Secure document distribution 1

[CajunCAD]

I am looking for some suggested methods for distributing drawings &/or specificaiton sheets to our Sales & Operations personnel.

My company's official policy is to create a PDF and then add security to allow viewing & printing only. The problem I am encountering is that our Sales people "need" to be able to insert the documents (drawings/spec sheets) into a MS Word bid package and when we are a subcontractor on a project our Operations people "need" to insert our documents into the format of the primary contractor for the project.

The workaround I currently use is to save the SW drawing as a DWG, insert this into MS Word and then copy and paste special as a Metafile. This essentially becomes a picture file in Word that cannot be editted.

I have tried to saveas TIFF - file size is prohibitive and resolution is terrible. In the process of writing this I discovered the saveas JPG and it looks promising although my coworker has previously encountered difficulty with the company logo in the titleblock not being saved in the JPG.

This is not a SW question but does anyone have a good method to save/convert a Word document into a secure format that the Sales/Operations personnel can insert into Word document?

Sorry for the long rambling post but if anyone has suggestions they would be extremely helpful.
Louis

 

[ctopher]

Try asking in the "General Engineering Computer Programs" forum. Someone there may know.

 

[TheTick]

I use screen capture bitmaps for this sort of thing.

Make sure everyone has a screen capture program and knows how to use them. Get everyone in the habit of making their own pictures, otherwise you are likely to spend way too much time making pretty pictures for people who don't know quite what they want.

Investigate the "Snapshot" screen capture function of Adobe Illustrator.

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[djw2k3]

Hi Louis,

Just checking, we use tiffs all the time for insertion into word docs. For an example, we have a drawing of a 4400 part assembly - 3 ortho views and a detail view with notes and dimensions.

Saving as a tiff makes a file 126kB, IMHO thats ok, with a resolution of 600dpi it looks good in a word doc.

We use the options when saving as tiff 'B&W (Bilevel)', 'Group 4 Fax', 'Print Capture', 600 dpi.

The same drawing saved as a PDF, same resolution = 350kB

If you want colour thats may be a different story

Dave

 

[CajunCAD]

Dave,

I just tried your suggestion and everything works great except our titleblock contains a JPG file of our company logo. When I save with the settings you listed it gives a small file with good resolution, unfortunately the JPG in the titleblock is solid black.

Thanks for your help,
Louis

 

[rocheey]

fyi: PDF "security" is an oxymoron.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I often use the Shift+PrtScn combination to do a screen capture, then a simple Control+V to insert into Word. You can Crop from the Picture toolbar in Word. For general stuff I have found this to be OK, but if you want better quality you will probably need to go the TIF or Illustrator capture route.

Also, try changing the JPG in your title block to a TIF.

from (the City of) Barrie, Ontario.

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.

 

[TheTick]

correction:

Investigate the "Snapshot" screen capture function of Adobe Illustrator.

Adobe Acrobat, not Illustrator

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[DHALE1]

We use tiff files also. We have a jpg for our company logo, but it comes across fine in the tiff file. Does the jpg of your company logo have color for the background. Could be one reason for the black image when it goes to black and white.

 

[CajunCAD]

the logo is blue with a white background

 

[Dennyd]

As CorBlimeyLimey states, Shift+PrtScn is an easy way to capture the display, but it captures everything being displayed. Try Alt+Shift+PrintScreen instead. It captures only the active window.

- - -Dennyd

 

[SBaugh]

Actually Alt+PrintScreen does the same thing. You don't need to use the shift key.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[CajunCAD]

Sales tells me the files I created with PrintScreen cause the customer to complain about poor image quality.
It looks like I will continue to jump thru some hoops to copy/paste special and convert drawings & procedures into MicroSoft pictures which can be inserted into MS Word.

Thanks for the help...

 

[SBaugh]

Turn your DPI up and set your Resolution up high. I use 1600 x 1200 Res. and my Print screens come out perfectly. You can't tell it was a screen shot.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376