Autoshapes and Metafiles

[laura]

I desperately want to be able to add a metafile, i.e., a file with the
extension .wmf to a Word document. I have tried putting the file in the
subdirectory with all the other Autoshapes, but it does not appear in the
'gallery' of autoshapes - is there some program that deals with importing?

LauraTD

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Insert | Picture | From File and browse to the location. To make the .wmf
most readily available, put it in your My Pictures folder, which is the one
Word first goes to by default.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[laura]

Thank you for your advice. I was not very clear. I do know how to
insert/picture/from file and browse for the right image, whether it's .wmf
or .jpg or whatever. I was wondering if I could actually create a scalable
metafile or Vector Graphic like the "autoshapes" and I don't mean just
scaleable from the point of view of stretching and shrinking but of being
able to rotate, the way the "autoshapes" rotate. I have scoured the internet
to try and find out what those autoshapes actually are and how they are
imported into the gallery of media clips or whatever they are.

I have recently upgraded from Office 2000 on W98 to Word 2002 on XP and am
finding the differences frustrating!! For example and as mentioned in
previous send, my WordArt, although it works, it arrives on the document
without the "handles" which allow rotation. They arrive merely as scalable
images.

I was given a Word document recently with a company logo on it which had the
wrong address. This is how the problem began in the first place. They wanted
the address changed. The graphic had the rotation handles on it, but I could
not figure out what the graphic was. I copied it and pasted it into Paint
Shop Pro - changed the address and then tried to import and paste it back
again into Word - but the quality of the graphic severely deteriorated, even
though I saved it in many different formats to try to achieve the best, i.e,
metafile, bmp, postscript - none of them were as good as the original.

Laura

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Unless you change the default wrapping style on the Edit tab of Tools |
Options, graphics (including WordArt) are pasted and inserted In Line with
Text. Click on the WordArt object to display the WordArt toolbar. Then click
on the Text Wrapping button (dog icon) and choose some other wrapping style.
You'll then get a rotation handle (green button).

A tip: In Word 2002, objects with circular white sizing handles are wrapped
(in the drawing layer); those with square black handles are inline.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[laura]

Dear Suzanne,

MANY thanks - I am beginning to understand! Transition from different
operating systems and different versions of Word has left me somewhat
confused.

In Word 2000 I placed WordArt on the 'page' and automatically had all the
necessary "handles" to rotate and resize. I had no idea it had anything to
do with "in line with text". assuming it was just something "special" about
the graphic itself. I have been tearing my hair out trying to import WordArt
and other graphics into Word 2002 and then finding them to be "fixed" in
terms of the square black handles and being unable to rotate.

I did not quite understand what you said about "Unless you change the
default wrapping style....". Could it be that the "default wrapping style"
in Word 2000 is different from that of Word 2002?

I just want to say thank you again for the advice. I am not at all new to
computers, to Word or even to graphics, but upgrading often causes
confusions.

Laura

 

[laura]

Sorry to add to my own message in the thread, but this leads on...

I was supplied with a Word document with a letterhead graphic on it, very
clear, prints clearly and good colour etc. The address on the graphic was
wrong and I needed to change it. I needed to keep the original font for the
name of the company and their logo, but just change the address which was
part of the graphic.

I copied and pasted into Paint Shop Pro. Deleting the address there was
easy. I then saved the file in different formats, including .wmf and tried
to import back into a new Word document in order to create a new letterhead.
Sadly the quality of the graphic severely deteriorated. I could see pixels
where they were not apparent before and the colours were not right as they
should have been. It was important for me to be able to change just the
block of text without losing definition of the graphic.

Any suggestions how I might have done this more efficiently and effectively?

Laura TD

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Both Word 2000 and Word 2002 insert graphics inline by default.
Unfortunately, Word 2000 doesn't give you the option of changing the default
wrapping style. In Word 2002, there's an option on the Edit tab of Tools |
Options to select which you prefer (unfortunately, it doesn't apply to Paste
Special, which still pastes floating even though I want to paste inline
<sigh>).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, I'm afraid I'm not very graphics-savvy, but surely someone else here
will be able to answer your question. Bob?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Laura,

Some of that may be from using the clipboard to
move the graphic. If you can't get the original
graphic from the company what happens if you
use File=>Save as Web Page and extract the graphic
from the supporting folder created there and
opening it in MS Office Photo Editor or Paintshop pro?

It could be an antialiasing issue in the graphics app
or coming from resizing (stretching) a bitmap graphic.

Can you email me a copy of the document with the
graphic in it?

=========
Sorry to add to my own message in the thread, but this leads on...

I was supplied with a Word document with a letterhead graphic on it, very
clear, prints clearly and good colour etc. The address on the graphic was
wrong and I needed to change it. I needed to keep the original font for the
name of the company and their logo, but just change the address which was
part of the graphic.

I copied and pasted into Paint Shop Pro. Deleting the address there was
easy. I then saved the file in different formats, including .wmf and tried
to import back into a new Word document in order to create a new letterhead.
Sadly the quality of the graphic severely deteriorated. I could see pixels
where they were not apparent before and the colours were not right as they
should have been. It was important for me to be able to change just the
block of text without losing definition of the graphic.

Any suggestions how I might have done this more efficiently and effectively?

Laura TD >>

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Suzanne,

When you're using Edit=>Paste Special, what format
are you selecting when you paste? Some of the picture
formats seem to confuse Word (i.e. you'll have handles
but if you look at the Layout choice for the picture it
may still think it's inline with text).

=========Both Word 2000 and Word 2002 insert graphics inline by default.
Unfortunately, Word 2000 doesn't give you the option of changing the default
wrapping style. In Word 2002, there's an option on the Edit tab of Tools |
Options to select which you prefer (unfortunately, it doesn't apply to Paste
Special, which still pastes floating even though I want to paste inline
<sigh>).

Suzanne S. Barnhill >>

 

[Jeroen Dekker]

Laura,

Paint Shop Pro is a raster image editor - once you bring the graphic
into it, it gets pixelized. Even if you then save it in a vector-based
format like WMF or EPS, the result will still be a raster image that
has the degradation you perceived.

The Word editing tools should suffice to just edit the address text.
If they don't because you need to rotate, copy-pasting the graphic
into PowerPoint would be the easiest option. There you can ungroup,
edit, regroup, rotate and what not, and then copy-paste it back to
Word.

There's also a nifty little shareware WMF/EMF editor called Metafile
Companion. Just google for it.

HTH,

Jeroen Dekker

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It's usually graphics from Publisher, and I think I just Paste Special as
Picture. They're definitely floating (circular white handles, not in the
centered text paragraph where I've pasted them), but they behave nicely when
I change the wrapping to inline.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[laura]

Dear Jeroen,

I understand your point about PSP being a raster image editor - no matter
how I imported the graphic the quality deteriorated. I downloaded the
Metafile Companion - very nice little program, but when I did a copy/paste
of the image that I had on a Word document, (which may have been created by
an Apple Mac - so I am not even sure what the format of the picture is in
the first place - I assumed it was WMF), the image did not appear in the
Metafile Companion - only the handles and they were tiny. I tried doing the
same with an "autoshape" and it did copy paste normally.

The Word editing tools were not sufficient for cropping an area of the
graphic. I ended up putting a text box over the area of the picture I needed
to eliminate and then grouping the graphic and the text box, so the wrong
address is still there, but hidden. I'm not very satisfied with this
workaround.

Laura TD