Adobe Acrobat (up to version 6) installs a toolbar in Word by means of an add-in - PDFMaker.dot - in the Office startup folder which some find irritating, especially as there appears to be no easy method of setting its default status to off. The oft recommended method of dealing with this is to remove the add-in and then print directly to the Adobe driver, but this is at the cost of reduced functionality when translating Word documents.

A simple way to control the irritation level is to park the toolbar at the end of the standard toolbar, where it appears happy to remain.

By saving the following macro code in a global template - here ZapAdobe.dot  and placing the template in the Word startup folder it will load after the Acrobat add-in.

However, fellow Word MVP Klaus Linke has pointed out that add-ins will load in the reverse of the alpha-numeric order they appear in the folder, so if you wish to place the template in the Office startup folder then it will be necessary to rename the template to (e.g.) AdobeZap.dot.  The downside of using the Office Startup folder is that the macro will flag a macro security warning as the add-in loads.

In the list shown below, the add-ins are loaded in reverse order. The zap template (here renamed) must therefore appear above the PDFMaker.dot or it will load before PDFMaker.dot and the toolbars will not yet be there to be cancelled..

The Word startup folder is the folder defined as such in Word Tools > options > file locations > startup.

All you need is the code and the example shown below should work with all Acrobat versions.

Sub AutoExec()

Dim myCB As CommandBar

For Each myCB In CommandBars
If Instr(Ucase(myCB.Name),"PDFMAKER") > 0 Then
    myCB.Visible = False
End If
Next myCB

End Sub

If you prefer, you can download the ZapAdobe.dot template containing the above macro by clicking the link.

Plan B - An alternative strategy

Some users have reported that the above strategy doesn't work reliably and that the toolbar pops back after a couple of seconds. If you experience the problem when using the above method Word MVP Jonathan West has come up with an alternative plan.

The essential problem is the same - that of getting the Adobe macros to run before you do something about them. Here Jonathan has introduced a delay in an autoexec macro before calling the macro to zap the toolbar. This time the code is saved in the normal.dot template, and an add-in is not required.

Sub AutoExec()
    Application.OnTime _
      When:=Now + TimeValue("00:00:03"), _
      Name:="ZapEm"
End Sub

Sub ZapEm()
Dim i As Long

For i = 1 To Application.CommandBars.Count
If InStr(UCase(Application.CommandBars(i).Name), _
"PDFMAKER") > 0 Then
    Application.CommandBars(i).Visible = False
End If
Next i
End Sub

Whichever method is used, note that it is only the toolbar that is dismissed. You can bring it back by right clicking in the toolbar area and selecting it. The essential macros that provide the full measure of interconnection between Word and Acrobat remain present and available from the Acrobat menu.

A completely different approach can be used by moving the add-in out of the Office start-up folder completely and introduce it when required.

I have a sub folder of the startup templates folder (which Word doesn't 'see') in which I put my unused add-ins. If you add the template via the tools > templates and add-ins dialog, it will appear in the list when Word is started (as with the highlighted example), but unchecked and therefore inactive.

Checking the item will make it active, and this can be done manually by accessing the dialog box or by macro. The following will toggle the add-in off and on (watch for prematurely split lines when copying this code to the vba editor).

If you use Word as e-mail editor for Outlook, you will have an extra toolbar

This bar is not placed by the Acrobat add-in already discussed, but by the DLL file PDFMOutlook.dll. To remove this toolbar, you need to locate this file and unregister it, by typing the following command in the Windows > Start > Run applet.

Adobe really pushed the boat out with the early version of Acrobat 7 and managed to screw Word royally.

This was fixed with update, version 7.0.5,  so before reading further, ensure that you have at least this update. Check by selecting 'About Acrobat 7.0 Professional' from the Acrobat Help menu:-

The current version at 13 January 2007 is 7.0.9 so it would make sense to ensure that Acrobat is fully up to date.

Instead of using an add-in template, Adobe replaced the template with a COM add-in which does not lend itself to being manipulated in the same manner as the earlier versions. Furthermore the inclusion of the early version of this add-in flags normal.dot as 'saved' so changes to normal.dot are not flagged on closing and not saved automatically.

If for some reason you are unable to update Acrobat, you can force such changes by selecting SHIFT+File then Save All:

To prevent the add-in from loading, edit the Windows registry. Locate the key[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin]
and change the subkey called "LoadBehavior" from a value of 3 to 0.

It has been suggested to me in user feedback, that if you move the LoadBehavior sub key to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin] and change the value from 3 to 8 (load on demand), the Acrobat menu and toolbar behave themselves. That is, the add-in appears in the Tools > COM Add-ins dialog and you can load it whenever you want, as you can with the other COM Add-ins.

The COM Add-ins dialog is not installed by default. To install it:

1.   On the Tools menu, click Customize, and then click the Commands tab.
In the Categories box, click Tools.

2.   Drag COM Add-Ins from the Commands box over the Tools menu. When the Tools menu displays the menu commands, point to the location where you want the COM Add-Ins command to appear on the menu, and then release the mouse button.

3.   Click Close.

To load an add-in, select the check box next to the add-in name in the Add-Ins available list.

I personally do not recommend either registry hack. Both do actually work, but the second in particular introduces problems of its own. If the Acrobat toolbar is displayed when you disable the add-in, it is not cleared. When you re-enable it, Word crashes.

If you don't wish to display the Acrobat toolbar, it can be turned off from Word's View > Toolbars and will stay turned off until you require it.

If you don't wish to use the add-in tools with Word (or other office applications) you can remove them by re-running Outlook setup as shown below:

If you would like to learn how to add macro listings to Word then see my Idiot's Guide to installing macros from listings.