The Image Editor tool is available in the pop-up Description Editor when you have an image selected. It provides options for changing the format of your image should your image be too large for the Description field, while letting you save your original image, or an edited image, as an attachment if you wish.
| Tip: The primary purpose of the editor is to reduce an image's size. If an image fits within the overall description size limit, i.e., no "excessive data size" message is thrown, then a quick resizing of an image's height and width can be done directly in the Description. The editor is not needed for this purpose. |
Changing the Image Format
The data size of an item's Description is limited for good reason. The Description is loaded whenever a user loads/generates reports, loads/generates documents, generates a view that contains Description, etc. With large Descriptions, and especially with large structures, loading times can increase significantly including for users who do not even intend to read the Descriptions. Also, the time to run searches in Descriptions can increase substantially.
When you insert images, you may encounter an Excessive data size message indicating that you need to limit the size of the description content.
In the Description Editor:
In the embedded Description:
Most often this is due to the size of pictures. Editing an image(s) will enable you to include your image(s) if they are too large in size.
To access the image editor you must first open the pop-up Description Editor. Then, right-click on the image and select Edit image.
| Note: The image editor cannot be used for WMF and EMF image formats. |
The image editor will display. By default, the selected image format is JPEG regardless of the image format of the original image.
To modify the image, select JPEG or PNG file format. Then, modify the image with the provided tools as outlined below.
JPEG
Make your selections for the JPEG format. You can chose to modify the Scale (size) and/or Quality and/or select Grayscale.
PNG
Make your selections for the PNG format. You can chose to change the Scale and/or Bit Depth and/or select Grayscale.
Estimated Image Size
The Estimated image size indicator at bottom left displays the image size as well as how much of the description size limit that the image utilizes.
| Note: This is not an indication of whether or not the selected image quality will enable you to save the current content of the Description as this will depend on the entire combined content, e.g., text, images, etc. |
Saving Original as Attachment
When you first insert an image, e.g., jpg, png, bmp, if you do find that your image is too large to include in the Description, you can use the image editor to save the original image as an attachment. This is an option only and is not required.
| Note: Saving an image as an attachment requires that the server is configured with a file repository. |
To save the original as an attachment, check Save original as attachment. Enter a Name for the attachment file. An optional Comment can also be added.
The attachment file will then be listed in the Attachments view.
| Note: If you modify the image, and then afterwards choose to "Save original as attachment", be aware that the "original" in this case is the modified image. To use the image editor to save the "true" original as an attachment, the option must be selected when inserting the "true" original, not after modifying it. |
Image Preview
When you edit the image in the editor, you can preview your changes to the right before saving. The image can be previewed in Actual size or fit to window.
To save your changes and close the image editor, click Save.
| Disclaimer: When opening an existing image in the editor and modifying it, the image can grow in scale depending on how the image has been handled before, e.g., changes to quality, etc. |