Rule Book help: Anyone good with Pagemaker to PDF?

In order to send the book to the publisher, I have to convert it to a PDF file.

One of the glitches that always seems to happen is that maybe 50% of the pictures end up with a line down the right side of them. I have no idea why, and I cannot figure out a pattern. Some of the old pictures have them and some do not, and the same with new pictures.

You can see this to a degree in the current Rule Book if you look, but I'd really like to get rid of it completely...

Anyone have any background in this?
 
Fearless Leader said:
In order to send the book to the publisher, I have to convert it to a PDF file.

One of the glitches that always seems to happen is that maybe 50% of the pictures end up with a line down the right side of them. I have no idea why, and I cannot figure out a pattern. Some of the old pictures have them and some do not, and the same with new pictures.

You can see this to a degree in the current Rule Book if you look, but I'd really like to get rid of it completely...

Anyone have any background in this?


Well, either I have a really simple answer that will work, or a whole bunch of questions that will let me know why the answer failed.

The first thing I usually try when telling somebody how to make a PDF, if I know nothing about their system, is suggest they try a freeware utility called PDFCreator. http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

A word of warning, it was created a while ago to work on 32-bit Microsoft operating systems (so don't try this if you have Vista loaded). It creates a print driver on your machine. Select it and you will have a big ol' PDF on your hard drive instead of a pile of paper spitting out a printer.

Failing that, I would need to find out what you have to work with. Operating system, budget for new software?
 
I often have to turn large files such as pagemaker and MS word into PDF's for the Dept of Energy. Let me know if you have any issues with getting it done and I'd be happy to do it for you.

Mark
 
i guess it depends on what kind of file it is you are attempting to convert to pdf first of all. in most cases i tend to go with a nice clean copy of adobe writer myself. those freeware programs can be buggy as hell at times and i wouldn't want the book to suffer on account of it. I can get you any version you want mike. legally and free. my company has crap tons of software.
 
Hey Mike, I work in the printing and reproduction business. We've got entire departments that does file conversions and many types of software that might help!

Justin H-
 
Fearless Leader said:
I'm using a program called Print to PDF right now...

Oh, I was going to suggest using the freeware CutePDF writer. Just grab both the Ghostscript converter and the the Writer.
 
tazoulti said:
Fearless Leader said:
I'm using a program called Print to PDF right now...

Oh, I was going to suggest using the freeware CutePDF writer. Just grab both the Ghostscript converter and the the Writer.

Actually, someone else also suggested that and it worked perfectly except for one thing: It stops at page 89 of a book that is 166 pages long!

If anyone knows why that is, please let me know....
 
Fearless Leader said:
tazoulti said:
Fearless Leader said:
I'm using a program called Print to PDF right now...

Oh, I was going to suggest using the freeware CutePDF writer. Just grab both the Ghostscript converter and the the Writer.

Actually, someone else also suggested that and it worked perfectly except for one thing: It stops at page 89 of a book that is 166 pages long!

If anyone knows why that is, please let me know....

Once again I place the blame solely on tight pants.
 
Fearless Leader said:
Actually, someone else also suggested that and it worked perfectly except for one thing: It stops at page 89 of a book that is 166 pages long!

If anyone knows why that is, please let me know....

Well, it could be a couple of things -
1) I've seen some printers simply get their 'memories blown' on large print jobs, in this case, breaking the print job up in smaller chunks (say 20-30 pages) is a useful workaround. (This could also indicate a problem with the WIndows print spooler, since the symptoms and workaround are the same. A quick way to tell which is running the job on a different model printer.)
2) There may be something on that (or the preceding) page that simply 'blows the ghostscript converters mind', and if the workaround in #1 always chokes only on a specific point in the pages, sometimes scrutinizing the offending pages in question will help single out what causing the problem. Sometimes it's simply some bad page formatting (such as printing in non-printable areas on non-full bleed printers for example).
 
Have you tried printing pages 89-166 only? Like others said, there could be a buffer issue. I'd imagine that the printer wouldn't have an issue with more than one pdf and, if he would, I know that with Acrobat you can put together multiple PDF's into one file. Sometimes piecemealing it is the easiest answer.
 
markusdark said:
Have you tried printing pages 89-166 only? Like others said, there could be a buffer issue. I'd imagine that the printer wouldn't have an issue with more than one pdf and, if he would, I know that with Acrobat you can put together multiple PDF's into one file. Sometimes piecemealing it is the easiest answer.

If I can figure out how to do that it would be fine; the most important thing is that the printer needs it all in one file
 
I know that you can combine multiple .PDF's together using adobe, so in theory, once you have the .PDF printed to adobe in smaller parts, you should be able to combine them.
 
Fearless Leader said:
markusdark said:
Have you tried printing pages 89-166 only? Like others said, there could be a buffer issue. I'd imagine that the printer wouldn't have an issue with more than one pdf and, if he would, I know that with Acrobat you can put together multiple PDF's into one file. Sometimes piecemealing it is the easiest answer.

If I can figure out how to do that it would be fine; the most important thing is that the printer needs it all in one file

When printing from pagemaker or whatever program you used to create the original, it will give you options as to what you want to print before you print - the entire file, the current page or a range of pages. Just put in 89-166 and then it should print just those.

When you are in Acrobat (not acrobat reader), open up the 1-88 page document. Then, under Document, it should say "Insert Pages". When you click on that, it will open up a window for you to select what document you wish to insert (It is strange like this). choose the 89-166 document and then a second window will come up and ask you where you'd like to insert the new pages. I'm not certain of the terminology but I'm sure you can figure it out when you see the window as to how to put it after the last page of the 1-88.
 
markusdark said:
Fearless Leader said:
markusdark said:
Have you tried printing pages 89-166 only? Like others said, there could be a buffer issue. I'd imagine that the printer wouldn't have an issue with more than one pdf and, if he would, I know that with Acrobat you can put together multiple PDF's into one file. Sometimes piecemealing it is the easiest answer.

If I can figure out how to do that it would be fine; the most important thing is that the printer needs it all in one file

When printing from pagemaker or whatever program you used to create the original, it will give you options as to what you want to print before you print - the entire file, the current page or a range of pages. Just put in 89-166 and then it should print just those.

When you are in Acrobat (not acrobat reader), open up the 1-88 page document. Then, under Document, it should say "Insert Pages". When you click on that, it will open up a window for you to select what document you wish to insert (It is strange like this). choose the 89-166 document and then a second window will come up and ask you where you'd like to insert the new pages. I'm not certain of the terminology but I'm sure you can figure it out when you see the window as to how to put it after the last page of the 1-88.

Thanks, I'll try that!
 
I use a program to convert Publisher and Pagemaker files to PDF all the time. I bought it a while ago because I always had trouble doing it. If you keep having problems I could likely convert the file pretty easily or if you wanted to buy the program I could send you a link to it.

- Jesse
 
Gormegil said:
I use a program to convert Publisher and Pagemaker files to PDF all the time. I bought it a while ago because I always had trouble doing it. If you keep having problems I could likely convert the file pretty easily or if you wanted to buy the program I could send you a link to it.

- Jesse

Already tried that, Jessee. Guess we don't get an early lookie at the rules. :mrgreen: :oops:
 
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