I have a client who is using Excel 2013. They have a form that they are regularly exporting to PDF using Microsoft's own Publish feature. The form looks okay in Excel, and in Excel's print preview -- sample here.

However, when exported to PDF, the file opens and prints like this:

As you can see, the result is less than optimal.  I have tried fooling around a bit with the formatting of the Excel file, but I'm an IT guy, not an Excel expert.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

P.S.  There are a few places in the document where there is a text field with bold text that is part of the check box - in those cases, that bold text is blacked out too.  Once again, this all looks fine in Excel itself.

The first thing I would suggest is to install one of the 3rd party PDF creator programs that install their own PDF print driver, and see if you get similar results.  My experience has been that this type of thing is most often the result of problems with the print driver (PDF or actual printer), in this case MS's driver.

How did you export to PDF in detail? It can be the printer driver but as you described it didn't only occur when printing? The PDF opens with the issue.

You can try with some 3rd party tools or update the driver to check the result anyway...

How did you export to PDF in detail? It can be the printer driver but as you described it didn't only occur when printing? The PDF opens with the issue.

You can try with some 3rd party tools or update the driver to check the result anyway...

To export, I actually used File-->Export-->Create PDF/XPS Document from within Excel 2013.  The client would like to do it the recommended Microsoft way.

If I use Print and then choose Adobe PDF, this is not an issue, however, exporting as a PDF from Excel is a better method as it preserves its form functionality better.

My first instinct is that if printing via Adobe PDF gives you a clean copy, and the MS Export to PDF does not, it sounds like a problem with the MS PDF print driver.

However, it may also matter which PDF viewer you use- maybe MS is using some rendering code that Adobe viewer doesn't like, but other PDF viewers might be able to render appropriately.

Next step: Open the MS PDF in multiple other free viewers (including things like the web-based PDF viewers embedded in many mainstream email programs) to see if the problem occurs across all of them. If everyone shows black boxes, then you know it is a MS issue. If some of the other viewers are ok, then it may just come down to whether the PDF is using some code that wasn't adopted by all viewers.

In your shoes, I'm not sure I like any of the 'solutions' implied by what you've seen so far. Either you have to give up on the MS PDF creator (against your client's preference), manage what viewer everyone uses (if other viewers can read the MS PDF without issue), or live with the cosmetic issue of black boxes. Unless there is a different checkbox control you can use, I don't use 2013 so I can't help you there.

• Edited by Keith Ruck 12 hours 16 minutes ago

My first instinct is that if printing via Adobe PDF gives you a clean copy, and the MS Export to PDF does not, it sounds like a problem with the MS PDF print driver.

However, it may also matter which PDF viewer you use- maybe MS is using some rendering code that Adobe viewer doesn't like, but other PDF viewers might be able to render appropriately.

Next step: Open the MS PDF in multiple other free viewers (including things like the web-based PDF viewers embedded in many mainstream email programs) to see if the problem occurs across all of them. If everyone shows black boxes, then you know it is a MS issue. If some of the other viewers are ok, then it may just come down to whether the PDF is using some code that wasn't adopted by all viewers.

In your shoes, I'm not sure I like any of the 'solutions' implied by what you've seen so far. Either you have to give up on the MS PDF creator (against your client's preference), manage what viewer everyone uses (if other viewers can read the MS PDF without issue), or live with the cosmetic issue of black boxes. Unless there is a different checkbox control you can use, I don't use 2013 so I can't help you there.

• Edited by Keith Ruck Monday, February 02, 2015 11:37 PM

Hi,

The suggestion from Keith is actually making sence to narrow down the issue, have you tried "Next step" in the post? What's the result then?

Regards,

Melon Chen

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