Printing Notes to PDF

[Guest]

When I try to print PowerPoint note pages to PDF the left and right margins
grow, which causes the notes text box to grow, which causes the lines to
break differently. I've tried with Acrobat 5 and 6; from PowerPoint 97, 2000,
2002 and 2003 (all with current patches - including Acrobat). I tried
printing using the menu bar buttons and printing using Distiller. I've tried
various settings in the print dialog box. I'm using the default "screen show"
slide settings.

Several of my clients (large pharmaceutical companies) are experiencing the
same problem, as is a printer I know. No one seems to have an answer, so far.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

When I try to print PowerPoint note pages to PDF the left and right margins
grow, which causes the notes text box to grow, which causes the lines to
break differently. I've tried with Acrobat 5 and 6; from PowerPoint 97, 2000,
2002 and 2003 (all with current patches - including Acrobat). I tried
printing using the menu bar buttons and printing using Distiller. I've tried
various settings in the print dialog box. I'm using the default "screen show"
slide settings.

Several of my clients (large pharmaceutical companies) are experiencing the
same problem, as is a printer I know. No one seems to have an answer, so far.

PowerPoint adjusts its output to fit the imageable area of the selected printer,
but it generally does this by scaling the entire page, not by adjusting
individual shapes on the page.

The whole area of getting stuff created in PPT to print at a certain size is
slippery and gets worse when you make a sidetrip through PDF. Not knocking
either of 'em, it's just that PPT wasn't designed to do DTP work.

When you see this change in linebreaks, does it occur when viewing the PDF on
screen or when you print it? Or both?

 

[Guest]

Both. In fact, you don't even have to wait for the PDF. You can see the
change happen before your eyes while watching the PowerPoint file (in notes
view) when you hit the print button. Margins jump, text box changes, line
breaks change. This is especially a problem when we've used shift returns.
The old way of professionally printing notes involved making eps files of the
slide (not easy) and bringing the eps into Quark where the notes were then
typed. Because so many clients now want to do everything themselves (all
within PowerPoint), we're having trouble explaining the resultant issues to
them. The PDF route is the closest alternative so far, but unless we can find
a fix for the margin problem, it's not perfect.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Both. In fact, you don't even have to wait for the PDF. You can see the
change happen before your eyes while watching the PowerPoint file (in notes
view) when you hit the print button. Margins jump,

Can you explain this a bit more? My reason for asking is that PowerPoint doesn't
have margins, so I'm having trouble picturing what jumped.

breaks change.

The line breaks are changing as a consequence of the text box size changing, right?
Sorry if the questions seem dumb, but since I can't look over your shoulder ... ya
know how it goes. ;-)

This is especially a problem when we've used shift returns.
The old way of professionally printing notes involved making eps files of the
slide (not easy)

BTDT. Automated it and even worked out a way of converting the EPS to CMYK, woohoo.
But I ain't going back down THAT road again! <g>

One possible approach. I'm guessing that PPT is doing some reformatting based on the
difference between the Adobe-supplied PS printer driver and whatever the user's
default driver is.

Have them set their default driver to Acrobat Distiller if using 5 or Adobe PDF if
using 6 or BeatsMeWhatTheyCallItNow if 7. Then start PPT, check notes page
formatting to make sure it's ok and finally print to the default driver.

 

[Guest]

Maybe "page size" would be better than "margins". If you open a Powerpoint
notes page and display ruler, watch what happens to the page size when you
print. I'm not sure what the default page size is for Powerpoint notes (7.5
inches? - same as the screen show slide size?), but it's not 8 1/2 inches,
which is what I assume it jumps to, as it seems to widen the page by about
1/2 inch on either side. Trying to print to a set page size didn't work
either (11' high x 7.5" wide). Try it, you should see what I mean. If not,
then I'll have to quit drinking. (See how confident I am?)

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

OK, thanks for bearing with me. I'm seeing the same thing. And at least in
PPT2000 with Acrobat 5 I have a kind of voodoo solution.

I start a new file, go to notes view, note the page size (7.5 x 10 in this
case) and the size of the notes text placeholder.

I choose File, Print, pick Acrobat Distiller, choose Notes Pages and click OK.

At that point, just as you say, the page size changes and so does the size of
the shapes on the page.

I let it make the PDF and check page size and the size of the notes text. Both
are larger now. Again, exactly as you described.

Now watch this. Note that my hands never leave my wrists as I immediately
after printing choose Edit, Undo. The page returns to its former size, so do
the shapes on the page and what makes it seriously weird IMO is that NOW they
stay put the next time I print to PDF.

See if it works the same for you.

Another one:

I shut down PPT, did Start Settings, Control Panel, Printers and set Distiller
as my default printer. Started another PPT file and did the same thing as
before, but this time it didn't change the notes page when I printed.

Weird.

Maybe "page size" would be better than "margins". If you open a Powerpoint
notes page and display ruler, watch what happens to the page size when you
print. I'm not sure what the default page size is for Powerpoint notes (7.5
inches? - same as the screen show slide size?), but it's not 8 1/2 inches,
which is what I assume it jumps to, as it seems to widen the page by about
1/2 inch on either side. Trying to print to a set page size didn't work
either (11' high x 7.5" wide). Try it, you should see what I mean. If not,
then I'll have to quit drinking. (See how confident I am?)

Both. In fact, you don't even have to wait for the PDF. You can see the
change happen before your eyes while watching the PowerPoint file (in notes
view) when you hit the print button. Margins jump,

Can you explain this a bit more? My reason for asking is that PowerPoint doesn't
have margins, so I'm having trouble picturing what jumped.

text box changes, line
breaks change.

The line breaks are changing as a consequence of the text box size changing, right?
Sorry if the questions seem dumb, but since I can't look over your shoulder ... ya
know how it goes. ;-)

This is especially a problem when we've used shift returns.
The old way of professionally printing notes involved making eps files of the
slide (not easy)

BTDT. Automated it and even worked out a way of converting the EPS to CMYK, woohoo.
But I ain't going back down THAT road again! <g>

One possible approach. I'm guessing that PPT is doing some reformatting based on the
difference between the Adobe-supplied PS printer driver and whatever the user's
default driver is.

Have them set their default driver to Acrobat Distiller if using 5 or Adobe PDF if
using 6 or BeatsMeWhatTheyCallItNow if 7. Then start PPT, check notes page
formatting to make sure it's ok and finally print to the default driver.

and bringing the eps into Quark where the notes were then
typed. Because so many clients now want to do everything themselves (all
within PowerPoint), we're having trouble explaining the resultant issues to
them. The PDF route is the closest alternative so far, but unless we can find
a fix for the margin problem, it's not perfect.

:

 

[Guest]

Well who do the voodoo like Steve do? Actually both your methods, at least in
2003, cropped the top and bottom this time. However, by printing the PDF
again from Acrobat the final version comes up perfect. At least on my initial
test. Can't thank you enough.

Cheers!

OK, thanks for bearing with me. I'm seeing the same thing. And at least in
PPT2000 with Acrobat 5 I have a kind of voodoo solution.

I start a new file, go to notes view, note the page size (7.5 x 10 in this
case) and the size of the notes text placeholder.

I choose File, Print, pick Acrobat Distiller, choose Notes Pages and click OK.

At that point, just as you say, the page size changes and so does the size of
the shapes on the page.

I let it make the PDF and check page size and the size of the notes text. Both
are larger now. Again, exactly as you described.

Now watch this. Note that my hands never leave my wrists as I immediately
after printing choose Edit, Undo. The page returns to its former size, so do
the shapes on the page and what makes it seriously weird IMO is that NOW they
stay put the next time I print to PDF.

See if it works the same for you.

Another one:

I shut down PPT, did Start Settings, Control Panel, Printers and set Distiller
as my default printer. Started another PPT file and did the same thing as
before, but this time it didn't change the notes page when I printed.

Weird.

Maybe "page size" would be better than "margins". If you open a Powerpoint
notes page and display ruler, watch what happens to the page size when you
print. I'm not sure what the default page size is for Powerpoint notes (7.5
inches? - same as the screen show slide size?), but it's not 8 1/2 inches,
which is what I assume it jumps to, as it seems to widen the page by about
1/2 inch on either side. Trying to print to a set page size didn't work
either (11' high x 7.5" wide). Try it, you should see what I mean. If not,
then I'll have to quit drinking. (See how confident I am?)

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Well who do the voodoo like Steve do? Actually both your methods, at least in
2003, cropped the top and bottom this time. However, by printing the PDF
again from Acrobat the final version comes up perfect. At least on my initial
test. Can't thank you enough.

Cool! Oh, and cropped pages can generally be fixed in Acrobat; some versions are
worse than others about applying unwanted crops (6 is a nuisance this way) but you
can use the Document Crop option to remove the crop from all pages at once.
Anything that got cropped off visually is still usually there.

Cheers!

OK, thanks for bearing with me. I'm seeing the same thing. And at least in
PPT2000 with Acrobat 5 I have a kind of voodoo solution.

I start a new file, go to notes view, note the page size (7.5 x 10 in this
case) and the size of the notes text placeholder.

I choose File, Print, pick Acrobat Distiller, choose Notes Pages and click OK.

At that point, just as you say, the page size changes and so does the size of
the shapes on the page.

I let it make the PDF and check page size and the size of the notes text. Both
are larger now. Again, exactly as you described.

Now watch this. Note that my hands never leave my wrists as I immediately
after printing choose Edit, Undo. The page returns to its former size, so do
the shapes on the page and what makes it seriously weird IMO is that NOW they
stay put the next time I print to PDF.

See if it works the same for you.

Another one:

I shut down PPT, did Start Settings, Control Panel, Printers and set Distiller
as my default printer. Started another PPT file and did the same thing as
before, but this time it didn't change the notes page when I printed.

Weird.