Images in help files

[TeSol]

Hi,

For one of my help projects I need to do this -

Instead of having a help file with a table that lists out the fields on the screen and their descriptions, have a screen shot. Then, for each field, explain what it is. This need not be a descriptive sentence; since most of the fields are numerical, it could just contain the formulae. Most of the users are in remote areas and not familiar with computers/English so having the image would be more beneficial to them as the help would show them exactly what they see on the screen.

My questions are -

1) What is the best way to do this? I do not have Madcap's screen capture tool nor will we be buying it. So should I do this in Paint and then insert the image into Flare?

2) How easy is it to add/remove fields from the image? The requirements are still evolving and we may need to add/remove fields. Will the entire image need to be redone every time a field is added/removed?

3) Any other way of adding images and then having callouts for each field?

4) Assuming that I do have images, would it add to the size of the project? Since a majority of the users are in rural areas, connectivity will be slow. Will large files further slow down the application? I want them to use the help files and not be put off by the slow loading time.

Thanks in advance for all the ideas/suggestions that I am sure I will get.

[NorthEast]

1) There are a number of good free image editors, such as GIMP. Jing is a simple free tool for taking screenshots and adding captions, but I think you'd have to redo the captions each time. Or you could even add captions in something like Word, and save it as an image.

2) It depends on what you use. Using a tool like GIMP, if you save the image in GIMP's XCF format it will be editable, and then save it in PNG format for use in your Flare project.

4) Yes, but use image formats such as PNG or JPG as they will have a small file size. Do not use uncompressed formats such as BMP.

[TeSol]

Thanks Dave.

Another suggestion was to use image maps. The screen tip will describe the field and can link to a popup where a brief description is given.

Problems here are -

1) Each popup would have to be a separate topic file and so I could run into a project having thousands of files.

2) PDF output is also required. I am not sure how image maps get converted into text in printed output.

Any ideas?

Thanks and regards.

[NorthEast]

Image maps don't output to PDF at all, so that wouldn't be an option.

Besides, I don't think using image maps and popups is a good solution; the reader has to find all the captions and might miss some, and it might not work very well for those using touch screens.

Note that MadCap Capture (v6) is now free with Flare v9, just in case you were thinking of upgrading at some point.

[TeSol]

Thank you, Dave, for your suggestions and help.

Best regards....

[jknasinski]

One alternative for this, although not very fancy, is to add a number to each field on the graphic (I used graphics that are just circles with a number inside) and then create a table underneath the graphic with two columns; the first column is the number of the field and the second column is the definition. Easy to do and worked for our application. That worked for both online and PDF.

[RamonS]

Or you tile the image and load the image tiles into a table without borders and inner margins. Each tile can then have its own link. The downside is that this is a lot of work and all you get is rectangular or square link areas. I've never tried this and it may not look well.

[TeSol]

Thanks RamonS and jknasinski. I think the solution given by jknasinski should work for us .....