Re: What image format to use

["Jeremy H. Griffith" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 11:01:33 -0800 (PST), John Posada <jposada01@xxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:

>Hi, guys...I may be getting my new gig to switch from Word to FM.

Congratulations, John!

>However, one of the stipulations is that if I leave or if it doesn't
>work out, they can go back to Word. My anticipated method is through
>Mif2Go.

;-)

>My question...I am a paid registered owner of Mif2Go and I've used it
>before. However, I've always felt that areas pertaining to images was
>my weakest understanding of the application.
>
>So...what I need to know, is in what format should I be capturing my
>screen captures that I use in FM 7. The important factors are:
>
>- I'll author in FM
>- I'll output to online via WWP for delivery through Internet
>Explorer

You can also use Mif2Go for this; it's a lot faster and easier.

>I'd normally capture in GIF. However, I'm sure I understand that
>Mif2Go likes the native screen captures in another format.

Not necessarily.  You will want to use GIF for your Web output,
and it's a nice compact format, so go ahead and use it in Frame.

When you output to Word, use a graphics-conversion utility to
make the whole batch of GIFs into BMPs, since that's what's
needed to make the embedded WMFs used in Word.  There are many
such utilities, often free, and conversion takes under a second
per graphic.

Since you need Web output, it's better not to use BMPs in Frame
in the first place.  Not all browsers support them (although
IE does), and they are much bulkier than GIFs (but that's not 
much of an issue when they are imported in Frame by reference).
And producing Web output is simpler if you can use the format
already present for it, because then no new graphics need to be
produced for it.

This is assuming that you don't add callouts or other elements
to the images in Frame using Frame's native graphics tools.  If
you do, Mif2Go still handles Word conversion the same way (using
BMPs to make WMFs), but for Web output it uses Frame's internal
graphics filters to produce new GIFs that include the added Frame
elements.  So you might as well just use BMPs in the first place;
you won't be using the referenced GIFs in your output anyway.

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  <jeremy@xxxxxxxxx>  http://www.omsys.com/

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