Metafiles in Word 2004?

[Sandy Foster]

I suspect I already know the answer to this question, but here goes
anyway:

I have an application I have to run in Windows via Parallels. It is
apparently possible to export metafiles of some of the graphics and
import them into Word for Windows, but I'm wondering if that's possible
using Word 2004 for Mac? If so, how does it work? The one try I made
gave me an all-black mess.

The Help files for Word 2004 say "If the picture you inserted is a
metafile (metafiles usually look like illustrations ‹ clip art, for
example), you cannot use Set Transparent Color on the Formatting
Palette (under Image) or on the Picture toolbar. To use this command,
convert the metafile picture to a bitmap. To convert the metafile to a
bitmap, on the Formatting Palette (under Image) or the Picture toolbar,
click Color Adjustment , click the thumbnail image that most closely
matches the original, and then click Apply."

However, I couldn't get my metafile to look like anything at all. I was
hoping to be able to "explode" the parts of the original image, but none
of them are visible; it's just a black blob. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Elliott Roper]

I suspect I already know the answer to this question, but here goes
anyway:

You do.

WMF is hopeless, even on Windows.
Word 2004's vector graphics handling is hopeless.
You have hopelessness piled upon hopelessness.

If you consult Word 2004's help (search for WMF) you might note that it
claims, under Graphics file types you can use in documents, that WMF
and its stunted evil sisters WMZ and EMF may be used.

It neglects to mention that you will get a black blob. *If* you are
lucky.

There are a couple of open source converters out there, (see Wikipedia)
but honestly, it would be far easier to convert the damn thing to tiff
before you cross over.

If there were not too many of them, I'd re-draw in something useful
like Illy or Omnigraffle then export as eps. But then I know how to
wrassle Word 2004's hopeless eps handling into the ground.

Even then, I'd never send that back to the dark side. I'd print to PDF
as Postscript, convert that to PDF in Preview.app and send them that.

Hopeless. Hopeless I tell ya!

Vector graphics and Microsoft Office 2004 are like oil and water.

 

[Sandy Foster]

You do.

Thanks, Elliott. I was afraid of that.

WMF is hopeless, even on Windows.
Word 2004's vector graphics handling is hopeless.
You have hopelessness piled upon hopelessness.

If you consult Word 2004's help (search for WMF) you might note that it
claims, under Graphics file types you can use in documents, that WMF
and its stunted evil sisters WMZ and EMF may be used.

It neglects to mention that you will get a black blob. *If* you are
lucky.

I guess I was "lucky". <G> Oh well. My problem was that I wanted to take
that metafile and explode the parts -- it's a pattern, and separating
some of the parts shows best how to put it all together. However, I'll
just have to figure out something else.

There are a couple of open source converters out there, (see Wikipedia)
but honestly, it would be far easier to convert the damn thing to tiff
before you cross over.

If there were not too many of them, I'd re-draw in something useful
like Illy or Omnigraffle then export as eps. But then I know how to
wrassle Word 2004's hopeless eps handling into the ground.

Even then, I'd never send that back to the dark side. I'd print to PDF
as Postscript, convert that to PDF in Preview.app and send them that.

I hadn't really planned to re-import the finished product into Win;
rather, I was going to make the entire thing into a PDF for ease of
printing while keeping exact sizes.

Hopeless. Hopeless I tell ya!

Vector graphics and Microsoft Office 2004 are like oil and water.

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain all of this to me. I'm
really not surprised that what I wanted to do isn't possible, but I
needed confirmation. <sigh>