Pub 2002 - how to!

[liaM]

In Publisher 2002, is it possible to join two publisher files formatted
exactly alike, without having to copy and paste each page one at a time ??

And a second question : when JPEG pictures are incorporated into a
publication, does Publisher convert them to BMP internally, or keep them
in compressed form?

Thanks for the info..

 

[Ed Bennett]

In Publisher 2002, is it possible to join two publisher files formatted
exactly alike, without having to copy and paste each page one at a time ??

No. I've written a tool to do this if you have Publisher 2007; hopefully
I'll be able to get it to work with Publisher 2003 soon. Publisher
2002's object model is something I don't like to touch.

And a second question : when JPEG pictures are incorporated into a
publication, does Publisher convert them to BMP internally, or keep them
in compressed form?

Publisher 2002 does neither, it converts to PNG. Publisher 2003 and
later use the original JPEG data (no data loss as the image isn't
recompressed); Publisher 2000 and earlier decompress to bitmap.

 

[liaM]

Publisher 2002 does neither, it converts to PNG. Publisher 2003 and
later use the original JPEG data (no data loss as the image isn't
recompressed); Publisher 2000 and earlier decompress to bitmap.

Thanks Ed. Your info is VERY interesting. Why PNG..?
The fact is I've been using Publisher 2002 to reformat 100 year
old musical scores I've scanned. I have been converting
the Publisher outputs to B/W Acrobat PDF.
I've found a wide divergence in the size of PDFs, more
than 10 to 1 in one case (at equivalent quality).
My goal is to find a way to reduce the size of the FILES
to the absolute minimum and good printing quality,
but have had trouble repeating my successes..

Presently, the best I've found is the following operation :

I load the scanned pages into Publisher as pre-resized 300 dpi JPEG.
Then I use a program to convert the resulting publication
into PNG files 1 bit - at maximum compression.
This is then converted to a PDF 1.5 using Acrobat 6.

With this method, I've obtained very acceptable B/W printable
publications. A 30 page musical score reduces to 3.4 MB.
Using a slightly different method (using Paperport 11
to convert the publisher file to B/W) I was able to
get a good PDF of the same score totalling 1.7 MB.
Unfortunately, Paperport has a bug and sometimes skips pages.

I would greatly appreciate comments concerning this type
of compression. Whats the best way to compress to B/W ??

 

[Ed Bennett]

Thanks Ed. Your info is VERY interesting. Why PNG..?

We (well, not we; I joined the group shortly after Pub02's release, but
the Publisher MVPs) had been pressing Microsoft for some sort of
compression in Publisher files (for obvious reasons). Microsoft
presumably (I'm guessing as I wasn't around to get the exact reason at
the time) worried about lossy compression and how it would be
implemented, and were strapped for time (you know multiple Master Pages
were planned to be implemented in Pub02, but ended up coming in Pub03
instead), so only implemented PNG.

The fact is I've been using Publisher 2002 to reformat 100 year
old musical scores I've scanned.

Why Publisher for this task? I can't think of anything that Publisher
could do here that a competent image editor (or scorewriter, depending
on what you're doing) couldn't do better. Except _maybe_ export PDF.

I've found a wide divergence in the size of PDFs, more
than 10 to 1 in one case (at equivalent quality).

For B&W and greyscale files, JPEG isn't the best format to be using.
It's designed for photographs and is (AFAIK) locked at 24-bit colour.

PDF file size depends on the advanced PDF options, image resolution, and
complexity of the images.

Presently, the best I've found is the following operation :

I load the scanned pages into Publisher as pre-resized 300 dpi JPEG.
Then I use a program to convert the resulting publication
into PNG files 1 bit - at maximum compression.
This is then converted to a PDF 1.5 using Acrobat 6.

I don't see why Publisher enters the equation here... I thought Acrobat
6 could take image files and string them into a PDF.

Unless the scores have colour annotations, you'd be best avoiding JPEG -
scan into a graphics application, decrease the bit depth straight to 1,
save as a TIFF. Import the TIFFs into Acrobat (IIRC Acrobat normally
uses TIFFs for greyscale images).

Unfortunately, Paperport has a bug and sometimes skips pages.

Eek. That's never good!

I would greatly appreciate comments concerning this type
of compression. Whats the best way to compress to B/W ??

I can't remember whether Publisher 2002/Office XP came with Microsoft
Office Document Imaging/Scanning. If it does, you could try that (it
will output multi-page TIFF files). Otherwise, I'd try IrfanView.

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

I was thinking the same thing...why the intermediate stop-over in Publisher.
Personally, I'd can right to PDF.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression





| liaM wrote:
| >>> And a second question : when JPEG pictures are incorporated into a
| >>> publication, does Publisher convert them to BMP internally, or keep
them
| >>> in compressed form?
| >>
| >> Publisher 2002 does neither, it converts to PNG. Publisher 2003 and
| >> later use the original JPEG data (no data loss as the image isn't
| >> recompressed); Publisher 2000 and earlier decompress to bitmap.
| >
| > Thanks Ed. Your info is VERY interesting. Why PNG..?
|
| We (well, not we; I joined the group shortly after Pub02's release, but
| the Publisher MVPs) had been pressing Microsoft for some sort of
| compression in Publisher files (for obvious reasons). Microsoft
| presumably (I'm guessing as I wasn't around to get the exact reason at
| the time) worried about lossy compression and how it would be
| implemented, and were strapped for time (you know multiple Master Pages
| were planned to be implemented in Pub02, but ended up coming in Pub03
| instead), so only implemented PNG.
|
| > The fact is I've been using Publisher 2002 to reformat 100 year
| > old musical scores I've scanned.
|
| Why Publisher for this task? I can't think of anything that Publisher
| could do here that a competent image editor (or scorewriter, depending
| on what you're doing) couldn't do better. Except _maybe_ export PDF.
|
| > I've found a wide divergence in the size of PDFs, more
| > than 10 to 1 in one case (at equivalent quality).
|
| For B&W and greyscale files, JPEG isn't the best format to be using.
| It's designed for photographs and is (AFAIK) locked at 24-bit colour.
|
| PDF file size depends on the advanced PDF options, image resolution, and
| complexity of the images.
|
| > Presently, the best I've found is the following operation :
| >
| > I load the scanned pages into Publisher as pre-resized 300 dpi JPEG.
| > Then I use a program to convert the resulting publication
| > into PNG files 1 bit - at maximum compression.
| > This is then converted to a PDF 1.5 using Acrobat 6.
|
| I don't see why Publisher enters the equation here... I thought Acrobat
| 6 could take image files and string them into a PDF.
|
| Unless the scores have colour annotations, you'd be best avoiding JPEG -
| scan into a graphics application, decrease the bit depth straight to 1,
| save as a TIFF. Import the TIFFs into Acrobat (IIRC Acrobat normally
| uses TIFFs for greyscale images).
|
| > Unfortunately, Paperport has a bug and sometimes skips pages.
|
| Eek. That's never good!
|
| > I would greatly appreciate comments concerning this type
| > of compression. Whats the best way to compress to B/W ??
|
| I can't remember whether Publisher 2002/Office XP came with Microsoft
| Office Document Imaging/Scanning. If it does, you could try that (it
| will output multi-page TIFF files). Otherwise, I'd try IrfanView.
|
| --
| Ed Bennett - MVP Microsoft Publisher
| http://ed.mvps.org

 

[John Inzer]

snip<
I can't remember whether Publisher 2002/Office XP came with Microsoft
Office Document Imaging/Scanning. If it does, you could try that (it
will output multi-page TIFF files). Otherwise, I'd try IrfanView.

===================================
Speaking of IrfanView...there's a new version:

Current Version: 4.10
http://www.irfanview.com/

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[liaM]

Thank you, ed. I've often imagined that the team which programmed
PUB 97 must have not had anyone looking over their shoulder to hinder
their creativity and designs, so well designed PUB 97 seems to me.
So it was neat learning why PNG was adopted for PUB 2002.

Thanks also for all the tips. Of course, you are right : I can transfer
pages of music directly into Acrobat via Photoshop. Apart from having
a clean interface for checking the pages of a document as a whole,
I used Publisher mainly for the ease it allowed me to sequence pairs
of left-right pages. But this can be done in Photoshop, saving several
stages in processing my files.

I look forward to investigating your hints as I go to work in the
coming days. IrfanView looks interesting (especially for its batch
conversion feature). Also, the use of TIFF for 1 bit input files to
Acrobat. You mention IIRC acrobat. What is IIRC ?

 

[liaM]

Speaking of IrfanView...there's a new version:

Current Version: 4.10
http://www.irfanview.com/

Got it !

 

[Mary Sauer]

If I remember correctly...

 

[liaM]

If I remember correctly...

Your help was also invaluable (at the time I was finishing up a 400 page
book consisting of 250 pages of text and 150 full bleed illustrations)

Is that what you meant?

 

[Mary Sauer]

IIRC=If I remember correctly...

I'm sorry I butted in here...

 

[liaM]

IIRC=If I remember correctly...

That's marvelous. I'll have to start using IIRC to enhance my
internautical experience... IIRC what IIRC means!