Can one use Nuance Power PDF Advanced with Arbortext Editor PDF Compose?

[DebraCarlin]

My company is replacing Adobe Acrobat with Nuance PowerPDF. Currently we set our default printer to "Adobe PDF" and Arbortext creates a PDF file after composition. I have a few questions:

1. We get Acrobat Distiller with our Acrobat installation. When I set my default  printer to "Adobe PDF" is Distiller being used? I can't see how it is connected to Distiller. I uninstalled Distiller and Acrobat and I was still able to compose PDF files from Arbortext Editor. I am trying to ensure that when we lose Acrobat and Distiller we will still be able to compose to PDF; I don't know why I still can compose PDF without Distiller installed. Perhaps "Adobe PDF" is actually a different program? The Printer Properties don't tell me anything.

2. Has anybody ever used Nuance with Arbortext Editor? If so, could you tell me how to set it up.

We have an ancient system (5.3) that was installed before my time, sp there is a lot I don't know. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[DebraCarlin]

Update to my original question: Yes I can set Nuance PDF as my default printer (the installation adds the printer the printer). However, Arbortext Editor does not recognize it; the Compose>PDF option is grayed out. I contacted Nuance support, and they said I would have to find out from Arbortext how to configure Editor to used the Nuance PDF printer when generating the PDF from PostScript.

[DebraCarlin]

Another update: Nuance said they could work with Arbortext to figure this out. They said they would need the executable name.

[TimPhelps · Accepted solution]

Have you tried customizing _pubpdf.acl?

See find_distiller() - looks for the distiller registry item.

Note this kind of customization would not be supported by PTC.

As noted in other thread, supported versions of Arbortext no longer rely on Distiller, but has its a built in PDF output driver.

[DebraCarlin]

Thanks Jim. I was given another suggestion, which seems simpler. do you think it might work:

If you don’t already have an INIT file in your PE\Custom\init folder, put a file called ‘init.acl’ (or something else appropriate) with the line the following line:

                set distillerPath=” C:\Program Files (x86)\Nuance\PDF Professional 7\bin

Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my question. It is greatly appreciated.

Debra Lee

[GarethOakes]

Arbortext has its own PDF output driver built in; you don't need Acrobat or any other PDF software to create PDF.

[DebraCarlin]

Thanks, but my problem is that we are stuck on version 5.3 of arbortext, which does not support direct PDF output. Of course we should upgrade, but until now 5.3 meet our needs and the general philosophy is "If it ain't broke don't fix it"