[German]Recently I came across a post from a MVP colleague, mention a curious error in Word 2013. On a customers system it wasn't possible, to use the PDF converter from Word.
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The error description
On the user's system was Office Pro 2013 64-Bit and Windows 7 Enterprise installed. Trying to export a Word document into a PDF file, the following error dialog box has been shown.
My MVP colleague added:
IT tried uninstalling Office yesterday and reinstalling. No difference. My guess is there's a registry setting but I'm not confident to screw around in there without being certain about my actions. I prefer not to have a boat anchor on my desk.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I have Acrobat Pro XI so it's not an urgent need but sometimes this ability comes in handy.
Fix #1: Repair/reinstall Office 2013
The first approach in such a case should be a "Office repair attempt" (although the comment above mentioned that it hadn't helped). Open control panel and go to Uninstalling programs (or similar). In the windows shown below click to the entry for Microsoft Office and use the Repair button.
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Just follow the suggestion provided by the wizard and let it repair office. This blog post discusses this repair in details. If a repair didn't help, try to uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Office.
Fix #2: Run Office modules administrator
In this MS Answers forum post user AdnanJahangir outlined a workaround. He launches Word via Run as administrator, and the problem was gone. This indicates, that there are problems accessing registry settings. I would uninstall Microsoft Office and clean the system from leftovers within the Registry. Microsoft provides some hints about that topic.
Fix #3: Skype for Business 2016 is causing this issue
In this MS Answers- forum thread user urichai pointed out, that installing Skype for Business Basic 2016 x86 is causing the issue:
My solution was to remove the standalone version of Skype for Business 2016 and install the Office 2013 component Lync 2013 and then use Windows Updates to upgrade Lync 2013 to Skype for Business 2015. Please reply if you need more details. In short, Office 2013 Word and standalone Skype for Business 2016 causes the pdf converter to fail. These 2 products do not play nicely with one another.
Fix #4: Check and clean registry entries
Within this article some registry entries are enlisted as used from converters. Go to the registry branch:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Text Converters\
and check the converter entries in sub-key Export. Within this MS Answers forum thread a user reported, that a wrong TypeLib under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{2DF8D04C-5BFA-101B-BDE5-00AA0044DE52}\2.8
was the root cause for the issue. An Office 2016 install has changed the registry, but after removing Office 2016, the reference to the missing Office 2016 Type library was left in the registry.
Fix #5: Check for mixed 32/64 bit environment
A user posted a comment within my German blog post, pointing to another issue. He had a system, where a 64 bit converter has been installed, but the installed Office was at 32 bit.
Perhaps the hints given above helps to solve the issue. If you come across other solutions, please feel free to drop a comment.
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