6   Methods of Presentation

Online Manuals

Here are some tips for putting graphics online:

• You can create hotspots on graphics. Hotspots are clickable areas of a graphic that link to another topic. You can set up multiple hotspots on a single graphic.

• Be careful with the size of your graphic files—the larger the file, the slower it will take to download to the user’s computer. Some file formats will give you the same resolution as other formats, but have significantly smaller file sizes. In general, scanned graphics, or graphics saved as bitmaps (.BMP) are significantly larger than vector files, which are the file formats typically created by your graphics software (such as .EPS, .WMF, and .WPG).

• Your online authoring software will automatically convert your graphic files into either .GIF or .JPG file format, whichever you specify. In general, .JPG file format is ideal for photographs, while .GIF file format is better for simple line illustrations or illustrations that use blocks of solid colours. Both types compress the files to minimize their file size.

• You can make parts of graphics transparent so they will take on the colour of the screen background. Since all images are rectangular, by setting the background of your graphic to transparent, it will effectively disappear.

• With special software, you can create animations, or objects that appear to move or change on the screen, such as a book with pages turning.

• You can set the number of colours to be used in a graphic from none (monochrome) to 256 or more. Remember that the more colours you specify, the larger the file will be.

• When designing and sizing graphics, remember what screen resolution your monitor is set to. If you create full-screen graphics when your monitor is set to 800 pixels by 600 pixels, these graphics will be larger than the screen and will require a scroll bar to be viewed at 640 pixels by 480 pixels.