HerGeekness Says: Convert a File, Any File

HerGeekness Says: Convert a File, Any File

When clients hand you source files so ancient or obscure that they’re unreadable, don’t despair. Part 1 of my file conversion survival kit will have you repurposing those files lickety split — without asking the client to lift a finger, and without forcing you to buy every application under the sun just to open the occasional weirdo document.

Written by Anne-Marie “HerGeekness” Concepcion on July 9, 2008

I bet they forgot to tell you in design school that you need to become an expert in computer file formats to survive, let alone succeed, in our field.

Consider graphic file formats. Your clients and vendors assume you know the limitations and appropriate use of all the image file types: JPEG, TIFF, PSD, AI, EPS, GIF, PNG, DNG, BMP… Tell me, did you take that class at Design School U?

Luckily, most layout programs (Web, print, or presentation) can import a wide variety of graphics file formats; and if they can’t, a quick trip to an image converter utility (or in and out of Photoshop, Illustrator, or CorelDRAW) will spit out a version in an appropriate format.

To me, the real challenge for designers is dealing with the hundreds of other file formats out there, the ones clients occasionally ask you to pull content from. Most clients don’t need to be as computer-savvy as we do; it’s just a peripheral tool to them. In their sweet naiveté, they assume that if you have a computer, you can open any computer file, period.

My ever-lovin’ clients blithely send me files created in the dawn of time (WQ1, which is Quatro Pro DOS), files from a program they’ve upgraded to and so assume everyone else has too (DOCX, the new Microsoft Word format), and every format in between, from WS4 (WordStar) to CDR (CorelDraw) to PUB (Microsoft Publisher) — all without a thought that I may not be able to do anything with them.

Figure 1. Ack! What the heck is a CWK file?

As a business owner, I want to make it as easy as possible for clients to work with me, but I can’t go broke buying every application under the sun just to open their occasional weirdo file.

Here are some trusted conversion tools I’ve come to rely upon to get me out of just about any file format jam.

Get a Universal Translator
Remember that Quatro Pro (DOS) file I mentioned? I needed to get data out of it to include in a chart, but I didn’t have a PC running DOS, let alone Quatro Pro. Instead of calling my client to ask her to save the spreadsheet out to a tab-delimited text file, I simply converted it to an Excel file in a flat minute with my trusty MacLinkPlus Deluxe ($79.99) software from DataViz, which is now on version 16. (Probably the highest-versioned software I own.) This wunderkind, and its Windows equivalent, Conversions Plus ($49.99), can convert dozens of file types from one format to another, on the same platform or cross-platform.

Figure 2. Here are about half of the file formats MacLinkPlus Deluxe can convert. (Click on the image to see larger version of it.) For the full list, go to www.dataviz.com.

Of course, file conversions, just like language translations, can only go so far. Data and most formatting remains intact, but don’t expect the converted file to look and feel exactly like the original.

Converting Layout Formats
While Dataviz software is great for converting general business files and graphics, it doesn’t speak page layoutese. What can you do if a client sends you QuarkXPress 6.5 source files and you only use Adobe InDesign CS3?

Markzware to the rescue! In true entrepreneurial spirit, these developers, already well-known for their flagship FlightCheck Pro prepress software, found a need and filled it with their killer conversion add-ons, Q2ID, ID2Q, and PUB2ID.

Each program is available for Mac OS X and Windows and can convert cross-platform. The first one, Q2ID, is an InDesign CS2 or CS3 plug-in that converts QuarkXPress 3-7 files into INDD files. ID2Q is an XTension for QuarkXPress 6 or 7 that — surprise! — converts INDD files to QXP layouts. PUB2ID, a plug-in for InDesign CS2 or CS3, converts Microsoft Publisher files to INDD layouts.

None of them are cheap — each starts at $199 for a single seat — and Markzware doesn’t do trial versions. However, they offer a test conversion service at their Product Trial page if you want to see some results before forking over the money.

Figure 3. This is the top couple of inches from a random page in an electronic parts catalog done in QuarkXPress 6.5 (note the cursor upper right). Click on the image to see a larger version.

Figure 4. This is the same section of the page after converting it to InDesign CS3 with Markzware’s Q2ID plug-in. Can you imagine having to recreate this page in InDesign manually? It’s just one of 1,200 pages where the default type size is 5.5/6! Click on the image to see a larger version.

As with the Dataviz products, you can’t expect perfect conversions, especially because page layout programs often have key differences that just don’t translate. Markzware’s documentation does a great job of explaining how it handles those situations. Nonetheless, I’ve used both Q2ID and ID2Q and believe me, the almost perfect conversions they do will pay for themselves ten minutes into the first time you need them!

Converting Fonts
Last year, a client asked my studio to develop an InDesign CS3 template for their Windows-based magazine with the same basic design and typography they used in their previous program, QuarkXPress 6.5 for Windows. With the help of Markzware’s Q2ID (see above), I converted their most recent QuarkXPress issue into my Mac version of InDesign CS3, which I used as a reference for the new template I was creating in InDesign.

While the initial conversion from Quark to InDesign and Windows to Mac was trouble-free, the magazine’s Windows-only custom Type 1 font was a problem.

I needed a Mac version of the font to test H and J settings for paragraph styles in InDesign, but the client didn’t own a Mac version. Before my client could start to fret, I told her I’d take care of it.

I could’ve moved the project from my Mac to one of our Windows machines running ID CS3, but there was no reason to. Instead, I converted the Windows Type 1 font to a Mac Type 1 font with TransType Pro, a wonderful utility for Mac or Windows from FontLab. The standard TransType ($99) converts fonts cross-platform and cross-format with aplomb, but the Pro version ($199) can convert Type 1, True Type, and Multiple Master fonts to OpenType format, which takes care of the platform issue quite easily. (I stuck with Type 1 for my client since that’s what they were used to.) All hinting and built-in pair kerns are maintained in the font’s new version.

Figure 5. Converting fonts with TransTypePro is a straightforward process: Add fonts to the left side of the TransTypePro window, set your Preferences (what platform/format they should be converted to and where they should be saved), and click the Convert button (not shown). Click the image to see larger version of it.

Before you convert fonts, however, check the typeface vendor’s End User License Agreement (EULA) to make sure the conversion is legal. Converting Adobe’s fonts from one platform or format to another is fine with Adobe, by the way — I checked the EULA and even got it confirmed with some suits over there before recommending TransTypePro to clients.

Converting Microsoft Office Files
With the release of Office 2007 for Windows last year, Microsoft changed the default file format for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents to what they call the “Office Open XML” format. That means Word files are no longer .doc, they’re .docx; Excel files are no longer .xls, they’re.xlsx; and PowerPoint files are no longer .ppt, they’re .pptx. Office 2008 (for Macintosh) came out a few months ago, and it shares those new default formats and file extensions.

Earlier versions of the Office apps can’t open these files, and many non-Microsoft programs can’t import them, either. (I’ve found that Adobe InDesign CS3 can place .docx files without a problem, but QuarkXPress 7.x doesn’t recognize them.)

Do you need a .doc but your client sent you a .docx? You could ask the client to do a Save As, choosing “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” as the format, which produces a .doc file, but it’s not necessary — there are plenty of workarounds. (One obvious solution is to buy the upgrade, of course. The latest versions of Mac and Windows versions will open each other’s files, just as with previous versions. But I’ll assume you’re not in a position to do that.)

If you’re using an older Windows version of the Office apps, you can download Microsoft’s free Office Compatibility Pack, which lets you open, edit, and save the new file types in your Office programs (and thus, in a format that QuarkXPress and other programs can import).

Microsoft just released a similar Compatibility update for Mac users who haven’t upgraded to Office 2008 yet, Microsoft Office 2004 version 11.5.0. You can download it from this Microsoft page or just choose Check for Updates from any Help menu in the Office 2004 applications. It’s designed to work in tandem with the standalone Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0 package, which just came out of a long beta, so you’ll need to install that too. (The 11.5 updater will let you know if you don’t have the latest version of the converter and bring you to its download page.)

Figure 6. After you install the Microsoft Office 2004 11.5.0 update and its companion converter, you’ll be able to convert .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files and open them in Office 2004 programs just by double-clicking them.

What if you’re using an even earlier version of Microsoft Office — or none at all — and so can’t take advantage of the Compatibility updates? No problem — there are many free and low-cost utilities and web services that convert the “x files,” either to earlier versions of Office programs, or to generic RTF (Rich Text Format) or CSV (comma-delimited text) files. (Google “docx converter” to see what I mean).

One of the best free converters for Mac users is the same Open XML File Converter I mentioned above, which can be run as a standalone utility whether or not you have Office 2004. Just drag and drop files on top of the application’s window to convert them to “standard” Office format.

Figure 7. Here I’m dragging a .docx file on top of Microsoft’s Open XML File Format Converter window to automatically convert it to .doc format, allowing me to import the file into a QuarkXPress layout.

If you use Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), you have good access to Microsoft’s new format even if you don’t own any version of Office. TextEdit 1.5 can open .docx files, maintaining even the most complex formatting, and even save files in .docx format! (How’d they swing that?) Apple’s iWork ’08 suite ($79) can open .docx files in Pages, .pptx files in Keynote, and .xlsx files in Numbers. Once the files are open, you can export the data in a more compatible format to use elsewhere.

For Windows and Mac users alike, I really like the speedy, low-carbon-footprint conversion utilities from Panergy Software. Their cross-platform .docXConverter ($19.95) lets you drag and drop .docx, .xlsx, and even .cwk (Apple Works/Claris Works v5 or v6 word processing files) files on top of the application window to quickly convert them to RTF or CSV format so you can open them in earlier versions of Office programs, or in any program, for that matter, that can open or import an RTF or CSV file. (Meaning, you don’t need to own Excel or Word to access the data!)

Figure 8. Panergy’s .docXConverter did a great job converting this .xlsx example of a balance sheet to CSV format. It automatically opened the file in FileMakerPro 7, the application I had selected in the program’s preferences. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The Dataviz conversion programs that I mentioned above (Conversions Plus for Windows, MacLinkPlus Deluxe for Macs) have only spotty support for the Office Open XML format. MacLinkPlus Deluxe can convert .docx and .xlsx files created in Windows, but Conversions Plus can’t convert them, and neither app can convert Powerpoint .pptx files.

Finally, I’ve read that the free, multi-platform, open source alternatives to the Microsoft Office suite, NeoOffice 2.24 and the 3.0 beta version of OpenOffice.org, can open the new Office Open XML file formats with decent results and save them out as RTF or CSV files, suitable for importing into other design applications. I haven’t yet tested this myself, so I can’t confirm.

In Case of Emergency, Ask for a PDF
Inevitably, you’ll receive a file in a format for which there is no conversion solution. Last week, a client wanting a Web site handed me a layout file done in Ventura Publisher 4.1 — that’s circa 1993, ladies and gentlemen. If you encounter a hair-puller like that one, your best bet is to get it into PDF format and then either extract the text and images for re-use elsewhere, or convert the PDF itself.

I’ll cover all sorts of tips and techniques for exporting files to PDF (even if the client doesn’t have Acrobat and you don’t have the source application) and then squeezing formatted, editable content back out of them in my next column, part 2 of this file conversion survival kit for designers.

Is There a Cultural Shift in the Advertising Workflow?

With the advent of digital workflow, new responsibilities emerge for the newspaper publisher and the ad creator

Ask most newspaper sales executives, and they’ll tell you just how competitive the market place is these days — how tough of a sell it is when other media forms are drawing the interest of advertisers like never before.

Newspapers must be able to compete with these other vehicles, present compelling circulation numbers, and provide excellent customer service to the advertising client. They must be able to accept, position, produce and print the advertiser’s copy and images, with particular attention paid to reproduction quality.

In the cases of ads supplied by larger agencies and experienced design firms, digital content may come in by way of “prepress-ready” file formats, all the elements present and accounted for, all the specifications for print met. But not all ads come in from clients well-equipped to supply these types of files. As a result, plenty of bad files come in the door — files rife with font, resolution or color space problems. And these “bad files” must then be fixed before they can be placed in the imposition, which, of course, takes time and money.

Fortunately, there are inexpensive software tools available to newspaper publishers and their advertising clients that smooth out these workflow wrinkles, and enables advertisers to supply well-prepared and accurate digital ad files to the publisher, as well as enabing the publisher to confirm that the files are “good” upon receipt.

The publisher’s role
Newspaper production departments have been long – (and well) equipped to receive any number of types of digital ad files — everything from native application QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign documents to more standardized, locked down PDF files.

As the publisher, accepting these digital ads, the newspaper production team is often equipped with software — referred to in the print industry as “preflight software“
– that will analyze digital ad files and alert the publisher to any inaccuracies in their preparation. Preflight software will sound an alarm when there may be missing fonts and graphics, improper color space (RGB vs. CMYK) or resolution discrepancies.

While preflight technologies have been a staple for newspaper and other print publishers for more than a decade, the workflow between advertiser and publisher remains replete with flaws, with publishers and printers reporting as many as 85 percent of the digital files they receive from their clients are ill-prepared and require some intervention before they can be printed.

Most publishers and printers agree that the ideal advertising workflow comprises digital fields that are supplied in good form that meet the ideal printing specifications established by the newspaper publisher and its printer. And there’s really no reason why advertisers — whether large, print-savvy agencies or independent designers — can’t supply their files in this way. The tools to verify their content before submitting it to the newspaper are inexpensive, easy to use and accessible. But if may fall upon the publisher’s production and sales staff those who have direct contact with the advertising client — to evangelize their use.

Fortunately, it isn’t a tough sell for clients who share the publisher’s goal — to produce good print ads. Increasingly the culture is shifting, and ad creators are more inclined to do whatever is necessary to ensure the files they release to the paper will process seamlessly and look great in print.

The agency’s role
These days, it’s no longer the publisher and printer who share the responsibility of quality control; it’s everyone’s responsibility — from content creator to production to prepress to press.

“I examine and check all the files before they’re released from the agency — whether they’re for outdoor media, newspapers or magazines,” suggests Donna Carroll, quality control manager, newspapers or magazines,” suggests Donna Carroll, quality control manager, print production, Crispin Porter and Bogusky (CPB Miami).

CPB produces graphics and ad campaigns for some notable clients, including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Burger King, Mini Cooper, and NOW HIV/AIDS, just to name a few. Carroll says that no matter the size and prestige of the client, it’s the agency’s primary responsibility to ensure their ads are visually spectacular when they appear in print.

To ensure that the digitial ad files she offers to newspaper publishers, Carroll uses a low-cost application called Flightcheck Professional from Santa – CA – based Markzware. The solution according to the developer, is designed to “look inside” the digital file — whether it’s a native application file (such as QuarkXPress or Adobe Illustrator) or a final-format PDF — and determine whether all of the file elements are present and accounted for.

“We have 20 digital artists who work on files before I get them, Carroll explains. “For each of them, their last workflow step is to use FlightCheck [Professiona] to check these elements and then collect them to a single file package. Not only is it a checkpoint for us at the creative stage, it is also a collection tool that gathers all the images and fots, so that within the package, you know that everything required for the job is in there, and whe it gets to the vendor, it’s not missing anything.
“Then , they send the files to me,” Carroll ads. “I use FlightCheck again to double check them before they’re released to a publication or printer. It’s our last line of defense.”

Remember the common goal
Like Donna Carroll, Kenny Berwager is a big proponent of preflighting digital ads before they leave the agency’s doors. He’s a graphic and production artist for Lois Knott Advertising, a small, more-than-35-year-old advertising firm based in Hanover, PA.

While the firm produces a wide range of advertising media — everything form print to radio and TV spots — the majority of jobs Berwager works on are bound for local newspapers.

He describes the typical newspaper ad workflow: “Lois [Knott] is the creative director. She gathers any materials I’ll need to produce the ad, and also provides me with a sample layout — just someting simple like a pencil sketch. I take that layout and begin the design — in [Adobe] Illustrator or InDesign, usually. We currently use the Adobe Creative Suite applications,” Berwager explains.

Once the ad design is complete and approved by the client, Berwager finalizes the digital file by putting it through a complete preflight analysis and then collecting the document or output to a flattened PDF file that’s both “camera-ready” and “prepress-ready.”

Preflight is absolute necessity to the Berwager’s workflow, he insists. Using FlightCheck, Berwager is able to see all the file’s guts.

“It checks for things that may be corrupt,” he says. “I can see if images are RGB but should be CMYK. I can tell their resolution. I can see all of these details about the images and the fonts, so if something needs to be fixed, I can go back to InDesign or whatever application I’ve created the file in, and make the changes, recheck it with FlightCheck and then save out my PDF. That way, I know, when the file leaves my desktop, it’s not going to land at the newspaper and cause all sorts of headaches there, or on press.”

Berwager claims that he’s quite happy to preflight his files before he releases them to a client, a publication or a printer. While it may be an added responsibility on his shoulders, he says that it’s worth the few minutes it takes to adjudicate the files — especially for his clients.

“[Preflight] ensures there are fewer mistakes in the print job and ultimately, that means that our agency or our clients won’t have nay extra, unexpected charges for fixing problems with the files we produce,” Berwager asserts.

Not long ago, Markzware put out a cry for Corrupt InDesign Files

Not long ago, Markzware put out a cry for Adobe InDesign users to send in their bad, corrupted or otherwise not responding documents. We have seem a steady stream of crashing InDesign documents coming in, which is to assist our R&D team in making a recovery Plug-in, similar to MarkzTools. Keep sending them (to pr at markzware dot com, for we are making incredible progress. Those who want to see how we fix them currently, visit this site and lastly, here is a video up-date on the recovery process. We show a huge file getting fixed.

Q2ID: Saving Time, Saving the Day

Based in Cornelius, NC, The Moore Creative Company opened its doors in August of 1997 as a graphic design shop owned by Ran Moore and his wife, Jennifer. When the company was born, it was 100-percent devoted to graphic design for print intentions — an eclectic mix of jobs, from brochures and letterhead, to billboards and vehicle graphics. The company primarily targeted the local commercial and residential real-estate industries.

As the years unfurled behind it, the company evolved and grew beyond the geographical boundaries of North Carolina and its initially narrow Clientele focus. Today, The Moore Creative Company employs a staff of three designers, four developers, and a search engine marketer. Its clients represent a diverse roster of companies that vary in size, as well as industry. And what was once a print-centric workflow now is unevenly split, with 20 percent representing print output, and the 80-percent balance devoted to electronic and online media.

“We transitioned to more Web-site design and interactive Flash [and] animation work online, and later, to more e-mail marketing design,” Ryan Moore recalls “We probably hit the 50-50 split between print and online around 2001 or so, and now we do more jobs that start with electronic items, and that we’re suggesting print items to support or complement them — versus the other way around.”

It was a few years ago when The Moore Creative Company underwent a transition of another kind; it switched layout platforms, from QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign. Moore says the revamp of the workflow went quite smoothly, overall, and the design team appreciated the synergies between Adobe InDesign and the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite — Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. — they’d already been using.

The only “glitch” in the workflow was so minor it may not even be properly categorized as a “glitch,” and that was how to handle legacy content that needed to be reused or creative content submitted by clients that came in the form of native-application QuarkXPress files. Moore began a quest for a tool that would allow his creative team to reincarnate QuarkXPress files in Adobe InDesign, without having to essentially rebuild the layout, element by element.

It became imperative that he find a solution the day a new client brought in a QuarkXPress file from an older-version of the application. The job was a “rush,” and the creative team needed to extrapolate the content as quickly as possible in order to being working on it in Adobe InDesign.

“Rather than buy the new Quark or look for a friend to open it, we searched the Web and found [Q2id]. Thirty minutes later, we had our file converted and were on our way,” Moore recalls.

Developed by Markzware, Inc., http://www.markzware.com, Q2ID (QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign), is an inexpensive little Adobe plug-in with a self-explanatory name. Simply put, it enables user to open QuarkXPress files with Adobe InDesign, while preserving the elements and formatting, including page positiong, color models, fonts and styles, images, and more. Once installed, converting a file requires just a few familiar clicks: Within Adobe InDesign, users click on File, then Open, and choose teh QuarkXPress document they wish to convert.

“We purchased it either at the end of 2007 or early 2008 for a specific project [for which] we received files from the client — from another designer — that were in QuarkXPress 7,” Moore recalls. “It would have taken hours to rebuild and, instead, it took minutes to convert … It saved the day, and the budget!”

As time goes by, dealing with QuarkXPress-housed content becomes less of a concern for the team at Moore Creative. Ryan Moore estimates that a QuarkXPress file passes through the office approximately once every four months.

“It’s not something we use every day,” he notes, “but when we do need it, it’s been in an emergency rush situation, and Q2ID has saved the day … Zero problems. Exactly as advertised. And worked perfectly the first time,” Moore says of Q2ID. “that was the best part. It was so easy to use. Nothing complicated.”

ROROHIKO LTD. Teaches plug-in development at Adobe Summit in April

Getting started with Adobe InDesign Plug-Ins?

Is your team in need of more InDesign developers?

Want to be more efficient at developing InDesign Plug-Ins?

Getting up to speed with the InDesign SDK easily takes between two and six months of non-productive time.

Attending this one-day workshop will shave at the very least one month from this non-productive lead time.

No doubt you have a good idea what the cost of one developer-month is, so you can easily estimate what value this workshop is to you.

The workshop will be run on Monday, April 28th, on the first day of the Adobe Creative Suite Developer Summit, by Kris Coppieters from Rorohiko Ltd. The cost is only US$1149.00 per person.

To check availability and/or to register, e-mail us at training@rorohiko.com.

Make sure you book early – space is limited! More info about the rest of the summit can be found here:

http://blogs.adobe.com/notesfrommnr/2008/01/save_the_date_2.html#more

 

 

Here’s a $100 off coupon – 2008 IPA Technical Conference

As a valued Markzware customer, I’m sending you information about the 2008 IPA Technical Conference because I know you’ll benefit by attending. The conference is April 22-24 at the Westin Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

In cross media communications, production processes are blending together, affecting all aspects of the workflow, both upstream and down. Whether you’re a photographer, designer, production manager, IT specialist, prepress manager or printer, workflow issues are more interconnected than ever before.

The 2008 IPA Technical Conference brings together the industry’s best and brightest technology leaders from every facet of the graphic communication industry to share insight and ideas on how to provide more integrated and effective graphic solutions for your clients.

I’d like to extend you a personal invitation to attend the meeting. It would be a chance for us to meet face-to-face and you’ll have a lot of great information to take back to your company. Here’s a $100 off coupon for registration. Be sure to use the special purchase code: first when you register.

Here is more information and the website where you can register: http://www.ipa.org/knowledge/conferences/tech2008/offer.php

Thank you for your partnership with us and I look forward to seeing you in person in April!

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