What to do when you can't use screen captures?

Subject: What to do when you can't use screen captures?
From: Geoff Hart <Geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 08:32:15 -0400

Michelle Vina-Baltsas is <<...creating my first HTML help
project and it's going to reside on a remote MetaFrame server.
While testing the help file, I noticed that the screen captures
were taking very long to paint.>>

I don't know anything about MetaFrame, so it's possible that
someone who does can point out a simple fix (e.g., selecting
"fast download of graphics" in the Preferences dialog box
<g>, changing a caching method on the server). Perhaps
there's even a network problem that you've stumbled upon
and that the network geeks can solve for you once they know
it's a problem (happened to me once... I noticed something
really slow, pointed it out, and they figured out that there was
a server problem and fixed it).

But the question that occurs to me first is whether (or how)
you've tried optimizing your graphics for the new medium.
You might be able to get away with smaller bitmaps, lower
resolution, and lower color depth (perhaps even monochrome
or greyscale). You may even be able to crop the heck out of
most screenshots so that you're focusing in on only a small
portion of the larger screen, thereby greatly reducing the
amount of graphics to download. Finally, you could limit
your graphics to only the most important cases, where it's
truly vital that viewers get graphical assistance. Worth a shot?

<<I'm contemplating whether or not I should even include the
images since the help file is not going to be local because
they take too long to paint.>>

Another obvious fix might be to store the graphics locally,
particularly if they're going to be reused often; most Web
browsers let you cache frequently used files (e.g,. recurring
graphics) locally, and with a little HTML smarts, you could
probably coax the browser to do so directly from within the
HTML file (I'm not sure how you do this; one of our HTML
whizzes should be able to provide details).

If you absolutely can't include any graphics, then you're
going to have to think of other tricks. One really "lateral
thinking" approach: can you distribute printed "maps" to your
clients so they can have the map open in one hand, and the
(text only) browser help up on screen? Could you use ASCII
graphics? For example:
.................................................................
In the Name field (see below), enter your name. <g>
N*A*M*E: [_________]
.................................................................
Could you produce a standard set of descriptions so that
people know what you're talking about even though they
can't see it? Could you produce the graphics separately, as
bitmaps stored on the server, and let the user load them
individually with Windows Paint, or open them with
whatever text editor (WordPad, SimpleText, etc.) comes with
their software?

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all those sevens,
something just calling out for us to discover it. But I
suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence." George
Miller, "The Magical Number Seven" (1956)

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