exhibits... internal - external - size in reports ack!

[canvaswriter 0]

 

Love the program, hate my lack of knowledge.

 

Ok. Exhbits. If I understand the book and help correctly....

 

I have added an exhibit, a graphic (.jpg) and then changed it from external to internal, I don't mind the size of the program with all my exhibits included, but when I try test reports, some of the graphics are tiny, thumbnail size, and some are the size of the orginal graphic and I've done nothing different to them. They are "expandable" in Word®, so I can go in and "stretch" the mini ones, but with 1100 pages so far of journal it will be a daunting task to both edit the thing and resize all the mini graphics.

 

Can you explain in terms a child could understand what I am doing wrong?

 

susan> not only new but so new I am lost in exhibit maze and can't seem to find my own breadcumbs.

[Jim Byram 0]

I would advise keeping all exhibits as external files in a single folder or in a single folder tree if you are inclined to a more complex organization.

 

If you ever decide to create a website using Second Site, only external exhibits are used.

http://www.johncardinal.com/ss/

 

You need to standardize the resolution and size of all image exhibits so that they output within a constant size range without the need to make any adjustments in a report. Such standardization will save you much frustration down the line.

 

If you are going to use internal images, you should standardize the images before adding them.

 

I have two standardized sets of exhibits... one set for Word output and a second for Second Site output. The Second Site exhibits are in a different folder with identical filenames. Second Site allows you to point to an alternate set of exhibits so using the second set is seamless.

 

There are many tools available for resizing image files including graphics editors, special purpose programs and even TMG Utility which you should learn about.

http://www.johncardinal.com/tmgutil/

[John Cardinal 0]

Jim has given a pretty complete reply but I will add one other factor.

 

The print size of an image is determined by the resolution of the image. If the resolution is set to 300 pixels/inch, then a 600x600 image will print at 2" x 2". If you change the resolution to 100 pixels/inch, then the picture will be 6" x 6". I believe that MS Word and other word processing programs respect the resolution setting when you import images into documents, so you may have to modify the resolution of the images to get reasonable results when you include exhibits in reports.

[canvaswriter 0]

thank you both for your timely answers but it didn't quite answer my questions.

 

Let me elaborate.

 

I have been using other software programs through the ages, started off in DOS, and the last before TMG was the Ultimate Family Tree (UFT). when I imported a rather large data base from UFT, it imported all the images that were already in that program as internal exhibits. I actually don't want to have to go into TMG and deal with making them all external at this point. And I will not be making any web pages out of this program, it's a book I'm pritning as the output, Journal of the entire project.

 

I understand the resolutin issues, but I have made all the newest graphics the same resolution as the previos in CS2 (Adobe Creative Suite 2) which I use for my graphic work, but it doesn't output them the same.

 

I'll work on this band get back to you.

 

Susan

[John Cardinal 0]

You didn't say what we didn't answer. If a picture appears thumbnail size when you think it shouldn't, the most likely cause is incorrect resolution. If that's not it, then perhaps the image is simply the wrong size. If that's not it, then perhaps there is some issue with how the word processor is handling the image. If it's not one of those issues, then I'm stumped.

 

If you want to make the internal exhibits into external exhibits, you can use TMG Utility to do so. I don't think that will fix the issue you described, but if you want them external for other reasons, there's an easy way to get there.

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

John,

 

I think the problem stems from the way UFT handled images. No matter what resolution or size you scan an image, UFT resized that image when it was sent to reports so that all images were consistent in size.

 

Susan,

 

When I moved to TMG, I had to resize a lot of my images so that they printed the way I wanted out of TMG. Since I prefer to use John's SS, I make my images 750 wide by X tall. If you are wanting to use them in a document, then you may want to scan them so they are 3 inches wide by X tall. You will prefer them to be external I bet. That way your TMG backups can be faster and smaller and you can backup the images separately. That might not be an issue now, but when you get 8-9 GB of images in TMG, you won't want to have to back those up everytime you back up TMG.

[John Cardinal 0]

I think the problem stems from the way UFT handled images. No matter what resolution or size you scan an image, UFT resized that image when it was sent to reports so that all images were consistent in size.

That would explain it, especially if UFT didn't handle resolution properly when it resized the image.

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

I guess you could say that. The images looked great, but UFT apparently ignored the resolution and DPI of the original when creating the thumbnail that they use. Sorta like TMG does in the Image and Exhibit Log windows. No matter how large my file is, it's aways the same size and appears to be the same resolution.

[John Cardinal 0]

Teresa, resolution and DPI don't really apply when discussing images that are rendered on a monitor. Resolution is the number of dots per inch (printers) or pixels per inch (monitors), and monitors are low-resolution devices compared to printers. Most monitors are approximately 100 pixels per inch, whereas printers are usually a multiple of that.

 

As a result, the on-screen version of an image is typically displayed without regard to resolution. Programs reserve some window space for the image, and if the alloted space does not allow for all the pixels to be shown, the program resizes the image to fit the alloted space.

 

Word processing applications (or other applications that print images) will take resolution into account, and they will both (A) resize the on-screen version of the image to show a WYSIWYG view and ( adjust the resolution when printing so that the image prints at the highest possible resolution while maintaining the user's desired page layout.

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

John,

 

I am talking about when you created a report for printing from UFT. UFT apparently resized the images to the size they felt was appropriate, and then sent that data to the word processor. When I switched to TMG I was amazed at the size of some of my images because in UFT they were all uniform in size. (I am talking when printed, not viewed on the screen).

 

UFT stored all images internally so perhaps they stored them at the size that they needed. It's been 5 years since I used it so a lot of the details are fuzzy. Actually I chaperoned a lock-in at church last night and most details are fuzzy this morning. <G>