Save Word doc as JPEG (Office XP, SP3)

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I would like to save an arbitrary rectangular section of a Word document as a JPEG or GIF image. It would even be better to be able to set a margin-less page to a size in pixels and then save a one-page document as an image. Can anyone suggest an easy straight-forward way to do this?

I have to create content for templates used in low-volume emails. The template program cannot handle the full set of HTML. It cannot handle what Word uses to save as HTML when the content has tables, various fonts, and pictures. It will handle JPEGs and GIFs. I would like to get images in fairly precise pixel sizes.

I have tried pasting screen-prints into Paint, cropping them down, and saving the result. It is difficult to get a precisely sized image. I expect that it would be painful to have a clerical repeat the method reliably.

If I could get Word or Acrobat to deal with custom margin-less “page” sizes in pixels, that might work. I don’t know how to do that if or if it is possible.

I have Office XP, Windows XP, and Acrobat 5. I would prefer not to have to buy or train for additional software. If anything, I would add a simple photo editor.

Thanks for any ideas,

Joe M

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I know what you mean about screen sizes. I was recently doing 800×600 captures of Internet Explorer on a 1280×800 display… Anyway, our Software Finds and Wants board would have lots of threads on screen grabbers, free and not-so-free, which might let you predefine the size of the area to grab. That seems like your best bet.

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Snag-It http://www.techsmith.com/default.asp%5B/url%5D is cheap ($30-40 depending where you buy it) and is worth every penny, and is one option.

If you’re really reluctant to spend money, then I’d suggest using GhostScript/GhostView, both free. That route, you can set up your page size, etc. in Word, then print to File. Then use GhostScript to convert the resulting PostScript file into a jpeg at 72, 300, or 600 dpi.

If you want to see a sample, post a Word doc and I’ll re-post as a jpeg after converting with GhostScript.

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Andrew,

Thanks for the idea. I think I found an alternative that I will pursue first. I may get back if it doesn’t pan out. See response below for what I am trying.

Joe

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By the way, it might be worth trying out an HTML cleaner-upper, since no matter how skillfully you craft your graphic file, and how well you compress it so it isn’t too many bytes, it may be too wide for some recipients’ screen resolutions and for those blocking images in Outlook, it’s an extra step to view. Microsoft has its own “filter” to strip down the HTML, and you can assist it by setting the Web Options to be as minimal and basic as possible. I’m not sure what other tools to recommend; I often end up just editing it by hand.

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Thanks for the idea about the “filter” HTML output from Word. I started looking at the HTML. I think that the HTML editor in the email program 1) doesn’t edit the tag area; and 2) doesn’t understand “MsoNormal”. When I salted a blank email template with “MsoNormal” style entries I could then copy/paste the IE rendering of the Word doc saved as a Web page (filtered)., have the format hold, and not have the editor muck with the header. Without the addition it would not hold the formatting. This gives a straight-forward, if inelegant, repeatable procedure that is viable for creating email templates at a rate of about 1 per week. So far the procedure handles the minimal formatting changes needed from email template to email template.

I appreciate the advice you both gave. I will pursue the ideas further if we run into the limitations of my hack.

Joe

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