Changing BMPs to PNGs

[Paul_Griffiths]

I've inherited a WebHelp project with dozens of BMP graphics that I need to convert to PNG. The actual conversion can be done by PaintShop Pro, and I can multi-file search&replace within RoboHelp to replace .bmp with .png, but I wonder if that will be enough. Are a project's image files are listed anywhere else, perhaps within one of RoboHelp's configuration files?

[Peter Grainge]

Do search these forums. You will find that PNGs are not without problems.

The images are listed in the images folder in Project Manager. Also look in Tools | Reports | Images.

[Paul_Griffiths · Accepted solution]

Turns out I was worrying unnecessarily. Converting the files followed by a global search and replace works fine, with no hidden "gotchas".

Regarding Peter's warning, a couple of the PNGs do look a little odd in WYSIWYG, but they're fine in the generated WebHelp and printed documentation.

[Mark Gallagher]

The gotcha that I've seen with PNGs is that they can crash RoboHelp when inserted. The workaround I use (I don't know why) is to open and then 'save as' in Paintshop Pro (which you were using for your conversion so maybe explains the lack of problems).

[Captiv8r]

Hi Mark

I think we have all seen the "a PNG is not a PNG is not a PNG" from time to time here. I do have a personal theory about this if you will kindly allow me to pull up a soapbox and speculate a bit.

I suppose I should preface this with the fact that I can say P N G, and I know it's an image format and that's about where it stops. But, I've played off and on with a little program now owned by Adobe that is called "Fireworks". I've still got a long way to go before I'd remotely consider I'm proficient with it. However, I do know that it saves all the layers and whatnot into the PNG format. Hmmmm, this tells me that a PNG is NOT simply an image format. Now I also know enough about another little application called Photoshop to say the name properly and that's about where THAT ends as well. But I DO know enough about it to know that it stores its information in a different format called .PSD (I think). So I'm thinking these PNG files that come from other applications and fail may be housing that extra information that Fireworks seems to add.

Again, it's all just speculation.

Thanks for listening all. Stepping off my little soapbox now... Rick

[HKabaker]

If PNG saves layer information like Adobe's PSD and .pspimage from Paint Shop Pro, that's the key,.

You could flatten all layers before saving with a new name. How a flattened PNG differs from a JPG, I don't know.

I work in PSP for layers and save the final piece as a GIF, usually. Or JPG if the image really needs more than 256 colors.

Seems to work fine.

Harvey

[alfiejs]

I am having RoboHelp crash on me when i try to import PNG files . They were in a Word document which was imported into RoboHelp, but it has placed some of the images in the entirely wrong place when I compile the page, and they dont seem to want to stay where I put them. Bad PNGs! So i am trying to insert them again, but have crashed so many times I fear I will be some sort of insurance risk later in life. Is there any way around this other than converting the copious amounts of pngs to jpgs?