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A
Anonymous
August 7, 2011
Question

Controlling Image Conversion quality from Word to RoboHelp 8

  • August 7, 2011
  • 10 replies
  • 2000 views

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.

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10 replies

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 7, 2011

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.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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A
Anonymous
August 9, 2011

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
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 9, 2011

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.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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