Best Practice for Importing Screen Shots?

I'm capturing 1024 x 768 screen shots resized to 790 x 555 BMP's (always keeping the aspect ratio) for import into Cp3 using Snag-It software but have never been satisifed with the quality of the images ... always a little blurry ... never crystal clear. My Cp3 files are often too large to use jpg's (75 - 100 slides). Any suggestions? All comments are welcome and appreciated, thank you.

Hi Brian
This morning I posted a small tip for working with large capture areas. Perhaps it will be helpful here?
Cheers... Rick
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Best practice for importing non-"Premiere-ready" video files

Hello!
I work with internal clients that provide me with a variety of differnet video types (could be almost ANYTHYING, WMV, MP4, FLV). I of course ask for AVIs when possible, but unfortunately, I have no control over the type of file I'm given.
And, naturally, Premiere (just upgraded to CS5) has a hard time dealing with these files. Unpredictable, ranging from working fine to not working at all, and everything in between. Naturally, it's become a huge issue for turnaround time.
Is there a best practice for preparing files for editing in Premiere?
I've tried almost everything I can think of: converting the file(s) to .AVIs using a variety of programs/methods. Most recently, I tried creating a Watch Folder in Adobe Media Encoder and setting it for AVI with the proper aspect ratio. It makes sense to me that that should work:using an Adobe product to render the file into something Premiere can work with.
However, when I imported the resulting AVI into Premiere, it gave me the Red Line of Un-renderness (that is the technical term, right?), and had the same sync issue I experienced when I brought it in as a WMV.
Given our environment, I'm completely fine with adding render time to the front-end of projects, but it has to work. I want files that Premiere likes.
THANK YOU in advance for any advice you can give!
-- Dave

I use an older conversion program (my PrPro has a much older internal AME, unlike yours), DigitalMedia Converter 2.7. It is shareware, and has been replaced by Deskshare with newer versions, but my old one works fine. I have not tried the newer versions yet. One thing that I like about this converter is that it ONLY uses System CODEC's, and does not install its own, like a few others. This DOES mean that if I get footage with an oddball CODEC, I need to go get it, and install it on the System.
I can batch process AV files of most types/CODEC's, and convert to DV-AVI Type II w/ 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV Audio and at 29.97 FPS (I am in NTSC land). So far, 99% of the resultant converted files have been perfect, whether from DivX, WMV, MPEG-2, or almost any other format/CODEC. If there is any OOS, my experience has been that it will be static, so I just have to adjust the sync offset by a few frames, and that takes care of things.
In a few instances, the PAR flag has been missed (Standard 4:3 vs Widescreen 16:9), but Interpret Footage has solved those few issues.
Only oddity that I have observed (mostly with DivX, or WMV's) is that occasionally, PrPro cannot get the file's Duration correct. I found that if I Import those problem files into PrElements, and then just do an Export, to the same exact specs., that resulting file (seems to be 100% identical, but something has to be different - maybe in the header info?) Imports perfectly into PrPro. This happens rarely, and I have the workaround, though it is one more step for those. I have yet to figure out why one very similar file will convert with the Duration info perfect, and then a companion file will not. Nor have I figured out exactly what is different, after running through PrE. Every theory that I have developed has been shot down by my experiences. A mystery still.
AME works well for most, as a converter, though there are just CODEC's, that Adobe programs do not like, such as DivX and Xvid. I doubt that any Adobe program will handle those suckers easily, if at all.
Good luck,
Hunt

Best practices for importing .png screen shots into FrameMaker 9?

I'm new to importing .png screen shots into FrameMaker, and also new to FrameMaker 9. To compound things, I have engineers giving me screen shots taken on Linux machines, using a client like NX to get to Linux. My screen shots are coming in fuzzy and instead of trying to troubleshoot what's going wrong here, I was wondering if someone could quickly tell me what normally works with FrameMaker 9 and .png on a Windows system so I can troubleshoot from there.
That is, let's say I'm capturing a screen shot on a Windows system and I use some tool (Paint Shop Pro X, SnagIt, Alt-PrintScreen, or whatever). I save the screen shot as .png and then import by reference into FrameMaker 9.
What dpi do I use in the capturing program?
What dpi do I use when I import by reference into FM?
What if that makes the screen shot too large/too small: Is it better to use the FrameMaker Graphics > Scale solution, to resize it in my capture program, or to retake the screen shot?

Bringing screenshots into Frame documents has four major considerations:
how to perform the original screen capture
how to post-process it in a graphics editor
what graphical object model (and file format) to store it in
making sure it isn't damaged by your workflow
1. Screen Cap, typically of dialog boxes ...
... used to be simple; isn't anymore.
Dialogs used to have identical pixel dimensions on all user screens. You hit Alt[PrntScrn] in Windows and you got a one pixel per pixel 24-bit color image on the clipboard.
More recent operating systems now have much more scalability in the GUI. So either capture at what the default user sees, or at the optimal presentation enlargement, which might be precisely 2x the default display.
2. Post
Before you even start this step, you need to know exactly how you will be presenting the final document out of Frame:
B&W? Color?
What dimensional size on the page?
If hardcopy, what are the optimal parameters of graphical images for your print process? If web or PDF, various other considerations arise. I'll presume print.
In our workflow, the print engine is 600 dpi bitmap. We normally present images at one column width, about 3.5in. Our PDF workflow passes 600 bitmap untouched, but resamples gray and color to 200 dpi. I tend to use 600 dithered bitmap, but always test if there's any doubt.
Chances are the screencap bitmap, at your native printing res, is too small. There is no "dpi" associated with clipboard images. Once pasted into an image editor, the editor should provide the ability to declare the dpi (Photoshop does, both at paste, and via "resize without rescale"). If your image editor doesn't, fire it. If you can't see and control dpi, you have no real control over this workflow.
Plan to save the final image in a format that at least supports linear dimensions (like EPS) if not explicit dpi (TIFF). Save out the image at the exact size you intend to use at import in Frame. Do you know how Frame scales objects? I don't. So do your scaling where you have control over how.
Play with the defined "dpi" until the linear dimensions match your planned import frame. If that dpi passes through your workflow unmolested, you may not need to perform any resizing.
If you need to convert from 24-bit color to bitmap (at your printing resolution), I'd suggest using error diffused dithering converting to your target res, as this tends to preserve the hard edges in dialog boxes and rasterized text.
If you need to re-scale, I'd suggest scaling up by an integer multiple, using "nearest neighbor", to the nearest size just higher than your target dpi. Then rescale bi-linear down to your target size.
3. File Format
The main consideration here is compression, followed by color depth and size encoding.
Screenshots tend to have expanses of flat colors, and hard edges. These objects compress reasonably well using repeat-count compressions (like ZIP or RLE). They tend to get damaged by curve-matching compression, like JPEG, because they typically contain no curves through color space. Hard edges get fuzzy or pick up ringing artifacts.
So don't use JPEG (and what compression will your workflow use?). I tend to use TIFF(ZIP) for screenshots.
Avoid indexed color (4-bit, 8-bit or 15/16-bit) color.
Don't use GIF. It has no size encoding. The usual presumption is that GIF is 72 dpi, which makes importing it a nuisance, and at least a minor math exercise. Plus, it's indexed color, and may scale poorly downstream.
Experiment. See what looks optimal in the final product.
4. Workflow
As you can see throughout the above, all your careful planning can be for nought it your save-as-PDF, distiller or print shop process resamples everything down to 90 dpi. You have to know what's happening, and how to optimize for it, or you probably won't like the result.
We once had graphics showing up at 10 (yes ten) dpi in print.
Turned out the print engine could handle JPEG 5 but not JPEG 2000.
We had to hastily back-port images until a software upgrade fixed it.

Tabular Modeling. What is the best practice for importing data into VS to limit the records in the designer?

Should I wrap the queries in a procedure with a @StartDate and @EndDate and create a test partition to pass a small date range?
Or can i use the Table properties screen to put the command there and will it run and not be affected or affect the partitions?This would be nice if this SQL statement on this screen was independent of the partitions and I could just leave it with the the
command text = EXEC TransactionDetail '2014-01-01', '2014-05-31' Especially since if you have many tables that load based on a date range. i would not want to jump in and change that query on all of them.
Is there a a way to have a parameter in the project so all tables would get the same @startDate and @EndDate so I could change it in one place?
And I am not stuck to these questions\options, If there is a better way to mass change the queries to run a subset of data for the designer I'd like to hear it.
Thank You,
Phil

Hi Phil,
According to your description, you are looking for the best way to control the rows that are loaded into a table, right?
When importing data to a table of tabular model, we can apply filters to control the rows that are loaded into a table. After you have imported the data, you cannot delete individual rows. However, you can apply custom filters to control the way that
rows are displayed. Rows that do not meet the filtering criteria are hidden. For the detail information about it, please refer to the link below.Filter Data in a Table (SSAS Tabular)
If I have anything misunderstand, please point it out.
Regards,
Charlie Liao
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Best practices for importing archived/new photos into LR?

Hi All,
New to LR 2.7. After countless tutorials and online chats, I am still confused as to how LR manages image files. It's like HS algebra all over again!
Is the LR designed and intended for managing all of your photos or just those that need editing?
Do you import all photos for one giant library?
Is it best to save photos on external drive first then import to LR?
For photos that are saved on an external drive, is it still necessary to copy them to a folder on your computer before importing or can you work directly from the drive? Is there a risk here?
If you are importing directly from your memory card into LR, do you first need to save them to the external drive to avoid losing the original images?
Looking for simple step by step routine to follow for archived photos and for new photos
Thank you for your help!!
AJ

AJ Allen wrote:
Is the LR designed and intended for managing all of your photos or just those that need editing?
All of them.
Do you import all photos for one giant library?
I do.
Is it best to save photos on external drive first then import to LR?
For photos that are saved on an external drive, is it still necessary to copy them to a folder on your computer before importing or can you work directly from the drive? Is there a risk here?
If you are importing directly from your memory card into LR, do you first need to save them to the external drive to avoid losing the original images?
You can store the images where you want, internal, external or network, and you can import directly from a card to that location. LR won't delete the images off the card, you have to do that separately.

Best practice for selection-screen in global classes

Hello everyone,
I have build several selection screens (overall 150+ select options / parameters) some time ago and want to reuse some of them within a global class encapsulating a ALV grid. Is there an easy way to forward the values of a selection screen into my class?
I have thought of a function module (in the function group which contains the dynpros) to extract the values. Is this a state-of-the-art approach?
Thanks in advance,
Alej

Hi Uwe,
correct me if I'm wrong: I remember RS_REFRESH_FROM_SELECTOPTIONS not doing the job perfectly, what ever it was, maybe
'RS_REFRESH_FROM_SELECTOPTIONS' reads only the main selection screen of a report; it will not give you SELECTION-SCREEN BEGIN OF SCREEN ... contents.
At least it is good for extracting the names of all SELECT-OPTIONS and PARAMETERS. Then use a dynamic assign like
data:
lv_assign type string
field-symbols:
<selopt> type table.
CONCATENATE '('IM_CALLING_PROGRAM')' SELNAME INTO lv_assign.
assign (lv_assign) to <selopt>.
This not only enables you to use but also to modify the select-options on the screen as you want or need.
I know since 10 or more years SAP warns to use the dynamic ASSIGN. But it works perfectly and will probably never be changed.
Regards,
Clemens

Best practice for importing videos

My company is currently evaluating Adobe Presenter to
possibly move our training efforts towards Adobe Flash technology.
Currently we produce AVI videos which are converted to WMV for web
delivery. Since we have 100's of these videos, our preference is to
convert these AVI (or WMV) files and embed them into a slide in
PPT/Presenter.
Our videos consist of an instructor's desktop showing our
home-grown software and how to use it. So, unlike live action
video, a lossy solution won't work for us as it distorts the fine
details of our software interface.
I've tried having Presenter convert the AVI for me into FLV
but the results were not acceptable (keep in mind we need to expand
the video to completely fill the PPT slide. For an example, see:
http://training.dmsi.com/test2/
For cases like this, is it better to try to find an separate
AVI to FLV converter or an AVI to SWF converter? If so, what
software is recommended? In my tests either the image is distorted
or the video contains oddities, like blurring then sharpening
throughout the video playback.
Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.
--Tom

My company is currently evaluating Adobe Presenter to
possibly move our training efforts towards Adobe Flash technology.
Currently we produce AVI videos which are converted to WMV for web
delivery. Since we have 100's of these videos, our preference is to
convert these AVI (or WMV) files and embed them into a slide in
PPT/Presenter.
Our videos consist of an instructor's desktop showing our
home-grown software and how to use it. So, unlike live action
video, a lossy solution won't work for us as it distorts the fine
details of our software interface.
I've tried having Presenter convert the AVI for me into FLV
but the results were not acceptable (keep in mind we need to expand
the video to completely fill the PPT slide. For an example, see:
http://training.dmsi.com/test2/
For cases like this, is it better to try to find an separate
AVI to FLV converter or an AVI to SWF converter? If so, what
software is recommended? In my tests either the image is distorted
or the video contains oddities, like blurring then sharpening
throughout the video playback.
Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.
--Tom

Best Practices for importing FrameMaker books into RoboHelp?

We are getting ready to purchase RobHelp, and I'm trying to get a head start on the conversion. We have ~600 base FrameMaker (v7) files that are pieced together to create ~11 different manuals. I've got a couple of simpler books picked out for testing purposes, but if there's a white paper or anyting on the subject floating about, I would appreciate it.

I've tried to use RH8 to produce HTML help from a FM9 book. I found that it mostly worked as advertised, with the exception of automatic TOC generation from a book TOC (which can be worked around) and disappearing HTML tags when conditional text is used (no work around found yet). I've posted about both of these issues in this forum, and while many have read my posts, no-one has yet acknowledged that they have seen similar problems or pointed out incorrect usage on my part. So I might just be mad (or furious, depending).
Before purchasing and committing to an approach, I recommend that you use the 30 day eval to thoroughly exercise these products and see if they work as advertised for you. If you need more than FM9 and RH8 (which can be downloaded as full-featured trials), then you can get a DVD of a 30 day trial of TCS2 from Adobe. I ordered the DVD and it arrived in about 3-5 days (at least, it did for me, and I'm in the USA).
-Adam

Best Practices for Removing Shots from BDMV folder

CS6 Production Premium Suite
Win7x64
Canon XA10
I would appreciate feedback on the best practices for the following situation:
Using Windows Explorer, I copy the BDMV folder from the XA10 to my Talk2 project folder.
The BDMV folder has three one hour shots (talks) where each shot is one hour called Talk1, Talk2, and Talk3.
Each shot consists of several MTS files in the STREAM folder since MTS files have a maximum file size so a new MTS file is created when a given MTS file reaches the maximum file size.
Since I only want to have Talk2 stuff in my Talk2 project folder, I need to remove the Talk1 and Talk3 stuff from the BDMV folder.
I delete the Talk1 and Talk3 MTS files from the STREAM folder.
I delete the Talk1 and Talk3 CPI files from the CLIPINF folder.
I leave the PLAYLIST folder as is.
Using the Media Browser, I import Talk2 (which consists of two MTS files).
I edit the clip.
This procedure seems to work, but I do not know if there are any "got you" issues.
Thanks in advance.

Oh, don't do it that way. I know a lot of people do, heck, my boss does, but it's just asking for trouble.
Treat your card as if it was your original tape master (because it is). It is the most important thing you have. Don't delete or move any part of it.
If you want to break up the talks, do it as you shoot them. Use separate cards for each talk and archive each one separately. There is too much valuable information in the structure of the card format. You may not need it now but your editing program may need it later.
Hard drive space is cheap but digital recordings are priceless

Best practice for setting or detecting screen size?

Hi All,
Trying to determine a best practice for setting or detecting the screen size. For playbook and iOS, I can set them. But for Android, the number of devices is too large so I'd rather detect. My first choice is to use the stage.stageHeight and stage.stageWidth. This works fine if I set my stage properties with standard meta data:
[SWF(height="320", width="480", frameRate="64", backgroundColor="#010101")]
However, if I use the application descriptor file to set the stage dimentions (as suggested by Christian Cantrell here http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/authoring_for_multiple_screen_sizes.html)
<initialWindow>
<aspectRatio>landscape</aspectRatio>
<autoOrients>false</autoOrients>
<width>320</width>
<height>480</height>
<fullScreen>true</fullScreen>
</initialWindow>
Then the stage.stageHeight and stage.stageWidth are not the correct numbers when my main class is added to the stage. Sometime after the main class is added to the stage, then those numbers are fine. Is there an event I can wait for to know that the stage.stageHeight and stage.stageWidth are correct?
Thanks in advance!

Hi Lee,
Thanks for the quick response! However, for some reason the heightPercent & widthPercent metadata tags are not working as expected for me.
I have a wrapper class that I target for compiling, WagErgApplePhone.as where I've got my metadata
[SWF(heightPercent="100%", widthPercent="100%", frameRate="64", backgroundColor="#010101")]
sets some stage properties
stage.quality=StageQuality.LOW;
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
and instantiates my main class
var main:Main = new Main();
addChild(main);
my main class constructor even waits for the stage
public function Main(){
if (stage) init();
else addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);
in my init function, stage.stageHeight traces out as 375 (expecting 320).
i have a function which is called via a button press event by the user, and stage.stageHeight traces out correctly (320) there. that's what makes me think that if i wait long enough, i can get the correct stageHeight before init/drawing. but i'm not sure what event to listen for, or if there's another trick.
if i use Capabilities.screenResolutionX and Capabilities.screenResolutionY the correct values are provided for mobile, but these values are not useful for the desktop and web version of the app. if there's no other solution, i'll execute different code depending on platform.
again, for reference, my app descriptor:
<initialWindow>
<aspectRatio>landscape</aspectRatio>
<autoOrients>false</autoOrients>
<width>320</width>
<height>480</height>
<content>bin-iOS/WagErgApplePhone.swf</content>
<title>WAG ERG</title>
<fullScreen>true</fullScreen>
<renderMode>cpu</renderMode>
</initialWindow>
looking forward to any other ideas to try out & thanks so much for your thoughts! if you want to really dig in, this is an opensource project at code.google.com/p/wag-erg/

Best practice for application help for a custom screen?

Hi,
The system is Netweaver 7.0 SP 15 with e-recruiting .
We have some custom SAP GUI transactions and have written Word documents with screen prints and explanations. I would like to make the procedure document accessible from the custom transaction or at least provide custom help text that includes a link to the full documents.
Can anyone help me out with options and best practices for providing customized application help for custom SAP GUI transactions?
Thanks,
Margaret

Hello Margaret,
sorry I though you might be still in a design or proof of concept phase where the decision for the technology is still adjustable.
If the implementation is already done things change of course. The standard in-system documentation is surely not fitting your needs as including screenshots won't work well.
I would solve the task the following way:
I'd make a web or pdf document out of the word document and put it on a web ressource - as you run e-recruiting you have probably the possibility for that.
I would then just put a button into the transaction an open a web container to show the document.
I am not sure if this solution really qualifies as "best practise" but SAP does the same if you call the Help for application in the help menue. This is implemented in function module SAPGUIHC_OPEN_HELP_CENTER. I'd just copy it, throw out what I do not need and hard code the url to call.
Perhaps someone could offer a better solution but I think this works a t least without exxagerated costs.
Kind Regards
Roman

Imported Screen Shots are Blurry

Hello FCP users,
I am challenged and need some guidance. The projects that I create a little mini-movies/demos made up of mostly imported screen shots and some still photos -- never any video. My challenge is that I have a very clean screen shot to work with -- if I bring them up in Preview, Photoshop, etc. they look great. The second I import them into FCP they are blurry, degraded and next to unreadable. I seems like I've tried everything, but nothing seems to make a difference.
I am not the one taking the screen shots -- they are provided from a different source each time. Each person most likely uses a different product to grab those screen shots, but my guess is that they are probably using snag-it or a similar product. I usually ask them to provide the "best" quality they can. That can mean a ton of different sized screen shots come my way. The ones I'm working with now range in size -- 1,116x760, 1,284x1000, 1,026x813, 1,023x830 to name a few.
I have been on the boards and did try one recommendation that I saw to reduce the size of the image to the same frame size that you are working with (in my case 720x480). Of course, when I do this there is degradation before I even bring it into FCP.
So, I'm wondering, should I be asking people to create their screen shots at 720x480? I've been playing around in Parallels with Snag-it to see what options are available -- I don't see that they can choose to produce the screen shots at a certain size -- they can reduce them after they take it, but there's that degradation again. Maybe there is some recommended product that I can suggest? Everyone I work with to supply the screen shots would be a pc user.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I do these often, and my screen quality always looks poor. I'd like to come up with a solution and I'm sure a big part of that is instructing those who supply the screen shots to take them a certain way...perhaps with a certain product...only I don't know what that is.
Best practices anyone?
My settings are:
Frame Size: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: NTSC DV (3:2)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: NTSC - CCIR 601 / DV (720x480)
Compressor: DV/DVCPRO - NTSC
Thanks for your insights.
Tawny

Pan & Scan: in this context, I was referring to the idea of panning across a screen shot instead of reducing it to the size of the video frame. In other words, the original is (e.g.) 2x the width or height and then, as you explain / narrate, it moves across the screen. This preserves the "local" resolution of the original, but doesn't give the viewer a single view of the whole screen. It can be used in conjunction with the "whole view" as a kind of CU shot.

How can i get best practice for SD and MM

Please, can any body tell me how can i get best practices for SD and MM for functional approach?
Thanks
Utpal

Hello Utpal,
I am really surprised, in just 10 minutes you searched that site and found it not useful. <b>Check out my previous reply "you will not find screen shot in this but you can add it in this"</b>
You will not find readymade document, you need to add this as per your requirement.
btw, the following link gives you some more link for new SAP guys, this will be helpful. <b>Check out HOW to BASIC transaction</b>
New to Materials Management / Warehouse Management?
Hope this helps.
Regards
Arif Mansuri

Best Practices for Export

I have recently begun working with a few AIC-encoded home movie files in FCPX. My goal is to compress them using h.264 for viewing on computer screens. I had a few questions about the best practices for exporting these files, as I haven't worked with editing software in quite some time.
1) Is it always recommended that I encode my video in the same resolution as its source? For example, some of my video was shot at 1440x1080, which I can only assume is anamorphic. I originally tried to export at 1920x1080 but then changed my mind as I assumed the 1440x1080 would just stretch naturally. Does this sound right?
2) FCPX is telling me that a few of my files are in 1080i. I'd like to encode them in 1080p as it tends to look better on computer screens. In FCPX, is it as simple as dragging my interlaced footage into a progressive timline and then exporting? I've heard about checking the "de-interlace" box under clip settings and then doubling the framerate but that seemed to make my video look worse.
3) I've heard that it might be better practice to export my projects as master files and then encode h.264 in Compressor. Is there any truth to this? Might it be better for the interlaced to progressive conversion as well?
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

1) yes. 1440 will display ax 1920.
2) put everything in a 1080p project.
3) Compressor will give you more options for control. The h264 from FCP is a very high data rate and makes large files.

Use Best Practice to Import Master Data

Hi,
I am SAP beginner, i glad someone can guide me on my issue. How can I using best practice to import 1000++ material master data into SAP system ??? I already prepared the data in Excel spreadsheet. Can any one guide me on step?
Thanks.

Hi,
LSMW is a very good tool for master data upload. The tool is very rich in features is also complex. Being a beginner you should check with a consultant to know how you can use LSMW to upload your 1000 + records. The tool too is quite intuitive. After entering the LSMW transaction you create the project, subproject and the object you are going to work on uploading. When u enter the next screen you see several radio buttons. Typically every upload required all the features behind those radio buttons and in the same sequence. It is not possible to give the details to be performed in each of these radio buttons in this forum. Please take a consultant's help in your vicinity.
thanx
Bala

Best Practice for Importing Screen Shots?

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