Minimise the size of a screen dump file

[Ivan]

I want to capture screen shots of pivot graphs in Excel
and paste them into Word. If I use Alt PrntScrn and then
paste them into a word document, the word document
becomes too big to email as it grows to a size of a few
megabytes. Is there a way to compress or reduce the size
of the bitmap generated by the screen dump before saving
it to word?

 

[Rob Schneider]

Well, pictures are pictures and they take the space they take. I
suspect, though that, the size is too large because you are taking
screen shots (alt-prntscn) at high resolution.

You may find you have better luck if you instead
1. select the graph in Excel.
2. menu edit/copy (or press ctrl-c) to copy graph into clibboard
3. menu edit/paste special, pick a good option, to paste into Word. You
can even "link" it if you want.

Doing it with a screen shot should be last resort, and never used for
Excel since it has the right data interchange capability built in.

rms

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Ivan,

As Rob pointed out, using the PrntScrn command isn't the best method
to use to obtain an image.

In Excel you can try copying them as an image and then paste in Word.
Select the graph, hold Shift and then click Edit/Copy Picture.

Also note if you use Word 2002 or Word 2003 there is a "Compress
Pictures" on the Picture toolbar. Otherwise if the image is still too
large you will need to use a graphics editor to reduce the size of the
image first.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

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