Re: Suggestions for new tool option

[Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> Andrew, could you expand a little on the repercussions of using GIFs in a
> Word doc? I was a little concerned when I saw your post, since I currently
> have a 160-page Word 97 doc loaded with inline, non-linked GIFs. No
> problems so far, except when I inadvertently used some transparent GIFs and
> then PDF'd the thing (big mess then).

The Acrobat PDF-er for Word is very picky. You hand it anything weird and it
barfs on you. It also has a lame compression scheme that murders graphics. All
the more reason to be very consistent in your graphics usage. 

Word stores all embedded graphics as binaries in a special section of the file.
Some things store better than others because Word has to convert the format.
Some formats convert better than others. 

When you copy/paste images from a graphics program, like Paint Shop Pro, you
get them as metafiles. This is native Windows format and thus Word can more
easily store the files in the document with virtually no chance of corruption
or weird color conversion. 

One of the main reasons GIFs are troublesome is because they are limited to 256
colors. JPGs are bad because they artifact and look like crapola. ("artifact"
are those little nasty color crunchies that form around color gradients in
JPGs.) I like TIFF because its compressible and it does not artifact. However,
we store all our images in native Paint Shop Pro format and copy/paste them
into the docs. 

The other thing is to get your images down to manageable sizes is to reduce
them in a graphics program first. I was once handed one of these horrible 90MB
Word files that I reduced down to about 5 MB when I simply re-cut all the
screen shots and put them in as metafiles. The previous writer had just slopped
them in directly from screen prints on his 65 inch monitor at 98 billion colors
and then was irate that Word kept blowing up on him. 

One other thing I forgot to mention is build a graphics library and keep it
neat. So many people just slap images around without organizing and managing
them. Build a library of "pure" or "base" images that you work from. That way,
you can work off line on images as needed and place them into the doc only when
needed.

I am happy to say we have not had a corrupted Word doc in almost 4 years at my
office without coding any special VB scripts or doing anything particularly
fancy. Just being diligent, consistent, organized, and full of downhome creamy
goodness. 

Andrew Plato 


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