Pulling PowerPoint graphics into InDesign?

[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

[Dennis Ewing Sr]

Post by 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

I have fond the best way to handle PP files is to save as WMF files,
place them in AI and then place the AI into ID. I started using this
workaround back in the days when rips didn't deal well with RGB and it
has saved me several times. PP by its very nature is a low-res
generating program. The only way to get anything remotely usable is
the vector world. May not be perfect, but it is the best way I've
found over the years to deal with this abomination of a program.

Dennis

[Waterspider]

Post by 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

I have fond the best way to handle PP files is to save as WMF files,
place them in AI and then place the AI into ID. I started using this
workaround back in the days when rips didn't deal well with RGB and it
has saved me several times. PP by its very nature is a low-res
generating program. The only way to get anything remotely usable is
the vector world. May not be perfect, but it is the best way I've
found over the years to deal with this abomination of a program.

Yes, that's the problem-- PP is designed for screen viewing rather than
high-quality printing. I don't understand how changing file formats would
increase the quality of a low-res image, unless you're talking about
manually smoothing lines in AI. This sounds like a lot of work. I'd probably
scrap the PP files and create new images to save time in the long run.
Presumably the job is for a client, so they should be made to understand
what's involved in using PP images (time:quality ratio), and leave the
choice to them.

[JasonSpr]

I don't understand how changing file formats would increase the quality of a low-res image, unless you're talking about manually smoothing lines in AI.

I believe the WMF format saves lines as vectors when possible.
Importing the WMF file into AI should give you the highest possible
quality - the parts that excel can output as vector will stay as
vector.