Paint-Scrap is a utility that will allow you to convert an entire GeoPaint file to a Photo Scrap, so it can be pasted into a GeoPublish document. Unlike other similar utilities, this one will convert the ENTIRE GeoPaint file, not just a portion of it. The advantage is that much larger scraps can be created because the file does not have to be loaded into memory all at once to allow viewing it on the screen. Less than an entire page can be pasted into a GeoPublish document by using the technique described below.
To convert a GeoPaint file, double-click on the Paint-Scrap icon on the desktop. Select open from the file menu, and a dialog box will appear with a list of all the GeoPaint files on the current disk. You can change DISKs and DRIVEs and CANCEL using the icons to the right of the file list. Click on the file you wish to convert to highlight it, then click on the OPEN icon to convert it. A "
@Converting file...
" message will appear while Paint-Scrap reads the GeoPaint file data into a buffer and converts it to photo scrap format. Maximum size allowed for the GeoPaint file is about 28K. If the file is too large or complex, a dialog box will appear informing you of this and the conversion will be stopped.
After the file is converted, another message, "
@Saving scrap...
" will appear. Make sure that you have enough room on the disk for the scrap, usually about the same amount as the GeoPaint file size plus 1K. If there is not enough space, a dialog box will appear informing you of that and the conversion will be stopped.
Assuming no errors, the "
@Saving scrap...
" message will disappear and the mouse will be positioned over the file menu again. If you have the photo manager on the same disk as the scrap, you can select it from the geos menu and paste the new scrap into a photo album.
When you have finished converting files, select quit from the file menu to exit to the desktop.
@To paste less than an entire page into a GeoPublish document:
First, make a copy of the GeoPaint file you wish to convert and erase everything from it except the portion you wish to paste into the GeoPublish document. Then convert the file as described above. Open the GeoPublish document and open an area approximately the size of the picture you wish to paste into it. Paste the scrap using the "centered in region" option. Only the part of the scrap that has the picture in it will be pasted into the region. Some experimentation with the size of the region may be necessary to fit the entire picture in.
Another handy use for Paint-Scrap is to use both the features of GeoPaint and GeoPublish to create a picture. By using the Paint Driver utility you can convert a GeoPublish document to GeoPaint, and by using Paint-Scrap you can convert the GeoPaint document to a photo scrap and paste the full page scrap into a GeoPublish document. This way you can use the full page editing features of GeoPublish to draw circles, boxes, lines, ellipses, splines, and arcs, then use GeoPaint features like pixel edit and pattern fill to put the finishing touches on your picture. You can convert the picture back and forth between the two formats as many times as you wish, provided that it does not exceed the maximum file size of about 28K as imposed by Paint-Scrap. In a future version I hope to remove this limitation.
Paint-Scrap does NOT support color at the present time, but that, too, will be added in future versions. GeoPublish, of course, does not support color.
I also hope to add a preview mode to Paint-Scrap to allow copying smaller portions of the GeoPaint file than the full page, and allow pasting scraps of any size into GeoPaint files. This will make it possible for people who do not own GeoPublish to paste larger scraps than is currently possible.
(.txt)