I wonder why you are using Word?

I suspect that what you do, is not easy to do in Word.

I wonder why you are using bitmap graphics?

Why can you not use vector graphics?

Vector graphics always print at the best possible resolution.

If you, from the Graphics Tool, export the Finale layout as PDF, you will get vector graphics.

You can convert the PDF file to EPS, if needed.

But a PDF-to-EPS conversion is probably not needed.

Peter!

I think you made the post that I referred to re: In-Design.  Thank you for responding!

I suspect I was not as clear as I needed to be. I wasn't planning on a PDF to EPS conversion. I was asking about a PDF to Word or EPS to Word.  I embed music examples in Word, and use Word to provide a running commentary for what is happening musically.  From your post, you recommend converting Finale files to PDF (which then become uneditable once within Word, correct?)

Presently I'm working on 6 chapters (basically written) but I inputted the music examples as tiff files into Word.  Chapters then became between 75 to 250megs each. SUPER LARGE!  I was thinking of re-inputting the music examples using EPS or PDF.  You advise PDF, and seem to indicate that vector graphics (of PDF) print better "at the best possible resolution" (When you use "resolution" here does that refer to the printer resolution itself?). 

I am planning to work with a music company that assists in self-publication that plans to use In-Design at some point.  That's why I referred to your previous post.  One statement by you there worried me--that some degrading of music files could occur in In-Design (if I understood you correctly).

Any clarifications you can make to any of this?  You are obviously so much more informed and experienced than me.  I thank you for responding!

I do not remember a post where I have referred to InDesign.

Perhaps it was not me.

… you recommend converting Finale files to PDF (which then become uneditable once within Word, correct?) …

I am not sure I can follow your thoughts.

Why are you asking?

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

Would you like to edit the PDF files within Word?

Word can not edit PDF files.

… but I inputted the music examples as tiff files into Word …

Also, Word can not edit TIFF files.

… You advise PDF, and seem to indicate that vector graphics (of PDF) print better "at the best possible resolution" (When you use "resolution" here does that refer to the printer resolution itself?) …

It is important that you understand the difference between bitmap graphics and vector graphics.

Bitmap graphics describe the image “dot-by-dot” (”this dot is black“ - “this dot is white” - &c.)

When you scale a bitmap graphic up to a much bigger size, you get “jagged edges”.

This means that the file size of bitmap graphics gets bigger with “the number of dots” - if the resolution must remain the same.

For a bitmap graphic with the double height and width you need four times as many dots, to get the same resolution.

Vector graphics, On The Other Hand, describe the image in mathematical formulas.

This means that a vector graphic does not have a resolution.

And the file size is always small.

You can scale a vector graphic up to any bigger size, and you will always get sharp edges.

I hope that this is clear?

If not, ask again.

Peter,

Thank you again--and for your patience.

Yes, I understand that PDF's cannot be edited within Word.

The problem?  I was concerned that my total files (for 15 chapters in a book) would become extremely large if using EPS at 300dpi. PDF files seem to solve that since they are small in size.

Another aspect

I have written another 37 chapters written using MOTU's Mosaic (not updated since 2002?) on an old computer with Word. The only way I can get them to my MAC2015 is to PDF whole chapters. Probably these old nota.tion files were written with bitmap technology and at 72bpi.  So I'm worried if they will print decently.  (I know this is very unusual)

Thank you for the BITMAP vs VECTOR explanation.  I discovered that PDF doesn't have resolutions (from testing myself--the greyed out in Graphic tool). But I didn't understand that vector graphics scale nicely to different sizes--good to know.  In fact I tested that minutes before your post--some lines looked heavier than others on my computer, but when printed, no issue.  Thank you, Peter!

Le’s get away from how you think you want to do this and focus on the results. If I am understanding correctly, you are writing a book in Word and want to drop in examples that you have created in Finale and have them look good. Right? OK. this is really easy. Forget you’ve ever heard of EPS unless you are finishing the project in an Adobe product such as In Design. Moving on...

Word does not like embedded pdf files. Period. You can drop them in, change the size etc. but the result is not good—ever. It’s about the same resolution as printing and scanning and then importing—the best results will be dull with poorly defined edges.

On the other hand, jpg or .png graphics drop right in and will be crisp and easy to read. Also really easy to do in OS X. I’ll get to that.

But first, what to do about your old files with the Mosaic examples? It depends. How are you viewing them now? Are you able to open the pages in Word—if so, how do the graphics look? Will they open in Preview—again, if so, how do the graphics look? If you can open them in both, in which app do the graphics look better?

What version of Word?

Get me some answers and I’ll have some suggestions. I put music examples into Word all the time. Easy-peasy .

Crickets....

I asked simple questions but haven’t received answers  Let’s try again:

Q. 1: Current Mac. What version of Word? 2008, 2011, 2016/365. Unless you aren’t really using Word and I’l need to know that.

Q. 2: When you open your old files on your current Mac, you are viewing pdf files. I get that. Do the music examples look good? It’s a Yes or No question.

Please stop explaining what you’ve done and how you are doing it. I’m not interested and it doesn’t matter. Only if the answer to Q.2 is No wil I get into the old Mac.

I might be away from my iPad the rest of the day as I am traveling this afternoon and spending too much time in airports etc. In that case, I’ll look at this and respond tomorrow when I am home. This is easy but I need both questions answered first. You’ve already told me more than I need to know otherwise.

Mike,

My 2015 MAC is OS10.11.6

Q1. Word on MAC2015 is latest download, of just a couple of days ago, 16.13.1 (18523)

Q2. Yes. The PDF files (from Old Mosaic) to me look good, useable, and I've printed them in past for students. 

Ok, I'm back. 

I'm going to assume that you are familiar with the various graphics properties in Word. Resizing objects is quite easy and is the same in all versions. Text Wrapping changes from version to version even if the principles are the same, more or less. In any case, Resizing and Text Wrapping are the only things you really need to know.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/control-text-wrapping-around-objects-in-word-for-mac-d764f846-3698-4374-baa5-2e869d1f4913?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Bring on a Mac with a recent OS, Preview is your best friend for what you want to do. This works the same with Finale and with your old .pdf files. 

Open the Finale document with your musical examples or open the .pdf of your old files.

Open Preview. 

Click on the File menu, scroll down to and hover over Take Screenshot. A submenu will open, drag right and click onto From Selection... This will change the cursor to a crosshair target.

Go to your Finale file or pdf and draw a box as tightly as you can around your musical example. When you release, it creates a .png file called Untitled. If the box is not tight enough or otherwise not right, Cancel and try again.

When it's right, click on Save. A menu will now appear that lets you title the graphic and select a folder to save it. You'll see a menu below that lets you change to another file type. I don't know that it will make a difference in Word 2016 whether you save as .png or .jpg other than .png files are smaller.

One of the many things I like about this approach is that you don't have to do any graphics export in Finale—if you have 20 examples on one page, it's still only one page. Neither does it matter how you created your old documents. If the graphic looks good in Preview, it is good.

Now you can drop your graphics into Word. You will have to set the size; when you click on it within the doc, the Graphics Tools should appear and you will set Text Wrapping. For most users, it's Tight but there are advantages to In Front of Text, too.

The only down side is that I know no way to automate this. Perhaps there are preference settings in Word 2016? I know of none in 2008 or 2011.

Here's part of a page I did awhile back for a band that uses text charts. The lead player likes certain things written out. This is a partial page done in Word 2008. I did the music example in Encore and made a .jpg in Preview right from the Encore page on my Mac.

The other thing that Preview can do is to screen scrape your text from those old files, assuming that you created the .pdf files directly from the Word doc and didn't take a picture. Otherwise, you'll have to open those old files in Word and grab the text from there.

Although this won't work with graphics (yet?), there's am open source freeware project called LibreOffice that can open and convert many old formats to including MacWrite, AppleWorks... just about any old word processor for Mac, Windows, DOS or Unix you can name.

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

Mike,

You've gone beyond the call of duty!  And then some!

I will look this over very carefully.  It looks wonderful!

Thank you!!!  Hope it helps someone else as well.

You’re welcome. Much easier to do than to read about it, actually. When I finally understood what you wanted, I realized it was something I’ve done a lot over the years.

This would have been a bear to write on my iPad at my kids’ place in Austin but at home on my iMac? Piece of cake — unless you said No on whether the graphics looked good. Then I would have fired up my G4 and that would have taken some time as I remembered how to do things in OS 9 (Yikes!).