[Ti] [OT] Microsoft Office : PC versus Mac

[Paul Russell]

>
>I actually disagree with this statement. I was trying to keep quiet 
>on this thread, but as an old-time prepress geek, this is one of the 
>things that is a real pet peeve.  There are SEVERAL standard, 
>universally accepted file formats for images that will not just show 
>up on the screen and print to your inkjet or laser printer. TIF, 
>EPS, JPG are the most common.
>
>Microsoft has never adhered to any standards but their own, and they 
>have hosed lots of us by allowing people to place "BAD" art in their 
>applications. Now I will say that I am puritanical in this respect; 
>I was upset when Quark allowed placement of native .PSD files 
>instead of requiring the files to be saved out in a format that can 
>be accepted by imagesetters or digital platemakers.
>
>What is sad to me is that:
>A) A program that is at the level that Visio claims to be (I have 
>never used it); does not support an export into a common image 
>format or
>
>B) That someone who is designing rather complex technical structures 
>with Visio can't figure out how to export their images in an common 
>format (if Visio does support it) AND
>
>C) That Microsloth continues to allow placement of image data that 
>more often than not renders their files pretty much useless except 
>in a scope (albeit a broad one) of printing to office or home 
>printing devices under 600 dpi.
>

As the hippies used to say: "you can try and cover the world with 
leather, or you can buy a pair of shoes (man)".

The sad fact is that in the Windoze dominated world, people use Visio 
for embedded drawings within their Word docs. It's one of the worst 
drawing programs in the world, but it's what people use.

I can not change the way my colleagues work (unfortunately - pearls 
before swine and all that) so the best i can do is find Mac-based 
solutions for dealing with the documents that emanate from the PC. 
For basic Word and Excel files this is not a problem, but as soon as 
you get embedded drawings in the Word docs then you're hosed.

I tried to use PDF for my embedded drawings, but that little 
rebellion quickly got put down, because noone in the PC world knew 
how to edit a PDF.

Oh, and one point you're missing, is that there is no "exporting of 
images from Visio" - you can create a new embedded Visio drawing in 
your Word doc without leaving Word. It gets saved in the Word doc, in 
a proprietary format.

Paul

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