Beginner ? on resizing vector for uses outside Illustrator

Question

Slowly weaning myself off of MS PP for graphics.  One reason is so I can resize images for use in apps like Word.  I don't think I want to resize within Word so knowing how to do it in IL is the direction I'm headed (albeit as a beginner).
The example is an image made up of mostly point type, one area type, and a few rounded rectangles.  I have it layed out on a 11x8.5 page (although it actually uses about 6x8.5.
My thinking is to select all, grab a corner, hold down the shift key, and drag.  My first question is: am I getting the advantage of vector (i.e. quality resize)?
Second, is there a way to control the final size as a percentage (for example) of the original selected area?  This question is because I may, in some cases, have a target size in mind.  For example, in the Word case, if I save the IL file as a picture and insert it into the document, Word already does some resizing (to fit the page dimensions (I assume).  In this case, the result is an image 23% of the original size (according to Word).  That's still a bit too big for my purposes.  I'd prefer 15% of the original.
Is there some tutorial on how to do things like using the vector capabilities in IL to resize to a final object size.  I realize I may need to crop along the way.  I'm interested in the process and thinking behind it.
Thanks
Tom

Answer 1

Tom,
Honestly, I haven't read this whole thread in careful detail, but I really think the best advice would be for you to first, fully describe the kind of content you are trying to deliver and what you want the recipients to be able to do with it; second, map out a workflow for your intended purposes; and only then worry about the how-to specifics and the collection of software tools.
Here's what I read:
You have been using PowerPoint as your generic drawing tool. That, and your descriptions so far, suggest relatively simple graphics (lines, boxes, elbows, text, simple polygons). In short, it makes me wonder if you even really need a program like Illustrator at all.
You want your final deliverables to be editable by your recipients. That alone goes a long way toward ruling out the native formats of Adobe applications, their expense, and their learning curves. It's a common practice in both business and mom & pop general use to treat native Office files as if they are some kind of "universal editable exchange format," just because they are so ubiquitious. You can't make that kind of assumption with graphics-production apps (like Adobe's). You can easily over-complicate things by deciding up-front that you need to jump into that arena. Are you an author, or do you really want to embark on a designer career? Look, if you're not designing for mass commercial reproduction, you may be entirely off-base thinking you need to involve Adobe apps at all.
You are now straining to find a workflow which will "upgrade" your vector graphics (with a program like Illustrator) while still retaining the full editability of your deliverables in a format that mom & pop America knows how to deal with.
Here are some basic things you may not be considering from a practicality standpoint:
Programs like InDesign, Illustrator, et all (regardless of their "me, too" re-purposing in recent years for web-centric work) were created for commercial reproduction (i.e. printing in a PostScript environment). It is completely impractical to try to use their native files as any kind of "universal" exchange format for use by a general public--especially if you want your deliverables to be editable by recipients not equipped for or skilled in their use.
PDF effectively makes the final content of documents created in graphics programs deliverable as is. Its basic purpose is to make documents created in pretty much anything readable by those without the authoring programs, while maintaining fidelity to the appearance of the final document. It's not really meant for overal editing like in the native program that created the document. If you want PDF to be your target final deliverable product, then fine; you can produce more sophisticated PDFs by doing your authoring work in graphics apps. But you'll be sacrificing the kind of native editability you are accustomed to with your current Office-based workflow.
Office programs are from another world. They don't talk PostScript. They don't worry about things like halftones and color separation and all kinds of other print-world esoterica. They're not as detail-sophisticated as dedicated drawing programs in things like finely-controlled Bezier path drawing. They don't natively support the same paths and constructs contained in Illustrator artwork.
Adobe's own "recommended" format for incorporating Illustrator artwork into Office applications is not vector at all; it's PNG, a raster format. That's what the Save For Office feature in Illustrator is all about. That fact alone should tell you alot about what you are getting into when you want to use AI to routinely populate Office documents with vector artwork from Illustrator.
Office apps do, however, exist in the real workaday world, and do therefore provide general-purpose means by which to incorporate text, raster, and vector objects for constructing graphics.
You have mentioned concern for vector scaleablilty several times. You seem to be unaware that even Office programs do in fact have their own graphics model for vector graphics. On Windows, that's what formats like Windows Metafile (WMF) and Enhanced Metafile (EMF) are all about. Those are the kinds of objects that are created by the various drawing tools that reside in not just PowerPoint, but also in Word, Excel, Access, et all.
Don't think that you can't create professional-looking results in the Office applications you are already familiar with. "Professional" results is more a matter of design skill and artistic discernment than software. (Believe me, far more amateurish work is created in Illustrator than "professional" work.) It sounds to me (especially since you have been using only the drawing tools in PPT) like you may not have really explored the graphics capability that already exists in the Office applications you are using, and which you really want to use as your fully-editable deliverables anyway.
In helping you devise a suitable workflow, I would ask you questions like these:
Describe (and show examples) of the most "sophisticated' kinds of graphics that you envision needing to routinely include in your deliverables.
Describe the level of editability that you want your recipients to be able to perform.
Describe the functional content of your deliverables. For example, do you want your deliverables to contain live, editable spreadsheets that your users can use as "calculators" or "what if" graphs? Do you understand that while you can build some forms-based interactivity in PDFs, doing so is a relatively painstaking and esoteric process, whereas in Office applications, its pretty much a copy/paste affair?
Have you fully explored the drawing feature sets in Office applications? Do you really understand their capabilities and limitations?
JET