| Getting
Your PV-WAVE Plots into Windows Microsoft Office Products
Updated by Brian Miller, December 2001 for PV-WAVE v7.51
Table of Contents
Introduction
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After generating plots
in PV-WAVE, the next logical step
is to incorporate them into your favorite presentation package. Because
the most popular desktop packages run on the Windows platform, you'll
need to export your plot into a suitable format that behaves well in the
Windows environment. Visual Numerics has found through customer profiles
that the most popular presentation packages used are a combination of
Microsoft Office products including Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Successfully importing your PV-WAVE plots into these packages quickly
and easily is the critical piece to making your visualization and analysis
message clear and concise.
There are many different
variables involved in transferring your file from PV-WAVE into Microsoft
Office products. The following sections discuss what file formats are supported,
how to preview the graphic you are inserting in an application, if you wish to
resize the graphic, and the type of printer your are using. We have found that
the following suggestions work best for Microsoft Office 97 products. Finally,
PV-WAVE code examples are given to show you how to quickly and easily write your
plots out to files to be imported.
Output vs. input (What file types are supported)
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The bottom line to
successful integration of PV-WAVE plots into Microsoft Office products
is what format PV-WAVE exports to and what formats Microsoft Office products
import. Obviously, you have to find a format that is common to both, so
that Microsoft Office can read it. The file formats that are common to
both applications are listed below:
| Image Files |
Vector Files |
| Windows Bitmap (.bmp) file |
Computer Graphics Metafile (.cgm) |
| Joint Photographic Experts Group (jpeg) file |
Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) file |
| Graphics Interchange Format (.gif) file |
Enhanced Metafile (.emf) |
| PC Paintbrush (.pcx) file |
|
| Tagged Image File Format (.tiff) file |
|
| Targa (.tga) file |
|
Image files vs. vector files Back
to Top
PV-WAVE can produce
two different types of output: an image file (.bmp, .jpeg, .gif, .pcx,
.tiff and .tga) and a vector file (.cgm., wmf and .eps). Image files are
created by using the IMAGE_CREATE and IMAGE_WRITE commands.
Conversely, vector files are created by using the SET_PLOT command to
specify the device where you wish to output. Examples of how
to write image files and vector files are shown at the end of this document.
Printers
- PostScript vs. non-PostScript
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The type of printer
you are using makes a difference in the format you will use to transfer
your files. If you have a PostScript printer, then you can use the Encapsulated
PostScript (.eps) file format. On the other hand, if you do not have a
PostScript printer, then you will need to write out your files in one
of the other formats.
Previewing your plot in Microsoft applications Back
to Top
You should preview your plot on screen when you transfer it to
your Windows applications. To do this you will need to make sure you export
it in a format that displays the actual image. This is true of all file
formats with the exception of an encapsulated PostScript file. An encapsulated
PostScript file does not display the image when imported into other packages,
rather it simply displays a box showing where the image will be displayed and
some text saying that the graphic was generated using PV-WAVE.
You can, however, use
third party software such as "Ghostview" to embed a bitmap file
that can be used as a preview image in the header of an .eps file. This
way you can preview your PostScript file on screen and still be able to
print to a PostScript printer.
How
to insert your PV-WAVE plot
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You can insert many
popular graphics file formats into your document either directly or with
the use of separate graphics filters. To insert a graphic into Word or
PowerPoint, for example, select the Insert menu, Picture, From
File... and select the file you wish to insert. You don't need a separate
graphics filter installed to insert Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpeg),
Windows Bitmap (.bmp,) and Windows Metafile (.wmf) graphics. However,
you do need a graphics filter installed to insert all other graphics file
formats. If you can't find the file format extension you are looking for
in the Insert Picture dialog box, the filter isn't installed. To
install the graphics filter, you need to run Add/Remove Programs
in the Windows Control Panel with your Office 97 CD in your CD drive.
Procedures
to import your file into Microsoft Office products
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The following two
procedures explain the steps necessary to create your PV-WAVE plot in
a format that will allow you to preview it in Microsoft Office products
and print it to a non-PostScript printer. There are certainly a variety
of other ways to accomplish this task (e.g., different file formats, printers,
etc.). These two examples use the lowest common denominator (preview the
image in Microsoft Word and print to a non-PostScript printer). Please
feel free to experiment with other file types and printers.
Running PV-WAVE on Open VMS
or UNIX
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1. Create your plot in
PV-WAVE.
2. If you wish to create an image file:
DEVICE, Pseudo=8 ; set colors to 8-bit
LOADCT, 4 ; load color table
x=DIST(500) ; create data
TV, x ; display data as image
image=TVRD(0,0, 600, 512) ; save the graphics into var named 'image'
TVLCT, r, g, b, /Get ; save the colors from the colortable
c_map=BYTARR(3, 256) ; store the colors into a colormap
c_map(0,*)=r
c_map(1,*)=g
c_map(2,*)=b
asimage=IMAGE_CREATE(image, Colormap=c_map) ; put the image into a format for Image_Write
status=IMAGE_WRITE('msimg.bmp', asimage) ; save the image
If you wish to create
a vector file:
SET_PLOT, 'cgm'
DEVICE, file='ms.cgm'
PLOT, dist(20), background = 255, color = 0
DEVICE, /close
3. Transfer the file
(msimg.bmp or ms.cgm in the above examples) to your PC. If you are using
FTP, make sure to transfer in binary mode.
4. From your Microsoft Office product, select the Insert menu, Picture,
From File... and select the file you wish to insert.
5. Print your document.
Running PV-WAVE on a PC
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1. Create your plot in
PV-WAVE.
2. Optionally, you can select the system menu (Microsoft Windows icon) on
the upper left corner of the plot window title bar and select Copy to
Clipboard. This copies the current image to the clipboard in a Windows
Bitmap .bmp file. Go to your Microsoft Office product, place the cursor
where you want to insert the file and select Edit, Paste from
the menu bar. This will paste the .bmp file into your application.
3. If you wish to create an image file:
DEVICE, Pseudo=8 ; set colors to 8-bit
LOADCT, 4 ; load color table
x=DIST(500) ; create data
TV, x ; display data as image
image=TVRD(0,0, 600, 512) ; save the graphics into var named 'image'
TVLCT, r, g, b, /Get ; save the colors from the colortable
c_map=BYTARR(3, 256) ; store the colors into a colormap
c_map(0,*)=r
c_map(1,*)=g
c_map(2,*)=b
asimage=IMAGE_CREATE(image, Colormap=c_map) ; put the image into a format for Image_Write
status=IMAGE_WRITE('msimg.bmp', asimage) ; save the image
If you wish to create
a vector file:
SET_PLOT, 'wmf'
DEVICE, file='ms.wmf'
PLOT, dist(20), background = 255, color = 0
DEVICE, /close
4. From your Microsoft
Office product, select the Insert menu, Picture, From File...
and select the file you wish to insert.
5. Print your document.
If you're still having
difficulties...
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Other helpful hints
regarding importing your graphics from PV-WAVE into Microsoft products
can be found on the Visual Numerics Web site by searching the Technical
Support database at http://www.vni.com/tech/pvw/tips.php.
When using the CGM driver,
you may experience problems with the colors that appear in your plot in
PV-WAVE and the colors that appear in Microsoft Word. If so, please search
the Technical Support database using "cgm" as your key word and
select the "CGM - How does the CGM driver allocate colors" article.
If you are still experiencing
problems getting your PV-WAVE plots imported correctly into Microsoft Office,
please contact the Visual Numerics Technical Support staff at (303) 939-8920
for more assistance.
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