The Microsoft Office COM Add-ins give you additional control over the PDF files you produce, including options for adding security, inserting bookmarks and hyperlinks, customizing pages sizes, compressing images, and much more. The settings vary based on the Office program you are using, and you can set different settings for each program, depending on the types of files you wish to produce.
COM Add-ins are available for Office desktop apps, including Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint, up to Microsoft Office 365, Office 2016 (2021), and earlier versions. More information on Office Web Add-ins is presented at the end of this article.
How to modify the Office add-in settings:
For Microsoft Office 2007 onwards:
- In the Office program, on the Nitro PDF tab, in the Program Settings and General Settings groups, click and select the settings to use
- Optionally, in the General Settings group, click Advanced and choose from additional settings
Creation & General Settings
| Create PDF | Converts the current file to PDF | 
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Create PDF (Outlook specific) | Allows you to create PDF files from the selected emails, from the selected text within the emails or to convert the attachments found in the selected emails | |
| Prompt for filename | Pops up a dialog allowing you to rename the PDF filename before saving it | |
| Applying security | Use passwords to control access to and the usage of PDF files. See the PDF Security section of this user guide for full information on the settings available | |
| Comply with PDF/A-1b | Enables you to create PDF/A-1b compliant files from your Office documents. Refer to Creating PDF/A files for further information | |
| Open PDF file after creation | Opens the PDF once it has been created | |
| Convert document summary | Imports document properties such as Author, Title, Subject and more into the PDF |
Office Program Specific Settings
| Convert links | Converts all active links in the Office files to active hyperlinks in the PDF file | |
| Prompt for filename | Pops up a dialog allowing you to rename the PDF filename before saving it | |
| Bookmarks | Automatically creates bookmarks for Word headings, for each sheet in an Excel spreadsheet, or for each slide in a PowerPoint presentation | |
| Include Workbook, Sheets, or Selection | Allows you to specify whether to convert an entire Excel workbook to PDF, a group of sheets, or a selection | |
| Frame slides | Places a frame around each slide | |
| Layout slides | Allows you to layout more than one slide per page in your PDF, as well as displaying your PowerPoint notes beneath each slide in the PDF | |
| Embed Attachments | The attachments found in the selected email will be embedded into the converted PDF | |
| Multiple Emails to: | Allows you to convert multiple files into individual PDF files, a PDF package combining all the emails into one PDF, or into a PDF Portfolio (having one PDF file with an index that contains individual PDF files for each email) |
Advanced Settings
| Optimization | The optimization settings allow you to select from pre-built optimization options, depending on how your file is to be used (for example, for web display or general office printing). You can also customize optimization settings, enabling you to specify image compression and font embedding options. Image compression and font embedding can significantly impact file size; you should experiment with different settings to determine the right balance between visual quality and file size for your needs | |
| View | The view options enable you to specify how the created PDF file will be opened in the PDF viewer. You can select from document display, page layout, and zoom options, as well as specify a page to open the file to. Additionally, you can set whether the file is opened in full-screen mode (if supported by the PDF viewer), or whether or not the window will be centered onscreen |
Nitro for Office (Web Add-ins)
Nitro for Office brings seamless, cloud-based document workflows directly into Microsoft 365 apps—including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the new Outlook for desktop. Unlike traditional COM Add-ins that only work on Windows desktops, Nitro’s Web Add-in is built for flexibility—working across Office on Windows, Mac, and the web—and will be supported in future Microsoft Office updates
With Nitro Web Add-in, users can access the Nitro Sign workflow for eSigning and the Convert to PDF workflow. These tools are available in Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint. See the article for more information.