Markup and tracked changes not exported from Word to PDF

Last updated on Feb 16, 2026

Learn how to resolve the issue of missing tracked changes when exporting PDFs from Microsoft Word using PDFMaker on Windows.

Starting December 2025, PDFs exported from Word using PDFMaker don't include tracked changes or comments, regardless of the markup settings in the Review tab of Word. The PDF is generated as clean content, even if markup is visible in Word.

PDFMaker exports PDFs without markup by default

Note

In Microsoft Word, select Acrobat > Preferences > Word and make sure Convert displayed comments to notes in Adobe PDF isn't selected.

 

To include markup in exported PDFs:

Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box.

Type regedit and press Enter.

Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\PDFMaker\Word

Tip

Replace DC with your Acrobat version if different.

Right-click in the right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name the new value: bEnableMarkupExport.

Double-click the new value and set it to 1.

Select OK and close Registry Editor.

Restart Microsoft Word.

After completing these steps, PDFMaker includes markup when exporting PDFs from Word.