Upload problem

[Alfred]

Gentlemen, I have run into a problem in uploading my just completed river crossing guide.

The document was prepared in Microsoft Word 2007. First saved as a .doc with jpeg pictures in it. Then resaved as a .pdf which is what I wanted to upload to the forum. That failed. As also has a .rtf layout.

I don't immediately see options to save it as one of the 3 options provided by Matrix. I can't upload it as I have done previously because that would lose the formatting.

I'm certain that one of the experienced uploaders knows the solution off the top of their head.

Alfred

[RogerJNeilson]

You could always upload it to one of the many sites like Dropbox and just post a link on here for those who wanted to download it.

Roger

[Alfred]

That entails more research for me.[:)]
 
Presumably you mean once uploaded to a cloud site, a blue hyperlink suffices.  But that wouldn't actually publish the material on the forum itself.  Readers would have to download the material to their own computers?
 
Alfred

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

That entails more research for me.[:)]

Presumably you mean once uploaded to a cloud site, a blue hyperlink suffices.  But that wouldn't actually publish the material on the forum itself.  Readers would have to download the material to their own computers?

Alfred

Basically that is true. The limitation of the forum, as I understand it, is that it only accepts .gif, .txt, and .jpg uploads, and there is a size limit (IIRC 500kb for most, 1mb for AAR forum, something higher for tech support forum). I presume (but have not run into) a size limit on each individual post, but as posts are text with a little markup that limit might not matter. Various options off the top of my head (very much agree with Roger, BTW):

- Post to the place of your choice for people to follow the link to any format(s) you choose to post (Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, many others). I'm told Dropbox is easy, and so is Google Drive. I know (personally) that with Google Drive can you can generate a link for use by anybody, even without them having a Gmail/Google account.

- Take the PDF and compress it to a .zip or .7z (7Zip has better compression) file. Add ".txt" to the end of the name (e.g. make it be "themanual.7z.txt". Upload the file (will only work if under the size limit). The user then must, in addition to downloading the file, reverse the renaming and compression steps.

- Taking a cue from Tracker, Da Babes, Intel Monkey, and others, create a web site on one of the free services (Google Sites in the examples I mentioned) and post the file there, linking to the page in a post on this forum. That is probably the most flexible option.

- The forum allows linking to images posted elsewhere for inline display. I have not played with this myself but I've noticed a number of people use this. I do not know if PDF is supported (doubt it). For a multi-page document you might have one .jpg per page.

- As with the previous item, make a .jpg for each page, then upload each to its own post. Quite a pain.

Note that ImageMagick can perform various conversions, including convert a multi-page PDF to multiple ,jpg files (one per page, and I just tested a few seconds ago).

I'm sure there is more advice, but this is a start. [:)]

[RogerJNeilson]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

That entails more research for me.[:)]

Presumably you mean once uploaded to a cloud site, a blue hyperlink suffices.  But that wouldn't actually publish the material on the forum itself.  Readers would have to download the material to their own computers?

Alfred

Yes exactly. The issue with forums are that they have to impose limits on file size and file types to be able to run without a massive amount of data and administration.

Forums are not the best place to publish elegant material..

Roger

[Alfred]

Thanks witpqs,

I'm going to address each of your points just to make certain I have understood them properly.

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Alfred

That entails more research for me.[:)]

Presumably you mean once uploaded to a cloud site, a blue hyperlink suffices.  But that wouldn't actually publish the material on the forum itself.  Readers would have to download the material to their own computers?

Alfred

Basically that is true. The limitation of the forum, as I understand it, is that it only accepts .gif, .txt, and .jpg uploads, and there is a size limit (IIRC 500kb for most, 1mb for AAR forum, something higher for tech support forum). I presume (but have not run into) a size limit on each individual post, but as posts are text with a little markup that limit might not matter. Various options off the top of my head (very much agree with Roger, BTW):

The problem is the document has 16 diagrams to show how river crossings operate. The diagrams were created in MS Paint and saved as .jpeg files (1 diagra = 1 file), then each diagram was imported into the Word document at different locations. Without the diagrams, it is easy to upload the text but the value is limited. With the diagrams the Word document is 20 pages long and about 1.4Mb.

As far as I can see, I can't convert the document into a .gif, .txt or .jpg format from within Word.

- Post to the place of your choice for people to follow the link to any format(s) you choose to post (Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, many others). I'm told Dropbox is easy, and so is Google Drive. I know (personally) that with Google Drive can you can generate a link for use by anybody, even without them having a Gmail/Google account.

Just started to research Microsoft OneDrive. I've uploaded it to my OneDrive space. Problem is it seems that anyone would be able to access my account and that is not desirable. Perhaps it is possible to create a separate folder there (different from the OneDrive "Public" folder) and that could be made public. But problem would remain that the body of the document would not be visible on the forum.

- Take the PDF and compress it to a .zip or .7z (7Zip has better compression) file. Add ".txt" to the end of the name (e.g. make it be "themanual.7z.txt". Upload the file (will only work if under the size limit). The user then must, in addition to downloading the file, reverse the renaming and compression steps.

Compression shouldn't be a problem, I'll just have to dust off the cob webs off my 7-Zip software. But problem remains it wouldn't be visible on the forum.

- Taking a cue from Tracker, Da Babes, Intel Monkey, and others, create a web site on one of the free services (Google Sites in the examples I mentioned) and post the file there, linking to the page in a post on this forum. That is probably the most flexible option.

Completely new territory for me. Seems just a bigger version of your first suggestion.

- The forum allows linking to images posted elsewhere for inline display. I have not played with this myself but I've noticed a number of people use this. I do not know if PDF is supported (doubt it). For a multi-page document you might have one .jpg per page.

Yep, PDF is not supported.

- As with the previous item, make a .jpg for each page, then upload each to its own post. Quite a pain.

Well, if I could see how to make each page into .jpg, I could open a new thread and the first 20 posts would be me uploading individual pages.[:)]

Note that ImageMagick can perform various conversions, including convert a multi-page PDF to multiple ,jpg files (one per page, and I just tested a few seconds ago).

Even with ImageMagick that would entail 20 separate forum posts? Or does that program allow for the separate .jpg filews to be consolidated into one "block" for a single upload to the forum. Size of upload would still be an issue.

I'm sure there is more advice, but this is a start. [:)]

Ideally I need something/somehow to convert it into a .jpg. If necessary chopped up into 3 parts to get under the size limit. I see more research before me. Alternatively I just post the first 3 sections of the document which have no diagrams in them.

Alfred

[tiemanjw]

Perhaps there is another way...
you say you have 16 pictures / diagrams. If the guide can be broken into "chapters" - with a max of 1 picture each, could you make a post and "reply" 15 times, with one picture in each (or more if there are some "chapters" that don't require a picture)? This will get it on the forum, and in a sort of organized way that can be searched later. You can include a link to a dropbox (or whatever) with the whole pdf for download in addition.

If this is too much additional work, perhaps a helpful forumite could do the dirty work?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Thanks witpqs,

I'm going to address each of your points just to make certain I have understood them properly.

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Alfred

That entails more research for me.[:)]

Presumably you mean once uploaded to a cloud site, a blue hyperlink suffices.  But that wouldn't actually publish the material on the forum itself.  Readers would have to download the material to their own computers?

Alfred

Basically that is true. The limitation of the forum, as I understand it, is that it only accepts .gif, .txt, and .jpg uploads, and there is a size limit (IIRC 500kb for most, 1mb for AAR forum, something higher for tech support forum). I presume (but have not run into) a size limit on each individual post, but as posts are text with a little markup that limit might not matter. Various options off the top of my head (very much agree with Roger, BTW):

The problem is the document has 16 diagrams to show how river crossings operate. The diagrams were created in MS Paint and saved as .jpeg files (1 diagra = 1 file), then each diagram was imported into the Word document at different locations. Without the diagrams, it is easy to upload the text but the value is limited. With the diagrams the Word document is 20 pages long and about 1.4Mb.

As far as I can see, I can't convert the document into a .gif, .txt or .jpg format from within Word.

- Post to the place of your choice for people to follow the link to any format(s) you choose to post (Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, many others). I'm told Dropbox is easy, and so is Google Drive. I know (personally) that with Google Drive can you can generate a link for use by anybody, even without them having a Gmail/Google account.

Just started to research Microsoft OneDrive. I've uploaded it to my OneDrive space. Problem is it seems that anyone would be able to access my account and that is not desirable. Perhaps it is possible to create a separate folder there (different from the OneDrive "Public" folder) and that could be made public. But problem would remain that the body of the document would not be visible on the forum.

- Take the PDF and compress it to a .zip or .7z (7Zip has better compression) file. Add ".txt" to the end of the name (e.g. make it be "themanual.7z.txt". Upload the file (will only work if under the size limit). The user then must, in addition to downloading the file, reverse the renaming and compression steps.

Compression shouldn't be a problem, I'll just have to dust off the cob webs off my 7-Zip software. But problem remains it wouldn't be visible on the forum.

- Taking a cue from Tracker, Da Babes, Intel Monkey, and others, create a web site on one of the free services (Google Sites in the examples I mentioned) and post the file there, linking to the page in a post on this forum. That is probably the most flexible option.

Completely new territory for me. Seems just a bigger version of your first suggestion.

Much different. The file hosting options only house the files and allow access to them (they start to get a bit fancy with a description allowed here and there). A web site would allow you to put any content on the pages, and any file there to be downloaded. You could post the content as a web page, and have it downloadable as a PDF (or the RTF or ODT) file. You could put a number of articles up there keyed off of an index/contents page, with or without download options as desired. The starting point would be one link to the site itself.

- The forum allows linking to images posted elsewhere for inline display. I have not played with this myself but I've noticed a number of people use this. I do not know if PDF is supported (doubt it). For a multi-page document you might have one .jpg per page.

Yep, PDF is not supported.

- As with the previous item, make a .jpg for each page, then upload each to its own post. Quite a pain.

Well, if I could see how to make each page into .jpg, I could open a new thread and the first 20 posts would be me uploading individual pages.[:)]

Note that ImageMagick can perform various conversions, including convert a multi-page PDF to multiple ,jpg files (one per page, and I just tested a few seconds ago).

Even with ImageMagick that would entail 20 separate forum posts? Or does that program allow for the separate .jpg filews to be consolidated into one "block" for a single upload to the forum. Size of upload would still be an issue.

I'm sure there is more advice, but this is a start. [:)]

Ideally I need something/somehow to convert it into a .jpg. If necessary chopped up into 3 parts to get under the size limit. I see more research before me. Alternatively I just post the first 3 sections of the document which have no diagrams in them.
Yes, ImageMagick can also join jpg files together, stacked/cropped/re-sized/bordered/lots more (folded/spindled/mutilated [:D]) however you like. You can also email me the PDF, I can convert it and join the pages as you want, then email them back to you. That would short circuit the installing/learning curve for the moment.

Alfred

[witpqs]

BTW, when you create the PDF ("print" to PDF, "export" to PDF, whatever that app chooses to call it) you might find that there is an option semi-buried in there concerning "quality" of jpg compression. What that basically means is that if the document includes any jpg images, they will be handled in accordance with the settings. If "90%" then that is a loss of quality for the sake of a smaller PDF. You likely will want 100% quality so as not to get images that degrade further in each processing step.

[RogerJNeilson]

Alfred

Dropbox has a range of folders, one of which is 'public' which is the one that logically you would put stuff you want anyone to access - they cannot access any other folder.

I could convert the material into a series of jpgs for you as I have sophisticated screenshot software, as could many others.

I could create a very basic website for your use for this and other material you produce - but would be middle of next week before I had the time.

Roger

[witpqs]

Roger, the effort involved in using Image Magick to convert from a multipage PDF to individual jpg files is:

convert -density 300 document.pdf -density 300 test.jpg

And the jpg files wind up named

test-0.jpg
test-1.jpg

and so on. No manual work at all. [8D]

[Trugrit]

Alfred ,

Try this:

Take your word or PDF document and zip it up.

The file extension will be .zip

Then take the zip file and change the extension to .txt and upload the file.

In your post tell players that after they download the file to change the extension back to .zip and they should be able to open it.

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Trugrit


Alfred ,

Try this:

Take your word or PDF document and zip it up.

The file extension will be .zip

Then take the zip file and change the extension to .txt and upload the file.

In your post tell players that after they download the file to change the extension back to .zip and they should be able to open it.

Still has fatal flaw of not displaying the document on the forum.[:)]

Alfred

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Roger, the effort involved in using Image Magick to convert from a multipage PDF to individual jpg files is:

convert -density 300 document.pdf -density 300 test.jpg

And the jpg files wind up named

test-0.jpg
test-1.jpg

and so on. No manual work at all. [8D]

Had a quick look at the ImageMagick site and was taken aback by (a) it is really a native Unix operation (although it has been ported over to Windows too) and (b) it is command line driven.[X(]

Seems to be a very powerful program but with a substantial learning curve. For a simple exercise which this ought to be, even with the use of their simple "convert" command, I can see myself investing too much time.

Searching the internet indicates that a few sites allow free .docx to .jpeg conversion. However these entail uploading to their site the document and that makes me a bit uncomfortable.

Also just realised that my search was not correct in that Matrix only allows .gif, .txt, .jpg files to be uploaded in the main AE forum.

But I have an inelegant interim partial solution in mind.

1. Upload sections 1-3 of the document only. No diagrams are found there, they are all in section 4 of the document.

2. Upload the entire document but leave out the diagrams, leaving a space where they are located.

The existing layout of the document does not completely depend on the presence of the diagrams. It is just that the diagrams make the explanation of the river crossing rule much easier to comprehend for those textually challenged.

But wait, there is a third option.

I see that MS Paint allows for files to be saved as .gif. I could therefore open the existing 16 separate .jpeg files make another copy of each this time saved as .gif files. Then, provided each .gif file is less than 500 kb (which they should be) I could (a)make 16 separate posts to the forum and then (b) copy + paste each one into the respective space left in option 2 above.

So my current proposed inelegant solution (which may not work at several steps in the process) is to:

• open a new thread titled "River Crossing Auto Shock Attack 101 Guide"
• upload the document without any diagrams (but leaving a blank space for them) - it would be post #1 in the Guide thread
• create 16 .gif copies and upload each one in it's own post - they would be posts 2-17 inclusive
• edit post #1 by copy + paste each of the other posts

An immediate problem with this course of action involves editing the .gif files. Not certain how easy it will be to crop and enlarge them within Paint. The existing .jpeg files were cropped and enlarged within MS Word.

Right, any obvious pitfalls I have overlooked.[:)] Of course I could instead avail myself of your kind offer to have the document sent to you. If the existing document were smaller than, or just marginally above, the matrix limit of 500 kb I would be very tempted as minimal effort on your side wold be required. But as it is about 1.4 Mb, further editing effort is required and that work should not be offloaded onto others.

Alfred

[witpqs]

Alfred,

I have you covered on the Image Magick learning curve. If you install it I can give you the commands. Or, as I mentioned, send me the file and I will do the deeds and send the jpg files back. Either way, it will save you a ton of manual work, work which must be redone for any changes.

PS: The Unix/Linux versus Windows thing is a total non-issue. Image Magick has run faithfully on Windows basically forever (think over a decade). The best tools are most often multi-platform because people want them and make sure they are. It is 100% 'Official' on Windows, not somebody's garage porting effort! [:D]

[Alfred]

Test 1.

Uploading Diagram 1 to see how it appears. Had to search the forum to see why the embed picture and click here to upload wasn't appearing.[:)]





Alfred



Edit: Test 2 to follow in a few hours.