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Tips from the Author-IT User's Group
Compiled by Douglas Dow, Lone Star Chapter
An interesting and informative thread developed on the Author-IT User's Group listserve this past month. Author-IT stores content objects in a database and outputs to Word, WinHelp, HTML Help, and other formats. The thread discussed the use of graphics in online help.
Advice and tips in this article come from participants in the Author-IT User's Group, notably Char James-Tanney (CJT), Rhonda Bracey (RB), Robin Kelsey (RK), Andreas Gunert (AG), Marta Trainor (MT), and Maritza van den Heuvel (MH).
Graphic objects, such as screen shots, can be controlled to output in Word only, or they can be included in online outputs. And Author-IT can adjust the size of the graphic, using a percentage adjusted on the tab for each output type. The temptation, therefore, is to use a single object (as the concept of "single sourcing" would suggest) for the different outputs.
Wait a minute! Graphics in online products? "Yes," said most of the participants in the thread, "that's what our customers want." Only they should be voluntary. Click on a thumbnail to see the whole screen, should a user want to see it.
So could the same Author-IT graphic object be used for the thumbnail and the full-size shot? In my own experience, as in that of one thread participant, especially for certain graphic types (such as GIFs), it doesn't work all that well. Below a certain percentage, the results are jagged and illegible.
The better approach, according to most in the thread, is to use different graphic file objects for the thumbnail and the full-size figure. There are two reasons for this (CJT). First, the Author-IT resize degrades badly below a setting of 63%. Second, in downloading the thumbnail, the browser would have to download the full-size graphic, and then resize it to display the thumbnail image. So the two-graphic approach works better (faster) for the browser. How, then, do you get a clear thumbnail?
Char James-Tanney offers this advice: When resizing GIFs in Paint Shop Pro (or any other graphics software), first increase the color depth to the maximum. Resize, and then drop the color depth back to 256 colors. (Here are the steps.) Paint Shop Pro does not have an automated thumbnail builder, however, nor a batch process.
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The debate on the use of graphics in online help is fed partly by the user's tendency to click on buttons in the help file, to no avail. Here are some tips (CJT) to help users avoid clicking buttons in a help file graphic:
With tools such as TNT, perhaps more help developers will conclude that graphics have a place in the help file. Certainly the clients of the participants in this thread have already done so.
What are your rules of thumbnails? Send your tips to newsletter@stc-dfw.org
FrontPage 2002 provides good results with its AutoThumbnail tool (RB). Still, it has no batch process, so it may be slow if there are many graphics involved. But if you are starting a project, the results are quite good. (
Those of us who use 
Other participants had good things to say about