Controlling Image Conversion quality from Word to RoboHelp 8

[Guest]

I cannot find settings that will control image quality when converting Word documents to online help files by means of RoboHelp.

My problem is that screen captures, which were inserted as PNG or bitmaps, are reproduced with what looks like GIF or JPEG quality in the online help. I want better quality.

I read that for Famemaker, there are image conversion settings that enable one to preserve full, lossless (screen) resolution during the conversion.

Is there a way to do this for conversion from Word 2007 documents to RoboHelp 8?

If not, perhaps RoboHelp 9?

Much obliged.

[Peter Grainge]

What you have read about FrameMaker is specific to FM and there is no equivalent for Word. It also applies to RoboHelp HTML and you have posted in the RoboHelp for Word forum which is a different program.

I suspect you are in fact using RoboHelp HTML and I will move the post when you confirm that.

With images at full size and assuming we are talking about screenshots, it would be difficult to tell which format they are in just by looking at them. Usually the problems arise when images are resized. Bitmaps in particular resize badly. When you insert images into Word it will often resize to fit between margins or into table cells so you may not be aware of the resizing going on.

Try capturing some images the way you normally do and then do two things. First paste into Word. Second save the image as a PNG and as a BMP. Then import the Word document after which create a topic in RoboHelp and insert the saved images. Do the images inserted look different to those in the topic created from the import.

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@petergrainge

[Guest]

I am importing the Word documents into RoboHelp HTML version 7.0.  I did the following  experiment:

I imported a document with images containing vector text (the images are in Microsoft Office Object format) from Word 2007 to RoboHelp HTML 7.0, I got poor quality (badly formed text / aliasing). I presume this comes from the rendering and compression performed by the import function. I also saw JPEG artifacts in the raster (screen captures) images of the kind visible at very high compression ratios and which were not visible in the original.

When I insert the very same images, saved as PNG format at screen resolution, directly into RoboHelp HTML 7.0, I get good quality.

It seems that the Import from Word function is rendering and converting the images to a compressed format without preserving sufficient quality.

My questions are:

Is there a preferred format for the embedded images in Word for better import to RoboHelp, especially when the images contain (vector) text?

Are there accessible configuration parameters for the Import from Word function, that can control the rendering, and/or the quality level of JPEG compression, and/or give a choice between compressed and uncompressed images.

How can I access those parameters?

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

I know Vector Images are used because of their scalability and I also know RoboHelp does not support them. Vector Text is not something I am familiar with.

Vector images can be saved in other formats that RoboHelp can deal with. Is that what is happening here? If so, then all we are dealing with is why the images are different according to how they get into RoboHelp. Correct so far?

If so, could you send me a document with an image in it and the same image in its PNG or JPG format? See the Contact Page on my site. Attach the document and the image to the email on this occasion. Also include a link to this thread.

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@petergrainge

[mtelnov]

Hi Peter, I am using Robohelp 8.0.2.208 and experienced the similar problem in RoboHelp 8 HTML with importing MS Office Word 2007 DOC file. System: MS Windows XP Professional + SP3. Computer: Intel Core2Duo CPU 2.7 GHz, RAM 3 GB. The actions are the following:

1) Create a new project.

2) File > Import > Word document.

    Get the following list:

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.css

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.htm

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.files\image001.png

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.files\image002.jpg

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.files\image003.png

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.files\image004.jpg

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.files\image005.png

Successfully imported the file C:\Help_projects\aaa\RapidSpecification.files\image006.jpg   ... and etc.

3) Generate Microsoft HTML Help.

If you look at the HTML tab of RoboHelp 8 HTML, you may find that image022.jpg (bad quality, overcompressed JPG) is used instead of image021.png (good quality). Below are screenshots for both CHM files corresponding to image022 and image021 correspondingly. Surely it is not a good idea to manually rename more then two hundreds images in the automatically generated HTML. Any solutions?

Regards,

               Michael

[Peter Grainge]

Those two screenshots look the same in terms of quality.

So what is going on is the Word is creating two files for every image, a PNG version and a JPG. That is because RoboHelp will not import PNGs and the two apps sort of talk to each other so knowing that, Word is saying "well here's the PNG but you will also need a JPG version of it". The reason behind not supporting the import of PNGs is historic and I have submitted a feature request to change that. Right now though that's the way it is.

If you want to use those PNGs, then sorry to say but you are going to have to add them to the topics the hard way.

What is surprising me here is that usually the degradation occurs when Word creates GIF files rather than JPGs. However, you are the one seeing the quality issue.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[mtelnov]

Because your web-site process a compression during the image uploading, cannot agree with you in that: "Those two screenshots look the same in terms of quality". Just look at the title of the MS Help on the previouse image to make sure. Also the colors have been changed. Below is an enlarged fragment where you can clearly see JPG artefacts. I also confirm the problem with GIFs.

  

Fig. A compression artefacts on a upper fragment around <publishOptions> and <valueList>. Below fragment is done from the CHM file with the same but PNG image.

[Peter Grainge]

mtelnov wrote:

Because your web-site

Wow, you mean someone has given me all the shares in Adobe so that I now own it including the website.

I have to disappoint you, I am an author like yourself as are most of the folks supporting the forum. It is a user to user forum although we do see some Adobe folks giving their own time to help out. It is not however the official Adobe support channel and it is not my website.

With the larger image I can now see some blurring behind "publish options" and other areas. I saw the difference in colours but assumed as long as they were consistent with one image type you would be OK with that. There will be differences when images are saved in different formats. That blurring for instance is in the nature of JPGs, particularly I have found with screenshots, that's why I use GIF images as they give cleaner screenshots.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[mtelnov]

Sorry for "your web-site", should be "the web-site". Thanks for quick respond.

Michael

[Peter Grainge]

No worries. I hope it is clear to you, even if it is not what you want.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Woo hoo! Grainge.org conquers adobe.com! You rock, Peter!