Prepressforums.com

IntruderVS800 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 01:08 PM

OK, as much as I dont believe it can be done....
I thought Id come and ask my question where the knowledgeable users hang out.

On another site, I read something about how someone was using InDesign to open Publisher files. He just said it could be done.

At first I thought "this is great!"
I then tried to open a .pub file in InDesign CS1, and CS2, no luck

But as I thought about, I thought maybe it wouldnt be such a good thing.
Id hate to see what InDesign does to word art in a publisher file.
Not to mention all the 72 dpi RGB .jpgs from the "designer".

Anyway, anyone know or heard anything about opening publisher files with InDesign?

Thanks

jimking · #2 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 01:35 PM

What I recall hearing is Pagemaker 7 has a plugin that can open older Pub files then you can open the Pagemaker file in Indy.

#3 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimking

What I recall hearing is Pagemaker 7 has a plugin that can open older Pub files then you can open the Pagemaker file in Indy.

that sounds dangerous!! 8O

bigg_MARK · #4 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 03:32 PM

Yes Publisher sucks ass and is a HUGE PITA but it is business. I open the Publisher files with Publisher running in Virtual PC (talk about a painful process) then I print to PDF, from there I alter the PDF, typically I drop the PDF page/pages into one InDesign document, then use Pitstop to delete items that the idio..err uhhh Client wants changed and recreate the elements in the indesign file. Cumbersome but works well for me. It also gets those little jobs in and out that would otherwise have been lost.

JaimeZ · #5 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 05:00 PM

Jim is right. Pagemaker 7 has a utility called MSPublisher_Quark Converter.exe. You can downloaded at Adobe's site:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=1335

It will convert Publisher 98 and Quark 3 files to PageMaker 7.0 files. I do this on a Windows machine.

First save Publisher file down to version 98 from more current version (ver 2003 still does)

Run the utility and open the Publisher 98 file in it; it will create a PageMaker 7 file

You then open the PageMaker file in InDesign. And you're right Word Art will not translate and you'll get a bunch of white frames

As for images, Publisher allows you to save all embedded raster images to file so they can be edited in Photoshop, saved as tiff and linked back to the InDesign file; same with vector WMF files and they can be edited in Illustrator and saved as eps format.

For easy documents this works well and the more complicated the document the more work to convert. There are more issues that need to be addressed and like prepress-vee says "that sounds dangerous!!"

mrseang · #6 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 06:11 PM

Punisher sucks...I dread every time I see one.
PDF to Pitstop, get photos sent high rez or re-create.
Have fun...

#7 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 10:33 AM

We keep it in Publisher. Publisher is our working file for all edits & changes.
Most of these, as I often refer to as "Junk Jobs" got straight to the iGen. RGB, CMYK, Spot Colors, Lowe res, High res... whatever. Just file > print and be done with it.. That's one reason I LOVE THE IGEN. It eats 'em up.

If it has to go offset, still use the Publisher files as our working doc. Print to file and distill to PDF > PitStop if need be.

They're really not that bad, it's the typical lack of needed fonts and/or links that sucks! I think all the converting it to this or that format will ultimately make any job not as profitable. In and out, snap - snap... then wait for the check to come in.

prepress_brillance_43 · #8 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prepress_vee

In and out, snap - snap... then wait for the check to come in.

:lol: 'at a boy. 8)

JaimeZ · #9 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 07:46 PM

You're right vee, it's always best to output out of Publisher. Publisher has tools to convert the file from RGB to CMYK to Spot etc.; and you can merge colors too. I was just answering what I have done in the past for the rare occasion I had to convert a Publisher file to an Indesign file. :wink:

GTrev · #10 (**permalink**) 01-21-2007, 03:16 PM

We get so many cruddy Publisher files that they are starting to look good! - go figure. I've got a couple of nice job settings in Prinect Colour Editor that fix a lot of issues from the pdf files we create from Publisher. Sure there can be a bit of dicking around in Pitstop - but that can be fun. I see more abominations from designers/clients who work in Photoslop!