TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: graphics in Help files From:Chuck Martin <techwriter -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 22 Jul 1994 12:34:19 PDT
Anne,
I have to admit, the first thing that popped into my head when I saw
your post was the question "Why do you need such large bitmaps?"
I would assume that they're not bigger than a screen, (?) but larger than
however you've sized your Help window.
In past and current Help work, I take all but the smallest graphics out of
the main Help window and instead create hypertext links. The pop-ups
of Windows Help are especially nice for this.
Another question: are you puuting the graphics directly into your
document, or are you referenceing them? I don't know if that makes a
difference in the compilation, but it sure makes a difference in the
source file size.
Finally, one trick for reducing the size of a bitmap: import it into the
Shed editor (the editor to make hypergraphics) and save it as a .SHG
(hypergraphic) file. The resulting file is quite a bit smaller than
a bitmap.
One post-finally note: I hope you're making multiple-resolution bitmaps
for your users who have monitors of varying resolution.
Chuck Martin
Information Developer, IBM
techwriter -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
techwriter -at- aol -dot- com
74170,2462 -at- compuserve -dot- com
P.S. Have you posted the same question on the WINHLP-L list?