"Layers" and background image in NWP to make a Word doc

[unklchuk]

For a client I need to produce a Microsoft Word file they can use to print the occasional box label on their color toner printer. I don't "own" Word -- on my Mac. If I laid it out the way I do in Adobe InDesign, the page would have 30+ elements. Taking a longish time to make and being problematic in converting from the originating app (NWP?) to Word file format.

A favorable mention for Nisus Writer Pro in the latest MacWorld mag prompted me to download your demo.

What I propose to do is make a full-size version of the attached image a "background image" for the document. Perhaps you call that an image floated behind.

And then place 6 text boxes (3 pairs side by side) for large black type above that. And 6 text boxes (3 pairs) for white type reversed out of the big blue band toward the bottom. The client will replace the placeholder text, using Myriad Pro Semicondensed faces, with the cartridge details they need. And print 3 labels.

Registration for the black type will not be super critical. But the white type will need precise and consistent registration.

Is Nisus Writer Pro the right app for this project? Are there any gotchas lurking to scuttle me?

Almost all of my work these days is in RGB, but if NWP wants CMYK I can do that. Searching the User Guide, I get no results for both "RGB" and "CMYK" so perhaps the choice is not crucial. I skimmed the margins section but saw no minimums specified. I will need edge-to-edge, or if necessary about 1/8" all around -- with no header or footer space. It appears you don't have layers, but you do have stacking order and that should suffice.


READING ALL THIS IS MORE OF A HASSLE THAN I'D INTENDED. IF IT TAKES A FEW DAYS BEFORE THIS IS SEEN, YOU CAN PROBABLY SKIP PAST IT. I'LL HAVE FIGURED SOMETHING OUT...

[ptram]

I wonder if using forms in a PDF document could work. You could create your template with InDesign, and let your customer fill it with their text using Adobe Reader. But I've never tried, so I don't know if this might work.

NWP's strenght is in managing text, more than graphics. So, I fear it could not do what you are asking without tricking the software.

Paolo

[unklchuk]

Thanks, Paolo -

That's sound advice. After posting here, I wondered if there might be some kind of path from InDesign to what I need. So I posted in the InDesign discussion list.

Turns out there is. I can start from InDy and wind up with one of 2 options:

1. A Word file.

2. A PDF with editable form fields that can be filled out using Reader.

I'll try the PDF first, since it can include the (somewhat unusual) fonts for legitimate use by the client. (If anyone wants to know how it goes, post here.)


Hope I find another reason to fire up Nisus Writer Pro. I had thought that Apple Pages was becoming more and more competent, but the latest iterations seem to have sacrificed some functionality to integrate smoothly with the IOS versions. I've had issues, and the user reviews aren't favorable. If I continue to resist Office, maybe NWP will be a good alternative.

Chuck M

[ptram]

Happy you found some viable solutions!

NWP is as easy and elegant as Pages, and as powerful as Word. So, I suggest to try it when complex text document have to be written. As my everyday writing tool, I've been using it for years for academic and technical writings, and it has always been great.

Paolo

[unklchuk]

Happy you found some viable solutions!

Sigh.......

All my viable solutions have crumbled into dust. (Does that make me, in my own mind, like someone called Ozymandias? No, not really. I'm not quite that old, and my investment in time only seems that long. Thanks Google for the sp.)

I tried everything else (including Word at the tech college, where font problems and my helper's inexperience in this particular area undid me), before finally going to Nisus Writer Pro. Trial and error and patience gave me something I could easily live with. See attached. But retaining that look in a Word export seems a lost cause. Export results were erratic, and none were solid.

Putting all the unchanging label elements in one big letter-size image seems a good step.

Howsoever, fonts surprised me by being a big problem. I bought the font family used in the labels. Myriad Pro Semicondensed. By my license doesn't extend to the client. I'm not going to cheat by giving a copy of them to the client (not that I'm a Boy Scout, but Adobe spent significant time offering possible options, and I'm going to respect that). The client said OK to using a different font, but with my system that's easier said than done. Font Squirrel didn't seem to offer a nice alternative (maybe Encode...). And I wonder if the couple thousand fonts I have are obsolete. They are old formats like PostScript. Not many OTF or TTF. Giving them to the client would be iffy license-wise and operationally. May not work on PCs.

So as of today, I am either going to buy Microsoft Office or send the unchanging label elements image to the client and suggest they use their Word and their fonts to make the file.

[ptram]

I use the Myriad Pro set that comes with the Creative Suite, and it can be embedded in the PDFs I generate with InDesign CS6. Maybe the licence is different for sets purchased separately?

Paolo

[unklchuk]

Every option has produced its own "gotchas." Yes, the fonts can be embedded in a PDF. But the editable parts of the PDF will not have access to the embedded font. The Adobe rep who helped me said there was really no way around this. Subsetting is another problem. PDFs always or virtually always subset to the characters used -- even if you think you're setting the specs to not subset. Plus the form field only has VERY primitive type controls. There's another kind of type box, but it has its own problems.

After she explained all the hurdles, she gently offered: "You may need to rethink the project."

The good news is that a technician at the client's shop is going to take my background image and try to make a file with their apps/etc. Including using an online service in some fashion.