Create "model" cell to make a table from

[Karyn C]

Hello,

I am trying to make a printing master for "product cards" of various sizes
and shapes. I am a beginner, and by beginner's luck, I succeeded in doing
one size and shape from a jpeg scan. I didn't note my steps, but can,t seem
to do it again. This time I have scanned in the original design as an rtf.
The quality of the image is much sharper than the jpeg, so I would like to
use this format. Some functions in some menus don't work with this format.
I've noticed.
The old paste-up printing artwork is in the form of a table, (what is
scanned in), and I need to select a cell from this and change borders and
size. When I try to select anything, the "tool box" or whatever it's
called, the work area
selected, is either the whole image, in this case, 8 cells as two rows of
four, or I have been able to select two as one row. I need to select just
one, redo it's borders and make a whole page of them.

I've been at it for days, trying on my own, reading, reading, reading, but
nothing addresses exactly this issue. Also I wish the Table tools would
just stay up! They keep vanishing and I still need them. I don't want to
insert a table first, I want to make a gridless table from a selected cell.
There must be a way.

Thank-you in advance for your expertise. I have visited the MVP. homepage.
I assumed you were employees of Microsoft. Hope I was clear enough with my
question so the advice hits the mark.

Karyn C

 

[Graham Mayor]

If you scan to jpg, you simply create a graphical image of the original.Such
an image is not editable in Word
If you scan to RTF, you have used some form of OCR (Optical Character
Reading) software to convert the image to editable text. OCR software is
rarely going to accurately reproduce the document and much editing will
usually be required to produce a workable facsimile of the original. There
is no simple shortcut, though starting with decent OCR software such as
Finereader will help.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Karyn C]

At first, I felt you didn't really answer my question. But it turns out that
the type of media file you use when scanning in a B+W graphic is critical.
My first attempt was a jpeg, and word did read it, but it was a fuzzy, poor
quality image. After reading about XML, I tried the scan as a tiff, because
that is word's language (I think). This produced a great quality image that
worked in Word. Unfortunately it didn't address the problem of Word having a
mind of it's own about what to select, or the fact that the commands I needed
were in there somewhere, but never all up at the same time.

I had success with the project by leaving Word altogether. Select is pretty
straightforeward in Paint. Draw a box around it and select. It turns out
that a good quality image in Paint is achieved by scanning in as a Windows
bitmap. (Word can't read a bitmap, though). Then I went to my Microsoft
Works word processor, with far less commands and simple dropdown menus, and
was able to complete the desired changes to size and shape, copy and paste a
whole page of them, and finish the project.

Thank-you again for the help. It guided me in the right direction, at least.

Karyn C