<DrumBeat: September 14, 2006 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: September 15, 2006>

139 comments on Peak Update

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Sam Foucher on September 14, 2006 - 8:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I agree with you. Some people also manipulate the aspect ratio to make curves look flat.
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Oil CEO on September 15, 2006 - 2:33am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I'm just posting this here because I didn't want to forget, I knew it would appear as close to the top of the list as was practically possible, and I didn't want to be too intrusive.

Plus, I totally agree with your point, Khebab.

Does anybody know how to either post a single PDF page from a PDF file?

Or...even better... copy or cut a section of a PDF page ("crop") and turn cropped section into a JPEG, GIF, or something else "html" compatible as image?

Or...for the Grand-Prize...take data in a table which appears on a PDF page and export it into an excel spreadsheet?

Major points will be awarded.

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Jack on September 15, 2006 - 3:51am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Does this work?


1)Click on camera icon on toolbar to the right of the "select text" icon in Adobe.
2)In PDF draw line around the image
3)It should say "Saved to clipboard". If not, then copy image
4)Paste into another program (Word seems to work)
5)Save word document as html.
6)Go to place you saved the document and look for html file and image


1)Follow steps 1-3 above
2)Paste into Excel

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Oil CEO on September 15, 2006 - 4:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
You better believe it works. I could never figure that out. I never knew what the camera icon was. It doesn't look like a camera to me unless you know it is supposed to be a camera. It worked in both Word and Excel. Although I used the "Select Table" tool for Excel. Thanks buddy, you just made my week and saved me probably at least 1000 hours off the rest of my life.

Major points awarded.

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Jack on September 15, 2006 - 5:10am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I sort of learned that from the Excel Bible, which noted that you can't save Excel directly as jpgs and suggested a similar methodology. How are you saving Excel charts and tables in html compatible format?

Sometimes I want to save a chart in Excel as an image and have to paste them first into Word or Powerpoint, which gives the image options under "paste special", then back into Excel. Any better ways to do it?

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Oil CEO on September 15, 2006 - 5:23am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
That's exactly how I do it. I haven't figured a better way. It is a wicked pain. I just had never been able to do it with PDF.

With tables I use an option that ends up being PNG I think it is, it gives better large image quality than JPEG. Other times I use bitmap option. But mostly it is the Windows enhanced metafile, I think. I never use the paste as excel object option, it always screws things up. I always post into Word with images and then access image in separate folder like you laid out.

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pomona96 on September 15, 2006 - 4:19am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hi Oil Ceo

I have found another way in which PDF files can be made into other formats in the following sequence, and it allows latitude in editing pictures and text.

  1.  Copy a PDF excerpt (or page) to a clipoard, thence paste onto Microsoft Power Point slide.  With the resulting power point master adjust size, also add features text, etc as you may wish.  

  2.  Then save the power point in other available "save as" formats that include JPEG, TIFF, GIF, and other options,  The power point slides and figures can easily be saved in all those formats, This is a really handy feature of power point

I have prepared several power point technical symposium presentatons then saved as JPEG to send the presentation around as a normal illustrated email.   This approach using power points as an intermediate step also preserves fidelity reasonably for editing and anntating digital photos of all sorts for emailing.    
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Oil CEO on September 15, 2006 - 4:25am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Wow! Thanks for that. I never thought I'd get two complete workable answers so fast. You guys are great.

Major points also awarded.

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Dragonfly41 on September 15, 2006 - 7:04am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Another fast way is to copy anything on your computer screen is to use shift/Print Screen buttons.  This copies your entire screen.  Then use a program like Irfanview (free download on the internet) to paste into.

Once loaded in Irfanview, you can crop any section of your screen shot and save it as a jpg or gif file.  Irfanview also allows for easy resizing and basic color corrections.

I use this all the time at work for documentation purposes.

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Oil CEO on September 15, 2006 - 7:08am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Very Good. Quick and Dirty, I like that. I'm gonna play with this one. Thanks.
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dipchip on September 15, 2006 - 8:24am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thanks guys, I just saved all your Inst. into my Adobe Folder
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bjj on September 15, 2006 - 8:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I found a handy free utility, Pixie, for grabbing screen color values.  Very useful when making CSS style sheets.

Sorry, non-oil issue.  But totally and way cool nonetheless.

Ed

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Oil CEO on September 15, 2006 - 8:25am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I take full credit for taking it off-topic. My apologies to Khebab for posting the question. I didn't expect to get this many responses - and so quick. You guys are great. I just wanted to pull some Iraq numbers off a PDF. You and Dragonfly get full points as well.
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Dragonfly41 on September 15, 2006 - 10:34am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Glad to help.  Keep plugging the numbers and displaying the stats. Onward TOD soldiers.
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Leanan on September 15, 2006 - 11:05am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
There's a cool Firefox extension that does that.  I don't know how I lived without it.
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AlanfromBigEasy on September 15, 2006 - 11:52am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Details Please ? :-)
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Leanan on September 15, 2006 - 12:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
IIRC, it's called "Colorzilla."  

Can't check right now, because I don't have it installed on this computer.

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BobCousins on September 15, 2006 - 10:35am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
So that makes it OK then ;)
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139 comments on Peak Update

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