# Help me find this software?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 4, 2007, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730 "2007-05-04T12:37:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2007, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/1 "2007-05-04T12:37:26Z")
I seek a piece of software. I watched someone use it last year. It allowed you to import any of a wide array of document formats, and then do things to them in terms of lines, arrows, overlays, and so on.
It seems to import say, an Invoice in MS Word and create it as a JPEG or other image file, over which this software permitted these graphics and icons to be layed in and manipulated.
I really could use this but cannot figure out what it was, and do not know whose office I was IN when I saw it. Thoughts??
I use a Mac, so if it is only Windows based, I’m SOL.
Cartooniverse
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/2 "2007-05-04T13:46:57Z")
I found a number of applications that seem to be offering this sort of general functionality by searching for [‘markup software’](http://www.google.com/search?&q=markup+software) - does any of these look familiar?
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### Author:  [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/3 "2007-05-04T16:01:24Z")
If you saw it on a Mac, maybe it was [Omnigraffle](http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/)? It’s primarily a diagramming application, but you could do those sorts of things with some effort. I’m not sure what all it imports, though, and I think it doesn’t do direct import of just any file.
Was the final output only a graphic, or was it more like the original file was still there but an overlay graphic fit over it?
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/4 "2007-05-05T18:19:25Z")
I cannot say what the output was in terms of how easily manipulated the layers were, since it was an Invoice that was being used as the base document, and the person made electronic arrows and notes on it, then printed it out.
I wish to use it on an MS Word document that is very photo-heavy. It is a users manual for something and is basically a bunch of photos with captions. This software came to mind because I could use it to indicate direction of movement or adjustment.
My thanks to both of you, I’ll go searching your links and find something that works.
Best,
Cartooniverse
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### Author:  [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/5 "2007-05-06T01:25:59Z")
Do you know you can create drawing layers in Word using textboxes?
If you don’t need the markups to stay in Word you could use the Office Document Image Writer printer to save the doc as a .tif file and open in any graphics program. Or create a .pdf from it and mark it up in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. You can also do markup in Acrobat but I don’t believe it will do mutiple layers without an add-in.
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### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/6 "2007-05-06T05:36:42Z")
A piece of software that lets you import all sorts of documents from almost any program and then lets you overlay notes, arrows and markup over it describes a lot of software. The most commonly used piece of software for this is Adobe Acrobat, as far as I know. The standard edition of Acrobat doesn’t really do anything else. It creates PDFs from whatever you want, lets you re-arrange them, and add comments , markup and form elements.
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/7 "2007-05-06T14:40:15Z")
I use Graphic Converter to do jobs like this on the Mac; I don’t know if it will open a Word doc, but if you “print” it as a PDF first, it’ll do miracles on that.
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-software/402730/8 "2007-05-06T15:21:34Z")
No, **YoYodyne** , I had no idea. I will try manipulating the document within MS Word- thanks !!!
Only own the free download Acrobat Reader, though I suspect I should buy Adobe Acrobat. Er…have the company pay for a download of Adobe Acrobate.