Tech writer, publishing types, those who make PDF's, lend me you ear

We use Word to make our Tech Documents here at work (It's not ideal, small company, I'm the only Tech Writer, etc etc etc)

I use Adobe Illustrator to make 99% of our graphics, once exported I drop them into Word......I'm having a big problem with the graphics being consistent. Even down to very similar images looking great and crap on the same page.

What is the best format to Export from Illustrator for use in Word, that will then be converted to PDF? Perhaps I need to not use the Word built-in Acrobat PDF tool? Is there a Free tool I can use?

I have been using the .PNG file format, since it doesn't give me any problems with our other graphics of screen shots...........suggestions? Exporting as a JPEG didn't seem to help the quality once in the PDF.

suggest they not cheap out on you and get better tools... maybe acrobat pro for conversion or CS5/6 suite - there are some others for tech writing as well

oldtin wrote: suggest they not cheap out on you and get better tools... maybe acrobat pro for conversion or CS5/6 suite - there are some others for tech writing as well

Using Acrobat Pro X.

At this point, going to entirely new system and setting up a CMS for it all it would prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.

Just a quick look - most of what I have in word are either jpg or tif images - haven't noticed any inconsistency with the graphics - but if I have any concerns on quality for publication I use indesign to start with.

If you have illustrator, just do the whole tech document in that.

^35-55 page documents, no thanks.

PNGs should be fine, I love them. I'm suspecting it is a setting difference in the PNG exports. But after all, this is Acrobat we're talking about. Craptacular programming is the norm.

Yeah, when we do screen shots of VGA display (using the the software they make the images in) the PNG files always PDF great.

I realize going from Vector to Raster isn't ideal, but it shouldn't be this bad.

Oh and I double-checked, I've been exporting PNG's at 300dpi.

That should be reasonable. Hrm.

I don't think you have a file-type issue...

I don't know how the built-in PDF distiller handles images, but it's likely compressing them. Try File > Options > Advanced to see if there is some way to control this. Though I wouldn't waste my time, if it were me. If it were me, I wouldn't use Word's distiller; I'd use Acrobat Professional.

If you're having the same issue with Professional, then it's probably a setting issue: the default, or Standard, setting will compress images. Try using High Quality Print, which should give you better output. On rare occasions, I've had to use Press Quality to get what I need.

You can change the quality setting via Print Properties. If you've figured out that the High Quality Print is working for you, go to your Printers, right-click on Acrobat, and permanently set the default to High Quality Print.

oldtin wrote: suggest they not cheap out on you and get better tools... maybe acrobat pro for conversion or CS5/6 suite - there are some others for tech writing as well

What I am doing right now is using Adobe Creative Cloud. I am using the full $50 a month "membership" which allows me to use EVERYTHING Adobe has. It is cheaper for short term use or for uncertainty of long term jobs than going out and buying the standard CS6 suite. You can also use just InDesign for a monthly fee instead of forking out the $700 or what ever it is. InDesign would make doing the OP's 30-55 page document a breeze.

Check it out, it works for me.

Creative Cloud

^^^ Man that looks like a canoe, but I swear I don't work for Adobe, if I did, I wouldn't be driving a 95 Camry.... or maybe I still would.

if you have illustrator and photoshop, you might also have the adobe publishing software, InDesign, which can send your text to .PDF and not booger things up.

I am suspicious your issue is Word. I (am forced) to do some work in Word and the one thing I can say about it is that it is wildly inconsistent especially when printing, and pdf'ing is effectively printing.

Generally, I would suggest using the PDF printer rather then the Word export, should be better. Way more options at least.

BTW - Word seems to like graphics (as in actually importing them in the proper size) as 96 dpi. Why? Who knows. That used to be a standard PC screen dpi, as I remember so I suspect it has something to do with that.

Word is an evil evil program if you want to do anything more then a glorified text doc.

^Agreed.

If it was up to me, I'd have them buy MadCap Flare, get the training to use it and set up a proper CMS for all of our stuff.

But all of that plus getting our stuff into the new format..............I'm sure would be approaching $20k anyway.

I'm using acrobat 9 standard for my reports which are .doc files with my plots c/p'd into the .doc.

I have no clue what windoze or Word puts the readings in format-wise.

InDesign. That's what it's for. Drop the Illustrator files in, place the Word doc in it (or just write it in InDesign) and it'll be easy. If you're already using Illustrator, you'll find the interface fairly easy to handle.

To get you through this, try taking the graphic file and open it in a non-Adobe app (like MS Paint) and save the file in that app. Then try applying that file to the Word doc. Yes it sounds stupid, but I've had that work in the past.

Used to do that. Word is the issue there. Works well for small publishing with pictures/graphics. Word starts to get hung up with larger documents doing that. We used Word for the smaller stuff, only about 10 pages or less. Used a publishing program designed for that on the bigger stuff. Which as you note is expensive and always user friendly. First was a program called Interleaf then moved to Epic. Now everything is SGML tagged using a program called IADS that is proprietary, I think to the military only. Have you tried Microsoft Publisher that comes in the Office package? Don't really have any experience with it so not sure how it works. I have converted Word docs to PDF with Acrobat Pro and then inserted pics in but there again not that user friendly unless you do it often. Have also used a program inside of Word called Word Draw, I think. Not that easy, especially with line drawings and using layers on 11X17 paper format. Also learned that computer memory is key, having as much as possible. Can't have too much there. Used to work publications for military (army) aviation maintenance manuals. I was a helicopter tech they trained for pubs work. Got promoted out of it and haven't dealt with it in a couple years. Now work tech logistics.