Chapter 6
The Graphics Tool
Overview
Many times over the course of a meeting or conference, speakers must share images illustrating or clarifying a subject. Such images include photographic or scanned images, graphs, and charts.
In conventional conferences these images are typically displayed with an overhead projector. The Graphics Tool serves as Communique!’s overhead projector by distributing images to conference members.
This chapter will cover
- Capturing an image
- Viewing an image
- Sending an image
- Saving an image
- Using a Graphics Tool image
- Graphics Tool options
Grabbing an Image
The Graphics Tool is used to transmit images to other conference members. You must first load an image into the Graphics Tool. The image can be loaded from disk, captured from the desktop, or pasted in from the clipboard.
Loading an Image from Disk
The Graphics Tool can load an image created by other applications or Communique!’s Plugins. The Graphics Tool can handle a wide variety of popular image formats.
1. From the Graphics Tool’s File menu select Open
The Open file dialog box appears.
2. If you want the file browser to show you only files stored in a specific graphics format, select that format from the File Type Selector.
Choosing an option other than All Files will cause the File Type to show you only those files that are stored in the format you have selected.
3. Select the file you wish to load into the Graphics Tool and click OK.
The image will appear in the Graphics Tool.
Paste from the Windows Clipboard
The Graphics Tool can copy both bitmap images and pictures from the Windows Clipboard to its image area. To do this you must have an image stored in the Windows Clipboard. This image can be copied into the Windows Clipboard from any application supporting the Clipboard, including the Communique! tools.
With an image stored in the Clipboard, select Paste from the Graphic Tool’s Edit menu. The contents of the Clipboard will be pasted into the Graphics Tool. If the Paste option is disabled, no graphic image is stored in the Clipboard.
Capturing from the Desktop
The Capture menu lets you grab a window, region, or the entire desktop as an image and place it in the Graphics Tool.
You can define an area of the screen you wish to capture.
1. Click on the Capture menu and choose Region.
Your cursor will change to a symbol that looks like a crosshair.
2. Press the mouse button on the desktop to anchor a corner of the rectangular region you will capture and drag the mouse to the opposite corner of your intended capture region.
A bounding box will appear as you drag the mouse, indicating the region you will capture. After you release the mouse button at the opposite corner of the region, the image defined by you will appear in the Graphics Tool.
You can also capture an entire window.
1. Pull down the Capture menu and select Window.
Your cursor will change 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 will appear in the Graphics Tool.
To Capture your entire Desktop and place it in the Graphics Tool, choose Desktop from the Capture menu. An image of your entire desktop will be placed in the Graphics Tool.
Acquiring from a Twain Source
The Graphics Tool can also receive input from a Twain-compatible source such as a scanner. To receive an image directly from a Twain source follow these steps:
1. Choose the Select Source option form the File menu.
A list of Twain devices available on your system will be presented.
2. Select one of the Twain devices and click OK.
3. Select Acquire from the File menu.
Your Twain-compatible device will bring up its own control window. Follow your manufacturer’s instructions to create an image. When you return from the Twain application your image will appear in the Graphics Tool.
Communique! for Windows NT does not include support for Twain.
Sending and Receiving Images
When you load and send an image with the Graphics Tool to other members, the entire image will be sent regardless of the visible portion on your screen.
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 sent to the other conference members. Conference participants will have the image appear in a Received Image window.
Each image will be received in its own window.
Saving Images
You can save an image that has been loaded into the Graphics Tool.
1. Select the Save As option from the File menu.
A Save Window will appear.
2. Select the image format you wish to use from the Type box.
You may choose to save your image in one of several different file formats. For detailed information on the various file formats available, refer to the Appendices.
3. Choose a directory and a filename for your image.
4. Click Save.
Your image will be saved to disk.
Printing Images
1. Select the Print option from the File menu.
The Print window will appear.
2. Click on the desired printing options:
Use printer resolution—When enabled, 1 screen pixel (dot) = 1 printer dot. While this provides a faithful printed representation of the screen image, the printed image will usually be smaller than the screen image, especially on laser printers.
Print visible part—Print only the part of the image that is visible in the window.
Center—Center the printed image on the page.
Scaling—Select the printed image size relative to the screen image size.
Fast scaling—Enable rapid scaling of the image.
Print to file—Redirect the printer output to a file. Enter the filename when prompted.
Copies—Set the number of printed copies.
Print Quality—Set the printer resolution in dots per inch (dpi).
3. If you need to configure the target printer, click on the Setup button. Setup will open the printer’s specific Setup window and is equivalent to selecting the Print Setup... option from the Video menu.
Refer to your Microsoft Windows documentation for details on printer setup.
4. If the options for printing are correct, click on the OK button to begin printing. To cancel printing, click on the Cancel button.
The Windows Clipboard and the Graphics Tool
Once you have captured an image, it can be copied to the Windows Clipboard where Communique! Plugins and other applications supporting the Windows Clipboard will be able to use it. When you have captured an image, follow these steps to place it in the Windows Clipboard.
1. Select Copy from the Edit menu.
The image will be copied into the Windows Clipboard. Since the Clipboard can hold only one image at a time, any previous contents will be overwritten.
The image is now available in the Clipboard and can be pasted into any application supporting the pasting of graphics such as the Communique! Whiteboard.
2. Go to the target application and paste it. This is usually accomplished by selecting Paste from the application’s Edit menu.
The image will appear in the application. A copy of the image will remain in the Windows Clipboard until it is overwritten by another Copy command from the Graphics Tool or another Windows application.
Graphics Tool Options
Hide Window
If this option is enabled the Graphics Tool window will disappear during any region, window, or desktop capture. This allows you to capture images from the desktop without the Graphics Tool window interfering with the capture.
Fast Capture
With this option enabled, capture operations off the desktop will grab the image using optimized color selection routines. When disabled, capture operations will replicate the colors exactly.
Disabling Fast Capture mode will guarantee you accurate colors, especially when dealing with true color images, but will result in longer capture processing times. For quick response time, this option is enabled by default and should be left on unless you experience problems capturing images from a particular application or window.
Fast Capture is not available to Windows NT users.
Compress
When this option is enabled, the Graphics Tool will attempt to compress images before sending them. Images are automatically and transparently decompressed on the receiving side.
Turning off Compression may provide for an increase in speed, provided the network can handle the increased traffic.
Compression is enabled by default.
Choosing Graphics Recipients
Unless otherwise specified, Communique! send your graphic data to all conference members. You can use the Graphics Recipients list to select who you wish to send images to.
1. Select the Recipients option under the Options menu. You can also access the Graphics Recipients list by clicking on the Recipients button on the toolbar (the one with the picture of people on it).
The Graphics Recipients dialog box will appear.
Everyone involved in the conference (other than yourself) will be listed with a corresponding check box. If a person’s check box is selected (marked with an "X") they will receive all images sent with your Graphics Tool.
2. Select the conference members that you wish to receive graphics. Click on Close when you are satisfied with your selections.
The Graphics Recipients information is not saved from conference to conference. If you do not want to send graphics to all conference members you will need to update your Graphics Recipients list each conference.