Making letterhead template where users cancustomize only the letter.

[UniversityDesigner]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

Trying to make our standard University letterhead as a template in Word so that users across campus can type their own letters into it, save the doc as a pdf, and attach the pdf to e-mails. The catch is, I want the contact info, university logo, and other verbiage to be unalterable including their position on the page.

The original letterhead is in CS3 InDesign. I saved it (wthout a composed letter) as a hi-res 8.5 x 11 pdf and inserted in a Word doc. Put a text box over top for the letter. Works great on my Mac but the inserted pdf looks blurry and low-res when supplied to someone on a PC using the latest Word.

Any ideas why the image is blurry or what a better approach would be?

Thanks.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

Trying to make our standard University letterhead as a template in Word so
that users across campus can type their own letters into it, save the doc as
a pdf, and attach the pdf to e-mails. The catch is, I want the contact info,
university logo, and other verbiage to be unalterable including their
position on the page.

The original letterhead is in CS3 InDesign. I saved it (wthout a composed
letter) as a hi-res 8.5 x 11 pdf and inserted in a Word doc. Put a text box
over top for the letter. Works great on my Mac but the inserted pdf looks
blurry and low-res when supplied to someone on a PC using the latest Word.

Any ideas why the image is blurry or what a better approach would be?

You are kinda on the right track, but it looks like 2008 has the same
misfeatures in this regard as 2004.

First off. Lose the text box. That is the work of the devil. Place the
letterhead in the header. It does not matter that it covers the whole
page.

Then there are two workarounds, neither satisfactory.

1. Export the letterhead as an eps with tiff preview from InDesign.
1b Place it in header section of Word's template
1c Explain to the user that it will look OK when done (because Word
shows them the scungy preview AND uses the preview on print to PDF - at
least it did in Office 2004. From what you say it has not improved)
1d Require the user to print to postscript then use OS X's preview.app
to convert to PDF, then mail that.
Pro: Perfect quality. Con: Obviously inconvenient. The determined user
can fiddle with the eps via Illy or whatever.

2. Export the letterhead as a tiff from InDesign.
2b Place it in header section of Word's template
2c Explain to the user that it is as good as it gets
Pro: Simple to use. Cons: Huge files, Too pixelly for the pernickety.
(Word barfs or at best downsamples > 300dpi)
Don't even think about using jpg, png or pict. Word has a "Pooches for
Sure" contract out on those. Tiff is the only reliable cross-platform
image format once Office gets involved.

It is utterly unbelievable that MS *still* doesn't understand a simple
concept of documents like yours needing to arrive unscathed across
e-mail.

OK. *You* know that. That is why you make your users send PDF.

It ain't just PDF and eps in headers. It's fonts and margins and
pagination too. Not to mention no cross-platform macros to support
forms and stuff like that.

Please send Feedback to join mine. I have given up on Office 2008. I'm
holding out a forlorn hope that Office 2000 and mumble will be usable
again. (Be aware this newsgroup is not a Microsoft Forum. It the wild
wild Usenet with a Redmond webby land grab. Softies only read here in
their "spare time" - DO send official feedback from Word)

In the meantime, I'm slowly getting better at InDesign CS3.
Doesn't it do lovely typesetting?

 

[CyberTaz]

If I may be so presumptuous as to extend on one point in Elliott's most
comprehensive reply...

Please substitute the term "Insert> Picture> From File" for what he refers
to as "place". If you *paste* the content in it will be converted to a PICT
graphic which the PC can't display so it will generate an EMF. This not only
contributes to the "blurry" effect but will bloat the file because it will
retain *both* the PICT & the EMF.

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

 

[Elliott Roper]

If I may be so presumptuous as to extend on one point in Elliott's most
comprehensive reply...

Please substitute the term "Insert> Picture> From File" for what he refers
to as "place". If you *paste* the content in it will be converted to a PICT
graphic which the PC can't display so it will generate an EMF. This not only
contributes to the "blurry" effect but will bloat the file because it will
retain *both* the PICT & the EMF.

Well spotted Bob!

Mr/Ms universitydesigner person will immediately recognise what caused
my mistake. "Place" is Adobe-ese par excellence, meaning roughly what
you said, although the file stays where it was, and a link to it is
placed in the InDesign document. He/she will know I really have given
up on Office when I'm forgetting the Office terms for common things
like that.

 

[CyberTaz]

Well spotted Bob!

Mr/Ms universitydesigner person will immediately recognise what caused
my mistake. "Place" is Adobe-ese par excellence, meaning roughly what
you said, although the file stays where it was, and a link to it is
placed in the InDesign document. He/she will know I really have given
up on Office when I'm forgetting the Office terms for common things
like that.

Thank you kind sir I'm a stickler for the disparity in terms because of
exactly the same experience going back to PageMaker 1.0 (in the days of
Aldus, actually). I can't begin to estimate the number of occasions where
'place', 'insert', 'paste', 'import', '*put*, etc. are mistakenly assumed to
be synonymous & interchangeable.

Good to know you're still lurking about out there!

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

 

[Phillip Jones]

Thank you kind sir I'm a stickler for the disparity in terms because of
exactly the same experience going back to PageMaker 1.0 (in the days of
Aldus, actually). I can't begin to estimate the number of occasions where
'place', 'insert', 'paste', 'import', '*put*, etc. are mistakenly assumed to
be synonymous & interchangeable.

Good to know you're still lurking about out there!

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

Gosh you have been around from the dawn of time! My earliest version of
Aldus PageMaker was 3.x. ;-)

Adobe bought then promptly killed it. Hmmm sort of like another firm we
all know . ;-)
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[CyberTaz]

Gosh you have been around from the dawn of time! My earliest version of
Aldus PageMaker was 3.x. ;-)

Adobe bought then promptly killed it. Hmmm sort of like another firm we
all know . ;-)

Yeah - I was there at the original PageMaker rollout... My Daddy took me to
the seminar;-)

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

 

[Phillip Jones]

Yeah - I was there at the original PageMaker rollout... My Daddy took me to
the seminar;-)

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

Yeah! Right!!! ;-) ;-) ;-)
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[UniversityDesigner]

Thank you Elliott for you relevant reply. I've never joined a forum before but now I know not to expect every reply to pertain to the question.

Regarding your solution 1:
I don't think I can reasonably expect campus users to jump through those hoops. But if it's of "perfect quality" I'm willing to give it a try. You said to have them use OSX's Preview.app to make their pdf. But I'm talking PC users. What would they use?

Regarding solution 2:
Can't settle for the pixelly. I guess I'm the persnickety sort.

Your comment about text boxes being the work of the devil:
I included the text box over top of my 8.5 x 11 pdf so the user would have a place to write their letter. A style sheet is included so they type in a standard size font and leading. How else would you do this without providing a text box?

Lastly, I'm thinking about pursuing an editable pdf instead of going the Word route. Maybe a topic for a different forum, but any thoughts on that approach?

Thanks again for your advice to this print designer and Word-weanie.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Thank you Elliott for you relevant reply. I've never joined a forum before
but now I know not to expect every reply to pertain to the question.

Regarding your solution 1:
I don't think I can reasonably expect campus users to jump through those
hoops. But if it's of "perfect quality" I'm willing to give it a try. You
said to have them use OSX's Preview.app to make their pdf. But I'm talking PC
users. What would they use?

Yep. I mistakenly thought this was a special effort you were making for
Macheads and the PC users were already OK.
I thought Office on PC dealt with eps better than Mac Office. I'm in no
position to do the obvious test, but you are.

Regarding solution 2:
Can't settle for the pixelly. I guess I'm the persnickety sort. I agree with you.
Your comment about text boxes being the work of the devil:
I included the text box over top of my 8.5 x 11 pdf so the user would have a
place to write their letter. A style sheet is included so they type in a
standard size font and leading. How else would you do this without providing
a text box?

If the letterhead is in the header of the Word template, there is no
need for a text box. The user has the full power of Word at his/her
disposal, not just the crippled things that can be done in a text box.
They can write a two page letter for instance. They can add a para on
page 1 and watch it flow through to the rest. Try that with a text box.
It is a world of pain. Try adding a graphic. GAAACK! You have been
spoiled by InDesign. Word does not do page layout. Text boxes are a
feeble pathetic childish attempt to appease the authors of ransom
notes.

With a bit more effort, you can make a template with the main
letterhead on page 1 and followup letterheads on the remaining pages.
That's done by format È document È layout, and checking "different
first page" then making a second page in the template and putting a the
follow-on logo in its header.

Lastly, I'm thinking about pursuing an editable pdf instead of going the Word
route. Maybe a topic for a different forum, but any thoughts on that
approach?

"editable" is a bit of a laugh when it comes to common PDF tools.
Acrobat Professional for instance, is not something I would like to
write letters with. Not even ransom notes.

Check out how putting pdf letterheads in Template header and footer
works for PCs. It prints OK on Mac but OS X's print to PDF and Office
conspire to make a mess of it and you had to jump through those hoops
to get a perfect PDF from Word.

In your shoes, I'd look again at tiffs. You can get it so the reader
has to look pretty hard to see the staircasing.

 

[John McGhie]

One of the neat things about "Forums" is that we get to talk with real
people who do the same kinds of jobs we do. Of course, if people don't give
their real names, we tend not to invest too much energy in the answers,
because they've deprived us of that ability to relate

I use Elliot's first method: an EPS (or a PDF) in the header. However, I
normally split the image in half horizontally, and place one half in the
header, the other in the footer. This means the user can change the paper
size easily without having to edit the graphic.

When this works, it works beautifully. Word currently has two bugs that
prevent it handling vector images well. I am afraid that whoever is doing
this in Microsoft is still thinking in terms of kiddies holiday snaps, and
hasn't understood that on the Mac, vector images rule.

I am sure they will get it right eventually.

Cheers

Thank you Elliott for you relevant reply. I've never joined a forum before but
now I know not to expect every reply to pertain to the question.

Regarding your solution 1:
I don't think I can reasonably expect campus users to jump through those
hoops. But if it's of "perfect quality" I'm willing to give it a try. You said
to have them use OSX's Preview.app to make their pdf. But I'm talking PC
users. What would they use?

Regarding solution 2:
Can't settle for the pixelly. I guess I'm the persnickety sort.

Your comment about text boxes being the work of the devil:
I included the text box over top of my 8.5 x 11 pdf so the user would have a
place to write their letter. A style sheet is included so they type in a
standard size font and leading. How else would you do this without providing a
text box?

Lastly, I'm thinking about pursuing an editable pdf instead of going the Word
route. Maybe a topic for a different forum, but any thoughts on that approach?

Thanks again for your advice to this print designer and Word-weanie.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]