Hi Maria

From my experience, Xerte tends to display the image in the space available but there are then issues in terms of download times and people can sit looking at an apparently blank page because the 3 Mb image straight off the camera takes half a minute to render. My advice would be that people think about image size before uploading to Xerte otherwise the fluidity of the learning experience might be compromised by the time spent waiting for unnecessarily large files to get down the system.



There's a nice it of free (and portable) software called IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/index.htm) which has a relatively straightforward batch processing facility so a whole folder of files can be shrunk automatically - see attached screenshots for the main processes. The interface looks crowded (because it is a powerful little programme) but in reality there are about 6 clicks from start to finish - most of which are pretty obvious.



As for any online training you may have missed you can get links to the recordings at www.techdis.ac.uk/getxertefriday - the last session on images has yet to be uploaded on our site but the url for the recording is http://www.InstantPresenter.com/techdisonline/EE55D98983 (and the url of the relevant learning object is http://xerte5.techdis.palepurple.co.uk/play_3355. Other sessions are on the XerteFriday site link above.



Hope this is useful. Sorry I can't point to a hidden panel in Xerte that will automatically shrink the file size automatically but the staff skill of understanding picture size and appropriate resolutions etc is going to be increasingly important since many domestic cameras are knocking out pictures at 6-8Mb resolutions and then the users want to email them to their friends and wonder why the systems complain!



If you have specific difficulties with particular pages or images keep us informed. Be aware that while GIFs display fine, animated gifs don't do the animation; that tends not to be an issue with your average tutor though since they tend not to make animated gifs.



All the best



Alistair









-----Original Message-----

From: A list to facilitate and support teachers using Xerte Online Toolkits [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maria Neary

Sent: 09 June 2010 13:42

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Re: Online training session this Friday (28th) 1-2pm



Hi Alistair



I'm new to Xerte and have missed the online training. Is there a summary of this somewhere on line?



I'm having a few problems re images. I'm using the Xerte Toolkit which we (Adult Community Learning Essex) have uploaded to a server (which I'm testing before it goes live to tutors).



Is there a prescribed image size for each template or option to resize within a template?  I can resize images before importing them, using alternative software, but can see this being a problem for tutors if they need to do this every time they insert an image.



Or I am missing something totally obvious, in which case, apologies in advance!



Many thanks for any suggestions.

Maria





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