Need to Import Excel Graphs - ID2

[Susan_Long@adobeforums.com]

I've found info on how to import spread sheets, BUT I need to import charts/graphs created in Excel. What is the best way to accomplish this? I don't want to have to recreate the graph manually!

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Copy and paste to Illustrator, tweak as needed, save as AI and place in ID.

Bob

[Susan_Long@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Bob, I'll try that... will I be able to modify graph in Illustrator? (color??)

[Shelly_Ryder@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Robert (and thanks Susan for the question). I just downloaded the trail version of ID. I'm currently using Quark 5.0. In my workflow, I need to import a TON of things from Excel -- not only spreadsheets, but also charts. My typical document is over 50% Excel stuff. In my current Quark workflow, I Copy the spreadsheet or chart from Excel as a Picture, and simply paste into a Quark picture box. Quark considers it a "Static WMF Object". No reformatting is necessary. These pasted-in WMF graphics print and PDF perfectly, though screen redraw is very slow in Quark. I am beginning to dislike nearly everything else about Quark after playing with In Design, but this one functionality from Quark is hard to beat.

I've tried this in ID, but the images are low resolution. I do not have Illustrator. I have CorelDRAW 9. But even pasting into that and saving out as whatever would mean I'd have to create new intermediate files for the gazillion Excel tables I have to manage.

Is there any way to expedite the workflow in ID with a simple copy/paste, without having to "import" the table data and reformat, or create extra files in Corel, Illustrator or PDF?

Shelly

[Susan_Long@adobeforums.com]

"tweak as needed" duh... I guess you already answered that question!

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Shelly,

No, there's not.

Bob

[Stu_Bloom@adobeforums.com]

Another strategy, if you don't have Illustrator or prefer not to use it, is to print the Excel graph from Excel as a Postscript file, distill the Postscript file to a PDF, and place the PDF into InDesign.

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Which unfortunately will yield an RGB PDF. If you need CMYK, you need to
get it into Illustrator or Corel Draw first.

Bob

[Paul_J_Dietz@adobeforums.com]

"Is there any way to expedite the workflow in ID with a simple copy/paste, without having to "import" the table data and reformat, or create extra files in Corel, Illustrator or PDF?"

Illustrator has graphing features built into it. If you build all of your graphs initially in Illustrator, you can drop Excel from the workflow altogether.

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Well, that's an idea if the entire workflow is being done by the
designer. But Illy's graphing tools are no where near those of Excel and
to expect a financial analyst to use Illustrator to put charts together
is a bit of a stretch.

Personally, I prefer doing charts in PowerPoint, doing a copy paste to
Corel Draw and finishing up there. One benefit I've found in PowerPoint
over Excel is that fact that pie charts are not jagged the way they are
when brought in from Excel. I have no explanation of why, but its
something quite noticable.

Bob

[David_Earls@adobeforums.com]

In our workflow, we are constantly making and importing thousands of charts from Microsoft Office. If your charts can be generated from a database, as ours are, you can export a subset of your Excel data to MS Access, make the charts there, print them to Distiller, and then place them as pdfs. There are some limitations because of the conflicts between wmf and PostScript. You can't for example, use pattern fills in your charts.

We normally make our charts in greyscale. If you're using color, you'll need a plug-in (like Quite a Box of Tricks) in Acrobat to convert the colorspace.

Bob - try making your pie charts greatly oversized in Power Point (all the MS Office products use the same graphing program - MS Chart). Make your graphic box in ID the same proportion as your original graphic, then use "fit content to frame". Sometimes the finished dimensions of graph are not quite what you expect, so place one full size, note the dimensions, and do the math. We used to see the same jagginess you report when we made the charts "actual" size.

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

I NEVER bring charts directly form Excel or PowerPoint. I ALWAYS bring
them into Corel Draw for finishing.

Bob

[David_Earls@adobeforums.com]

We always bring them in through Acrobat. On a few rare occasions, we've had to edit charts produced this way, and it's easily accomplished in Illustrator.

[Shelly_Ryder@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for all your help everyone. I wonder what the reason is that ID doesn't support a simple copy/paste function from Excel into ID, where the pasted image is an embedded WMF. Any ideas? That is so much simpler considering the number of Excel tables and charts I get from our Engineering department, and the fact that they are all grayscale. It's the one thing holding me back from getting ID. I've really had it with Quark and loved the trial version of ID.

I know -- quit my whining, right? :-)

Shelly

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

WMFs are poison to postscript workflow. Stick with the advice you've
been give here. You'll be saving a lot more time in the long run.

Bob

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

WMF is short for WINDOWS Metafile. Besides being a terribly limiting format, being very inconsistently supported even in Windows applications, it's platform-specific and has almost no support on the Macintosh.

[Shelly_Ryder@adobeforums.com]

I have not had any production problems with this method. I work on the PC (Quark 5.0), and make high res PDF files for my print vendors. They have not reported any problems and are in fact loving the PDF workflow.

[David_Earls@adobeforums.com]

Does WMF now support CMYK colorspace? This would be news to me (and wildly off-topic!).

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

NTIKO.

Bob

[Shelly_Ryder@adobeforums.com]

I only use grays and black in the Excel files before copying and pasting into Quark. No color involved. The inside pages of our catalogs where the WMFs appear are printed in black only, so even if these grays are still considered "RGB" somehow, it hasn't been an issue.

I'll see how Quark 5 behaves on my new computer with 2gb RAM (I heard once that it doesn't support more than 1gb RAM). If it craps out, I'll switch to ID. Is Adobe doing a competitive upgrade price?