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Re: What should be a simple task....

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg100667] Re: What should be a simple task....
  • From: LBoogie <lwalker701 at gmail.com>
  • Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:11:55 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <h0nuoh$bhh$1@smc.vnet.net>

On Jun 10, 5:35 am, "Nelson-Patel, Kristin" <k... at ll.mit.edu> wrote:
> Hi :)
>
> I am an analyst (applied physics and math) who has to present all
> of my work in Power Point briefings, sometimes on paper, sometimes
> electronically. I vastly prefer working in Mathematica to another system;
> however, I'm currently ham strung by my inability to transfer simple
> plots from Mathematica 7 to Power Point 2007 in a way that looks decent.
>
> In previous versions of both, I was able to Copy As: Metafile by right
> clicking on the plot in Mathematica and Paste Special: Metafile in
> Power Point, and all would be well (Ok, I had to tweak line thickness
> settings and fonts in my plots to make them survive the transfer, but
> that was fine).   Now, I have select the whole cell rather than just
> the plot to get the Copy As: metafile option, and I have to go all the
> way to the menu bar to do it (no longer an option on the right click).
> Fine, I can deal with that, but I can't deal with the fact that my simple
> plots look completely ratty now upon pasting into Power Point.
>
> There's all this stair stepping in curves which should be smooth.
> I've played with the PlotPoints option-no effect. I've exported into
> different form ats with varying ImageResolution and imported; Either the
> fonts get screwed up or it looks even worse or there's ugly aliasing or
> no effect on the stair stepping.  I've exported to PDF and snapshot-cop=
ied
> from there; The curves look good, but now the whole image is just a littl=
e
> bit blurry/soft, a little too much to pass muster with my supervisors
> and sponsors.
>
> I'm really getting frustrated now, have spent way too much time on what
> *was* a solved problem before my "upgrades", and beginning to suspect
> that the problem is some import or paste/display setting in Power Point
> that I can't reach.  I really don't want to have two different briefing=
s
> for electronic vs. paper presentation, but I'm a little concerned that's
> where this is heading, or I'm going to have to use the other system to
> make my plots. Which would bea shame.
>
> Has anyone figured this one out yet?  Help, please-I'm crying uncle.
> This is one of those stupid simple problems that also happens to be
> quite fundamental to the ability to make good use of Mathematica.
>
> -Kristin

I confirmed some quality problems Kristin is talking about.  I tried
copying and pasting the Plot[x,{x,0,1}] graphic from Mathematica 7 to
Powerpoint 2003.

Experiment #1: First I selected the graphic (not cell) then right-
clicked to Copy Graphic.  Next, I pasted to a slide and noticed some
poor quality in the pasted graphic.
Experiment #2: First I selected the cell of the graphic -- converted
it to Metafile.  I noticed that the converted graphic in Mathematica
looks the same as the pasted Powerpoint graphic from Experiment #1.
Experiment #3: Repeated Experiment #2 except that I converted the
graphic to Bitmap.  Much better quality in the pasted graphic except
for some clipping at margins of the graphic.

I think the Metafile conversion utility (Powerpoint/Mathematica) has
some quality issues.

Can someone recommend a command to extend the margins of the graphics
to avoid clipping something important when the graphic is pasted?

Thanks,
Lawrence


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