Image imports & Background images to Word X on Mac

[Linda]

Hello,
What type of images can you import in Word X that will translate well on a
PC?

Also, can you have a background image in the background of your word
document and then have text over it? If so, how do you do it?

Thank you.
Linda

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Linda,

Hello,
What type of images can you import in Word X that will translate well on a
PC?

If you do a search of this newsgroup via Google (Advanced Groups Search)
under the search word "image" or "graphic" with Elliott Roper as author, you
will find plenty of information. Elliott is our resident graphics expert
.

Also, can you have a background image in the background of your word
document and then have text over it? If so, how do you do it?

Yes, it's called a Watermark. Look it up in Word's Help.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hello,
What type of images can you import in Word X that will translate well on a
PC?

TIFF and JPG seem to work well. EPS is a bit of a hassle, but worth the
effort in some cases. Other people claim Windows-ish bitmap formats are
good, but I'm blowed if I can make 'em work nicely on my Mac, let alone
getting 'em unscathed onto a PC..

Also, can you have a background image in the background of your word
document and then have text over it? If so, how do you do it?

Yep, if you want to watermark every page, a neat trick is to add it to
your page header with transparency.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hello,
Thank you both! I tried to import an Illustrator CS EPS file but when I went
to print it looked horrible. What is the trick to get it to work and also on
a pC when I give this to the client? or for the Mac for that matter. Maybe my
best bet is to utilize a tiff from Photoshop CS. I'll just make it a larger
file. Let me know. Thanks!! I'm trying to do a job but also learning Word in
the process! Wow, what a challenge for a designer!
Have a good one!

eps files usually come with a low quality preview for use on screen.
Word will print the preview if you give it half a chance. You need a
postscript printer for instance.

Illy EPS should be a pretty good starting point, but if you want it to
look good on screen and on paper, the fuss-free way is to use a decent
hi-res tiff and just give up on a small file size.

Word's builders made certain desgn choices, mostly about keeping the
document editable on both platforms in spite of different fonts with
the same names, different printers and even different paper sizes. Not
to mention different gamma and white points. On top of that, there are
several different tiff and eps 'standards' [1] to make it more of a
challenge.

Thus, if you are co-editing with a small number of people, exchange a
few test documents until you find what works between you.

If you are publishing electronically, Word is the wrong tool for that
job. Publish as PDF (and be damned!). If you have InDesign2, then
discover how easy it is to place a Word doc into a pre-prepared 'book'
in InDesign2. You will be delighted how InDesign fixes up the rubbishy
justification that Word does, and yet preserves your Word styles.

If you are a skinflint like me, then this works a treat in Panther:-
When you print, choose output options->save to file, check save as
Postscript. Open the .ps file in Preview and save the converted
resulting pdf and distribute that.. The PS step tricks Word into
handing the real eps's over to the print engine. The path through
Preview may get the pdf size to something sensible. (There is a
Colorsync trick to adjust the resolution and size of bitmap images)

On collaboration jobs, I'll exchange pdfs along with the .docs so the
others can see what I meant it to look like before the Billyboxes
substitute Times New Roman and Arial all over everything till it looks
like a food fight in McDonalds.

Hope that helps a bit.

1. Standards are *such* a wonderful thing. Everyone should have their
own.