05 January 2008

Mac Pages to GIF

Dear Folks,
Although I may be re-inventing the wheel here, a few of you may be interested in how to convert your well-designed table from the Mac word-processor (Pages) into a gif for publication. Publishers may use Windows based Word, rather than Mac. Constructing a table inside Pages or a figure inside Keynote slide-maker is extremely accurate and a joy to use, with pixel by pixel accuracy, in contrast to the neanderthal eye you need for positioning stuff in word or powerpoint.

However, you will find (table select) copy and paste is ineffective to transfer a table into Powerpoint (even Powerpoint for Mac), and export to Word or to Powerpoint distorts the artwork too much. Previously I have resorted to re-drawing from scratch. But help is at hand.

If you put the table into a single Page by itself, then select custom size on Page Setup, you can choose for example 15cm wide and 10cm high page size, and then centre your table within this. Choose print and Save-As pdf to obtain a custom sized pdf, and then simply Save-As gif (or png, jpg, tiff depending on your graphics). Also at this point I selected 1500 pixels per cm resolution - just for fun, and obtained an excellent high-resolution gif.

This can be stored for re-use back inside Pages, or inside a Powerpoint, Keynote, or Word file.
Mac is really intuitive ! You just need to sit back and think through how to proceed, and the results are great.

All Best Wishes
Paul

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