I have searched the internet and forums for hours, and have found no solution to this problem. With a software upgrade to Office 2010 (thus Microsoft Word 2010) from Office 2003 on a Windows XP system, the Visio files that I had embedded in the Word document no longer reproduce correctly in a pdf file. I have Adobe Acrobat XI Pro and Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 SR-1.

Specifically in detail: For 10 years I have been able to create a graphic in Visio (for example, a photo or screen capture with text and line callouts), select it in Visio, and do a paste special as a Picture (Metafile) into Word. Then when I created a pdf from the Word file using an earlier version of Acrobat, the graphic would look identical in the pdf as it did in Word. I used the Adobe create pdf function (i.e., did not print as a pdf) because I needed the bookmarks that are made automatically from the Word heading styles.

Now with my software upgrades, when I copy from Visio to Word, and try to insert the graphic by using Paste Special, there is no plain metafile selection -- the only metafile choice is the enhanced one, Picture (Enhanced Metafile), which was never able to be reproduced correctly in the pdf (i.e., didn't work in earlier versions of my software). With upgraded software, it still does not work. As always, the image looks great in Word, but is now reproduced as a stretched-out mess by Acrobat in the PDF.

When I create the pdf by printing the pdf (i.e., using File/Print/Adobe PDF from Word), the image that was pasted as an enhanced metafile looks great in the pdf. However, when I use the Adobe menu that was an add-on to Word and select Create PDF, the graphic in the resulting pdf has the words (callouts) in both giant and tiny sizes in odd locations on just a piece of the original image (which is an imported picture or screen capture). This is the way it has always been when using the enhanced metafile instead of plain metafile, and thus the reason I always used the plain metafile.



The other Paste Special options in Word are Microsoft Visio, which produces the same result as the enhanced metafile, and Bitmap, which produces fuzzy, poorly rendered text in the pdf file. I have even tried to paste from Visio as an enhanced metafile into Word, then doing a Ctrl-X on that graphic in the Word document, followed by a Paste Special as another type of graphics file, such as .jpg, .png, and .gif. Unfortunately, the callout quality in all of those was very poor, like it was in a.bmp.

I create professional technical documentation, which consists of large manuals of about 200 pages with lots of graphics and lots of headings. The graphics include text callouts that were made in Visio and imported as part of the graphic. So I must have both bookmarks and graphics with clear, crisp callouts. I also combine multiple Word documents into a single manual using the Combine Files as Acrobat feature of Acrobat -- that worked great with the older versions of Word and Adobe Acrobat.

There are a lot of graphics in each chapter of the manuals. Therefore, the Visio files have multiple pages to match the Word pages, and sometimes several graphics on each Visio page (again, to match the Word page). To make a separate Visio file for each graphic (i.e., so they could be saved as individual graphical files) would be a logistics nightmare producing thousands of graphics that have to be logically named and stored, plus it would take a lot of time that I do not have.

I have tried so many ways to make this new software work, but haven't found a solution. I could go back to what I did 20 years ago when pdfs were first coming on the scene. I.e., print the Word documents as individual pdfs (as I said earlier, the graphics are correctly reproduced in the pdf this way), manually combine the multiple pdf files into one larger document, and then manually create the bookmarks for all the headings in that combined file. However, I really don't want to regress to working like I had to in the early 1990s.

I have not updated Visio, but I read in other forums that the problem is not solved by that because the problem is with how Microsoft and Adobe are no longer compatible. I hope that is not true... I need a solution that works with this updated Microsoft and Adobe Acrobat software.

Does anybody know what I can do? All I need is for a graphic cut from a Visio file to paste into the Word document in a way that it will be reproduced correctly when the Word file is made into a pdf by using Adobe Acrobat.

Thanks.

Have you "grouped" the complete Visio data prior to inserting into Word?

I had a similar problem not long ago and that was a fix for me.

Thanks for getting back to me on this. However, grouping is not the problem -- I always group the graphics.

The problem is that the only graphics that reproduce acceptably as a pdf are ones inserted into the Word document as a plain metafile.

I have done other experiments, such as importing a .wmf file into Word and it renders as a pdf perfectly through Adobe Acrobat. I've opened old Word files with the newer version (with graphics already pasted into it as plain metafiles), and made pdfs. Those graphics were rendered perfectly. However, any format other the plain metafiles just doesn't work -- especially the enhanced metafile.

I found a forum that explained how to write a macro that you can then insert into your normal.dotm file and run instead of pasting a copied image. I played with that by running it from their sample template, and it worked perfectly. However, I'm going to have to read-up on this before modfying my normal template.

One would think that Microsoft woud just give us back that plain metafile paste option.

Again, thanks for your help. If anyone has an option that doesn't involve these "get around" template modifications to fix the Word 2010 shortcoming, please let me know.

Theresa

Did you ever solve this one?
I have a similar problem with Visio 2013. When I paste a clip from a PDF into it, the rendering is lousy.
All I can do at the moment is to stick to Visio 2010, which works perfectly.

You could invoke the 'PasteMetafile' paste format via a macro that you could attach to a keyboard shortcut:

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Thanks very much for the replies, but I still need help. Here is why... I did a similar macro earlier from code that another person had given me. Unfortunately, the text still came out fuzzy when I made a PDF using the Adobe Create PDF add-on in Word. That made no sense, since the plain metafile should have been the solution.

Here is my previous macro:

Sub PasteSpecialVisioGraphic()
Selection.PasteSpecial placement:=wdInLine, datatype:=wdPasteMetafilePicture
End Sub

So I made another macro with your code, and still got the same fuzzy text results.

I have found a workaround, although I am not pleased with it because it not only takes extra steps, it changes my Word document in a way I don't like. The workaround is: After I paste the picture into Word using the macro, I right-mouse-click on the graphic in Word, select Edit Picture, and change it to a Word drawing. The PDF then comes out great when using the Adobe Create PDF feature in Word.

I have attached a copy of the PDF I made using the various options I mentioned so that you can see what I mean.

Using the macro does solve part of the problem in that the Visio graphic pastes into the Word document at the same (correct) size, and the graphic (not text) part does render into the pdf correctly, which it did not as an enhanced metafile. I just don't understand why the text comes out at poor quality now instead of perfect quality, as it did when using Word 2002.

If anyone has any ideas that will eliminate the final step of changing the macro into a Word drawing (the workaround), I would welcome that suggestion. However, if there's no way to eliminate that workaround, I sure would welcome some code to add to the existing macro so that I would not have to manually do the workaround. (I'm sorry for begging, but I am not good with writing code.)

Thanks again for your responses.

Attached Files

MacroTest.pdf (288.5 KB, 12 views)

What effect does it have if you use:

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks, Macropod. However, that code produced nothing. I.e., the graphic did not copy from Visio into Word with that code.

The previous code places my graphic (with text) perfectly into the Word document. What I don't understand is why that will render perfectly into a pdf created through the File/Print/ command then printing to the Adobe PDF printer in Word. However, if I use Adobe Acrobat to create my pdf so that I can have bookmarks (either from within Word or directly), the text on the graphic looks bad. Apparently Acrobat is using a different "printer driver" to produce the PDF than my "File/Print/Adobe PDF" driver.

So it sounds to me (and I could be wrong) that we've solved one of two initial upgrade problems:

(1) Word 2010 would not let me "paste special" as a plain metafile, causing several problems. However, that has been solved by the previous macro.

(2) Adobe Acrobat XI Pro would not render a good pdf of the graphic text that was inserted from Visio into Word. I still have that problem, unless I use the workaround (convert the graphic within Word to a Word drawing), which isn't ideal.

If only I could get Acrobat to use the same printer driver as the File/Print function does.

Maybe we'll find a solution through some setting in one of the programs.

Thanks again,
Teresa

OK, try changing:
DataType:=wdPasteShape
to:
DataType:=23

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks, Paul. Unfortunately, "DataType:=23: gave me the same results as "DataType:=wdPasteShape" -- i.e., nothing was inserted when I ran the macro.

Again, thanks for trying to help me.

Teresa

I had this problem (Visio 2010, Word 2010, Acrobat XI). Pasting as Enhanced Metafile, which had worked perfectly for older software versions, started to render with the jaggies.

The following seems to work: avoid fills that have a pattern. In Visio 2010, select a shape, then Shape > Fill > Fill Options > Fill Pattern is 01:Solid. I did this with a complex, grouped shape, pasted as EMF into Word, ran the Acrobat converter, and the shape in the PDF is excellent. I can zoom in relentlessly and no jaggies.

Thanks, gorilla, for your help. However, this did not work for me. Perhaps I need to upgrade to a more current Visio. I don't have a fill for my text boxes (it's the text and not the graphic that renders illegibly). However, I tried putting a solid background in the text boxes. With my older version (2002), I had to select Format>Fill>1:Solid. Then I pasted as an EMF into Word.

As before, the graphic shrank in size when pasted into Word. I then ran the Acrobat converter. The graphic disappeared from the pdf, as it had before. Therefore, I re-pasted the Visio image into Word as a plain Metafile, which also pasted in at the correct size. (This used to be the "Picture" selection in the older version of Word, but the newer versions don't have it. Thus, I had to use a macro.) Then when I ran the Acrobat converter. The graphic did display, but the text was of very poor quality as before.

Again, thanks for trying to help me. I'm not sure there is a solution, other than the tedious work-around I described in my 12-02-2013 post above. I'm still hoping, though.