Alignment problems with pictures and overlaid inserted shapes

[Bertie Zertie]

Hi,
I've been trying to use Word to produce a hiker's guide document.
The idea was to import maps from the net and draw over them using Word
drawing tools, arrows and lines and text box comments and all that.

I tried this with Word 2003 and though the result on screen was OK, (i.e.
precise) the printed result was no good because the drawn lines did not
remain in the same place as regards the underlying picture.

So my drawn arrow which - on the screen - went down the middle of Main
Street was - on the printed page - a little over on the left - and -
the arrow which pointed to the intersection where the hikers should turn
left was actually inside the swimming pool. Etc.
Everything moved around just a tiny bit, but just enough to make the map
unusable. Excel was the same.

Then I found Visio. That allowed me to compose VSD files and export them as
PNGs and then import them into Word.
Everything stayed in place.
My final guide is a mix of text pages and some text and map pages.
It was feasible but laborious.

Now I have Word 2007.
Word 2007 seems to be much better at combing images and drawings. The drawn
objects don't jump around - as far as I can see. I've tested a few map
pictures with overlaid inserted shapes and the print-out seems OK.

Here's my questions.
1. Has Word 2007 been reengineered to do this better?
2. Would the fact that I am now using a laser printer (Dell) have made a
difference ?
3. Is there any better software around that I should try for this sort of
work ?

TIA
Zotryl

 

[Keith Howell]

Even when you were using Word 2003, were you grouping your map and your
objects into 1 composite entity before printing?

You seem to have solved things now so why worry?

 

[CyberTaz]

See in line below:

On 11/1/07 10:02 AM, in article [email protected],

Here's my questions.
1. Has Word 2007 been reengineered to do this better?

Yes, to some extent, but Keith's suggestion about Grouping is still a
further step in the right direction.

2. Would the fact that I am now using a laser printer (Dell) have made a
difference ?

Possibly, but that's hard to say. It can be argued that lasers are somewhat
more 'accurate' than inkjets (assuming that's what you had previously) but
there are a number of variables involved - the apples/oranges thing

3. Is there any better software around that I should try for this sort of
work ?

Not to be snide, but any reasonable graphics app handle graphics better than
a word processing app - that's what they're designed to do How well does
Visio handle footnotes, TOCs, etc.?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac