I know this is a longshot.
I keep all of my images outside of Flare right now. I just point to them with a simple <img> call to the full (http:) address where they are kept online.
In Flare, all my images just show up as "Non-local files" with the URL of the image. When I compile the WebHelp, of course, the images appear fine.
But when I build my PDF, Flare doesn't go look up the image. It just drops the images completely. Probably because they aren't in Flare. Amusingly, I can right-click on one of those gray "Non-local files" boxes and actually VIEW the image in Flare! But the PDF compiler isn't smart enough to resolve the image on the fly.
So...
1. Is there any way to tell the PDF compiler to find those images and have them appear in my PDF? I'm betting this is a longshot, but it sure would be a nice feature for people single-sourcing images that are used by other departments/etc.
2. If not, does anyone have any recommended method for importing thousands of images without having to re- "place" them in each topic? I guess if I just dump all the images into my Flare project, a simple find/replace of the first part of the file path would work... probably?
3. After right-clicking on my "Non-local" files box and opening the link, it would also be handy to quickly drag or save that image into a Content folder. Anyway to do that? It is frustrating to have the image open, as a tab in Flare, but have no quick way to save it into the project.
-d
Working with non-local images when compiling a PDF
Re: Working with non-local images when compiling a PDF
As expected, I found one solution for PDF that breaks WebHelp:
Find and replace all "http://path/to/images" with "\\network\path\to\images"
This produces ERRORS when I compile, "Link points outside project...", but actually seems to grab the images and put them into the PDF pretty well.
Of course, that path no longer resolves for WebHelp. And of course it couldn't, because the network location is private and internal to my network and the http: is public for the outside world. I suppose I could do some fancy conditionals for the print vs. WebHelp compiling, but that would get really old for every image in my project.
Anyone else doing this? Any suggestions or cautions?
-Douglas
Find and replace all "http://path/to/images" with "\\network\path\to\images"
This produces ERRORS when I compile, "Link points outside project...", but actually seems to grab the images and put them into the PDF pretty well.
Of course, that path no longer resolves for WebHelp. And of course it couldn't, because the network location is private and internal to my network and the http: is public for the outside world. I suppose I could do some fancy conditionals for the print vs. WebHelp compiling, but that would get really old for every image in my project.
Anyone else doing this? Any suggestions or cautions?
-Douglas
Re: Working with non-local images when compiling a PDF
Use conditions to point to the URL for webhelp and the local file for PDF.
JRP
"How many slime-trailing, sleepless, slimy, slobbering things do you know that will run and hide from your Eveready?"
--Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson
"How many slime-trailing, sleepless, slimy, slobbering things do you know that will run and hide from your Eveready?"
--Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson