Microsoft Office

Publisher

FAQ

I am using Microsoft Publisher to lay out my pages. All the font options are checked. When I print to PDF, I have a special print definition file that forces inclusion of the Fonts. The file shows an increase in size when I force embed the fonts and the PDF file properties list the fonts as included. I am not sure what else I can do to make this work.

Actually, Microsoft Publisher has been known to cause problems with printers. For some reason they create 3 images of your original file to compose their image. Then when the book prints some of the pages will have this odd banding problem. Please don't use MS Publisher to create a PDF.

Go to www.adobe.com and take the Microsoft Publisher file and create your PDF using Adobe's free trial option. You can create 5 free PDFs so use them wisely :). Get your file exactly the way you want it to print and then use a free token to covert to PDF. You can pay $10 and create unlimited PDFs for a month if you want to go the trial and error route. Here is the link to the free option http://createpdf.adobe.com/?v=AHP

The adobe products do much better creating the PDF for the printer than any of the other file editor products. You will see output problems with most all other products.

PowerPoint


PowerPoint is not the most sophisticated photo layout application available. However, many people have it, and understand it, which makes it a great choice for those two reasons alone.

Because PowerPoint has the ability to save each slide as an individual JPEG, it is possible to create a PhotoBook with PowerPoint. However there is one trick --- you will need to increase the resolution of the presentation to be print quality.

PowerPoint Mac 2008The attachment id given is not valid.

Starting with Mac Office 2008, creating a 300 DPI PowerPoint presentation is a breeze. Simply go the "Preferences" menu option, and select "Save As". There you can select the resolution of your presentation. Choose "300 DPI" and you are good to go. You can even save out your presentation as a PDF.

Windows Office 2007

There are a number of issues with PowerPoint 2007 when trying to convert to a PDF suitable for printing with us. Because of this, it might be easiest to save your each screen as a large .jpg file (see Windows 2003 instructions below...)

If you would like to brave the PDF route, the short answer is you will need Acrobat Pro 8. Speaking with techs at MS and Adobe revealed that MS Office 2007 suite has an internal problem embedding fonts and is prone to revert to their standard (I believe it is Calibri) font when converting to another format, such as a PDF.

If you try to convert to a PDF using Adobe Acrobat 6 or Acrobat 7 you will need to use the print driver. Actually, it will be difficult to get either version to convert correctly and embed the fonts completely. There are also problems with transparencies. According to Adobe, they didn't code Acrobat to convert transparencies (shadow effects, feathering, etc) until Acrobat 6 (PDF version 1.5).

There is also an internal issue within PowerPoint in terms of maximum page size it will allow in addition to the embedding issue).

MS Office 2007 has an add-on PDF converter available for downloading from their site. Though it was successful converting to a PDF (everything converted and the document looked just like the version in
PP), the fonts don't embed completely and you will receive an error because the printer cannot process the document.

According to Adobe, Acrobat 8 is the only version that will work correctly with Vista and PowerPoint 2007. The most recent patch corrects the issue Microsoft has with embedding the fonts; though you do have to make some specific adjustments if you use common fonts (such as Times New Roman). Adobe figures everyone on the planet has access to these more common fonts, so they don't embed them when converting to a PDF; however, you can "force" embed them by going into the advanced settings menu, under fonts there is a box titled "never embed" that has a list of common fonts: copy/paste the fonts you need embedded to the "always embed" box. After doing this, I was able to upload my document and not receive an error message.

FAQ: Could I create individual PowerPoint slides and upload them?

Powerpoint has the ability to save each slide as an individual jpeg. There is one trick --- you will need to increase the resolution of the presentation to be print quality. So, in powerpoint you will need to select file, page setup, choose custom as your "slides sizes for" option, increase the size width and height to 3 times the dimensions of the book you plan to create. (Ex. for a 9x7 book the page size should be 27 inches x 21 inches). Select ok.

Then select file, save as, for the "save as type" select JPEG File Interchange Format and select save. Each slide from Powerpoint will be saved as a JPEG. You will then be able to upload your jpeg images.

For Older Versions of PowerPoint (Windows 2003, Mac 2004 or older)


  1. In PowerPoint, select File -> Page Setup from the menu bar and choose "Custom" as your "Slides Sizes For" option.
  2. Increase the size width and height to 3 times the dimensions of the book you plan to create. (Ex. for a 9x7 book the page size should be 27 inches x 21 inches, or for a 8.5x11 book, the page size should be 25.5 inches x 33 inches). Select ok.
  3. Create your PhotoBook like you would any slide show, however be VERY CAREFUL about Cropping and Bleed. Do not put important visual elements near the edges.
  4. When you are done, select File -> Save As from the menu. For the "Save as Type" select "JPEG File Interchange Format" and select Save.
  5. Each slide will be saved as an individual JPEG file in a folder. You can then upload each image to your gallery (or to save time, you can zip up that whole folder and upload it to your gallery).

Good luck and let us know if you have any tips to share with others!