How do I insert HPGL graphics into Word 2007

[Ben Ward]

With Word 97-2003 Microsoft issued a filter so that HPGL and PLT graphics
could be interted into Word and Powerpoint. However this filter does not
work with my installation of Office 2007 Enterprise Edition (I get the error:
"There was a problem importing this file"). Does anyone know of a solution?
Reinstalling the filter makes no difference.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Ben,

MS discontinued providing the HP Graphics/Plotting Language (HPGL) filter with Office after Office 95 (v7). It is still available
as a download from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196506?FR=1, is provided 'as is' and may not work on 64 bit machines. Be sure you've followed
the information about the HPGL.reg file to set the filter in the registry.

===============
With Word 97-2003 Microsoft issued a filter so that HPGL and PLT graphics
could be interted into Word and Powerpoint. However this filter does not
work with my installation of Office 2007 Enterprise Edition (I get the error:
"There was a problem importing this file"). Does anyone know of a solution?
Reinstalling the filter makes no difference.

Thanks a lot!<<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Ben Ward]

Hi Bob,

Thanks very much for your speedy reply! I've already installed that patch,
and checked: the hpgl.reg file is installed. In fact, when you go to Insert
- Picture on Word and look at the file types, hpgl / plt is listed, so Word
knows that it should understand these files. However, I still get "there was
an error importing the file". I've checked the hpgl file on another computer
(office xp) and the hpgl file is definitely not corrupt. I'm wondering if the
filter is just not compatible with Office 2007.

 

[Mr. Britton]

Hi Ben,

MS discontinued providing the HP Graphics/Plotting Language (HPGL) filter with Office after Office 95 (v7). It is still available
as a download from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196506?FR=1, is provided 'as is' and may not work on 64 bit machines. Be sure you've followed
the information about the HPGL.reg file to set the filter in the registry.

===============
With Word 97-2003 Microsoft issued a filter so that HPGL and PLT graphics
could be interted into Word and Powerpoint. However this filter does not
work with my installation of Office 2007 Enterprise Edition (I get the error:
"There was a problem importing this file"). Does anyone know of a solution?
Reinstalling the filter makes no difference.

Thanks a lot!<<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*


I'd dearly love to get this capability back. As a mechanical engineer providing data to a vast array of people of all computer skill levels, inserting the HPGL into a Word or Powerpoint is a great help. The nice part is that I could do limited editing in the picture editor - paste a note, so on. The files sizes were reasonable and the images stayed sharp as you zoomed in. Who should I contact?

Ken

 

[Ben Ward]

Hi Ken,

It seems as though the HPGL filter simply doesn't work on Office 2007 - and
all I can get from anyone is the response that I should use the old HPGL
filter. I've been using this for many years and installed it on many
machines, so I know that it is installed correctly (and have double-checked
everything), but it still doesn't work. My guess is that something critical
has been altered in Office 2007 and the filter will not work unless the
filter itself is changed. The only solution I can suggest is to return to
Office 2003, unless someone else can offer a fix...

Ben

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Ben,

FWIW, the HPGLIM32.FLT v6 filter was written in 1994 for Microsoft by a company named ImageMark, long since gone/absorbed???. The
last version of Office to include the filter was that year's Office 95, so we're talking about a 3rd party filter over a decade old
<g>, that was without support, and I'd estimate that probably only 1/3 of my test .HPG/.PLT graphics worked with the filter in Word
2003. There used to be a number of 3rd party 'graphics filter' packages you could buy to add additional import capabilities to apps
like Word, but the market for those at an end-user basis seems to have gone as well.

With a bit of lobbying, when Office 97, then 2000 came out, MS provided, on an 'as is' basis, that filter for download, with minimal
testing for Office 97 and then Office 2000. It did continue to work through Word 2003 in 32 bit versions of Windows.

There is a new graphics engine (OfficeArt/Escher2) in Office 2007 and changes in the engines that Windows Vista use and so far, it
doesn't appear that the old filter works with the new engines. There wasn't any formal testing, as I understand it, of that filter
with it. My understanding is that there hasn't been a significant request/demand for this ability in Word, or even for Visio. MS
Project, uses HPGL to print/plot output, but doesn't import them.

There are a number of 3rd party converters, such as PLT2EMF, or http://irfanview.com, among others that can put the graphics in a
format that Word can use, or several PostScript printers where you can use Print to EPS and then insert those graphics in Word.

==================
Hi Ken,

It seems as though the HPGL filter simply doesn't work on Office 2007 - and
all I can get from anyone is the response that I should use the old HPGL
filter. I've been using this for many years and installed it on many
machines, so I know that it is installed correctly (and have double-checked
everything), but it still doesn't work. My guess is that something critical
has been altered in Office 2007 and the filter will not work unless the
filter itself is changed. The only solution I can suggest is to return to
Office 2003, unless someone else can offer a fix...

Ben <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*