Mac OS X 10.5.8--I routinely have to put out a file that is only 8 to 10 pages long, written in MS Word 2008 (version 12.2.0). The document contains one graphic element and a table crossing over three of the pages. Calling up the Print dialog, I use the "Save as PDF" feature. The generated PDF file is something over 20 Mb, while the same Word file, opened in Pages, and converted to PDF using the export feature, is about 650 Kb. Since I have to email this document out, I would like to use a PDF file as small as possible.

I have used "Save As" for the Word document, to squeeze out as much "fluff" as possible. Minimal size reduction. The one graphic element I use in the document is less than 100 Kb. The reason I don't routinely use Pages for the document is Pages' inability to mix portrait and landscape pages within one document (the tables are landscape).

Any ideas on how to generate a PDF from Word that is small in size?

My experience with Word has uniformly been disappointing. If you truly need to reduce the size then you will have to go to a 3rd party application. While I know that there are some out there, the only application I have used regularly, have trust in, and know can reduce the size of a PDF file is Adobe Acrobat.

Note that I am not refering to Acrobat Reader. Any of the full Acrobat applications will allow you to reduce the size of a PDF file, regardless of which other appliacation created it.

The bad news is that Acrobat Standard, the cheapest version, is $300.

You can search on PDF Planet.

I found this there Big Faceless PDF Library

I don't know why word creates such insanely large pdfs. We finally fixed it here by opening the pdf in acrobat pro and resaving it. This was necessary because someone had to submit a form in pdf that was sent to her blank as a word document, and then she was having to email 45mb pdfs which was working about as badly as you might expect.

Here is a third recommendation for Adobe Acrobat Pro. It is pricey but does a very nice job and gives you all kinds of control over the final PDF file.

You might like to try the Compress PDF Workflow utility. It adds the option of compressing PDF file in the print dialog box under Leopard. The site claims this option was in Tiger but was removed from Leopard.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26262/compress-pdf-workflow

Apple has this Pro tip tucked away in the bowels of its web presence: PDF: The Smaller PDF Secret Control.

[off-topic] Can you save this page in Safari under the proper default name? [/off-topic]

Nice tip indeed! I tried the utility/script and it did install that option to the print menu. Then I tried a Word document. Save as pdf generated a 180 kb file; compress pdf - 146 kb. Then I tried a 14 MB PPT file. This was impressive: non-compressed was 34 MB, compressed - only 2.8 MB. I opened the compressed one in Reader and could not see any problem with images. Should resolve the problem of the OP.
And your question relates to...?

I had a strange problem saving that Apple Tip page I linked to above: in Safari it consistently saved with the wrong name. I’m curious to see if it’s only me…

Not on this page, but I ran into a similar situation yesterday on a different page.

alternaut,

For me, the Safari title bar in your link is: Apple – Pro – Tips – What If You Don’t Want To Open The File?

The article is titled:
Pro
Tip of the Week
PDF: The Smaller PDF Secret Control

Using Save As and either Page Source or Web Archive as the format, the incorrect title for the Pro Tip of the Week occurs.

Thanks for checking this out, that's exactly what I get! Now I'm wondering why jmb doesn't...

The page source includes the following html:

<title>Apple - Pro - Tips - What If You Don’t Want To Open The File?</title>

I'm resonably sure Safari takes the page title as its default save name; someone on Apple's web team appears inadvertently to have updated this page's title when publishing the tip which follows it.

Very weird. I can confirm it on Safari, Explorer, Opera and iCab. Flock and Firefox offer to save as "smaller_pdf.html"; Camino saves as "smaller–pdf". However, if you want to bookmark the page in Firefox, Camino or Flock, the same unrelated title appears.

Not so weird if you take a look at my previous post. Safari, Explorer, Opera and iCab are using the (erroneously coded by Apple) page title. Flock and Firefox are using the page source filename. Camino Version 2.0b2 in OS X 10.5.7 also saves the page as smaller_pdf.html for me; don't know why your experience is different there.


Just to check my own sanity...aren't you folks all seeing Apple – Pro – Tips – What If You Don’t Want To Open The File? in the title bar of your browser window when viewing the page in question?

You're still sane, dk, although I can't make that claim for myself. I see exactly what you do.

that's what I see. wonky code, it seems.

The difference could be due to the fact that I was using Camino 1.66.
Answering your question, you are sane!

Yes, you're still sane (not that I think such a confirmation is necessary ), and I too get the wrong window title on the page.