Scanned Graphics / Screen Shots / White Spaces

[Shirley_Zaknich@adobeforums.com]

I am using an IBM Windows XP / Microsoft Office 2003 with 504 RAM.

I don't have CorelDRAW to copy my screen shots into. So therefore, I paste into PAINT, cut what I want and then save as JPEG if I think I will need the shot again, (when saved comes up as JPG) . If I don't the need the screen shot again, I will cut what I want from PAINT and then go directly into Word and paste. If arrows are needed on the screen shot and or a text box, I do all that then I group them together. I convert the file to Adobe Acrobat Ver 6 Standard and I believe it works fine. >If there is a better way of doing this (and without expenses) I would like to hear from you.

Along with the above screen shots, I scan in some hand drawings. Oh by the way, I am only new to Acrobat and to the scanning of drawings, but I am willing to learn and that's why I am here. To continue... >what file format should I save the scanned hand drawings? I have noticed that I have a shade of grey around the hand drawing, it seems to scan the paper, hence the grey; I then select MORE CONTRAST (in Word) and this gets rid of the grey shading. But when I transfer the Word file to a PDF, I get a fine line around the hand drawing (and in some drawings a line thro the middle also), I print it out - NO LINE, the printer prints it out AND A LINE APPEARS (he has 3 printer drivers and tried them all out, but to no avail). In the last print out I opened the JPG file and resaved as the graphic as a TIF file, as someone says it better if its a TIF. >So what should I save my scanned drawings as?

And finally, as a new user of Acrobat and as there is so much info to get under your belt and after reading on the 'how to' I started to convert the 300 page document (about 20 different files) into PDF. What I had noticed that the previous page jumped up to another page. To correct this I inserted a page break, I don't know why, but I did and that corrected that. Next question> Do I need to put in a hard page break on every page in Word so it doesn't jump around?

I also noticed that the page somewhat adjusts itself and gives me extra space at the bottom of the page, where as the Word document was perfect. Next question> How do I get rid of this white space and make it look like the original Word Document? The paper size is set both in Word & Acrobat as A4.

And finally, whew! >Is there anywhere on the Net or in Help (and without expense) that can give me a step by step lesson on how to use Acrobat without getting into a very detailed and confusing tutorial? I only want the basics, and when that is under my belt, I then want to know all the advanced stuff.

OK there is one "Finally". Thank you for taking the time to respond. I am looking forward to the answers. Thank you.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

As a way of managing screen shots, Paint is fine. I would use
Photoshop because I have it, but the job would be no different. I
would certainly not use CorelDraw or anything like it to keep them,
only to compose pages.

You should always keep the raw bitmaps, not just pages containing with
them. However, JPEG is a very bad format for keeping them; it is
designed for photos and will reduce the quality of screen shots.
Instead, save as BMP, even though they will be much larger.

Similarly JPEG is a bad (maybe even worse) choice for scanned line
art. Use TIFF (if available) or BMP. If you are scanning black and
white work, you should try selecting black and white (not greyscale)
scanning mode. That would make smaller files, and eliminate the
background colour. so experiment with different resolution settings.
If you do scan to greyscale, experiment with scanner settings that can
recognise your paper as white.

This is not automatic - look at a newspaper and a glossy magazine and
you will see that what we call "white" is actually a very variable
colour.

You mention pages jumping around. Is this using Word? That's normal
and natural, Word isn't a tool for precise layouts. You can reduce
this effect by always using hard page breaks.

Bear in mind that many of the issues you raise aren't really about
using Acrobat at all. I don't mean this is not a good place to raise
them, that's fine. But they are broader issues so don't just think
about Acrobat as your focus for answers.

Aandi Inston

[de_Siem@adobeforums.com]

More info about the Word issue can ve found in the Faq thread, which can be found on at the top of this forum.