Winword-made PDF won't open on Preview and Safari

This is coherent with recent threads on the same issue.

Some PDF files created in a Windows machine from .docx or from .xlsx files wont' open on Preview and won't open on Safari either, maybe for the same reason.

Example: Go to the experimental page (not linked to the containing website yet) Parcours 0A page. Click the top left green button "Une page A4 à imprimer (Acrobat)" to open the pdf file in a small popup window. Except for the title "Parcours 0A Les Clayes sous Bois" and some direction arrows, all written text, created in Excel (.xlsx) and Word (.docx) in a Windows box is blank.

This file can be saved to the desktop and, there, will (1) not be viewable with Preview, but (2) be viewable with Acrobat Reader 10.1.

Firefox, when it is required to use Acrobat, will view correctly this file.

My friends, at the bicycle club where I run the website which may contain these files in the near future, suggest that remaking these PDF's just for a few mac users would be a huge waste of time, since Acrobat is used by everybody on earth [...]

Does anyone have any clue on what may be happening here ?

Any fix (other than remaking all of these pdf files with Excel and Word 2003, which would work) ?

Note that all of this is a repeat of the exact same issue I had earlier (may have addressed it on this forum) with Mac OS 10.4 on my 9-years old iBook. Presumably then, the cause was believed to be the old rendering engine on Preview of Mac OS 10.4. Alas, I changed a month ago for a brand new MacBookPro with OS 10.6.8 and assorted Safari and Preview on it, all with current updates and the problem remains as it was: still alive.

TIA for advice.

Not sure what to say. I am in Lion 10.7 with Safari 5.1. Opened in Safari. Saved it to my desktop and opened in Preview. 3 pages. A showing up.

Same here - works just fine in Safari, Firefox and Preview.

dtravis7 said:

Not sure what to say. I am in Lion 10.7 with Safari 5.1. Opened in Safari. Saved it to my desktop and opened in Preview. 3 pages. A showing up.

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So it opens in Lion on Preview and Safari. Good to know, thanks.

bobtomay said:

Same here - works just fine in Safari, Firefox and Preview.

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Rendering above is exactly as intended. Perfect ! All characters except the directional arrows are not visible on my side on Safari 5.1 on OS 10.6.8.

I am going to reboot into 10.6.8. BRB.

The plot thickens. In 10.6.8 SL with Safari 5.1. Opens just like it did in Lion. Not sure what to say.

That's what I went to try - tried booting the new MBA with the SL clone from my MBP - wouldn't boot from it.

dtravis7 said:

I am going to reboot into 10.6.8. BRB.

The plot thickens. In 10.6.8 SL with Safari 5.1. Opens just like it did in Lion. Not sure what to say.

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Thank you all. This made a huge progress. It works for you on OS 10.6.1 and Safari 5.1 (my versions). I tried it for confirmation on my wife's iMac on 10.5.8, Safari 5.0.6 and Preview 4.2. Works too. Also works there on old Acrobat 5. So we now know that these PDF are "recent-mac" compatible and that my brand new MacBookPro does not read them for the time being. I will agree as to their installation on the site and also try to fix my computer.

MacBookPro, OS 10.6.8 with full updates, Safari 5.1, Preview 5.0.3
On the .pdf files, the get info window states "Preview.app" on "Open with" ("Aperçu.app" since this is a French install). On setting up the macbook pro, we transferred into it everything there was on the old iBook under Mac OS 10.4. Also works with Acrobat 10.1, the older versions of Acrobat don't work on this mac (which is an 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 mac). This is where I stand so far. Will summarize (with shame as appropriate) if I find the fix. :Blushing:

Thanks to all

michelangelo said:

I will [...] try to fix my computer. MacBookPro, OS 10.6.8 with full updates, Safari 5.1, Preview 5.0.3
Will summarize (with shame as appropriate) if I find the fix. :Blushing: Thanks to all

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When asked to run a diagnostic and system check, OnyX said "where is PrinterProxy ?". I have no idea what that is and what it is used for.

OnyX also said I needed to repair the drive by a restart on the installer CD, which I did with the Disk Utilities. It worked and the disk was fixed.

However, attempting to fix permissions, either on Disk utilities or back on the mac with OnyX, the repair mode keeps repairing permissions (always the same) and keeps stating permissions are now repaired. But, they are not, or get corrupted right away, since a new attempt to verify or to repair will face the same list, and a warning appears every time within the repair log:

"Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired".

This is where I am so far, assuming this is relevant to my issues of pdf files not being correctly rendered on Preview.

With luck, somebody here will understand what this means. I don't. TIA

You can completely ignore the "Warning: SUID file" etc blah blah.

Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore

chas_m said:

You can completely ignore the "Warning: SUID file" etc blah blah.

Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore

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Thanks chas_m. This helps a lot. I was gradually getting into forgetting the issue, until of course next time I run OnyX and am faced again with these frightening warnings.

BTW, thanks also for the tips included in your sig file. very well done and useful.

I promised a summary, here it is. I never found a cure while I was on snow leopard. I kept using Acrobat for the task of viewing PDF, either direct or in Safari and its friends. Then, last Week End, I did a giant jump upgrade from Snow Leopard (10.6.8) to Mountain Lion (10.8.4). The upgrade did not alter the choice of Acrobat as the default app for PDF. I changed the setting back to apercu.app (preview, I believe). It worked, including on those specific PDF files I had used for this post and saved to remember them.

Problem solved, by an upgrade. Thank you all for your advice.