Importing PDF files with transparent backgrounds? 1

[Hawthorne]

Hi

As I said in an earlier post my niece is working on a project in Publisher.

Both she and I are new to Publisher, I'm a InDesign user.

She has to place multiple ads on a page, that come to her as PDF files.

the problem is that many of the ads come as a quarter page ad placed on an 8.5 by 11 sheet.

Placing multiple ads that block each other out is a problem.

How do you import a PDF file into Publisher with the white background transparent, or if you can't do that, crop the excess off so that only the ad is placed on the page with out the surrounding white space.

This is easy to do in InDesign but I don't have a clue in Publisher.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

 

[Makonz]

Hi Hawthorne,

I hope that you persevere with Publisher because once you get familiar with it you will find that it is absolutely made for this type of page lay-up task.

Firstly I would suggest that if there is a set size per ad that is being put on the page, such as 1/4 page, and it is going to be the same throughout the publication then, for ease of showing where the placement borders for each ad are, divide the page up with Layout guides via Arrange > Layout Guides.
In the dialog box that appears under the Grid Guides tab specify the number of Columns and rows which would be 2 & 2 for your quarter page example. Under the same tab specify any spacing that you want between the borders which you can reduce to zero if so desired. Under the Margin Guides tab right next to it you can set the bottom and top and right and left page margins. It is helpful to set these to the edge of the printable area of the page so that anything that you place with-in the borders you know will print.
The blue layout guides on the page don't print out and you can toggle them on and off with Control + Shift + O or by checking or un-checking Boundaries & Guides in the View Menu.

OK now if you are importing anything from a pdf and you are using Adobe Reader 8 or later, then you can easily select only the portion of the pdf that you want to use. In the open pdf go to Tools > Select & Zoom > Snapshot Tool. The cursor will appear as cross-hairs in the document. Click in the a top corner of the area you wish to select and 'marquee' the selection that you want by holding the mouse down while moving down to the opposite bottom corner. When you release the mouse button you should get a momentary flash to confirm that you have copied the selection to the clipboard ( and maybe a message box that will also confirm the same ) Go to the Publisher document page and right click and select paste (or use keyboard shortcut Control + V ). This will paste in the part of the page that you want without needing to crop anything. Select the "Picture' you have pasted in and hold the mouse down to move to where you wish to position it using the guides as a reference. While the picture is selected you can also move it by holding the Shift key down and the Arrow keys to 'shunt' it and the Arrows keys on their own for small 'nudge' positioning.
You can re-size the picture using the "re-size handles" that appear on the corners and mid-points along the border as small circular dots. As you hover the mouse over these they will change the cursor to an expander arrow which you click and hold to either increase or decrease the size of the selected item as required. Be careful to only use one of the corner 'handles' so that you maintain the proportions of the artwork. If necessary you still can crop unwanted areas of a picture. When you have the 'picture' selected the Picture Toolbar will be active if you have it showing. ( View > Toolbars > tick 'Picture' ). The cropping handles button looks like two boomerangs - it will confirm what it is as you mouse-over it. Select this button and use the thick black side or corner cropping handles to trim any unwanted portion.

I hope that this assists you with what you are trying to do but feel free to come back and ask on anything that is unclear. Good luck with your task.

Makonz

 

[Hawthorne]

Hi

Thanks for the information, That helped a lot.

I'm sending it on to my niece and I've told her to register here so that she can post herself.

Mike

 

[Makonz]

Hi Hawthorne

Thanks for the thanks and glad that I was able to answer some of your or your nieces queries. Good luck with the project and feel free to check back if your need assistance or clarification on anything else.

Regards
Makonz