Bridge to Office
Let’s face it.
Sometimes designers are dragged kicking and screaming away from their favorite Adobe applications, and forced to work with Microsoft Office applications such as Word or PowerPoint.
Just last night I wrote my column for InDesign magazine in Microsoft Word but needed to insert images from a folder into the Word text.
I’ve always used Word’s Insert Picture From File command, but it’s a bit of a pain.
Then I remembered that I recently taught a class on using Bridge where a student asked if you can use Bridge to place images into PowerPoint files. I confessed I had no idea. The second day of the class the student came back having tested the question. Turns out Bridge works perfectly with PowerPoint.
Just drag an image from Bridge into PowerPoint (or Word) the file comes in perfectly.
I was thrilled to remember the technique last night. Not only could I easily insert the images into my Word file, but I could easily rename each image as I inserted it into the text.
So, as much as this is InDesign Secrets, sometimes it’s cool to use our tools in unexpected ways.
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People that I work with are often amazed at how quickly I can put together a powerpoint slide. So they asked me one day how I did it. They were amazed by the fact that they didn’t have to go into any of the menus in Powerpoint to insert a picture. I was just dragging and dropping pictures from a folder right into Powerpoint, and the same with Word (I hate to admit that sometimes I have to put pictures into word, sigh). But I never get tired of that look on people’s faces when drag and drop works so much easier and more efficiently than trawling through commands in MS Office software.
I haven’t tried it from Bridge, I’ve never had to. But it’s good to know that I can.
Thanks
If I ever need to make a Powerpoint presentation (heaven forbid!) I intend to use nothing but InDesign, output a PDF and, if required, add some page transitions in Acrobat and use Acrobat in full-screen mode as my projector. That way, there would at least be ONE “slide presentation” in the world with OpenType typography, anti-aliased line art and great image quality.
I work as a designer at a conference and exhibition company and powerpoint presentations are an everyday lowlight.
although you should prep all of your stuff in the creative suite, as it’s easy to jump from app to app, you should keep your text as text, although ugly it does give maximum flexibility for those last minute changes…
when you place logos or graphics, bring them into from PS into PPT as “png” files. they allow for soft (255 levels) of transparancy and give the whole presentation a softer feel… alpha’d tiffs work too, but can be unreliable – the alpha channel can disappear if you change computer and the filesizes can get pretty huge..
if i’m working with vector graphics, then it’s paste as smart object in PS and then png it out into ppt.
when we come from ppt into indesign (when we do printed versions of other peoples’ ppt) when you export the ppt doc as tif files they’ll be 0 dpi, which indeisgn won’t like.. just do an image processor batch command through bridge and re-save to give them 72dpi (the 0dpi is true on mac, don’t know about pc)
Hope this helps someone out!
Hi Klaus – This is what I always try to do, its such a better way to do the full screen presentation, however some times i’m told it needs to be in powerpoint :( So I end up making each page an image (which is easy) but then the importing is the problem, I’ve tried the tip above (using bridge) and it is quicker than the insert – picture – from file. Does anyone have a better way or a script to import an image sequence on to separate pages of a presentation?
low, I believe you can do this in Windows PPT, but not on the Mac. Third-party script, perhaps?
You can drag & drop a whole bunch of pic files onto one slide, then cut & paste to others. Ugh.
Also, if you can’t use Bridge or drag & drop is inconvenient, at least modify your toolbars to give yourself an insert picture button.
Go to View–Toolbars–Customize Toolbars/Menus…, click on the Commands tab, select your menu item (Insert, then the Picture from File icon on the right), and drag its icon to your toolbar of choice. You’ll save a little time waiting for menus to pop up, like an hour a day. ;)
Hmm, I can’t seem to make it happen in Word though. It just shows the file name but not the image. I wonder if that only works in Powerpoint. I’m using Windows (not by choice, I have to add).
Is there a way to import both images and the captions using Bridge?
PowerPoint allows you to insert a “photo album” – you simply have to select the option from the insert ribbon, select all the images you want to appear as individual slides and select okay…that’s it, your inDesign files saved as *.pngs are now individual slides.
You lose alot of animation features available in PPT when you make each slide static…