Push-Button PDF from Microsoft Publisher

(December, 2005)

Recommended software:

1.       Microsoft Publisher 2002 or above

2.       Adobe Acrobat Distiller 7.x

3.       Print Pelican PDF Kit

Note: This article is a continuation of a June newsletter article in which we revealed secrets of generating press-ready PDF files from Microsoft Publisher. We assume you have installed the above software in its order of appearance in the list.

Background

When you install Adobe Acrobat 7.x, it places an “Adobe PDF” item in the main menu bar of Microsoft applications such as Publisher and Word. Guess what? This new menu item provides you with a fast, easy and reliable gateway to make press-ready PDF files from within your Publisher or Word files. For this article, we’ll concentrate on working with a Publisher document, but the technique is similar for Word.

Before you go ahead and commit your file to PDF, there are a few preparatory steps to perform:

1.       First, install the Print Pelican PDF kit for Windows. The PDF kit is available for free. Send an email to techtips@printpelican.com with PDF for Publisher as the subject and we’ll send you a download link with installation instructions.

2.       Set up your Publisher document for commercial printing. In Publisher, go to Tools/Commercial Printing Tools/Color Printing and choose “Process colors (CMYK)” (or one of the other choices, depending on the colors in your job — but don’t use “Composite RGB”).

3.       Make sure your imported images have sufficient resolution for high-quality printing. Check them in Adobe Photoshop or Corel PhotoPaint if needed. A good standard to follow is 300 ppi (pixels per inch) at 100% final printed size; slightly less is still acceptable.

4.       Now you’ll set up your document so that it will print with crop marks and bleeds. Go to File/Print. For the Printer Name, choose “Adobe PDF” from the drop-down list. In “Advanced Printer Settings” select “Print full-resolution linked graphics”, “Use only publication fonts”, “Crop marks”, “Registration marks”, “Job information” and “Allow bleeds”. Under “Separations”, make sure that “Print composite” is selected. Click “OK”, “OK” and “Cancel” to save these settings.

5.       Now you’ll set up your document so the page prints on a larger paper size to allow for the crop marks and bleed. Go to File/Page Setup. In the “Printer & Paper” tab, choose “Adobe PDF” from the Printer Name list. Click on the “Properties” button. At “Default Settings” choose “Creo PDF Pages” from the list. At “Adobe PDF Page Size” click on “Add”. In the “Add Custom Paper Size” window, type a name for a custom page size (e.g. 9.5 x 12 for a letter size page; for other page sizes, add one inch to its dimensions). Fill in these dimensions in the “Width” and “Height” areas. Click on “Add/Modify” to add this new page size to the list. Now choose this new page size in the “Add Custom Paper Size” window. Click on OK to save these settings.

6.       Whew! That was grueling! Luckily, custom page sizes only have to be set up once in order to be available to all your future Publisher documents.

Now you’re ready to make a push-button PDF file from Publisher. (Yay!)

1.       Click on the “Adobe PDF” menu item; it should be located due east of the “Help” button.

2.       Click on “Change Conversion Settings”.

3.       From the “Conversion Settings” list, choose “Creo PDF Pages”, and then click on OK.

4.       Click on the “Advanced Settings” button. For “Compatibility”, choose “Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4)” from the list. Click OK and OK to save these settings.

5.       Click on the “Adobe PDF” menu item again. This time choose “Convert to Adobe PDF”

6.       In the next window, name the PDF file and browse to the folder you want to save it in.

7.       Presto! Your PDF file should open in Acrobat. Check it to make sure all elements are there, including type and images. Make sure your entire page is enclosed within the larger “custom paper size” and that you can see the crop and registration marks.

8.       Congratulations! You have successfully created a press-ready PDF file tailored to Print Pelican requirements.