Problem: Your PDFMoto
Document Library cannot be viewed
Solution:
- Check the error log. It may be that PDFMoto cannot find
either its source documents or destination folder. If this
is the case check the appropriate permissions and paths
and any FTP settings where FTP is being used.
- Check you are typing in the correct URL of your document
library.
- Check that your web server has the correct default page
defined for the processor technology you are using.
A quick test for this is to type in the full URL of the
document library.
ASP: If you are using asp, type the URL for your Document
Library followed by default.asp. If your Document Library
now appears then your web server must be configured to accept
default.asp as a default page. To do this in Microsoft's
IIS access the web server's properties, go to the Documents
tab, then add default.asp.
JSP: If you are using jsp type the URL for your Document
Library followed by index.jsp. If your Document Library
now appears then your web server must be configured to accept
index.jsp.
PHP: If you are using php type the URL for your Document
Library followed by index.php. If your Document Library
now appears then your web server must be configured to accept
index.php as a default page. To do this in Apache you must
add index.php to the DirectoryIndex directive in your httpd.conf
file.
Problem: When you try to view a document
the browser starts to download a file and asks if you would
like to save it.
Solution:
The browser has no viewer associated with the file type you
are trying to view. If the file type is a PDF document you
need to install an appropriate reader such as Adobe's Acrobat
Reader on to the client computer.
Problem: My documents have not converted.
Solution:
- Check the error log. This will give you further details.
- The most common reasons a document has not converted
are:
a. No application is associated with the document. PDFMoto
uses the native application to create its PDF conversions.
It must therefore be installed on the same machine as PDFMoto.
For example if a Visio document is added to a Document Library
source and Visio is not installed on the same machine as
PDFMoto then PDFMoto will not be able to convert the document
to PDF.
b. The document has macros. All documents submitted to PDFMoto
for conversion should have any macros disabled.
c. The document is password protected. All documents submitted
to PDFMoto for conversion should not be password protected.
d. The document is corrupted. Occasionally a document is
corrupted. A simple test is to open it in its native application.
If it cannot open then PDFMoto will be unable to convert
it.
e. Two or more Document Libraries are trying to process
the document at the same time.
- If a series of documents have not converted and the above
tests have not solved the problem another useful technique
is to use the "Exclude from Document Library"
feature to isolate a problem document.
- Go to the error log and find the first document that
failed to convert.
- Exclude it, then rebuild the Document Library.
- If the other documents now convert then there is an issue
with the excluded document. If the documents still do not
convert continue to exclude documents until they do.
Problem: My document name
appears on the web site, but when I click I get a blank screen.
Solution:
This can happen if your source document contains an apostrophe
( ' ) in it's name and you are using Adobe Acrobat 6 as your
viewer. To get around this problem, do as follows:
- Rename the source document removing any apostrophes.
- Open the Settings Manager on your Document Library Properties
dialog. Select the document and display it's settings by
clicking the Settings button on the right hand side of the
screen.
- Within Settings press the attributes button and select
the Document attribute. Set it's value to be the name of
the source document with the apostrophes.
- Incrementally rebuild the Document Library and the name
will be displayed correctly and you will be able to see
your document when selected.
Problem: My converted document does
not look like the original
Solution:
The most common cause of this is that the printed form of
the document is not the same as the on screen version. PDFMoto
creates its conversions by converting a document's print stream
into PDF format so however the document appears when printed
will be how it appears when converted. This causes most issues
with spreadsheet applications. To see how a document will
appear when printed use the native applications "Print
Preview" function.
Problem: My converted document
has different fonts to the original
Solution:
This is most likely to have happened because a random font
substitution has occurred. The solution is to set PDFMoto
to embed fonts in the converted PDF Document. This is not
set by default because it can result in the PDF documents
being far larger in file size. To set font embedding, go to
Preferences, PDF Settings in the Properties dialog of your
Document Library.
Problem: How do I convert multiple Worksheets
in Excel?
Solution:
- Check that all the worksheets that you want to convert
are set active. This is indicated by the worksheet tab being
white. In Excel a worksheet is usually set active by clicking
on the worksheet tab whilst holding down the "shift"
key (though you should check your application's documentation).
Re save the document.
- In the page setup try adjusting the scaling in the Page
tab from Adjust to to Fit to.
Problem: My document or folder is missing
from the web site
Solution:
- Check the error log.
- If there are no errors check that the document or folder
have not been excluded from the build. To do this go to
your Document Library properties, then go to the "Settings
Manager" tab. Double click on the document or folder
and check:
- That the "Exclude from Document Library" box
is not ticked.
- That Management Dates have not been set that would cause
the document or folder to be excluded.
Problem: My Document
Library does a full re-build every time it builds
Solution:
Check that the Always Build property for the Document Library
is not set. To do this go the Document Library's properties.
Then go to the Settings Manager tab and highlight the Document
Library icon. Double click and the Document Library's settings
will be displayed. Check that Always Build is not ticked.
Problem: I cannot see my Document Library
Source when I use the Web Submittal Control
Solution:
Check that the path or FTP settings point to your Document
Library's source.
Problem: How does PDFMoto
deal with bad documents
Solution:
When PDFMoto cannot convert a document for whatever reason
it will mark it as bad. When the Document Library is next
built PDFMoto will not attempt to re-convert this bad document
unless it detects that it has been modified since the previous
build. This approach ensures that PDFMoto build times are
as short as possible.
NB. When running a full build on a Document Library PDFMoto
will attempt to convert all bad documents.
Problem: Can I stop
an attribute being displayed
Solution:
Yes. All attributes have a set visible property. Simply de-select
this and the attribute will no longer be displayed.
NB. An attribute that is not set visible can still be used
as a Meta tag.
Problem: I get
"Fatal error: Call to undefined function: xslt_create()"
when trying to use PHP
Solution:
To use PDFMoto's PHP templates, PHP must have the XSLT functions
compiled in. This extension uses Sablotron and expat, which
can both be found at www.gingerall.com.
See also www.php.net
Problem: Hyperlinks
don't work under WindowsNT running IIS
Solution:
The problem can be solved by applying a redirection to the
PDFMoto destination folder within IIS as described below:
Redirection
Suppose that your PDFMoto destination folder is called pdfmotoDocs
and this is inside your web server root (Home) directory.
- Open the Internet Service Manager console
- Find the folder pdfmotoDocs through the tree navigation
on the left hand pane (Fig 1)
- Highlight the pdfmotoDocs folder and right mouse click.
- Select Properties option
- On the properties dialog select Directory tab then select
the "A redirection to a URL" option.
- In the Redirect To field enter /pdfmotoDocs/default.asp$Q
- Tick "The exact URL entered above" option and
"A directory below this one" option (Fig 2)
- Press Apply and the OK.


Now when you view the PDFMoto site through a browser the
hyperlinks should work.
You will need to repeat the procedure for any other PDFMoto
document Library destination folders.
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