Exporting a PDF as a .docx should preserve the formatting
The .docx document created does not save formatting to allow updating of TOC or figures. It also removes spaces in some places. I understand from your tech support that this is not a P1 bug, but rather a feature that does not exist. This is a huge short coming as it really makes updating the document difficult. There should at least be a message warning the user that these features are not saved if one tries to export a PDF to MSW.
Also, saving changes to the now .docx document will arbitrarily remove some spaces between words
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Gerald Montagu
commented
I think I may completely by chance have found a fix that is worth trying (Adobe seem entirely disinterested and utterly hopeless in relation to these exporting to Word problems). Try exporting your file from Indesign to a PDF. Then, open that PDF in Word for Windows. You should then have a fully stable Word file that you can work with (including running comparisons). The key seems to be that Word's import process works completely differently from Acrobat's export process - it will be very evident that the file is structured completely differently. The difference in the end results is so great, that it must be strongly arguable that when Adobe claim Acrobat 'exports' to Word they are effectively misselling. Please note that this fix does not seem to work if you try to open the PDF in Word for Mac (as at September 2018) because the import process is (sadly) nothing like as refined in Word for Mac as it is in the Windows version of Word.
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Gerald Montagu
commented
I think I have completely by chance found a fix for you (Adobe seem entirely disinterested and utterly hopeless in relation to these exporting to Word problems). Try exporting your file from Indesign to a PDF. Then, open that PDF in Word for Windows. You should then have a fully stable Word file that you can work with (including running comparisons). The key seems to be that Word's import process works completely differently from Acrobat's export process - it will be very evident that the file is structured completely differently. The difference in the end results is so great, that it must be strongly arguable that when Adobe claim Acrobat 'exports' to Word they are effectively misselling. Please note that this fix does not seem to work if you try to open the PDF in Word for Mac (as at September 2018) because the import process is (sadly) nothing like as refined in Word for Mac as it is in the Windows version of Word.