xls import

Hi, i'm desperatly trying to import a .xls file into XtremePro. I made a .ps of it, it opens nicely in ghostview, i converted it to .ai but it won't import into Xara, same goes for .eps...

How can i do it?

man, i hope someone can answer you question. I have been frustrated by Xara's inability to open .ai files for some time. It OUTPUTs ai fine, but i can never get it to read .ai from other apps.

i will be watching this thread, f'sho.

geo.

I think you might have to wait for the XtremePRO CD in late January for the PDF import feature. This should sort it out.

Yes PDF import is coming and will probably be the best way to import vectors from Adobe or other aps - although if you export as .ai version 8, then this should import OK now.

As for .xls - you mean a spreadsheet file, I'm assuming, then yes once we have the PDF import the theory is that if you create a PDF of the files, then we should be able to import it.

Waiting until January was no option so i used Ghostview to convert the .ps to .png... Not really satisfying, but what can you do!?

Post your file here and we will try our best to get it into a format that you can read and work on. Downloaded thee new ver. of Pro yesterday and found that the import of AI files was slightly better even though the file had used loads of masks which don't usually Import.

Well, the job is already done - but i'd like to know how you'd do it. Because i can not upload .ps files here i renamed it to .eps

Thanks

Actually i found a solution myself.

On another machine i have CorelDraw 11 installed. I can just drag'n'drop the .ps into it, choosing "import text as curves" in the dialog box (otherwise the text will look bad). Now i copy everything to the clipboard and paste it into Xara.

Good to know. Not that hard.

edit: For others who'd like to know how i created the .ps file:

I have a installed a Postscript printer (HP Deskjet 750C/PS to be able to print large formats) which has as port "file". Now i can print any file with this printer and i get prompted to a dialog where you have to enter the desired location and filename f.e. d:/yourfile.ps and yourfile.ps will be created in d:/

That's it.

err... maybe i shoud have zoomed closer to the files - the text is not really smooth after being converted to curves in CorelDraw 11. So - my solution is not really a solution.

Anyone got a better idea?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikalele

Anyone got a better idea?

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Create a PDF instead of a PS file and convert this PDF file with Adobe Illustrator into a .ai-file (version 8). Xara Xtreme or Xara Xtreme PRO is able to import Adobe Illustrator files (.ai <= V8).

But be careful, the Adobe Illustartor (.ai) import filters of Xara Xtreme and Xara Xtreme PRO are so bad, they are not able to import special chars like German Umlaute. I don't see a change within the Beta version of Xara Xtreme PRO for this.

Remi

Thanks, Remi.

I tried that before but the problem is with all those special chars - it's too much work to repair it all. The text is completely chopped in 1-2 letter pieces, kerning has gone mad... I could probably rebuild this file in Xara from scratch in the same time.

The .png creation was the most satisfying i found until now.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I have on several occasions needed the contents of a spreadsheet for inclusion in a Xara Pro page. I have simply highlighted the section of the spreadsheet I wanted to use, then did CTRL-C.

Switching to XP, I did CTRL-V. I got the "Paste Special" window and selected Windows Metafile and then clicked "Paste."

I got a message "Warning from Xara Xtreme Pro: This file contains some items that cannot be converted using this version of the metafile loader." I clicked "OK," and the image loaded. If you have the border outline set in Excel, you actually get the import complete with outlined cells.

The really neat thing about this method is that the text is editable.

I had to reduce the image size to 25% to make it work on my Xtreme Pro page.
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Will

Yeah, Wolfmoon, that might work with some xls files.

But the file i had to deal with was working with headers and footers and stuff that can't be properly copied to the clipboard...

I would say, it's not possible with Xara Xtreme's current import/export filters.

Have you tried saving your xls file as an xml spreadsheet, an html file or pdf file?

These formats might work. I tried the pdf option with no problem.
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Will

Yes, exporting the .xls to .pdf works just fine. The problem was getting it into Xtreme.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming pdf import! YAY!

Had no problems exporting from AI but the downer is that I don't have that font on my system so I had to convert all text to outlines (shapes in Xara) and then export as Remi states Legacy Ver 8 and then Import into Pro. It might work without converting the text if each system ahd the font, not sure about that.