I have therefore produced a utility, in the form of a GenoPro Report Generator skin, that assists with the generation of suitable images. It uses that marvelous imaging application, IrfanView, to carry out the resizing required. The user must install version 4 or higher version of that application before using this utility.

Normally two image sizes are required for the Narrative Report. the 'thumbnail' images are those embedded on the pages and by default are 250x250 pixels. Smaller 100x100 images are also displayed in a Report, but the 250x250 images will be suitable for both purposes. In addition to the 'thumbnails' standard size images are required so that when a user clicks on the smaller 'thumbnails', a larger version is displayed.

The attached skin can be used to produce these image files. It will access all pictures referenced in a GenoPro file and call Irfanview to produce resized images in a folder specified by the user. The size of the 'standard' images is limited by the utility and by default is set to 1024x768 pixels maximum but this and other details can be changed. In order to include these in a Narrative Report the user should use the GenoPro Tools, Relink Pictures option to change picture references to the new folder. This can be on a temporary basis, you can revert to the original picture locations after generating the Report by either not saving the amended .gno file or by using GenoPro's Edit, Undo feature. However I suggest you back up your GenoPro file, and pictures if you use the 'overwrite' option, before using this utility.

You can produce the 'thumbnails' at the same time as the resized main pictures, storing them in a specified folder. To use the thumbnails in a Narrative Report, first generate the Report with the 'Use Thumbnails' Config Parameter to Y and then copy the thumbnails generated by this utility to the 'thumbnails' folder of the Report. If the Report is on familytrees.genopro.com, you will need to use the GenoPro FTP client. If however it resides on some other Web site then any FTP client should be suitable to copy the files.

To install the utility, unpack the files in the attached zip file into a new folder, e.g called 'picture resize', below your GenoPro skins folder. (See under the Options tab of  GenoPro's Tools, Generate Report dialog to determine the location of your GenoPro skins folder). When you next select  Tools, Generate Report you should see the 'picture resize' option in the list of skins.

You should find that Reports with the resized 'standard' pictures upload much more quickly, and accessing the Report, especially if thumbnails are used is also much faster.

The resize could be done directly when the file is uploaded for instance.

Thise could be quick fix until GenoPro do handle the thumbnail, but the file collaboration between multiple users is our next priority.

Jean-Claude Morin
Information Technology Director, GenoPro.
http://www.genopro.com