Update figures in a Help

[Guest]

Hi,

What's the easiest and fastest way to update figures in an existing Help project? When I simply insert new figures instead of the old ones and then adjust the size, the figures get distorted.

[RoboColum_n_]

As you have found, if the new image is even slightly smaller or larger than the original, you'll get distortion. This is because RH uses a placeholder for the image which is of the image size. If the image size changes, the placeholder remains at the same size. The best way to avoid this is to delete the old image and then insert the new one.

---

Read the RoboColum(n) for mutterings on RoboHelp, Technical Communication Suite and technical communication.

[Guest]

Could you please explain how to "delete the old image and then insert the new one"?

My new images are exactly the same size as the old ones. The project was formerly created by importing topics from a .DOC User Guide -- in this case, the images were automatically resized during import, and I didn't touch them since. Now if I simply replace an image in the topic editor, it doesn't work.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

If you are using RoboHelp HTML, one simple method is to just right-click the image and choose Reset Size.

If you are using RoboHelp for Word, I'm not sure if that's an option, but it may be.

Cheers... Rick

Click here for Adobe Authorized Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training Click here for the SorcerStone Blog Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

[Guest]

I use RoboHelp HTML for a WebHelp project. When I click Reset size, it sets the size to 100% of the original image. But as I said, when importing topics from Word to create the Help, the images from the Word doc are automatically resized to some less-than-100% size which perfectly suits me. Now see what's happening.

Here's the original Help page: 001.png

I select the figure in the Design Editor, click the Insert Image or Edit Selected Image button on the toolbar, select the image on my computer, and click Ok.

And here's the Help page with an updated figure: 002.png

They look distorted both in the Design Editor and in the resulting Help page.

All the fgures in the existing Help look as in the first example. So I need the new figures to look the same. Well, if I do it by importing new topics (which in fact already exist in the Help but have updated figures) from the Word doc and replace the old topics, the figures do look the same. But it seems to entail a lot of additional work because the old topics are already linked, have index entries, etc. I don't know if I described the situation clearly enough...

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

I'm more than a bit confused here.

Initially you said:

...When I simply insert new figures instead of the old ones and then adjust the size, the figures get distorted...

This seems to imply things aren't working as you would like.

Then you said:

...But as I said, when importing topics from Word to create the Help, the images from the Word doc are automatically resized to some less-than-100% size which perfectly suits me....

That second reply seems to infer you have found your answer. Update the images in Word. Then bring it in again.

If you don't like that answer what you are faced with is resizing the image using another means. Definitely don't want to do it by adjusting the sizing handles in the RoboHelp editor. What you need to do is use a tool for resizing images. I hope you are using RoboHelp HTML. If so, click View > Pods > Toolbox. In the Toolbox is a Graphics Resizer utility. Try using that.

Cheers... Rick

Click here for Adobe Authorized Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training Click here for the SorcerStone Blog Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

[Guest]

Graphics Resizer in the Toolbox helped. Thank you!

But I'll have to convert my PNGs to JPEGs first, because Graphics Resizer does not support PNGs.