[Solved] How to set external editing tool for pictures?

[Editor_HU]

Ladies and Gentlemen, do you know by chance how could I select / set the tool to be used when I right-click on a picture and select Edit with External Tool option on the pop up context menu?

[RoryOF]

I don't get such an option using OpenOffice 3.3 or 3.4 Beta on Ubuntu; perhaps this is peculiar to LibreOffice.

[Hagar Delest]

What would be the point anyway? Except if LibO/OOo has a way to notice that the pic has been changed and needs to be updated in the document, copy/paste in a picture editor and then save and insert in LibO/OOo is the best way IMHO.

[Editor_HU]

I'm writing user documentation for computer applications. Using two screens, I have Writer on one screen, the application itself on the other. Writing the explanations, organizing the text into structure in Writer, I'm inserting screen copies of the other screen (the application).

One goal is to make the document reasonably sized. As far as I know OpenOffice (/Libre~) will not compress the dropped bitmaps like other applications may do, so I need to compress myself, image by image.

Another goal is to make highlights, underscores, explanation text and other presentation elements on the screen copy.

This is why I'd like to select the external tool to edit pictures in my document. If you know another, better, easier, more supported, more appropriate way to reach these goals in Writer, I'm happy to use it.

[Hagar Delest]

If there is no resizing needed, then you can extract the pictures from the file (ODF is a mere zip archive containing the pics in the /pictures folder), batch convert them (to .png or .jpg for example) and put them again in the file. Do that with a copy of the file, just in case something goes wrong.

I know that many users ask for such editing capabilities directly in OOo. I think that it's more robust to do that with the right tool and import the pics afterward in the document.

[Editor_HU]

What would be the point anyway? Except if LibO/OOo has a way to notice that the pic has been changed and needs to be updated in the document, copy/paste in a picture editor and then save and insert in LibO/OOo is the best way IMHO.

When I write a user documentation I follow a process in the application and try to describe it clearly, fluently enough. Using two screens and articulating good sentences is exhausting enough. Screen copy and paste the image into the document is easy enough way to avoid thinking and writing to be interrupted. If I need to use a third application, like GIMP for example, copy from the application (to be documented), paste into GIMP, edit, save as, switch back to Writer, insert picture, select the appropriate file from a folder - this breaks down productivity and destroys good thoughts, fluent sentences.

Copy-pasting while writing, then fixing the images later (compress, comment, highlight) would be a good method from the editor's point of view.

Certainly I understand if my wishes are not fully supported by an application built on contribution by courtesy. Nevertheless, if there is a way better than mine, I'd like to know it.

[RoryOF]

There ought be a link to an image editor in one of the configuration files. If I find it, I'll post its location.

Edit: I've had a look and cannot find an accessible link to an external editor. This is not to say that there is not one, only that I have not found one.

There is/was an add-on editor on the extension site - found it! -
http://aoo-extensions.sourceforge.net/e ... /pixelpluz

I know nothing about this as I have never used it. I can appreciate your desire to use an editor which has the functionality you are accustomed to. I used find that in CorelDraw, where their PhotoPaint was the default for bitmaps.

[Editor_HU]

(ODF is a mere zip archive containing the pics in the /pictures folder)

Wow. WOW! WWWOOOOOOOOOOOW!

Much better feeling to know, it took time to understand this very short sentence, however I knew all the words. Thank you.

Should I know anything special about zipping method / details to let Writer securely understand the package I broke and repackaged? Is it only the file names that Writer is looking after? If the file extensions in the ODF are PNG does that mean that Open / Libre Office was kind enough to already have my copy-pastes converted to the most desired format?

[Editor_HU]

Thank you for your efforts!

I can appreciate your desire to use an editor which has the functionality you are accustomed to.

No, my desire is far more modest. I would be pleased by any external editor capable to work on the images (resize, highlight, comment), but now it is the Windows Image Viewer that opens the picture.

While writing this comment I see that this viewer (which is popped up by Writer) allows me to further open the image with a real image editor. This might be the solution (rather a workaround to accept), let me see.

[Hagar Delest]

Should I know anything special about zipping method / details to let Writer securely understand the package I broke and repackaged? Is it only the file names that Writer is looking after? If the file extensions in the ODF are PNG does that mean that Open / Libre Office was kind enough to already have my copy-pastes converted to the most desired format?

It's standard zip format, no special setting AFAIK.
Yes, OOo looks after the filename (with extension).
In fact, I've experienced mixed results with the automatic detection of the format when pasting a pic directly in Writer. In some cases, jpegs had been converted to png, hence increasing heavily the file size. That's why now I always edit the pics with a picture manager (XnView, available in English, when it's basic operations like crop/resize/color depth adjustment).

[Editor_HU]

let me see.

It seems like the application which pops up from my LibreOffice Writer, is a Windows Viewer, which allows to select the graphic editor of your choice. (Windows 7)

It takes a couple of more clicks to get to the editor, you may need to find the .exe file of your editor the first time if your program is not listed yet, but next time it will be there on the wishlist. The whole procedure:

1) Move your cursor above a picture in your Writer
2) Right click, select the Edit With External Tool
3) Windows photo viewer pops up, you see your picture - not much editing possibilities
4) In photo viewer's menu select Open menu, click one from the list of graphic editors
5) (optional) if your beloved editor is not listed yet, click Select Program, find the exe. Next time it will be listed
6) Make the modifications you want
7) File / save the image from your application
8) Close your graphic application
9) Close Windows photo viewer
10) Return to Writer, the picture is updated

This may behave differently in other environments.

[Editor_HU]

It's standard zip format, no special setting AFAIK.
Yes, OOo looks after the filename (with extension).
In fact, I've experienced mixed results with the automatic detection of the format when pasting a pic directly in Writer. In some cases, jpegs had been converted to png, hence increasing heavily the file size. That's why now I always edit the pics with a picture manager (XnView, available in English, when it's basic operations like crop/resize/color depth adjustment).

Thank you for your rapid and effective help. I respect your mixed experiences, but hope that a repeated task in the same environment will bring me predictable results.

I will come back later to bring my experiences, but I consider this thread solved. Thank you very much.

Edit: I have marked the thread "Solved" for you. RoryOF, Moderator

[acknak]

My guess is that there is a system (or desktop) level setting for what application is used for opening images, and this is what is used by LibO. I have no idea where that setting might be found.

Also, for screen captures, I would try to avoid editing the image. OOo/LibO allow you to change the image cropping, so you can cut out parts of the image that you don't need, and you can also adjust the size of the image as displayed in the document. Neither of those changes require modifying the captured image data. That means that OOo can use the full resolution of the image, no matter whether you're viewing it on a screen, or generating a pdf, or printing the document; you always get the best quality image possible. If you edit the image and scale it to a smaller size, then you can never get back to the original quality.

The only other suggestion is to capture the images and store them separate from the document, rather than pasting them in directly. You can then include the image by a "link" from the document. This keeps the document size (much) smaller and avoids any risk of losing the images. OOo has a nasty problem that causes it to simply lose images that are embedded inside the document. If the images are already stored as regular files separate from the document, they can't be damaged or lost by OOo.

[Editor_HU]

As of editing: one purpose of editing is reducing the size by compressing the image. I still don't know if there is need for that, but I accuse document size for slowing the system, and crashing mass-picture-resize performed by changing the frame style size attributes.

Also, when the picture is screen copy of an application, and I write a guided tour, I may need to place colorful 'stickers' on the picture. Underscore te mandatory fields, make red circle around important things, and so on. Yes, I would prefer doing this outside the picture, but I do not rely on the system. If I put these graphic elements as drawing elements above the picture, what happens when I need to rearrange the document? This is why I would edit the picture.

As of linking. Linking is good. But writing handbooks is a group activity. I compose a book, then I need to hand it over to lectors. To people using very different working environment I have no influence on. It is better to give a standalone document with images embedded than making my peers set up the same folder structure and risking the links being broken.

If Writer could change linked objects to embedded, I would consider working with external images and converting the doc to standalone when all editing is done.

[acknak]

... If I put these graphic elements as drawing elements above the picture, what happens when I need to rearrange the document? This is why I would edit the picture.

I prefer to do such figures in OOo Draw, so that the image and the labels and callouts are all part of a single graphic object. That makes it easier to edit (Draw is much better than Writer for such work) and the elements can never get separated or out of alignment. It also means that the labels are always full-quality and never "pixelized" with the image.

... Linking is good. But writing handbooks is a group activity. ...

OOo is not really great for group editing; at least I would very hesitant to use it that way. There are just too many things that break when a document is edited by different people on different systems.

At the very least, you must all use OOo, have all the same fonts installed, and agree to some limitations on what kind of edits will be done.

It is quite easy to convert a document that includes images by links to all embedded for sending out. But even if you do that, now you have the problem of getting all the changes back into your (linked) version, plus the others in the group have to work on the huge version with all the embedded images.

Better to simply zip your document with the image files and send that out. The others can unzip the files and start working.

Better yet (IMO), send a pdf and have the others send changes back as text or on paper. You can make the changes in the master document.

[RoryOF]

I normally put each project into a dedicated directory which contains everything. Copying this directory in its entirety to others maintains the links.

[Editor_HU]

ODF is a mere zip archive containing the pics in the /pictures folder), batch convert them (to .png or .jpg for example) and put them again in the file. Do that with a copy of the file, just in case something goes wrong.

Thanks again for tis advise. I managed to resample pictures embedded in an .odt.

The images were inserted by PrtScrn - Ctrl+V. What I found embedded were .png files, already compressed. Image editor said memory size was about ten times the disk size. I guess .odt as a zip archive also applied certain compression. Now the question is whether it's really worth to move the pictures outside the .odt and use them as linked objects. Will it really help keeping the Writer operational and not collapsing under the tons of embedded pictures? It seems like the main problem is actually working with the pictures, re-paginating the document when a style change applies. I don't see how would picture out-sourcing help Writer do the work, the problem is the memory size, not the disk size, and the linked images will also be expanded to memory size when you work on the document.

Am I wrong?

My main goal keeps to be writing brilliant software manuals with a lot of illustrating screenshots.

[RoryOF]

I can't answer your problems, but I do very strongly advise that you make regular backups. On important or large files I always make a copy (at system level) morning and afternoon, so that if there is a crash I have only lost a few hours' work. Fortunately I haven't had any, but it is better to have the peace of mind. Also, when closing your files, give time for this to happen before shutting down your computer.