this issue.

Thanks for your continued support

Moe

Answer 4

I'm having the exact same issue. It's very bad for me because I make invoices in Excel that have to be emailed to a lot of clients, and the dollar amount is on a completely different page than the item description. I can tell the file to fit to one page, but for some customers, that isn't an option because their invoices are literally three to four pages long. Fitting them to one page would make then unreadable. This happened when I first got the program, then the issue was somehow fixed (I think I shrunk the font size), then it was working fine, and now it's back to splitting everything into two pages again. Very frustrating.

Answer 5

Dear Moe_44,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

As per your description, please don’t worry, we can work together to narrow down and resolve the situation.

To check this behaviour, please tell us more information below to let us help you:

1. Confirm whether other applications also get the same problem? Such as Word and etc.

2. The version of Mac OS and Office 

Find out which macOS your Mac is using

About Office: What version of Office am I using?

3.Can you recall when this behavior starts e.g., after Office update or Mac OS.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad