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Development Corner: Image Formats

by Sally Cox  

When it comes to adding images to websites, PowerPoint presentations, or eLearning projects, you will likely be given JPEGs, GIFs, or PNGs. Let's review the three most common image formats and why/when to use them.

JPEG

JPEG is short for "Joint Photographer's Experts Group." It is one of the most popular formats used on the web and in eLearning. JPEG compression (the act of making the image as small as possible while retaining as much quality as possible) is "lossy" compression, which means every time you save an image as a JPEG, it loses quality.

 

The first image above is a JPEG taken with my iPhone. In the second image, I have opened the file in Photoshop and zoomed in on the child's face.

 

 

 

  

 

The little squares you see in the closeup image are called "pixels." Every time you save an image as a JPEG, it loses some quality by throwing out pixels. So if you are editing an image in Photoshop, always save it as the native format first, which is a PSD (Photoshop Document).

 

In the Save As dialog box in Photoshop, choose "Photoshop" as the file format. This saves as a PSD and preserves all details. Then after you finish your edits, do another Save As and choose "JPEG." The original PSD remains fully intact.

 

The image below is an example of the same photo saved multiple times as a low-quality JPEG. Notice that that there is a squarish effect happening and details are lost. This effect is known as "JPEG artifact."

 

 

 

JPEGs use the "RGB colorspace," which has more than 16 million colors. This allows for beautiful continuous-tone images with fluid gradations and a full range of colors. It's a good choice for continuous-tone, but does not allow transparency or animation.

GIF

The "Graphic Interchange Format" (GIF) works in the "Indexed colorspace," so its color palette is quite limited--just 256 colors. GIFs do, however, support transparency and animation (the once-hated animated GIF is making a comeback; I see it every day on Facebook). The oldest format on the web (created in 1989), GIFs are saved as "lossless" compression.

In the image below, I have saved the image as a GIF and it contains just 256 colors. You can see that the image has lost some of its detail.

 

 

Here is an example of an image containing just 8 colors--all detail is gone and the image has a "posterized" effect.

 

 

 

GIFs are perfect for "flat color," i.e., logos or flat design graphics that don't have gradations or continuous-tone (remember: only 256 colors). 

 

PNG

 

The "Portable Network Graphic" was created (approved as a web standard in 1996) to provide high quality continuous-tone but also allow for transparency and animation.

PNGs are saved in the RGB colorspace, so they have the full range of 16 million+ colors. What I like best about PNGs is the ability to save transparency, which I use every day in my workflow. I save my graphics as high-quality PNGs and allow transparency (a checkbox I choose in Adobe Illustrator when I export a graphic to PNG).

In a recent project I wanted to use an image of a headset, and I needed the background to be transparent. I opened the image in Adobe Illustrator and set the Export PNG options to High Quality and set the Background Color to Transparency.

 

 

 

Thanks to the Transparency option, I had the freedom to overlay the headset on the green background shown below.

 

To Recap:

	JPEG	GIF	"PNG"
COLORS	16 MILLION +	256	16 MILLION +
TRANSPARENCY	NO	YES	YES
ANIMATION	NO	YES	YES
CONTINUOUS-TONE	YES	NO	YES
FLAT COLOR	NO	YES	YES

 

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Adobe RoboHelp 2015: Embedding Multimedia from Camtasia Studio

by Willam van Weelden  

 

Integration between RoboHelp and Adobe Captivate has always worked well. Kevin taught you this integration some time ago. Using multimedia from other applications such as Camtasia used to be much harder. A recent patch for RoboHelp 2015 makes using media from Camtasia and other applications easy.

To be able to follow these steps, ensure you have the latest RoboHelp 2015 patch installed. You can check this by clicking the help icon in the right top of RoboHelp and choosing Updates.

1. Use Camtasia to create an MP4 file.
2. Open your RoboHelp project.
3. Open the topic where you want to include the MP4 file.
4. On the Insert tab, Media group, click Multimedia.
   
5. Click the yellow folder to the right of Source and open the MP4 file you created with Camtasia.
     
6. Click the OK button.
7. Save and generate your project.

The multimedia is embedded in the output.

 

 

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? Come join me for my live, two-day online RoboHelp class (held once each month). And if you'd like to learn more about Dynamic Filters, check out my new 3-hour mini course: Adobe RoboHelp: Advanced Content Reuse.

eBooks with Adobe RoboHelp: Fix the "Remove DOC Type" Error

by Kevin Siegel   

I write and produce all of the print versions of my "skills & drills" workbooks in Adobe FrameMaker. When it comes to creating digital versions of my books, I take the FrameMaker content into Adobe RoboHelp and then generate both ePubs and MOBI outputs. The whole process of going from FrameMaker to RoboHelp to eBook takes just a few moments. I've written about the workflow previously.

 

Normally my eBooks generate without issue. However, using the new Adobe RoboHelp 2015, I started receiving the following error message when generating my eBooks:

 

Validating against EPUB version 3.0

(http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/)

September 2, 2015 1:05:34 PM EDT

----------

ERROR: RoboHelp2105.epub/OEBPS/__toc.ncx: External DTD entities are not allowed. Remove the DOCTYPE.

Check finished with warnings or errors!

 

I researched the error and it turns out the ePub 3 specifications do not accept references to DTD entities. RoboHelp was adding the reference automatically every time I generated. Because RoboHelp does not have an option to remove the DOCTYPE code from the eBook output, I was stuck. Thankfully, a quick email to my contacts at Adobe led to an easy fix that resolved the issue. Special thanks to Adobe's Amit Jha for the following:

1. Using Windows Explorer, open the folder where RoboHelp has been installed on your computer. (For me, this was C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 2015\RoboHTML.)
2. Open EBooksExt\EPUB3\OEBPS\
3. Open the file named _toc.ncx. (It will open automatically in Notepad.)
4. Remove the following line of code from the file:
   <!DOCTYPE ncx PUBLIC "-//NISO//DTD ncx 2005-1//EN" "http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/ncx-2005-1.dtd">
    
5. Save and close the _toc.ncx file.
6. Back in RoboHelp, generate the eBook layout.

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Looking for training or help with Adobe RoboHelp? Check out these awesome live, online RoboHelp classes taught by our very own Willam Van Weelden.

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: New Book Now Shipping

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: The Essentials

 

We are proud to announce that our "Adobe RoboHelp 2015: The Essentials" workbook is now shipping.

 

"Adobe RoboHelp 2015: The Essentials" is a self-paced, step-by-step workbook that will teach you the essential skills needed to create and deliver user assistance (Help systems, policies and procedures, and knowledgebases). By following step-by-step instructions, you will learn to create RoboHelp projects from scratch and how to add content via importing from Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker, PDFs, and HTML.

 

You will learn to enhance your content with graphics, dynamic effects (DHTML), and multimedia (eLearning content created using Adobe Captivate). Enhance the navigation of your Help content by adding hyperlinks, indexes and glossaries. Improve your production efficiency by learning about cascading style sheets, variables, snippets, and master pages. Learn how to control the look of the final WebHelp output via Skins.

 

The output files you learn to generate (Single Source Layouts) will allow you to deliver content to the iPad and other tablets, smartphones, and desktops using output formats such as Responsive HTML5, WebHelp, Microsoft HTML Help, Adobe AIR Help, PDF and eBooks.

 

More information.

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: Dynamic Filters

by Willam van Weelden  

 

A few weeks ago I showed you how to use named Conditional Build Expressions to include or exclude content from your output. RoboHelp 2015 has a new feature to make tags even more useful: Dynamic Filters.

With traditional Conditional Build Expressions you choose to exclude specific content from your output. Once you generate the output, content is included or excluded from the output. If you use build tags to target multiple audiences, you have to create an output for every audience. Enter Dynamic Filters: With dynamic filters readers dynamically switch the information they want to see.

 

 

In the image above there are four holiday destinations in different countries. No country is selected in the Filter by area at the left so the reader sees all of the available content. If the reader selects US, only the content for the US (Mesa Verde, CO) is shown.

With Dynamic Filters you can create a single output where users themselves decide which content they need. You can use this to group content by user role, by module, or by locale.

Add Dynamic Filter to Output

1. Tag the content in RoboHelp.
2. Go to the Output tab and select your Responsive HTML5 Single Source Layout.
3. Select Use Dynamic Content Filter in the output.
     
4. Click Customize to open the Dynamic Content Filter dialog box.
5. From the Define area, click Add criteria button to open theTags and Expressions dialog box. (The Add criteria button is the second icon from the left.)
      
6. Select the tags and expressions you want to include as a filter.
     
7. Click the OK button.
     
8. Click Save to close the Dynamic Content Filter dialog box.
9. Click Save and Generate to generate your output.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? Come join me for my live, two-day online RoboHelp class (held once each month). And if you'd like to learn more about Dynamic Filters, check out my new 3-hour mini course: Adobe RoboHelp: Advanced Content Reuse.

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: Conditional Build Tags and Named Expressions

by Willam van Weelden  

 

A project can easily contain thousands of topics. When you generate a layout, all of the topics are generated. But what if you want to exclude several topics from being generated? Using Conditional Build tags, you can mark topics or topic content. When the time comes to generate, you can choose to create conditions that control which tagged content is generated. Using conditions, you can maintain one large project but generate multiple layouts; each layout can have unique content. Content that is excluded from a layout is not seen by your users.

 

Tagged content appears in RoboHelp 11 and earlier as text with diagonal lines (first image below). In RoboHelp 2015 tagged content appears with an overline. The overline makes it much easier to read the content and see which content is tagged.

 

 

 

 

The downside of tagged content in RoboHelp 11 and earlier is that you can only create Conditional Build Expressions that show which tags are excluded. A Conditional Build Expression is a list of tags to exclude from your output. These expressions can get confusing because it is not always clear which tags to exclude for which situation. For example, a company has two divisions: East and West coast. Based on the name of the tag below, will the tag exclude content from the East coast or the West coast?

 

 

With RoboHelp 2015 you use common sense names to easily distinguish which Conditional Build Expression you need in which situation.

 

 

To create a Named Conditional Build Expression, choose Project > Pods > Conditional Build Tag and then click Create a new build expression.

 

 

 

The Define Conditional Build Expression dialog opens. Double-click a tag to exclude the tag from the output and then click Save.

 

 

 

Name the expression and click OK.

 

 

 

If you have existing Conditional Build Expressions, you can easily change their names. Open the Conditional Build Tags pod (choose Project > Pods > Conditional Build Tag).

 

Click Create a new build expression.

 

 

 

From the Define Conditional Build Expression dialog box, select an expression from the Expressions drop-down menu.

 

 

Click Rename this expression.

 

 

 

Name the expression and then click OK.

 

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? Come join me for my live, two-day online RoboHelp class (held once each month). And check out my new 3-hour mini course: Adobe RoboHelp: Advanced Content Reuse.

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: First Look

by Willam van Weelden

Adobe released RoboHelp 2015 last week, a major upgrade sporting several enhancements. This week we take a first look at some of the big changes.

Ribbon Based Interface

The menu has been redesigned to make RoboHelp easier to use. Options are sensibly arranged and menu inconsistencies have been cleaned up. Lesser known features like search synonyms are much easier to find and use.

Small improvements, such as working with tables, make editing content much easier.

One of my favorites is the Locate Item tool. Open a topic and select an image or a Captivate movie. Click the Locate Item tool and the item will be highlighted in the Project Manager.

Skins and Layouts

RoboHelp 2015 includes new WebHelp skins and Responsive HTML5 layouts. The WebHelp skins are clean and modern. Both WebHelp and Responsive HTML5 support Right-to-Left languages. Though for WebHelp you will have to use one of the six new skins.



The Responsive HTML5 Layouts have more customization options. It is now possible to choose which panes to include in the output, just as with WebHelp. The layouts have Facebook share and Twitter buttons included as well.

Important Enhancements:

• Named Conditions: Sensible names for Conditional Build Expressions.
• Dynamic filters: Conditional Build Tags on steroids. Dynamically switch Conditional Build Expressions in your output for fine grained control.
• Improved search results: Control the topic preview text in search results.
• Mobile App output: Create a mobile app without any coding.
• Right-to-Left: Output for right-to-left languages.
• Find and Replace: The Find and Replace pod has new powerful features.
• Scalable video: Adobe Captivate videos scale in Responsive HTML5 output.

I've mentioned what I consider to be the most important enhancements in RoboHelp 2015. Stay tuned for articles on each of these enhancements in the weeks to come.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

Adobe RoboHelp: Merging WebHelp

by Willam van Weelden  

I've previously taught you how to create links between Merged HTML Help projects. This time, let's tackle merged WebHelp. Merging WebHelp differs from merging HTML Help in that you select the RoboHelp project to merge instead of the output.

Prepare a Master Project

1. Open the master project's table of contents and click New Merged Project.
     
2. On the FlashHelp/WebHelp/Multiscreen/Adobe AIR tab, click the Browse button and open the RoboHelp project you want to merge.
     
3. Click the OK button to merge the project. (The child project will appear in the master project's TOC.)
     
4. Save your project and generate your master project.

Generate Merged Projects

Once you've created the master project, you need to generate the merged projects to the correct folder in the master project's output folder.

When you generated the master project, RoboHelp created the following folder structure:

   

For every child project, place the WebHelp output into the mergedProjects\<project name> folder. (Meaning that the child project called Child 1 has to be placed in the folder WebHelp\mergedProjects\Child 1.)

Once you generate all child projects to the correct location, open the master project output to see the results:

 

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

Adobe RoboHelp: Create Merged Help

by Willam van Weelden  

Merged help is the process of combining outputs from multiple RoboHelp projects into a single help system. While the content is created from multiple projects, your users see a single, integrated help system.

Over the next couple of weeks I will teach you how to create merged help for several output formats. Since RoboHelp's layouts work differently, I will go over each layout in turn. 

Why Merge Help?

Generally speaking, if any of the following items are true in your environment, merging may be for you:

• You have a very large project (thousands of topics). Splitting the project into smaller projects may make maintenance easier.
• Multiple writers work on separate parts of the documentation and you don't have source control. Without source control, only a single author can work in a project at the same time. Having multiple smaller projects makes collaboration without source control easier.
• You need to update parts of the help separately from other parts. If you have a single project, you create an output for the entire project. You can publish only changed files, but you can't update only a single part. With merged help, you can.
• You have modules that are reused in different products. With merged help you maintain a single version, and reuse that.

Which Outputs can I Merge?

You can merge the following outputs:

• Adobe AIR
• Microsoft HTML Help (CHM)
• FlashHelp
• Multiscreen HTML5
• Responsive HTML5
• WebHelp

Master Project and Child Projects

When you merge help, you always have one master project and any number of child projects. The master project is the glue that holds everything together. When you generate your output, the master project makes sure that your help system is shown as an integrated whole.

Your master project is a regular RoboHelp project. You can use any features you want in the master project.

Merged Microsoft HTML Help

Generate a CHM file for every child project. (Using the Single Source Layouts pod, generate Microsoft HTML Help.) Then open the project that is to be the master project.

Open the layout's table of contents and click New Merged Project.

 

On the HTML Help tab, click the browse button (the yellow folder) and open the CHM file of the child project you published.

 

Click Yes when prompted.

 

Click the OK button to merge the CHM file.

 

The child project will appear in the Master project's TOC. 

Save your project and generate the layout. 

  

All that's left to do is deliver both CHM files as your help system.Whenever the child project changes, generate the CHM from the child project. Replace the CHM in the master project directory and generate your master project. You can also replace the child project CHM in the output directly.

 

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

Adobe RoboHelp: List Images

by Willam van Weelden  

 

When you create a list, there are several list styles you can use in RoboHelp: bullets, squares, lowercase alphabet, and numbers. But RoboHelp brings one more great feature: you can use images instead of bullets.

Create a List Style with Custom Images

1. On the Project Manager pod, double-click your style sheet to open the Styles dialog box.
2. Right-click List and choose New.
3. Enter a name for the list style and press [enter].
4. Click the Create a bulleted list button.
5. Select the list images option.
   
6. Click the browse button to open the Image dialog box.
   
7. Select the image you want to use as a bullet and click OK.
8. Then click the OK button to save your changes.

Apply an Image List Style

1. Open or create a topic, and then create a regular bulleted list.
2. Select the list.
3. Right-click and choose Bullets and Numbering.
4. Go to the Custom tab and select your list style in the left section.
   
5. Click the OK button to apply your list.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.