Same image for multiple targets - removing "duplicates"

[coleymarie80]

Hi. I have one help project with multiple targets. My targets often use the same images, and when the targets are output the images are copied into each target's folder. This is making my help file MASSIVE. Is there a way to put the images that are used across targets into one folder and link them to the output?

Thanks!

[coleymarie80]

Can anyone help, please?

[NorthEast]

Each target is a separate output though, so each one will contain its own copy of the files that you include.

Also, you can greatly reduce the image file sizes if you use PNG instead of BMP.

[MC Hammer]

Also, you can greatly reduce the image file sizes if you use PNG instead of BMP.

As Dave pointed out, you may want to revisit the format you are using for your images. We use GIF when no transparency is required and PNG when there is transparency. Both are compressed formats and their use has allowed us to considerably decrease the overall size of the help.
Then, if you want to reuse multiple content in your help instead of having "duplicates", you may want to consider placing your images in image folders that have a conditional build tag associated with them.
For example, I do not know if this is practical for you, or even feasible, but looking at your screen shot, instead of having an instance of the bitmap called 11.bmp in the ARESG2, DSC, RSAG2 and TGA projects, work with one global project only and perhaps put 11.bmp in a folder under Resources that you could call Shared_ADRT (short for Shared_ARESG2_DSC_RSAG2_TGA) and assign the appropriate conditional build tag at folder level.
Not sure I fully understood your question here. This won't decrease the size of the output but it will decrease the footprint of your Flare project and if you need to edit 11.bmp, you only need to edit it in one place, the shared folder.

[NorthEast]

GIF does actually support transparency too, but it's very limited compared to PNG.
I'd also not recommend GIF generally, since it'll only support 256 colours; PNG is better all-round.

[Msquared]

As well as putting your source content in a single Flare project as MC Hammer suggests (which will make Flare source content smaller) is it possible to build your "Massive" help file as a single target? If so, then you will only get one instance of each image as that's all Flare will need.

[MC Hammer]

GIF does actually support transparency too, but it's very limited compared to PNG.

Totally agree with you there. I use GIFs a lot but they are not good when transparency is required, unless you know what the background colour is going to be, and you can "cheat" a bit by colouring some of the semi-transparent pixels with the colour used in the background. Results can be a bit random.
PNG is great (lossless compression), but not supported in some older versions of IE, which some of our customers are still using. That's why I do not use this format much.

[coleymarie80]

Thank you all! I'm still trying to find the time to deal with this issue, so I haven't been able to test out any of the suggestions yet.