MadCap Software Forums

Hallo,

I have a rather large project developing and after some discussion, it seems like Flare *should* be able to handle very large projects quite happily.. so I'm considering full-steam-ahead with all user guides inside the same project ( ).

However, I'm already having problems with the number of images inside Flare. When I open one large folder in particular, Flare hangs and then I force crash it.. the only way I am able to view those files for renaming and moving is to reboot my computer and then the first thing I do is to open that folder (a memory issue perhaps?).
Also, my project has a lot of photos which we wanted to be high quality but with that comes large image file sizes. Another problem.

I am wondering if anyone has any advice about reducing file sizes of images as well as how to best manage large numbers of images?

I try not to generate tooo many folders because then the file names get too long (and have had errors with that already) but even so, the brunt of images are all sitting 3 folders deep inside the image folder (and there are still hundreds in there -- lots of screen shots). When I add more images it would be for a different product so it would be in a different folder, but still 3 folders deep.

Adding to this, I have a problematic bug or problem with Flare (could be machine-specific) whereby I cannot move or rename folders of images without Flare breaking the links or the synchronise function thinking that all my renamed images have gone missing and wanting to import all the images. Bit of a disaster there.. It's open with Tech Support but it's been open for a while and we haven't found a solution..

Thanks in advance

You're already doing what I would do -- folder nesting.

I suppose a different approach would be to do global project linking. Keep the common content in the global project, and create sub-projects for all your different guides. That would reduce the overhead of the individual projects.

Also, consider your images before you insert them into your project. If you are using high quality photos, remember you don't need them any higher resolution than about 300 dpi, which is fine on the printer, and better than most computer screens can display. If you are able to batch-resize those images to 300 dpi you might find Flare works better with them.

It might be interesting to watch your system resources when you try to open the folder with the images. Is it a CPU issue or is it a memory issue? That might give you some fodder to pass on to tech support.