hello.

i am trying to use Cute pdf to convert a document to PDF.

i have used this before, without problems.

but occasionally, which increased to frequently, and now every sodding time, i get a few pages converted, then a blank page, then an error report printed in the document that says:

error – stack underflow

offending command – stack.

wtf?!

please help, people's lives are at stake.

of all the things in the universe, i am only capable of truly hating computers.

What are you creating the document in, e.g. Word, Excel, etc? Which version?

1) Download and install OpenOffice.
2) Open document.
3) Go to file menu and choose "Export as PDF".

I use; http://www.primopdf.com/

Ox – i can't do that, i'm using a 'controlled document' – created in Word, which means the quality office at work will cut my balls off if i start using openoffice.

(it's not just as simple as 'open with swriter – export to pdf, i'd need to re-jig the formatting, which is a no-no with controlled documents)

but thanks for trying!

what i find incredibly frustrating is that it worked fine last week, no problems whatsoever.

might be obvious, but have you tried deleting and reinstalling cute pdf writer?

(it's not just as simple as 'open with swriter – export to pdf, i'd need to re-jig the formatting, which is a no-no with controlled documents)

Although I don't know what a controlled document is exactly (and am willing to be educated), it is actually that simple – why should you need to re-jig the formatting?

But, you may also want to look at Primo PDF which is a free PDF writer – been using it for yars and it's great.
Worth a try if you're still stuck.

because when i open my word document in open office, it's gone all screwy – all the images have been overlaid in one box, all the text has been squeezed into one box, fonts and sizes have changed – that sort of thing.

this particular controlled document is an inspection report; i measured something, someone wants to read about it, i want to write a report for them, i have to do it using an approved template.

Another vote for PrimoPDF. Been using it for years also, installs as a printer. Never had any problems.

We use pdfcreator at work, worth a try? Might be easier to try something totally new rather than fix the problem

I would uninstall it and reinstall it. I use Cute PDF too but no problems here.

As I said above, which version (of Word?) If it's 2007, you can download a free PDF plugin – works a treat (with no watermarks or formatting issues).

As I said above, which version (of Word?) If it's 2007, you can download a free PDF plugin – works a treat (with no watermarks or formatting issues).

IF you read the OP, he is already using a PDF plugin, CutePDF, which isn't working for some reason. it doesn't matter which (year) program he is using to create the document as CutePDF serves as a printer like the Microsoft XPS creator.

Are you on the latest update of cutepdf/ghostwriter? Using with Word 2007 and 2003 on XP and 7 here. No issues.

http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Ox – i can't do that, i'm using a 'controlled document' – created in Word, which means the quality office at work will cut my balls off if i start using openoffice.

This gave me the impression the document (in template format or whatever) exists in Word … perhaps I misunderstood …

If I get this right, you're using one document as a template and repeatedly overwriting it?
If so your master document may have corrupted.
Try creating a PDF from an earlier version/report, if it works then you know it's not your PDF creator.
And if it works, use that file as the template.