The Advanced Picture Field Control is a replacement for the ACT! picture field control. It offers several advantages:
- it offers a Save as file option so that you can save your pictures outside of ACT! as needed.
- You may limit the size, weight (150000 as shown below equals to 150KB) and resolution of the pictures that a user can enter in ACT! (Note that it applies only to images added through the control, not to images already stored in ACT!)
How to install it
Go to Tools>Design Layouts>Contacts (or choose whatever screen you want to add the tool to), then right-click the ToolBox and choose Customize. Then in the Customize Toolbox window, check Advanced Picture Field. Look at the top of the ToolBox, you should now have a Custom button. Click it and you'll see the Advanced Picture Field tool. Insert it in the layout as you would with any regular field.
How does it work?
When you choose the Set Image... option and select a picture, the control will check the weight of the picture. If the Enforce property is set to Only if required and the weight of the picture is below the Maximum Picture File Weight, the control accepts the picture as is. If its weight is above the limit, the control will reduce the weight of the picture by reducing its resolution to the Maximum Resolution property. If the picture still does not pass the weight test, the picture will be resized so that it conforms to the Maximum Picture Width and Height while preserving the dimension ratio. If it still does not meet the weight test, the control will reduce the compression rate by 5% until the weight is below the limit or the Minimum Compression Rate is reached. If the limit is reached without the picture passing the weight test, the image will be resized gradually until it passes the weight test.
If the Enforce property is set to Always, no matter whether the picture passes the weight test, the image will be resized and its resolution descreased and, of course, any further action will be taken to make it pass the weight test.
What are reasonable values for the limits?
- If you are never going to print pictures, then there is no point in having the Maximum Resolution set to anything higher than 96.
- The Minimum compression rate could be reduced from the 75% default value down to 60% but the pictures might start showing some pixelization.
- The weight and height limits are really up to you. It depends again on what you are using the pictures for. The values are in pixels.
- The Maximum Picture File Weight again can be set to anything you want. Your best bet is to test based on the previous choices you made.
To enforce or not to enforce?
It is recommended to leave the Enforce property set to Always, the reason being that even if the weight of the picture meets the weight limit, there is probably no point in having a picture too big or to high in resolution: this is probably just extra space consumed by your database. With the Enforce property set to Always, you ensure that pictures are systematically optimized according to your settings and the minimum amount of space taken by the picture.