How do YOU organize images in RH8?

[James_K__Patrick]

Morining all,

I guess I've been a bit ignorant in my use of the Project Manager in RH8. I've been adding images right and left, and not paying attention to where RH8 stores them.

So at this point, I've got all my images in the root Images folder. Of course RH8 refers to them properly in the HTML with "../../image.gif".

My question to you: how do you organize your images in RH?

Do you just dump them all in the root Images folder like me?

Do you place them in the subfolder for the topic they're used in under the Images folder?

Do you only put "common" or "shared" images in the root Image folder?

Do you create your own set of folders under Images to group them according to the unique needs of your project?

Just wondering if I'm shooting myself in the foot by not having an image management scheme in place. Will I regret it down the road?

The same questions could apply to Baggage files as well.

Thanks in advance for your views/philosophy on image management.

Patrick

[Guest]

Hi,

This can be a bit of a confusing area. The project manager shows HTML folders and Image folders in reality these are different views of the same thing.

When we add a Gif (say) we import into the same folder as the topic. We do this by importing from within a topic rather than import the images then add them to a topic. That way images and parent topics are kept together. The only exception is comapny logos etc used in all topics which we'd keep in a special designated folder. If topics and images are kept together like this they are easier to import etc.

Now the catch..

Although you've imported an image into topic x in a particular folder you'll only see them in the Images folder in the project manager not in the HTML documents.

Also note..

You can drag and drop in project manager to the various sub folders in the images folders area to re-organise if you want.

Hope that helps

[Peter Grainge]

Now the catch..

Although you've imported an image into topic x in a particular folder you'll only see them in the Images folder in the project manager not in the HTML documents.

If you toggle the first icon in Project Manager, you can view the images within the same folder as your topics. If I have understood Author Care properly what is described is the traditional view.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[James_K__Patrick]

Peter,

Sorry for the late follow up. Just want to sanity check what I'm doing/seeing vs. the rest of the RH world.

When I add an image to a topic, I select a spot in the topic text and click the "Insert Image or Edit Selected Image (Ctrl + G)" icon in the Objects toolbar. The image appears correctly, the topic is saved, life is good.

Then I look in Project Manager.

1. When the first icon under "Project Manager" is selected (the folder with a globe, I see:

Project Files

>Folder 1

>Folder 2

...

>Folder X

>default.css

>Image 1

>Image 2

...

>Image X

2. When the first icon under "Project Manager" is selected again (the folder with a pair of sunglasses), I see:

HTML Files (Topics)

>Folder 1

>Folder 2

...

>Folder X

Images

>Folder 1

>Folder 2

...

>Folder X

>Image 1

>Image 2

...

>Image X

The images don't appear in the folders I've inserted them into. They're all in the main Images folder. Is this as it should be for the method I'm using to insert the images?

I can move the images into their corresponding folders, but they don't appear there by default. It seems to me this is just a question of whether one wants the HTML to reference the image with just a name or with a relative path.

A different consideration is how to handle images that appear in multiple topics. Those, I think, could stay in the root Images folder.

Your thoughts appreciated.

Patrick

[Peter Grainge]

A screenshot would be much easier to follow. Please use the camera icon above, not the Attach Files link.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Follow me @petergrainge

[James_K__Patrick]

Peter,

Yeah, I thought that too as soon as I posted. Here they are:

[Peter Grainge]

With you. On adding an image to a topic, RH defaults it to the root. It doesn't know how you organise things and on one occasion you might want an image just for that topic and on another for many topics. So it takes the safe option and puts it in the root.

You can drag the images from any folder to any folder. Easier to see what you are doing in the first view.

Create a folder called General_Images or similar for multi topic image that can be used anywhere.

If your project is about say Dogs, Cats and Horses, then you might have folders with those names and sub-folders below. Images that will only be used in Dog topics but in many of them could go in an Image folder below the Dogs folder or just in the root of Dogs.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Follow me @petergrainge

[James_K__Patrick]

Peter,

Thank you for enlightening me. Don't know why, but I wasn't grasping this.

Patrick

[lemonlime618]

Thank you Peter!  I always enjoy and appreciate your insights!!!!

[Robo_Solar]

Hi Peter,

so i guess RoboHelp does not offer any option to specify a default location for new images, does it?

Every time a user adds an image he has to manually move the image to the topic folder, and this can become very annoying, expecially if the folder structure is complex...

Is there a way to move multiple images from one folder to another in one step?

thanks in advance

Nick

[RoboColum_n_]

You can click and drag images around in the Project Manager pod.

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Robo_Solar]

We know that, but it seems there is no way for selecting multiple files and dragging them to another folder.
It has to be done individually on each file. And we have hundreds of images in the root folder...

[RoboColum_n_]

You may want to submit a feature request for this. You can do so here.

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Guest]

We keep images in a folder just under the root level (parallel with the highest level of topic folders). It's a mixed blessing: I get pretty tired of scrolling up to that folder every time I insert an image, but at least I know where to scroll to!

There is a rationale for this - we keep the source bitmap files for our .gif images in a subfolder of the \image folder so that we can easily check them into source control. Screen captures are sometimes not easy to recreate, and keeping the originals lets us go back, edit the image, and make a replacement .gif. Because these source files aren't officially in the RoboHelp project (they just live in one of the folders), it's a good idea to know where they are.

I don't think our method is inherently better than others. One thing I would warn you about is to put the image files in a folder, not up at the root level of the project. Images get added frequently, and our source control doesn't like it when we mess with the root too often.

[jimauburn]

The whole project manager is in bad need of a redesign. It's confusing at best.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Well, it was redesigned in version 7 and continues in version 8. Perhaps it's just a matter of getting used to the manner in which RoboHelp organizes a project. Personally, I've always found it to be very well laid out and logical. Then again, I've been a RoboHelp user for 18 years. So my view isn't one of someone new to the product.

Cheers... Rick

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