Drawing a line on an imported image

[Leatside]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel With 2004 I used to be able to import an image, eg a map, and then superimpose a route by drawing a line on it.

With 2008 i can import the image of course but, when I select a line, place the cursor on top of the image and drag to draw the line, it comes up in a white square space which obliterates the image immediately behind!

How does one get around this please

 

[Rob Schneider]

Frankly, I've found it very difficult to annotate figure and photos in
Word with Word's drawing tools. Probably easy to do but it fools me.
Word Help does not say very much, or if it does I can't find it. I also
don't much like how Word mixes these drawing objects with text. Word is
forced to do this simply because this sort of things was an "add-on"
many years ago. It's just all to difficult, in my opinion.

Instead of working to hard to learn something that appears to be so hard
to do I focus instead on getting the work done. What I do is put the
images into PowerPoint, use PowerPoint's tools for annotation. Then I
simply copy the image from the screen (shift, ctrl, cmd, 4) and then
paste the image into the Word doc. so much easier and just works.
PowerPoint is designed for this sort of thing and works best with
greater functionality.


--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Leatside]

Thanks for that but I was wondering why I had absolutely no problems with achieving what I was trying to do when using Word for Mac 2004 but cannot see how to do so in Word 2008. (Much easier of course in iWorks/Pages but not always able to be read by recipients even when saved as a Word doc.)

 

[Rob Schneider]

Use iWorks/Pages, then. They are programs which are made for making
"pretty" documents. I have no axe to grind.

Save as RTF, PDF, or something to avoid the problem you think you have.

It's usually always better to NOT send out source DOC files. DOC files
are meant for editing and changing, not for displaying work. Even if you
work very hard at making a DOC file perfect when someone else opens Word
to view the doc it may or my not look the same simply due to how they
set their Word. My Word is set for me to write. When I open "pretty"
doc's from others, the rarely look pretty in Draft view.

Word with PowerPoint is great combination. Word is a great tool for
authors and writers to write things--especially big things--that are
destined for paper or paper equivalents. That's how it was designed to
be in the 1980's for first appearance in the early 1990's.

Sadly, Word has been kludged over the years to make it appear to be a
"simple" can-do-everything-for-everyone tool. My kids use Word that way
and are always disappointed. The schools do not teach them how to use
Word; but there is pressure (from peers, mostly) to produce "pretty"
documents.

I have no axe to grind. Just want to get work done. Word works but you
have to use it as it's intended to be used.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[CyberTaz]

It sounds as though you may have somehow managed to have a Fill Color
applied... Have you set a default AutoShape format which includes a white
fill? Even so, any closed-path shapes created using the line tools will be
affected if you have, but open paths should not be. Drawn lines are
contained in bounding boxes, but those boxes are clear/transparent by
default & only appear when the line is selected. Select one of the lines &
have a look at the Fill color (paint can) button in the 'Colors, Weights, &
Fills' group of the Formatting Palette. If its otherwise, select No Fill.

What is your exact version & update level for Office/OS X?

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John_McGhie_[MVP]]

Because Mac Word 2004 contains a graphics editor, and Word 2008 DOESN'T.

Sorry, but they dropped the raster editor from Office 2008.

Use GIMP

Thanks for that but I was wondering why I had absolutely no problems with
achieving what I was trying to do when using Word for Mac 2004 but cannot see
how to do so in Word 2008. (Much easier of course in iWorks/Pages but not
always able to be read by recipients even when saved as a Word doc.)

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[Leatside]

Rob, Thanks for that - I am inclined to go that route as I have come across similar instances.

CyberTaz, My version is Microsoft Word 2008 Version 12.0.0 (071130).

Don't appear to have any fills selected (Unfortunately cannot include screenshot here to show you); no autoshapes selected either. Just picked Line from Drawing toolbar and, as I say, each time I 'draw' it my image is partially blanked out.

 

[Leatside]

JM, Aaaagh - that explains it - Progress eh!! Standby for dumb question however, - what is GIMP?

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, for that as well as any other possible considerations your
installation of Office is approximately 15 updates behind. I'd strongly
recommend that you go to Help> Check for Updates in order to get the 12.1.0
(SP1), 12.2.0 (SP2), 12.2.3 & 12.2.4 updates applied in that order. Do not
launch any of the Office apps until all updates have been applied & you've
run Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions followed by a restart of you Mac.
Once you're fully updated you may find that the behavior ceases.

Also, confirm that OS X is at 10.6.3 - If not, it would be best to get it
updated before updating Office.

 

[Leatside]

Ignore my last question JM - just discovered it is an generic application; I was assuming it was merely a format!! Many thanks for your advice.

 

[Rob Schneider]

see http://www.gimp.org/.

It's a very sophisticated tool. License is free of cost, though.

(To draw lines on images ... assuming that you have PowerPoint as part
of office, you will probably have more success than with Gimp.)


--rms

www.rmschneider.com