Disappearing Objects at Print:(

[Kristin5]

My colleagues and I have been using Pagemaker 7 for about a month. We are creating short documents to assist users in navigating a software program. We have been copying screenshots with SnagIt, saving as bitmaps, or jpegs. We then import the files into MS Word, and then copy and special paste to Pagemaker. The pictures are then framed. Normally, the result is a very clear screenshot at print.
Unfortunately, sometimes, at print, the document will print out and a screenshot will be missing- the frame will be there... But, the picture is not. It will show up on the screen, just not at print. I have tried arranging, and occasionally the screenshot will show up... But then another one will disappear. I have tried resnagging the picture and saving as all other options.
If the frame is taken off of the picture, at print, the picture will be misplaced- normally somewhere in the middle of the document. Occasionally, if the picture is framed, only half (or some other small percentage)of the screenshot will be in the frame- the other half has disappeared.
I have no idea what to do. After hours and hours of playing around with the documents, it just seems to get worse. I am using Windows 2000.
I am at the end of my rope... Please help!

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, kristin5

> We then import the files into MS Word, and then copy and special paste to Pagemaker

You need to review your workflow.

File -> Place the images, preferably in TIFF format straight into PM.

If you must use Word for text entry, similary use File -> Place for the *.DOC file, or probably better, *.RTF file.

I may be old fashioned, but I regularly use Notepad to strip out all Word's messy formatting and place the raw text in PM, using PM's style palette for the formatting.

And do not use OLE/Paste special with PM - it's asking for trouble. As you're finding out.

Iechyd da! John
20:59 26/06/2003 BST

 

[Kristin5]

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess I need to clarify- The reason the screenshot is opened in MS Word is because it is the only way the screenshot will print out clear in Pagemaker. I use Pagemaker to insert the text. I tried to import as a tiff- not clear enough. When I do it by inserting into Word, it is perfectly clear. Can all of you be getting perfectly clear prints from placing tiffs? I also set me resolution to high.

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Kristin5,

The printed output from the TIFFs is OK, probably not a lot of difference from the GIFs. The limit is determined by the screen rez.

Iechyd da! John
23:28 26/06/2003 BST

 

[Eggles]

Kristin - to further add to what John said...

The default screen resolution for PM is a low resolution 'preview' or 'placeholder'. It can be chaged to high resolution under Preferences in PM, but it slows down the computer when scrolling or changing pages. So you just get used to the low rez and know that if your placed images are of a reasonable resolution then they will print OK.

On another forum, was a lot of dicsussion a while back about placing screenshots directly into PM versus opening them first in Photoshop and fiddling around a bit. The consensus was that placing the screenshot directly in PM gave much better results - and my own investigation on this confirmed it. Note that this was using just the 'Print Screen' function in Windows to copy the shot to the clipboard, and then pasting directly in PM. I was not using any third party software like Snagit. No links for images done this way will show up in the Links Manager. But avoid going via Word for any of this.

When you say you are framing the screenshots - are you using the Keyline plug-in or are you using the rectangle drawing tool? Perhaps on the images that don't print you have inadvertently 'filled' the frame?

On the other hand it may be the type of file format for those shots that don't print? If you have been saving some of them as a JPG, did you make them 'progressive'? because PM hates them. It must be saved with a standard baseline. As John suggested - avoid bitmaps and JPGs if yopu can and use TIFs if the graphics are not going directly into PM from the clipboard.

Finally - 'wandering' graphics that don't stay where you put them is usually a sign of copy/pasting or using Insert Object from something like Word.

To summarise - either use the Print Screen method and past straight into PM. You can do some minor editing such as cropping (holding down the Alt key when you hit PrintScreen will copy just the active window and not the whole screen) OR if going via Snagit, save the image as a TIF and use File>Place to get it into PM. For framing, select the graphic, go to Utilities>Plug-ins>Keyline, where ypu can specify the thickness of the border that is place around the image (1 point looks best).

 

[Kristin5]

Okay. Think we found out the problem. Turns out, my version of Word is XP... it's an old computer that the company gave me and someone must have installed this newest version. Anyway, you were right about the copying and pasting being the problem. XP doesn't allow the user to right click and edit a picture... 2000 does. In XP, I would copy and paste special and the trouble would begin. I used my colleagues computer, and edited, and then copied the screenshots and pasted. Worked great. No printing disasters.... I think there must be a way to get this to work in XP. Haven't figured it out yet.
I still think it is interesting that tif's print out perfectly clear for everyone. I tried to file>place each type of file I pulled from snagit and not one of them printed clear...? The resolution is set to high... I made sure all the frames weren't filled... and I was using the framing tool.