Thumbnail options in RoboHelp 2020

Known Participant

Peter, I really appreciate all your efforts to figure this out!

What you describe is how I would expect it to work, but I am getting very inconsistent results.

With RH 2019 it was so easy---I specified one thumbnail size and it created a _th file for every image. (I didn't necessarily like the idea of having twice as many image files, but at least I understood what was going on.) I might just go with the "Style existing images" option and move on.

Additional problem: in the Frameless output, the enlarged image is missing the "X" in the upper righthand corner, although if you click the circle where it should be, the image closes. I can't figure out what image file is being used here, so I can't check to see if there's something wrong with it, but this happens with the Studio skin right out of the box, no customizations. Here's how it looks:

Community Expert

2020 is creating that second image so I'm not following.

My guess would be some corruption is causing the missing image. Create a new copy of the skin with a slightly different name to test. If that fails as well, which skin?

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Known Participant

OK, I generated the output twice into separate folders to keep things straight. I think I had confused myself earlier by using the same output folder every time and I lost track of which thumbnail option I had selected.

So, first I selected "Style Existing Images as Thumbnails". I see the thumbnail in my output and the width parameter in the HTML.

Next, I selected "Create Thumbnails for Images". I do not see the thumbnail in my output; instead, it's a missing file image. If I click it, I get the full-size image as expected.

So if I select "Create Thumbnails for Images", am I expected to create a second file with the image in the thumbnail size I want? And if so, do I store that in the same folder as the full-size image? Does RH no longer create the _th files automatically as it used to?

Community Expert

I will check that what I said is correct and get back to you.

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Community Expert

I generated using both options and then used Beyond Compare to see what was different.

In both cases you insert the full size image into a topic and in the Properties for that image you set the size for the thumbnail.

Using Create Thumbnails for Images a _th copy is created in the output.

Using Style Existing Images as Thumbnails the _th file does not get created, instead the full size image is shrunk in the topic.

As far as I can see it will not affect the quality of either. The size of the output will be greater in the first instance but I wouldn't have thought it makes a vast difference. I'll see what else I can find about the relative merits.

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Community Expert

You shouldn't see a difference. It's about do you have one image for the both the thumbnail and the full size or do you resize the full image so that it is seen as a thumbnail. Two images increases the project size but may give better images at both sizes.

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Known Participant

Yes, I understand about needing to enable thumbnails in two places (for each image and in the preset). I did that part right. But I don't see any difference in the output no matter which option I select.

If I select "Create Thumbnails for Images", should RH automatically create a _th file for every image where I've selected "Use Thumbnail"? I think so, but if that's correct, where are those _th files in the output folder structure? I can't find them. Maybe it doesn't matter, but I don't understand how this works.

A

Amebr

Community Expert

"Create thumbnails for images" should be the one that creates a new image for the thumbnail, while "Style existing images as thumbnails" should apply css/html to the existing image to create a thumbnail image.

But in either case you need to go in to every topic, select the image and select the "Use Thumbnail' checkbox for every image you want to display as a thumbnail. I couldn't find any option that said "make every image in my project a thumbnail".

Simplified Examples

You insert <img src="MyImage.png" />

Create thumbnails for images = <img src="MyImage_th.png" />

Style existing images as thumbails = <img src="MyImage.png" width="100" />