Re: st: Re: st: RTF issues.

[William Buchanan <william@williambuchanan.net>]

Rebecca,

I would assume that if anyone was going to change the platform they plan on using they might choose instead to move to LaTeX.  Several users have already contributed programs that would allow someone to manage their entire document workflow in LaTeX via Stata (e.g., can add necessary commands in LaTeX to insert/resize graphics, tables, text, etc...).  I agree with Roger on the position of the use of MS products.  

However, the other solution would be to use some VBA Script to call a macro that would reshape things automatically in the documents; this still doesn't solve the problem during import, but it is at least a little time saving.

HTH,
Billy

On Jan 9, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Rebecca Pope wrote:

> Jeph & Roger,
> I can't answer the question about fixing the size of the graphic in
> RTF, but I can offer solutions to the enforced use of MS Word as a
> precursor to obtaining a PDF and to Word altering the import size of
> graphics.
> 
> 1. My husband is a tech writer & he introduced me to Scribus (open
> source alternative to Adobe InDesign, which to be fair I should also
> mention as an option) to make PDFs. If you are composing your text in
> Word, it can be copied directly into Scribus & then you can add your
> graphics there. Indeed, you can compose in any text editor or even in
> Scribus itself. Thus, you can bypass Word altogether if you want.
> Scribus imports graphics with whatever dimensions you've saved them
> but you can edit freely after that. You'll get better results in terms
> of resolution with the .eps files Roger mentioned.
> 
> 2. If you are working entirely within MS Word and you want to
> constrain the size of the graphic before you import it, you need to
> insert a "drawing canvas" that is the dimensions of the existing file
> and then "fill" that canvas with your picture rather than importing
> the picture. I'm not sure that is any better than just importing the
> graphic and changing the size ex post. The one major advantage that I
> see is that you can put the canvas in as a place holder while you are
> adding your text and then insert the images after you've composed the
> text. My experience with MS Word is that it is rather crash-prone if
> you are moving text around with a large number of images. Either
> method will give you poor resolution because of the format of the
> graphic you are constrained to.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Rebecca
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 4:11 PM, Jeph Herrin <stata@spandrel.net> wrote:
>> I always archive figures in GPH format, but I will see how .eps looks
>> compared to .emf; I find .tif and .png to have poorer resolution when
>> embedded, at least when converted to PDF, for some reason.
>> 
>> cheers,
>> Jeph
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 1/7/2013 4:03 PM, Roger B. Newson wrote:
>>> 
>>> Now you mention it, this is something I too would like to know. I
>>> personally tend to use the .eps format, but the code generated by
>>> -rtflink- does not preserve the specified sizes for that, either. The
>>> only recommendation I can think of is that, in general, the definitive
>>> version of a graph should NEVER be in a Microsoft proprietary format. I
>>> personally view all Microsoft documents as ephemeral things, which I
>>> only produce because my non-technical customers want them.
>>> 
>>> Best wishes
>>> 
>>> Roger
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Roger B Newson BSc MSc DPhil
>>> Lecturer in Medical Statistics
>>> Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group
>>> National Heart and Lung Institute
>>> Imperial College London
>>> Royal Brompton Campus
>>> Room 33, Emmanuel Kaye Building
>>> 1B Manresa Road
>>> London SW3 6LR
>>> UNITED KINGDOM
>>> Tel: +44 (0)20 7352 8121 ext 3381
>>> Fax: +44 (0)20 7351 8322
>>> Email: r.newson@imperial.ac.uk
>>> Web page: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/r.newson/
>>> Departmental Web page:
>>> 
>>> http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/nhli/respiration/popgenetics/reph/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Opinions expressed are those of the author, not of the institution.
>>> 
> <snip>
> *
> *   For searches and help try:
> *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> *   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/


*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/