Code bites
MS Word

MS Word

MS Word frustration
One day before the deadline — the final straw that almost pushed me completely to Overleaf.

I use Microsoft products quite extensively — mainly Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and nowadays also most of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem such as Teams and related tools.

As the title of this article might suggest, I regularly encounter issues and grievances which occasionally lead to this sentiment.

That’s why I try to use LaTeX (via Overleaf) whenever possible. However, Word still has advantages — especially when it comes to quick layout changes and collaborative editing.

For that reason, I decided to start a troubleshooting page to document workarounds and solutions to particularly nerve-grinding problems.

Image resolution in exported PDF

I often create graphics using Inkscape. Initially, I imported the graphics into Word as PNG files. However, the resolution in the exported PDF was far from sufficient — you could practically count the pixels.

Attempted solutions

  1. Increase DPI when exporting from Inkscape
    When exporting to PNG, choose a high resolution (DPI). In practice, anything above 300 DPI is usually unnecessary, as it already exceeds print-quality standards.

  2. Use high-resolution PDF export settings
    When exporting from Word to PDF, make sure to choose the option that optimizes for high image quality (not minimum size).

  3. Export as EMF (Enhanced Metafile)
    EMF is a vector format developed for Microsoft applications and generally works well in Word.

    However, I ran into an issue: SVGs with transparent backgrounds turned black after exporting as EMF.

    EMF transparency problem
    EMF transparency issue

    From what I understand, EMF does not fully support alpha-channel transparency (i.e., different opacity levels). It may support full transparency but not partial transparency. EMF+ apparently supports this, but I was unable to get Inkscape to export in EMF+ format.

  4. Import SVG directly into Word
    Importing the graphic as an SVG instead of PNG seems like the obvious solution.

    However, when exporting the Word document to PDF, I encountered additional issues:

    • Text was not rendered correctly (despite using standard fonts).
    • Arrowheads and line endings were incorrectly displayed.
    • Some SVG features were not interpreted properly.

    It appears that Inkscape supports a newer SVG specification than Word’s PDF export engine, which caused these inconsistencies.

Final workaround

Here is what ultimately worked:

  1. Export the Word document (with the embedded SVG) as a PDF.
  2. Open that PDF in Inkscape.
  3. Replace the problematic graphic with the original high-resolution SVG.
  4. Export that single corrected page from Inkscape.
  5. Merge it back into the full PDF document.

Yes — quite a workaround.

But at least the final graphic is crisp and vector-based in the exported PDF.

More troubleshooting notes to follow.