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August 5, 2008
Answered

best practice for image inserts

  • August 5, 2008
  • 2 replies
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I am planning to create new webhelp topics and edit existing topics in my project. Is it the best practice to place graphics files in the same folder as the HTML input files?
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Correct answer HKabaker
The first rule about images is that you don't "place" an image anywhere in the file system. You insert/import it into a topic using the RoboHelp dialog. RH copies it from its original location into the project folder and records it in one or more houskeeping files. If you do any manual moving of images in the Windows directory view, RH will lose track of what it has and will be "unaware" of anything you moved in.

The next point depends on which version of RH you are using. It's different for RH 7, compared with RH X5 and RH 6.

Harvey

2 replies

MergeThis
Inspiring
August 5, 2008
I personally have always avoided the use of folders, maybe because most of my projects were large merged projects, which already contain multiple project "folders." Also, renaming/deleting these beasties later on can be a bear, as evidenced by many angst-ridden threads in this forum.

Let RH place them in its own "virtual" Images folder and leave it at that. Unless...do you feel lucky?

By the way, best practice (at least mine) is to name everything (projects, topics, graphics) with no spaces, very brief, and possibly with 2- to 3-character prefixes to more easily identify them (possibly application features, for example). Such as: sa_user_cfg.gif for a screenshot of the User Configuration window for System Administration.


Good luck,
Leon
August 5, 2008
I use the same naming convention Leon does, but I add the version number (of the application) at the beginning of the filename. For example, sa_user_cfg.gif becomes 2223_sa_user_cfg.gif if the shot was taken in version 2.2.23. That makes it much easier to purge older images later.
August 5, 2008
Thanks.
HKabakerCorrect answer
Inspiring
August 5, 2008
The first rule about images is that you don't "place" an image anywhere in the file system. You insert/import it into a topic using the RoboHelp dialog. RH copies it from its original location into the project folder and records it in one or more houskeeping files. If you do any manual moving of images in the Windows directory view, RH will lose track of what it has and will be "unaware" of anything you moved in.

The next point depends on which version of RH you are using. It's different for RH 7, compared with RH X5 and RH 6.

Harvey

August 5, 2008
thanks