Copy centers image in WMF picture?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Fritz
  • Start date Start date
G

Gary Fritz

I'm developing some training using Powerpoint and Word 2003. I'm
supposed to copy the slides in PPT and paste them, as a WMF image, into
Word.

This works just fine, except one thing. The resulting metafile graphic
is always a fixed width (605 pixels, not sure where that came from),
which is OK. But the PPT copy operation insists on CENTERING the
graphic in the resulting WMF.

If you're displaying this message with a fixed-pitch font, the two
resulting WMF images would look something like this:

---------------- 605 pixels wide -------------------------------
| |
| four |
| really |
| short |
| lines |
| |
---------------- 605 pixels wide -------------------------------

---------------- 605 pixels wide -------------------------------
| |
| three |
| short |
| lines |
| and one that extends across the entire width of the slide |
| |
|--------------- 605 pixels wide ------------------------------|

This is a pain because it means my nicely-formatted slides end up all
over the page. I want them all to be left-justified the way they are in
PPT, so they line up with the other objects in Word. And I'd rather not
have to dink with the Word paragraph indent for every single image to do
it.

I think I've established that this is definitely PPT's fault. Copy in
PPT and paste in Word or PPT does the same thing; copy in Word and paste
in Word or PPT and it doesn't center it.

So is there some way to copy in PPT and NOT have it center the image?
Gary
 
Couldn't find your original message here but Google had it ... go figure.
In case I'm not the only one who lost it, I've pasted it again below.

Comments interspersed:

====================================

I'm developing some training using Powerpoint and Word 2003. I'm
supposed to copy the slides in PPT and paste them, as a WMF image, into
Word.

This works just fine, except one thing. The resulting metafile graphic
is always a fixed width (605 pixels, not sure where that came from),
which is OK. But the PPT copy operation insists on CENTERING the
graphic in the resulting WMF.

[605 pixels? How do you arive at that? Is that the size that Word chooses to
paste the WMFs in or ...??]

If you're displaying this message with a fixed-pitch font, the two
resulting WMF images would look something like this:

---------------- 605 pixels wide -------------------------------
| |
| four |
| really |
| short |
| lines |
| |
---------------- 605 pixels wide -------------------------------


---------------- 605 pixels wide -------------------------------
| |
| three |
| short |
| lines |
| and one that extends across the entire width of the slide |
| |
|--------------- 605 pixels wide ------------------------------|


This is a pain because it means my nicely-formatted slides end up all
over the page. I want them all to be left-justified the way they are in
PPT, so they line up with the other objects in Word. And I'd rather not
have to dink with the Word paragraph indent for every single image to do
it.

I think I've established that this is definitely PPT's fault. Copy in
PPT and paste in Word or PPT does the same thing; copy in Word and paste
in Word or PPT and it doesn't center it.

[It may be more a case of what you're selecting before copy/pasting or of the
odd way(s) Word deals with pictures. But if you want the text to be
consistently placed relative to the slide its on, try adding a rectangle to the
slide (no fill/no line if you want it invisible) then select that along with
the text before copying. That may help.
 
Thanks Steve,
[605 pixels? How do you arive at that? Is that the size that Word
chooses to paste the WMFs in or ...??]
Click to expand...

Hm. I thought I had checked pasting them into a non-Office app
(IrfanView), but apparently that was after pasting them into Word. Word
must be resizing it to 605.

If I copy e.g. a bulleted list in PPT and paste it into Word, the
resulting image is 605px. If I paste it directly into IrfanView, it's
generally 996 or 1006px. I'm guessing it's determined by the width of
the text box, or the graphics in the slide if there is no text box. That
makes more sense than the fixed 605px I was seeing before.
[It may be more a case of what you're selecting before copy/pasting or
of the odd way(s) Word deals with pictures.
Click to expand...

No, I"m sure it's not Windows. I see the same centering behavior if I
copy in PPT and paste in IrfanView. I'm 100% certain IrfanView isn't
doing anything to the image except displaying it.
But if you want the text
to be consistently placed relative to the slide its on, try adding a
rectangle to the slide (no fill/no line if you want it invisible) then
select that along with the text before copying. That may help.
Click to expand...

Hrm. A bit grubby, but yes, that does work. It doesn't work the way I
want -- I have to select entire text boxes instead of just the text
within the box, which produces a larger image than required -- but it
does fix the centering problem. And in fact just selecting the text box
(instead of the text within it) fixes it too. Guess maybe I have to
start selecting the text box (one way or another) instead selecting the
minimum info I'm interested in and getting a minimum-size graphic.

Thanks,
Gary
 
Thanks Steve,
[605 pixels? How do you arive at that? Is that the size that Word
chooses to paste the WMFs in or ...??]
Click to expand...

Hm. I thought I had checked pasting them into a non-Office app
(IrfanView), but apparently that was after pasting them into Word. Word
must be resizing it to 605.
Click to expand...

Word wouldn't resize text to any specific pixel size. It may *display* it at
that size in the current view, but that doesn't mean much.
No, I"m sure it's not Windows. I see the same centering behavior if I
copy in PPT and paste in IrfanView. I'm 100% certain IrfanView isn't
doing anything to the image except displaying it.
Click to expand...

Pasting a vector (lines/fonted text/etc) graphic into a bitmap app like
IrfanView is really a fairly meaningless exercise unless you specifically want
to convert the PPT graphics into a bitmap. IS that what you're after?
Hrm. A bit grubby, but yes, that does work. It doesn't work the way I
want -- I have to select entire text boxes instead of just the text
within the box, which produces a larger image than required -- but it
does fix the centering problem. And in fact just selecting the text box
(instead of the text within it) fixes it too. Guess maybe I have to
start selecting the text box (one way or another) instead selecting the
minimum info I'm interested in and getting a minimum-size graphic.
Click to expand...

Ah, you were selecting the text and not the text box ... that explains the
discrepancy between what you were seeing and what I was getting.
 
Back
Top