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A few days ago, I asked if anyone had found a good way to get
Word97 tables into PageMaker (thereby avoiding PM?s table editor
and the need to rebuild formatted tables from scratch). One
possibility is to use Word?s "Copy As Picture" feature (in Word 97,
use the Tools->Customization menu choice to find the command
"EditCopyAsPicture" on the ?All Commands? list). Select the
table, choose Copy As Picture, then paste the result into PM.
Unfortunately, you?ll still have to edit the table in the source file and
reimport it into PM if there are any changes.
Dina Davidson provided the best solution (under Windows; I don?t
know whether the Mac equivalent works as well), one that seems
to be just what the doctor ordered. Here's how it works:
1. Save each Word table in its own separate document. (Not
absolutely necessary, but creates much smaller files that are
easier to manipulate.)
2. In PageMaker, select Edit->Insert object.
3. Select "Microsoft Word table"
4. Select the file from the appropriate directory on your hard disk.
5. Voila! The table is now in PageMaker. To edit it, simply double-
click on the table; this launches Word, and lets you edit the file
directly. After making your changes, you?ll have to select
?File->Update? in Word to close the edited file and let the edits be
reflected in the PageMaker document. (In PageMaker, you may
need to select ?automatically update links? too. I haven?t tested this
exhaustively.)
A few caveats:
First, you must treat the Word files containing the tables just as
you would treat any other inserted object: if you move them to
another directory, you lose the link and must re-establish it.
Similarly, if you send the file to a service bureau, they must have
Word97 installed (presumably with the same fonts and style
templates) so that the table formatting doesn't change.
Second, although I've successfully tried printing the file (using a
Postscript printer) and creating an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file, I haven't
yet tested how this will output on a typesetter, particularly if the
table contains color information (Word doesn't understand color the
same way typesetters do, so...). I imagine it would be safer to just
use the tools in PageMaker to add color to the table. Obviously,
some experimentation lies ahead of me!
Thanks to Dina Davidson, Emma Davis-Bell, Kate Schommer, and
Larry Scott for their suggestions.
