Re: HELP! File size balloons on Mac Word docs when opened on PC!

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

In article <1150750338.889823.42500@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
dromanell <dromanell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Tried your advice and saved the image files as Photoshop .eps (as well
as .png) on my Mac. I placed them into my documents as headers/footers.
I put them on our company server and opened them on a PC.

The original 2 MB document on my Mac with the placed .png images
ballooned to 26 MB in size when saved on a PC.

The document with the .eps images gave the error message "A Quicktime
and jpeg compressor are needed to see this picture" when opened on a
PC. Once saved (without being able to see the graphic in the
background) it came in at 1.1 MB. A manageable size, but hardly useful
since the PC user could not see/edit text boxes where white type was
placed over a dark background in the image. I tried saving an .eps
without the .jpg compression in Photoshop, which created a huge file
when placed. Word couldn't even open that on a PC.

I contacted Microsoft "Word for Mac" tech support and they suggested I
Control-click and save the graphics within the document as separate
images (.png, .pct, etc.), delete those in the doc, then insert the
saved images back in. That reduced the file size, but the quality of
the print was very low, and therefore useless.

I have not yet found a solution to this problem, so if anyone has any
advice please post here or e-mail me directly: dromanell@xxxxxxxxx

As you have discovered, Word's handlling of graphics is pretty
hopeless, and cross-platform multiplies the odds of it working.

What you seem to be attempting to do appears to be pretty stupid. A
whole page raster image behind every page is something to be avoided in
any program that wants to emit an e-mail-able document, let alone one
whose graphics capability is as idiosyncratic as Word's.

I guess you have your reasons, so let's see what can be done.
You have ignored John's vector art advice, so I guess that's not an
option. There was no point hiding the raster picture inside an eps. It
is still a raster picture, which the PC barfed at for lack of Quicktime
JPEG decompressor, more or less like John said it would. What he meant
was to re-do the art in Illustrator or Freehand as vector drawings. If
you can do that it works really really well - beautiful smooth art at
any scale. (as long as you don't print to PDF from Word). I cheapskated
on printed stationery for years and years with .eps art for letterhead
and follow ons and even for envelopes. I had them lurking in first and
subsequent headers in templates just like you are contemplating.
But if that is a no-no, read on.

What works for me is TIFF. Make sure there is no alpha channel
(transparency) which there won't be because you started with JPEG.

Using an image editor outside Word (I recommend GraphicConverter $35
shareware - possibly the best way you can spend $35 on toys for your
Macintosh) convert the file to TIFF and make your image exactly the
size it will appear on the page, and make sure the resolution is no
more than 300 dpi because Word will compress anything greater with
disastrous results. Place the image into Mac Word any way you like
(insert picture from file would be a good starting point) and then
resist the temptation to re-size it. If you feel the urge to drag a
corner, even a tiny bit, stop right there, have a cup of coffee and go
back to GraphicConverter to get the picture exactly the right size.

See if that makes it to the PC without ballooning out of control.
In my experience, it is the re-sizing of pictures inside Word that
breaks everything. People send me Word Docs for tarting up for
publication, with lovingly scanned pictures reduced to mush by PC Word
or Mac Word or both. I cry and cry, then ask them for the original
pictures. It is easier to scan them again than tell the originator how
to place raster art in Word without wrecking it, because no two authors
wreck it in the same way.

One day I will try .png again in that role, but so far all .PNGs do for
me is slow my Mac down to a crawl. (Can you tell how much I hate
Macromedia Fireworks?)
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Printing photographs Word Mac and PC
    ... Either the PC or the Mac can print to either driver. ... If you paste into the document, Word saves two copies of the picture, one as ... Modern Macs and PCs usually use 96 dpi. ... That one pixel that is being "invented" can result in fuzzy graphics. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: Bad Picture in Word 2008 from Excel/Word 2007
    ... The third biggest problem you are facing is the fact that the "W" in WMF stands for Windows - it's a proprietary graphics format not supported by Mac OS. ... Any graphics destined for cross-platform use should be in standard universal formats such as PNG, TIFF, JPG, EPS, etc. but Word 2007 can't produce those formats. ... In this process the picture was resized to fit the margins of the Word document. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: Compatibility Issues with Graphics?
    ... This is not a PC vs Mac compatibility issue. ... choosing right-click Edit Picture. ... have a much higher chance of success if you do this in Word Document format. ... > My PC coworkers open the rtf files in Word and the graphics are still ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: Graphics within PC spreadsheet not translating to Mac via web or email.
    ... coworker downloaded it onto his Mac, but the graphics ... this a bug in Mac Excel? ... red x's means missing picture - cannot find that picture or cannot ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.excel)
  • Re: Fuzzy Graphics in Word when printing
    ... Never copy and paste graphics into Word documents, ... Consider using PNG file format. ... PNG works great on both Mac and PC. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)