Handling Images with Ease
In the selection of photos to accompany a form or report,
there are many considerations — especially the more
photos there are to use. Some reports may have more than 100 photos
attached. If this kind of comprehensive data is going to
be sent to someone electronically, then further image
processing must occur.
One Hundred (100) uncompressed images is normally not a manageable size to be sent electronically, via upload or email. Somehow, usually "you-how", these photos must be comressed. MultiForm does this automatically, as soon as you merely select the photo.
Image Handling with MultiForm is Not a separate add-on product costing $399 as some software companies offer. Image Handling WITH MultiForm is included ; that is, it is free.
Numerous options are available for handling your photos efficiently...
- Select Images Continuously
- Fit Image Horizontally within Preview
- Optimize Image Size
- Rotate Image Left
- Rotate Image Right
- Embed Images Within Data File
| Image Handling Options |
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Selecting Images Continuously
The very fastest way to select photos is to select them continuously.
- No need to have dialogs that disappear after each selection.
- No need to have to reinvoke a dialog each time.
- No need to have to navigate back to where you were working.
- No need to have to find your place again.
Simply mark the "Select Continuously" option...
and just continuously select your photos. Leave this option checked to continuously select continuously. :)
Automatic Sizing and Compression
One of the first considerations is size. In those cases where super high resolution is not needed, size can play an important role in the electronic communication process. Consider a form or report that has 100 attached photos. If each photo were 1 megabyte (which is not that high a resolution, the total size would be over 100 megabytes. Excessively large file sizes are not among those situations that would be called the best situations for electronic transmission – Either for you or for your client.
A 1 megabyte plus photo will easily be taken by most cameras. One meg is not even that high a resolution but still too larger for including more than a few images in a transmission.
Believe it or not, reducing the size of the original photo, that is reducing the resolution/size of the photo actually taken by the camera is the solution that some other software companies have suggested to their customers, for getting efficiently sized photos. A poor way to control smaller sized photos.
There are good reasons for having and keeping a high quality original photo in addition to a smaller one for electronic transmission – one would be to be able to examine the photo in greater detail at a later date if need be, or perhaps to have a large(r) high quality printout. If the original photo taken by the camera is not a higher resolution, there would be no such options here.
So reducing the size of the original photo taken by the camera is NOT, definitely NOT, an appropriate solution. What is the solution?
The solution is to optimize the higher resolution oroginal photo. Still would you like to optimize 100 photos manually? Probably not. The best solution is to have the photos optimized automatically — perhaps even as you select the photo for inclusion in the report.
Leave this option checked and have all your photos automatically compressed. The compression ratio is to a point to provide optimal quality with optimal size, making your clients happy on both counts.
And the original photo is not disturbed in any way. A smaller, compressed photo created and saved under a slightly different name as the original. In this way, the original is not disturbed, yet a smaller efficiently sized, quality photo is available for electronic distribution.
Fit To Edges When Inserting
When selecting a photo for insertion this option will allow for the entire photo slot to be filled with the picture. Unmarking this option, will have the largest possible image placed within the photo slot, but keepting the EXACT aspect ratio.
Usually leaving this option checked is fine. It is checked by default, and except in unusual circumstances, or when rotating a photo, can remain checked.
Rotating the Photo
Should there be a need or desire to rotate a photo, these options will allow the photo to be rotated left or right by 90 degrees. That way, if a need arose to, say, take a portrait shot of a door, there would be no need to worry about which way the camera was turned.
Embed Images Within .mfs file
An .mfs file is the MultiForm data file. Images are included in an .mfs file one of two ways:
- By Reference
- By Actual Inclusion
When this option is NOT marked, photos are included by reference, ONLY a path to the photo is stored, not the actual photo. This option conserves space, because a second copy of the photo is not placed inside the file. Only the path to the photo is stored.
NOTE: It should be noted that EVEN IF the photos are stored within the data file by reference, that should the need file be sent to someone WITH the photos actually included, MultiForm will create another .mfs file WITH the photos actually embedded.
Marking this option, will force a copy of the photos to be stored within the .mfs file itself. This option will use more space, as another copy of the image is being store; however, it can be more convenient to to have the entire file self-contained. Data files (.mfs) with embedded photos can be archived as all the photos are contained within.
However, MultiForm can create another .mfs file with the photos stored via the Outbox method.
Handling Images with Ease
“I love it. Cuts my time in at least half. It's 'almost' fun to do the forms. The manual is very well written and self explanatory.”