[comp.sys.mac] PS dumps -> Word

rudolph@m.cs.uiuc.edu (03/10/89)

After having to resort to cutting and pasting with real glue recently, I
decided to write a Unix utility to solve the problem of including PostScript
(in particular, X windows screen dumps translated to ps by xpr) in Word
files.  My standard procedure (when not including ps) is to generate a ps
file in Word (with the f key), upload to the Sun, and print out on our DEC
laserprinter (LNR03 ??).  When I wanted to include the screen dumps, I
downloaded the ps to my mac and pasted it into Word in PostScript style.  Word
immediately became a pain in the a-s to use, because every time I scrolled
by the hidden postscript (about 80K), it grinded to a halt while reading the
stuff off disk.  Even with only one 80K dump, it was very frustrating to
use.  With any more, it would be completely unusable.  Aside from that, the
picture didn't even come out right (I just got a pageful of errors from the
printer).  
I would like to write a program to allow me to combine the Word ps output
with the dumps after uploading it to the Sun.  Before I do, I wanted to know
if anyone has a good solution to this problem already.  Please let me know
if you've got one.

David Rudolph       rudolph@m.cs.uiuc.edu
University of Illinois

amanda@lts.UUCP (Amanda Walker) (03/13/89)

What I'd suggest is to put comments in the Word document that indicate
what PostScript file you want to include, along these lines:

%%IncludeFile: mumble/foo.ps

in style "PostScript".  These will then appear in the file you upload to
the Sun, and you can write a simple filter that rips through the file
inserting things as it goes.

This does assume, of course, that Word doesn't have to know how big
your graphics are...

-- 
Amanda Walker, InterCon Systems Corporation
amanda@lts.UUCP / ...!uunet!lts!amanda / 703.435.8170
--
Those whom the gods would destroy they first teach COBOL.

rudolph@m.cs.uiuc.edu (03/14/89)

>> What I'd suggest is to put comments in the Word document that indicate
>> what PostScript file you want to include, along these lines:

That's basically what I intend to do, but it's not that simple.  When I 
included the file that way (manually), the picture came out rotated 90
degrees and mirror imaged.  I tried fooling with some of the postscript
commands at the beginning of the file to no avail.  It seems that I'm 
going to have to learn postscript to do this. (that's what I'm now doing)