PE: Using A Microsoft Word Table In Elements Projects

INTRODUCTION

The June 30, 2019 "PE: New Trimmed Archived Project Revisited" blog post included tables that were created using Insert Table feature in Microsoft Word (version 14.0.72.32.5000 64 bit) which came as part of Microsoft Professional Plus 2010. The Microsoft Word Save and Save As  opportunities for those tables did not include the JPG, GIF, or PNG format required by the blog publishing service (blogger.com).

ISSUE

Although the primary focus was getting good quality tables into the blog post, the secondary focus was getting these tables in good quality into a Premiere Elements project. The better ways to achieve these goals were explored.

SOLUTIONS & WORKAROUNDS

Table 1 Into Blog Post

A how to for converting the Microsoft Word docx to jpg, png, gif, or tiff format was found HERE.

Applying these details to my situation, I used the following steps to create a .png image from the Microsoft Word Table .docx.

Step 1.
Selected the entire Microsoft Word table which had been set up with landscape orientation/font = Calibri (Body)/font size = 11; right clicked the selection, and selected Copy from the pop up menu.

Step 2.
Opened a new Microsoft Word docx with landscape orientation; went to its Home/Paste/Paste Special to get the Paste Special dialog; in the Paste Special dialog, dotted the Paste choice, selected Picture (Enhanced Metafile), and pressed OK.

Step 3.
Right clicked the resulting image to obtain a pop up menu which contained the Save As Picture choice. The Save As Picture choice opened the File Save dialog which offered "Save As Type" choice of .png, .jpg, .gif, .tif, or .bmp.

Step 4.

Following the above guide, Table 1 in the .png format appeared in the blog post in excellent quality....example shown below, using blog's Insert Image/Extra Large display.

However, when these same techniques were used to create Table 1 in .jpg format, instead of .png format, Save on the hard drive had a black thumbnail. That black image could be imported into the blog post, but displaying a black image and not the Table.

Comparing some properties of the Saves on the hard drive,

Table 1 in .png format
File Size = 446 KB
Pixel Dimensions = 5502 x 3791
Bit Depth = 32 bits

Table 1 in .jpg format
File Size = 390 KB
Pixel Dimensions = 5502 x 3791
Bit Depth = 8 bits

Neither one of these was usable in my Premiere Elements 2018 project.

Table 1 Into Premiere Elements 2018 Project

The Table 1 in JPEG format that worked in Premiere Elements 2018 project was obtained as follows:

• The Table 1 created in Microsoft Word was saved using Save As PDF.

• The saved Table 1 in PDF format was opened in Photoshop Elements 2018 and saved as JPEG using File Menu/Save For Web (settings for JPEG, Matte White, and original Image Size 2418 x 1959 pixels - 976 KB).

An example of Table 1 in JPEG format converted from the PDF can be seen below (import into blog example uses the blog's Insert Image/Extra Large Display).

COMMENTARY 

The results appear to point to that the PDF to JPEG route to achieve good quality Microsoft Word Tables that can be used in both my blog posts as well as Premiere Elements projects. However, in my case, if only blog post table was focus, then the Microsoft Word Paste Special technique (with .png result) is very tempting. At this time, other variables on the topic were not explored.


ATR