Q:
I have a recurring problem with people constantly providing me with
charts and tables made in either PowerPoint or Excel. Is there any
solution to placing them in professional layout applications other
than retracing them in a program like Illustrator?
A:
Retracing is one option for MS Office charts, graphs, and tables.
Another, sometimes easier, option is to convert the page containing
the offending table/chart/graph into a PDF file. Then, open the PDF
file in Illustrator, delete the page data that is not the chart/table/graph,
and edit the colors and line weights to professional print standards.
Save the resultant file as an EPS (when placing into PageMaker, Quark,
or InDesign) or resave as PDF (when placing into InDesign ONLY) and
place it into your layout.
Q:
I have been asked to convert an MS Word
document into a PageMaker file that will be professionally printed.
The Word file is rather large (200+ pages) and contains text, tables,
and MS Excel Worksheets. Is something like this doable?
A:
Doable? Yes. Crazy? Also yes.
Converting all that data from
Word into Pagemaker would be quite the adventure. Cutting and pasting
text; extracting, editing, and converting images; reformatting charts
and Excel files... sounds like a great year-long project! A possibly
easier option is our old friend PDF. You might try converting your
Word file into PDF and then editing the PDF for color modes, images,
and charts. This
option is best for printing your job in CMYK only for simplicity and
the editing would best be accomplished with a third paty utility like
PitStop by the enfocus company.
Editing the file isn't an easy affair. You
will need to recheck all of your items when finished to be certain
you got all the RGB color out and all of your stroke values are at
least one-half point. The PDF route, while technically demanding,
should be faster than all that manual work required to convert to
PageMaker.
