One method of placing vector artwork in Word

May 27, '04 08:57:00AM

Contributed by: watersb

Word is really bad at importing vector art ... but here's how I got high-quality vector art from OmniGraffle to Word:

  1. Use MicroSoft-loving TrueType fonts in your artwork: replace Helvetica with Arial, etc...
  2. Export the OmniGraffle file to PDF via your favorite method -- export, print to PDF, Acrobat distiller, whatever.
  3. Open the PDF if Adobe Acrobat Pro and select "Reduce PDF File Size." For my art, this usually creates a larger file rather than smaller, but if you skip this step, Illustrator mangles the file.
  4. Open the (new, not-smaller) PDF file in Illustrator.
  5. Verify that the text is not completely insane
  6. Export from Illustrator as "Legacy Illustrator EPS;" I found that Illustrator 10 worked OK.
  7. Import the resulting EPS file into Word X or 2004. You should see a low-res bitmap preview. You can verify the high-resolution result by printing to a PostScript printer (Word's Print Preview feature is not sufficient).
This is awful. If you can do without the bitmap preview, you can simply export from OmniGraffle as EPS and save five steps. But my co-workers freak out if they can't see the bitmap on-screen.

[robg adds: If anyone can come up with a better solution than the above, please add your comments! I don't own Illustrator and don't use vector artwork in Word, so I don't have anything much to add to this one!]

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