Expert: Nick Putthoff - 2/13/2008

Question
I am receiving an error when trying to open any file in illustrator, the error reads "Acrobat file format is having difficulties, Bad error code". Can you tell me what this means?

Answer
Lorrie,
I hope that this is an erroneous error and that your artwork files are still valid artwork files. If this happens to every file and all the files come from different sources try deleting your Illustrator preferences.
Try opening the same files on a different computer to se if the problem is unique to your installation of Illustrator.
Also keep in mind that depending on the options you select when saving Illustrator files Acrobat content can be part of your Illustrator file. One option is an Illustrator file saved with the PDF compatibility. Another option for saving as a PDF has an option for maintaining Illustrator edit capabilities, So there are a number of ways for Illustrator files to have Acrobat content. And for the most part it is a good thing,
But to get rid of the error and if your files will open try saving the Illustrator documents without the PDF compatibility option checked and without the compression option checked. And then see if it opens without errors.
Try saving the file back as a previous version of Illustrator.
Try selecting all of the elements in the file and copying and pasting them into a new document. Don't forget to check the Paste Remember Layers option in the layer options to keep the layer structure.
Then there is the process of elimination to isolate the objects or groups of objects causing the problems. Delete a possible culprit object and save and see if the error persists.
I really do hope that deleting the prefs solves your problem.


Good Luck


Nick