Admiral:
Would you like to help me out with a techno-obstacle standing in the way of an attempt at editing together Word of Hashut #13?
After asking some computer-savvy friends of mine, I still don’t know how to extract background images from PDF files. Are there special programs for this?
What is needed is the “blank” two-page image (or two one-pages?) with a Lammasu head at the top, the one used in early WoHs and #12. Everything else is pure bonus, like the WoH front cover logo, parchment bits for statlines and alternative background images for pages.
Whether you happen to have such an image or can assist by recommending a good program, your assistance will be much appreciated.
Originally I was pestering Thommy H about the issue, but since it seemed he had little spare time for such trivia I’ll try to ask CDO members in general about it. 
Thommy H:
Not all PDFs will let you do it - I think it depends how they were made in their original documents (you can’t extract it from WoH 12, for example, which I put together). However, I’ve just checked and Issue 5 should work okay. Open it up and click somewhere on the page where there isn’t another image. This should highlight the page background. Ctrl+C, then Ctrl+V into an image editor of your choice!
If it doesn’t work, I’ve just done it myself, so I can upload it (the templates I used when I did Issue 12 are on another computer, unfortunately).
Admiral:
Not all PDFs will let you do it - I think it depends how they were made in their original documents (you can't extract it from WoH 12, for example, which I put together). However, I've just checked and Issue 5 should work okay. Open it up and click somewhere on the page where there isn't another image. This should highlight the page background. Ctrl+C, then Ctrl+V into an image editor of your choice!
If it doesn't work, I've just done it myself, so I can upload it (the templates I used when I did Issue 12 are on another computer, unfortunately).
Thommy H
Aha, that's the issue! It works now, thank you very much! :cheers
I'll have some contest stuff to handle in the coming weeks, plus workshop time for my army and that diorama, but I'll try to test the editing waters soon enough. And read your army book when I get ahold of a printer.
Did you use Microsoft Word for the editing work? If so, which version? Is there some special trick to bring background images into MS Word? Or some other trick useful for magazine making with such a simple program?
Thommy H:
Yeah, I do everything in Word because I’m a complete idiot. Um. Not sure what advice I can give. I’m self-taught, and I just use the tools I have. My version is 2010, but I’ve used 2007 for my stuff too on my older computer. Both work much the same. Word is very limited for this sort of work unless you know it more or less inside out though, to be honest.
Admiral:
Okey, but MS Word doesn’t equal idiocy. 
Do you think it would work with MS Word 2003? I dislike much of the layout hassle with newer Word versions and stick to an ol’ one.
Thommy H:
I think '03 lacks some of the functionality with textures and so on.