A native import of GIF files

Nothing is perfect! This is where you can post your ideas and wishes for functions you'd like to see in Help & Manual. Current version only please (H&M7).

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brunos
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A native import of GIF files

Unread post by brunos »

(This wish slipped through my fingers in the previous post)

WISH: to be able to insert GIF files natively, and not only through plain HTML code.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

I agree that this would be useful, particularly when you have a large pool of ready-to-use GIF (or JPG or PNG) images. I don't miss this very much personally, but that's because I create all the images I use in my documentation myself, so it doesn't really matter what format I save them in.

BTW: When I'm working with Impict I always make a point of remembering to check the color resolution before saving. It has a tendency to default back to 24-bit color, which adds to the size of the help file unnecessarily...
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Matt Everett
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Burn all Gifs

Unread post by Matt Everett »

Just a quick point relating to Gifs, you may want to check out:

http://burnallgifs.org/

if you're thinking about using gif for a commercial application.

It appears that Unisys are charging huge licencing fees for their use, :x hence many are moving to png. I was particularly impressed that H&M recommends compressing to png for Browser format.
Matt Everett
Technical Specialist
[b]Pico Technology Ltd[/b]

[email]matthew@picotech.com[/email]
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Good point -- I use the convert to PNG too as a basic principle, partly becuase of the burnallgifs site. 8)

What's even worse is what's in the works now for JPEGs -- some company has bought a dusty old patent and they are now raking in millions from everyone who uses them in their software.

The Net ain't what it used to be... :evil:
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Alexander Halser
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Unread post by Alexander Halser »

They try to squeeze out every cent they can get before the LZW patent expires in June next year. Maybe GIFs have a revival in 12 months when the new JPEG patent discussions get more serious...

Help & Manual creates uncompressed GIFs if you set the image conversion option to GIF. So we have no patent problem with LZW here. The increased size doesn't matter much because the compression of the HTML HELP compiler compensates most of it.

Reading (and further display) of GIF files, however, would require to use the LZW algorithm, because most GIFs are compressed.
Alexander Halser
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aranoff
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PNG

Unread post by aranoff »

Use TNT to create a png file. Cannot import the image.
Instead, I have to import it as a bmp image.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Aranoff:

This is normal behavior. H&M only imports a limited number of formats into its project files. However, in the project options you can set which formats you want to use in your output help systems (HTML Help, WinHelp etc...) 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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