C9: Programs in Tandem

Another challenge to our adaptability skills is when we attempt to work with two programs in tandem. You may be bringing text formatted in one program into a word-processing program. You may be placing an image into a page layout program. You might be adding slides prepared in a presentation software to a video-editing software. Any time you try to work with elements produced in multiple programs, you may find yourself facing new and complicated issues. In this chapter, I will give you some ideas for handling two or more programs together.

Remember that few programs will allow you to import a file in another program’s format. Copy and paste will work at times, though issues can occur. Your best results come from the use of a transfer format. That is, a format that can be read by multiple programs. For instance, you cannot import a Photoshop file into Word. Instead, you must export the Photoshop file in a transferable format, say JPG or PNG, to import that file into Word.

Transfer Formats

Here are some examples of transfer formats:

• For text: RTF allows you to transfer formatted text where TXT transfers unformatted text.
• For graphics: JPG and PNG are popular now where BMP and GIF were popular in the past.
• For audio we have MP3 or 4, WAV, and WMA.
• eBook formats include ePub, MOBI, and PDF with PDF being the most portable.
• For video, common formats include MP4, AVI, MPG and WMV.

Ideally, transfer formats would be universal, but that is not the reality. Programs can add issues that keep files from being completely transferable.

Many programs within a technology will read and write transfer formats that are common to the technology, but not all will. So, most page layout programs will read RTF and text (TXT) files, and most audio programs will play MP3s and WAVs. Freeware, simplistic, or less popular programs are not as likely to be flexible in their import or export options.

Export and Import

Most programs use one of two common ways to export files into a transfer format: “save as” or “export.” Microsoft Word allows you to save a document in many formats. Adobe Illustrator lets you save your file in some graphic formats and requires you to export the file in other formats.

When it comes to bringing a file in from another program, you often see terminology like “place,” “import,” or “insert.” Sometimes, you can just copy and paste into the new software program. This often works with graphics and text, though that method can create formatting issues. Some programs handle files that have been copied differently than they handle files that have been imported or inserted.

When you start combining programs like this, you add in another level of complication to any issues you might face. If you run into a problem, which program is causing it? Sometimes the answer might surprise you. If you are dealing with popular programs that often interact, you may find your answer online. If you are dealing with less popular programs, it may require a great deal of experimentation to solve the problem.

Layers of Complexity

A few things affect how easy or complicated working with multiple programs might be.

Are the programs created by the same company? Programs that come from the same company often act alike and play very well together. For instance, Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator work incredibly well in tandem. You can easily place images created in Photoshop and Illustrator into InDesign with little to no problem. On the other hand, FrameMaker does not work quite so well with Photoshop and Illustrator since, even though it is now an Adobe product, it was originally created by Frame Technologies.

Does the program’s utility depend on it working with the other program? In other words, will people use this program if it does not handle those files well? If PowerPoint could not import images easily, few people would choose to use it. Because of this, PowerPoint does a good job of importing JPG and PNG files.

Are the companies in competition? When a company competes with another, they have no reason to make sure a competitor’s files import easily. In fact, they may even make it difficult to import such files. A notable example is Microsoft and Open Office. Open Office does a respectable job of opening Microsoft files. However, Microsoft programs do not do a good job of opening Open Office files.

Troubleshooting Multiple Programs

If you run into problems when working with two programs, here are a few ideas for solving those problems:

Often you have multiple options for exporting files and can use different transfer formats. For instance, most page layout programs will import a variety of graphic formats such as JPG, PNG, and TIFF. If a JPG graphic is coming out looking funky, you might try PNG or TIFF.

Programs may have multiple ways of placing a file. In most, you can use a command such as “import” or “place,” insert, or just copy and paste. You may be able to copy as formatted or as unformatted text. You might try playing with these options to see what works best.

Some programs also have different settings and options in either the export or import process. Often trial and error are the only way to see how these options might affect the transfer.

Working in multiple programs is a frequent problem when becoming an advanced user. Knowing how to handle such issues is a vital part of being technologically adaptable.