WD 6 Questions and Comments

[covoxer]

And since every imported photograph is a copy of the original that is located somewhere on the computer

True for bitmaps in the bitmap gallery. But these are never exported directly. When placed in the document you can only see them as a bitmap fill of the rectangle object for example.

[steve.ledger]

I think what John was explaining is that an imported photo is raster data inside a vector rectangle space.
This is how Xtreme works so well with bitmaps, you are always working in vector space.
So as John said, there is no name. Therefore to work in a way similar traditional web editors (where you would browse and add an image already prepared in your /image folder then set it's width/height etc), use an image placeholder and 'browse' for it. At least Xara will copy it to the publishing folder for you

[Boy]

So as John said, there is no name.

Am I missing something here? When I drag & drop a picture from an Explorer folder into a web design and right-click it, I can see name.jpg. Even when I use a photo object from the Designs Gallery and Ctrl+right-click it, I can see name.jpg.

It's true that when I create a vector shape and then drag & drop a fill picture onto it, it doesn't show the picture's name when I right-click it. But when I select "Replace bitmap..." and right-click the new picture, I see name.jpg again. And why not, it's just a clipped photograph.

As far as I can see, all photographs in a design are referenced from their original source file and that name is shown in most cases (and -- it seems -- could be shown in all cases). Please correct me if I'm wrong: I'm just following what I can observe...

[steve.ledger]

As far as I can tell, the bitmap is 'copied' from the original source (a folder on your HDD) to the xar document, the bitmap data is placed into a vector rectangle (you can see this when you clip the photo, nothing is lost because it's in that vector 'space).
The Bitmap gallery holds a the same data as a copy, but that is a copy 'inside' the Xar file, not referred to the original external source. You may delete the file from your HDD, but the xar file still has the copied data.

However Boy, this really is all academic because this is how WD and Xtreme work with bitmaps, so you have to change the way you think about it and just work with it right?
I prefer to learn what software can do for me than fight it..

[Boy]

I'm not fighting anything. We were just talking about possible improvements in how the original photograph's file name could be retained in an exported web page. Users seem to find it somewhat bothersome and limiting to use the Placeholder tab.

As I indicated in my previous post, XWD retains the original file name as can be seen in the menu when right-clicking it. And it's the file name that's relevant for this purpose, not the actual source file.

Put as simply as I can: since XWD 'knows' a photograph's original (HDD) file name once it's imported, couldn't there also be an option in the right-click menu to use this file name when exporting the website?

I understand that a picture inside a shape is no longer the same as the original photograph, but the shape is being exported as a picture. So, the question is if on export the clipped photograph could be given its original file name (with a change, e.g., from .jpg to .png when transparency is required).

I suspect that it would make a lot of people happy. But if it's technically impossible, that's okay too.

[steve.ledger]

One for the Dear Xara Web Designer... forum I think then

[Boy]

Will do!