The Big
Picture

You can get a printed result from your Office documents. The results are great, however,
it will most likely not be the quality you would expect in something designed by a professional
designer. Specialised graphics software is purpose built for 'hi end' graphics... whereas
Microsoft Office products are not (with the exception of Publisher).

Microsoft Office documents are only stable on the PC on which they were created.
If you move an Office document to another computer objects/type can move, change fonts
or even drop off.

When the full version of
Adobe Acrobat is installed
(not just the free reader)
a printer called Acrobat
Distiller is added to the
list of printer available to
you. For screen shots of
the best settings to use
click here.

Adobe have an online PDF
creation service. Simply click
the link below

or go to:
http://createpdf.adobe.com

Create Adobe® PDF Online
is a Web-hosted service that
converts a wide variety of
documents into Adobe PDF
files. They are currently (July
2003) offering a free trial
which allows you to trial the
service creating your first 5
Adobe® PDFs for free.
After that the service costs
approx $10 US per month
or $100 US per year.

Send us the document and
any fonts used. Also supply
us with a hard copy/printout.
We will prepare a proof
copy for you to check.

In the event that nothing
has moved or changed you
are in luck - we can use
your file.

If elements have moved,
dropped off or changed
(eg a font has changed)
Gateway is able to attempt
repairs to Office documents,
however, around 5% of files
become so unstable that
another file supply method
must be used (others on this
page).

The second last resort
(quality not great)

When the full version of
Adobe Acrobat is installed
(not just the free reader)
a printer called PDF Writer
is added to the list of printer
available to you. For screen
shots of the best settings to
use click here.

The last resort
(quality not great)

When the full version of
Adobe Acrobat is installed
(not just the free reader)
it places a button in the
toolbar of your Office
documents. (Word, Excel
and Power point only)
It is shown below.

This method is not
recommended unless all
other methods failed.
The PDF generated here
is fairly low in
resolution/quality.

For screen shots of the best settings to use click here.

Instead of supplying us the
Office document and risk
it 'falling over' you can
print it from your machine
to a PostScript file (also
known as a print to file).

We then turn that
PostScript file into a PDF.
Because the file is being
printed from the computer
on which it was made
there is less chance of
anything moving or
dropping off.

We have full information
on how to prepare a
PostScript file. Click here
to go to the relevant page.

2 colour or spot colour projects need to be reset by
our prepress team which will incur artwork charges ...
call us to discuss further.