Chapter 7

Graphics Tool

Overview

Many times over the course of a meeting or conference, speakers must share images that illustrate or clarify a subject. Such images include photographic or scanned images, graphs, and charts.

Typically in a conventional conference, these images would be displayed with an overhead projector. The Graphics Tool serves as Communique!’s overhead projector by distributing images to appropriate conference members.

This chapter shows you how to use the Graphics Tool, including how to

Grabbing an Image

The Menu Bar

The Graphics Tool is used to transmit images to other conference members. However, when it is first opened, the Graphics Tool appears as nothing more than a window with a menu bar of available operations.

In order to use the Graphics Tool, you must first import an image. The image can come from any of three sources: a file stored on disk, an image in the OpenDVE Clipboard, or an image captured from your desktop.

Load from Disk

The Graphics Tool can load an image from disk that was created by another application or by a Communique! Plugin. The Graphics Tool can handle a wide variety of image formats.

1. Select Open from the Graphics Tool’s File menu.

The Load Graphics Tool Image dialog box appears.

2. Select a format from the Image Format selector to view a listing of only files in that graphics format.

Selecting All Files displays a listing of every file in the current directory.

3. Select the file you wish to import to the Graphics Tool.

4. Click OK.

The image appears in the Graphics Tool.

Paste from the OpenDVE Clipboard

The Graphics Tool can paste the contents of OpenDVE Clipboard to its image area. To do this you must have an image stored in the OpenDVE Clipboard. This image can be copied into the OpenDVE Clipboard from any application that supports the OpenDVE Clipboard, including the Communique! tools.

Select Paste from the Graphic Tool’s Edit menu. The contents of the OpenDVE Clipboard will be pasted into the Graphics Tool. If the Paste option is dimmed and unselectable, no graphic image is stored in the OpenDVE Clipboard.

Capture from the Desktop

Using tools from the Capture menu, you can grab a portion of, or the entire desktop as an image and import it into the Graphics Tool.


Region

Using the Capture Region feature, you can select a specific area of the screen that you wish to import to the Graphics Tool.

1. Choose Region from the Capture menu.

Your cursor changes to a symbol that looks like a corner.

2. Press and hold the left mouse button anywhere on the desktop, anchoring one corner of the rectangular region you will capture.

3. Drag the mouse to the opposite corner of the region you intend to capture, and release the mouse button.

A bounding box appears as you drag the mouse, indicating the region you will capture. As you release the mouse button at the opposite corner of the region, the image will be captured and appear in the Graphics Tool.


Window

Using the Capture Window feature, you can capture the contents of a specific window on the desktop and import it into the Graphics Tool.

1. Select Window from the Capture menu.

Your cursor changes to a symbol that looks like a cross hair.

2. Click on the title bar of any window on your desktop.

An image of the window you have selected appears in the Graphics Tool.


Desktop

To Capture your entire Desktop and place it in the Graphics Tool, choose Desktop from the Capture menu. An image of your entire desktop is placed in the Graphics Tool.

Viewing Images

Magnification

Once you have imported an image into the Graphics Tool, there are a number of ways to view it. If the image is larger than your current display area, you can use the scroll bars to pan around the image, or you can zoom out to a smaller scale to see more of the picture.

With the Zoom In and Zoom Out commands you can magnify or shrink the image for better viewing. Seven different degrees of magnification are available.


Zoom In:


Actual:


Zoom Out:

Zooming In

1. Select one of the Zoom In commands—1:8, 1:4, or 1:2 from the View menu.

The cursor looks like a magnifying glass when you move it over the Graphics Tool.

2. Place the magnifying glass on the area of the image that you wish to magnify, and click the left mouse button. That point will be the center of the new image window.

The view in the Graphics Tool magnifies the image accordingly and pans (shifts) to center the window on the selected point.

Zooming Out

Select one of the Zoom Out commands—3:1, 5:1, or 9:1 from the View menu.

The view in the Graphics Tool scales outward, relative to the original viewing size. The Zoom Out command centers the image on the point that was the center of the original image.

Select Original Size from the View menu to return the image to its original size.

Sending and Receiving Images

When you use the Graphics Tool to send an image to other members of a conference, the entire image is transmitted. The current size of your display area and your magnification setting are not taken into account when sending.

To send the contents of the Graphics Tool to all other conference members, select Send from the tool’s File menu. The image will be transmitted to the other conference members. Conference participants will see the image appear in a Received Image window.

Each image is received in a separate window.

Saving Images

You can save an image you’ve sent using the Graphics Tool or one that you have received from another conference member.

1. Select the Save As option from the File menu.

A file selector will appear.

2. Select the image format you wish to use.

You may choose to save your image in one of several different file formats. For detailed information on the various file formats available, see Appendix A, "Graphic File Formats."

3. Choose a location in your file system and a filename for your image.

4. Click Save.

Your image will be saved to disk.

Printing Images

You can print the contents of the Graphics Tool using the Print command in the File menu of either the Graphics Tool or a Received Image window.

1. Choose Print from the Graphics Tool’s File menu.

The Print File window will appear.

2. Specify a printer command in the Printer entry field.

You could also use the drop-down selection box to choose to save the image as a PostScript file.

If you are using lp as your printer command, you will need to add the -c option to copy the temporary file to the print spool rather than linking to it.

3. If the other options for printing are correct, click OK at the bottom of the Print dialog.

Using a Graphics Tool Image in Other Communique! Tools

The OpenDVE Clipboard

After you have loaded an image into the Graphics Tool or have received an image from another user, you can copy it to the OpenDVE Clipboard for use by other Communique! tools and applications supporting the OpenDVE Clipboard.

1. Select Copy from the Graphics Tool or Received Image window’s Edit menu.

The image is then copied into the OpenDVE Clipboard. Since the OpenDVE Clipboard can hold only one image at a time, any previous contents are overwritten.

The image is now available in the OpenDVE Clipboard and may be pasted into any graphical application supporting the OpenDVE Clipboard. For example, you could place the image in the Communique! Whiteboard.

2. Select Paste (OpenDVE) from the Edit menu of the application which will receive the image.

The image appears in the application. A copy of the image remains in the OpenDVE Clipboard until it is overwritten by another Copy command.

Graphics Tool Options

Hide Window

If this option is enabled the Graphics Tool window will disappear when you capture a region, window, or the desktop. This allows you to capture images from the desktop that would be obscured by the Graphics Tool window.

Fast Capture

With this option enabled, capture operations off the desktop grab the image using colors available to both the Graphics Tool and the window manager. When disabled, capture operations check for and use any colors reserved specifically for the captured region (a private colormap), ensuring accurate colors in the image

Disabling Fast Capture mode guarantees you accurate colors, but results in longer capture processing times. For quick response time, this option is enabled by default and may be left on unless you experience problems capturing images of a particular application or window.

Compress

With the Compress option enabled, the Graphics Tool compresses images before sending them. Images are automatically and transparently decompressed on the receiving side.

Turning off Compression may increase speed, since no compression or decompression phase is required. However, disabling compression creates more network traffic, and depending on the size of the image, disabling this option may actually increase transmission time.

Compression is enabled by default.

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