I know that EPS is not the best format for MS Word. Unfortunately I'm forced to use MS Word and EPS is the format I have most figures in. I'd prefer to stay with EPS in case I make other LaTeX documents.
It looks like MS Word can embed EPS for quality printing however it relies on a preview to show while editing. I use R to produce figures using postscript command. This does not embed a preview into a file as can be seen with epstool and it does not look like possible to embed it using R. So I assume that default image I see in MS Word is that generated by the Encapsulated PostScript graphics filter (Epsimp32.flt).
Q: Is there a way to embed a better preview into EPS so MS Word can make use of it? I know that my figures print just fine on PostScript enabled printer with proper drivers, but it looks just terrible on screen.
I tried that epstool with various settings without success. Though calling gswin32.exe -r600 my.eps does produce nicely looking image. I wonder if that import filter recreates its own preview.
Update 12/20/2012:
I should have written that I use MS Word 2007. I can see some unconclusive discussion on Adobe forum about issues with EPS import filter in that version of MS Word. Though they deal with PDF and I have no problem printing using PDF printer. However when I Save as PDF from MS Word it uses an ugly preview instead of vector data.
