I am new to Illustrator...I need to make my files PDF and moving images to word/excel

[Agustin_Gonzalez@adobeforums.com]

Hi! Long story short - I work for a winery and we had a graphics company design out stationary. They sent us the disk and the files were .ai so we had to get the illustrator to view them. Well, I'd really like to move our letterhead from Illustrator to MS Word or Excel so I can print my letterhead and create cover sheets, etc. How can I move it? Also, How can I change my .ai files to PDF? Thanks for any help!!!

[Timothy_Foolery®@adobeforums.com]

That's fairly unprofessional of the graphics company, to just leave you with .ai files. Very odd.

To create a PDF, just selecte "Save as" from the file menu and then select "PDF" from the drop down in the Save As dialogue box.

I haven't used word for years, it accepts jpegs doesn't it? I can't even remember.

[Agustin_Gonzalez@adobeforums.com]

Timothy,

Thank you so much for your fast reply. They did give it to me in PDF too but they put the envelope on top of the stationary so it won't print the way I want. We are having major problems with them, which is why we have to print our own stuff.

I think word does accept jpegs, but is that what my letterhead is? I figured out how to select the letterhead in AI and I tried to just drag it to a word document and it said there wasnt enough memory. Any thoughts or guesses??

The most important thing for me was making it PDF. Thanks again - you have helped me tremendously!!

[Jacob_Bugge@adobeforums.com]

Augustin,

I do not use Word either, but in the word processing programmes you may:

1) Define a letterhead, which may contain images, or
2) Insert an image at the top of the page.

1) is used if you want editable text, 2) is simpler.

In any case, you should export each AI image as either bitmap (.bmp) for black and white), tiff (.tif) for CMYK, or JPEG (.jpg) for RGB, or you may open it and change it to the relevant kind in Photoshop.

Always check what the images look like in print from word processing programmes; it is possible to make certain amendments of colours etc.

[Timothy_Foolery®@adobeforums.com]

No worries Austin, glad to help.

As Jacob said you need to export the image you want to use from Illustrator. The way to do this is to select the parts you want to use (your letterhead for example) in Illustrator using the selection tool (Arrow). Press [ctrl]+[c] (Copy), then [ctrl]+[N] (new document), then [ctrl]+[P] (paste). Now you can export this image as you need it from the file menu (File/ Export).

It probably woundn't hurt to have a quick read of the manual too, mate. ;)

[Jonathan_McClintic@adobeforums.com]

Agustin,

You can set up a template in word once you have exported the letter head to a tiff or bitmap. I don't remember the exact process, but Word does have all the steps in the help menu. Excel shouldn't have any problems with any of the mentioned formats. If you need to resize the file within Illustrator for any reason, just select the items you want to resize with the select arrow (V is the key stroke to get this) and drag in the squares on the corners. You should hols down the shift key as you do this to avoid warping the image.

Jonathan

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

I suggest PNG format for exporting from Illustrator to Worst. Use at least 300 ppi for your resolution, and turn off antialiasing.

[Jacob_Bugge@adobeforums.com]

Scott,

As I wrote earlier, I do not use this Word processing programme. I am happy about that since it seems to be, not only Worse, but even Worst.

Agustin,

I agree with Scott on at least 300 dpi, with the addition that for graphics without colour I think it should match the resolution of the printer (600 or 1200).