Pulling PowerPoint graphics into Adobe InDesign?

  • Thread starter Thread starter pete
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pete

This is a killer. Jump in if you dare! I am creating an InDesign
document that will ultimately be saved as PDF and printed to a high-
quality laser printer. I need to pull some graphics (shapes, tables,
and even PowerPoint generated bar and pie charts) from PowerPoint and
import into InDesign (in InDesign they call it "place"). I've tried a
number of different ways and nothing really seems to work well. Saving
the PowerPoint slides out as PNG, TIFF, or JPG images creates low-res
blurry images that won't print well.

I thought the best thing to do would be to save the PowerPoint file as
a PDF, and then "place" various pdf pages into the InDesign document.
It works ok, but the problem is that anything in the original
PowerPoint graphics that included a gradient or a rounded corner looks
choppy and slightly distorted in the PDF and (obviously once placed in
InDesign. Also, any bar charts I have look odd as the lines become
jaggedy.

And keep in mind that once everything is placed in InDesign I am then
sending back out to PDF. So I'm basicaly doing this...

PowerPoint slide > saved to PDF > PDF imported/placed in InDesign >
InDesign saved to PDF.

Other than recreating absolutely everything (including bar charts) in
InDesign or Illustrator, can anyone suggest a decent way to take care
of this? I'm not worried about what it looks like on screen, the
important thing is that it prints nicely. ANY IDEAS ARE MUCH
APPRECIATED!!!!!

technical specs: PowerPoint 2007, Adobe InDesign CS3 (for the PC),
Windows Vista
 
This is a killer. Jump in if you dare! I am creating an InDesign
document that will ultimately be saved as PDF and printed to a high-
quality laser printer. I need to pull some graphics (shapes, tables,
and even PowerPoint generated bar and pie charts) from PowerPoint and
import into InDesign (in InDesign they call it "place").
Click to expand...

I don't understand why you would need to import them. Just copy them via
clipboard - in vector (metafile) format. "Placing" files is of course
needed when you assemble external files, but this is not the case now.
 
This is a routine process in the group I work in, but we have an extra step
in that we work on both the PC and the Mac depending on the program! :-)

We do different things for different kinds of figures/illustrations...

Table:
Copy out of PPT (or Word) and use Paste Special->Unformatted Text to paste
back into Word. Repeat this until you get Unformatted Text as a choice
(sometimes this takes two or three times).
Double check that there is a tab between sections text for each column and a
carriage return at the end of each row.
In InDesign paste the text into your document, select it and choose
Table->Convert Text to Table.
This will give you a table in InDesign that you can format to match your
document. If you set up some table style sheets it makes the formatting
really quick and easy!

Graph/Illustration:
We don't often take graphs directly from PPT to InDesign, generally we
replot them ourselves in Delta Graph then bring them into Illustrator as an
EPS file for formatting but when we don't replot we do the following:

Generate a PDF from the PPT file
Open the PDF in Illustrator
Select All then Ungroup, Release Paths, Release Clipping Mask
Delete all extraneous phantom boxes and objects
Clean up any text, gradients or colors (Be aware that text boxes can
occasionally go funky based up font type or mixed fonts ....like symbols...in
the same text boxe)
Save as EPS file and Place in InDesign

If you do the above you will get object oriented files (as opposed to pixel
based) which makes them resolution independent and should print crisp & clear
without distorting or blurring.

I know it seems like a lot of work but PPT is presentation software and
InDesign is printing software, it takes a bit to get them to play nice
together!

Give a yell if I didn't makes sense or you need more clarification!

Christine
 
This is a routine process in the group I work in, but we have an extra step
in that we work on both the PC and the Mac depending on the program! :-)

We do different things for different kinds of figures/illustrations...

Table:
Copy out of PPT (or Word) and use Paste Special->Unformatted Text to paste
back into Word. Repeat this until you get Unformatted Text as a choice
(sometimes this takes two or three times).
Double check that there is a tab between sections text for each column and a
carriage return at the end of each row.
In InDesign paste the text into your document, select it and choose
Table->Convert Text to Table.
This will give you a table in InDesign that you can format to match your
document. If you set up some table style sheets it makes the formatting
really quick and easy!

Graph/Illustration:
We don't often take graphs directly from PPT to InDesign, generally we
replot them ourselves in Delta Graph then bring them into Illustrator as an
EPS file for formatting but when we don't replot we do the following:

Generate a PDF from the PPT file
Open the PDF in Illustrator
Select All then Ungroup, Release Paths, Release Clipping Mask
Delete all extraneous phantom boxes and objects
Clean up any text, gradients or colors (Be aware that text boxes can
occasionally go funky based up font type or mixed fonts ....like symbols...in
the same text boxe)
Save as EPS file and Place in InDesign

If you do the above you will get object oriented files (as opposed to pixel
based) which makes them resolution independent and should print crisp & clear
without distorting or blurring.

I know it seems like a lot of work but PPT is presentation software and
InDesign is printing software, it takes a bit to get them to play nice
together!

Give a yell if I didn't makes sense or you need more clarification!

Christine
 
I've done the same procedure you're describing for saving/printing as PDF
then cleaning that up in Illo and exporting / saving as EPS.

Also, I do place the PDFs in InDesign directly, but usually this is with
black and white versions of the PPT files -- so no gradients to mess with.
PPT-to-PDF gradients can be really frustrating, so I do everything I can to
avoid them. When I can't, I do the EPS thing Christine described. The lines
sometimes look jagged when previewing the page, but generally when you zoom
into the PDF you create from InDesign, you can see that the lines will print
straight -- and I find that they actually view straight at most zoom
percentages.

And yes, symbols can be a nightmare. I still don't know why, but it makes me
insane. I have much fewer issues with them going into InDesign than I ever
did when using Send to Word to create handouts, though. THAT was a nightmare
with symbols dropping out. Ugh. Happy NEVER to go there again!

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Don't Miss the PPTLive User Conference! Atlanta | Oct 11-14
 
thanks everyone. these are all really great suggestions. I'm going to
try them all. I will report back. You guys amaze me!!!!!!!!
 
Improve PowerPoint's GIF, BMP, PNG, JPG export resolutionhttp://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00052.htm

steve.... STEVE! I downloaded your PPT Exporter Tool and from what I
can tell with brief experimentation, it is AWESOME! The tips that Echo
and Christine offered are great. I used them for a few images, but
then my workload increased and I wound up with over 20 charts and
tables to convert for InDesign. I needed something FAST that wouldn't
require doing any rebuilding. Enter PPT Image Exporter. I think you
may have saved my professional life. I may actually meet this
unreasonable deadline!!!!!!! Fantastic product! (and I'll be charging
the $30 back to my client!)
 
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