Problem
Suppose you save a document to a file, which you then send to someone at another location. When the document file is viewed at that other location, pictures that should appear in the document are missing. You probably wouldn't want that to happen, but that is exactly what could happen. Why?
Cause
A picture appearing in a document is either embedded or linked. You can't see the difference, because in either case, the picture is displayed as if it were part of the document. In the case of an embedded picture, it really is part of the document, in the sense that the picture data is actually stored in the document file.
But a linked picture is different. The document file doesn't store a linked picture itself; it merely stores the location of the linked picture file. That's what it means for the picture to be "linked". When the document is viewed, it displays the picture file that resides at that location.
Why is this important? This means that a document containing linked pictures is not self-contained. It is dependent upon the picture files that it is linked to. If a picture file cannot be found at the link location, then the picture cannot be displayed. The result is that it appears to be missing from the document.
Think about what could happen: To someone at another location, you send a document, but not the picture files that the document is linked to. If that someone happens to be operating within the same local computer network as you, then there is a chance that the linked pictures may display anyway, because those linked picture files might be accessible from the other person's computer through the common network that you two share.
But if the document is being viewed outside your network, such as at another organization, then a linked picture most likely won't display in the document. This is because the document is looking for a specific picture file in a specific folder. At the other site, that file probably doesn't exist at that folder location. (The folder itself probably doesn't exist.)
Solution
When you create a document file that contains picture links, VISION offers you three choices:
Embed Linked Pictures Directly into a Document
Choose this option to replace the picture links in the document with the actual pictures themselves. (The picture files themselves stay put, but their contents are copied into the document.)
This is a good choice, because it makes the document self-contained, no longer dependent on additional (picture) files. All that anyone needs in order to view the document in its entirety—pictures and all—is the document file.
However, this choice has one disadvantage: It can cause the document file to be very large, larger than merely the combined sizes of the linked picture files. For example, a 60 kilobyte linked JPG file, when embedded in the document, increases the document size not by a mere 60 kilobytes, but by perhaps 1200 kilobytes. This is because the picture is stored in a compressed form in a JPG file, but in an uncompressed form (WMF) inside a VISION (RTF) document. The JPG format is merely used as an example here; the same phenomenon occurs with other picture formats as well, such as GIF.
A mitigating circumstance is that while the pictures in the document are not compressed, nevertheless the final document file itself, including the pictures in it, can be compressed substantially by your favorite file compression program, to make it less cumbersome for transporting (via e-mail, for instance).
Relocate Links to the Save Location
Choose this option to make the linked pictures local to the document. What this means is that the linked pictures remain linked; they don't get embedded in the document. But the linked pictures are copied to the document location—the folder in which you are saving the document. And, internally inside the document, the links are pointed to these copies.
This means that wherever the document file is viewed, it will now look for the linked pictures in whatever folder it, the document file itself, resides in. This makes the document more easily portable. To send it to another site, simply send the document file along with the picture files that go with it. So long as the document file and these pictures are kept together, the pictures will all show up in the document.
| Q: | How is this option any different from the other one, in which I just leave the picture links alone? Using that other option, can't I do the same thing: send the document file and the picture files that go with it? |
| A: | No. Using the other option, you probably wouldn't know what those linked picture files are, or where they are located. (And they might be scattered in different locations.) And even if you did know—even if you tracked them all down and sent those various picture files along with your document file, it wouldn't do any good for the recipient to simply install those picture files in the same folder as the document file, because the internal document links haven't changed. That is, the document will still attempt to find the pictures at their original locations, locations that are invalid at the recipient's site. |
In contrast, using this option, it's all handled automatically. The program copies the picture files for you, to the document location, and redirects the internal picture links to point to the local directory (so that the document will look for the pictures in its own directory, wherever that happens to be).
If you later copy, move, or send the document to somewhere else, it is still up to you to copy, move, or send the picture files along with it.
| Q: | How do I know which picture files go with the document file? |
| A: | If your document file is named, let's say, MYDOC.RTF, then the picture files that go with that document will be named: |
MYDOC_0001.GIF
MYDOC_0002.JPG
MYDOC_0003.JPG
… etc.
And these will be created in the same folder that MYDOC.RTF is created in. If you subsequently move, copy, or send MYDOC.RTF, you should correspondingly move, copy, or send these picture files.
(Note that these aren't the names of the original linked picture files, but rather the names of the copies of those files that have been made in the document file location.)
| Q: | So this option makes the document more portable than the option that simply leaves the picture links alone. But why choose it over that third option that simply embeds the linked pictures? |
| A: | The option that embeds the linked pictures does indeed simplify document portability. And it may ultimately be the best choice for you. But this option is better in one respect: It keeps the document size down. You end up with, for example, a 30 kilobyte RTF file plus several picture files totaling 200 kilobytes. In comparison, that same document, with the 200 kilobytes of picture files embedded, might come out to be 4000 kilobytes in total, a much larger overall size. |
Leave Picture Links Alone
Choose this option to leave the picture links just as they are.
This is alright if the document file is destined never to leave your local computer network. But in this state, the document does lack portability. If it is sent to another site, the linked pictures will likely be absent from the document, because those pictures exist only at your site. (They aren't embedded in the document itself.)
Other Considerations
Another consideration in choosing between linking an embedding concerns how you manage changes to the pictures. Suppose a single picture is inserted in ten different data fields. Suppose further that the picture is a diagram or blueprint or logo—anything that might be subject to periodic updates.
If the picture has been embedded in those ten fields, then updating the pictures in those fields requires editing each of the ten fields in turn. But if the picture has been linked in those ten fields, then all that is needed is to replace or edit the single common picture file that is linked in all ten fields.
In that scenario, you would therefore be glad if the picture had been linked rather than embedded. On the other hand, suppose the picture needed to be updated not in all ten fields, but in, say, only five of them. You would then face a problem if the original picture file had been linked in all ten fields, as your options now would be limited to either updating all ten or updating none. But if the picture had been embedded instead, then your ten data fields would each have an independent image of the picture, and it would therefore be possible to update some without updating others.
Note: Although embedding and linking have each their own advantages, we recommend that you link pictures in data fields in order to avoid the sluggishness in data operations that tends to result from embedding.
