The e-Picture Imager Workflow in a Nutshell

Reference: e-Picture Pro 3.0 User Manual, Chapter 7: Using the e-Picture Imager with Microsoft FrontPage.

Overview
The e-Picture Imager is a Microsoft FrontPage add-in that allows you to reuse and customize e-Picture Pro images in your FrontPage web sites.

Key Terms
e-Picture Imager - the Microsoft FrontPage add-in.
e-Picture Pro - the design application for producing e-Picture Imager graphics files.

Workflow

1. Create a graphic or animation in e-Picture Pro. The File > Save (not Export!) version of this file (i.e. yourfile.ep) is what the e-Picture Imager uses to do its magic.
   
2. Click the Add e-Picture Image button in the toolbar or choose Insert > Add e-Picture Image from the menus to bring up the e-Picture Imager insert dialog.
   
3. In the Insert an e-Picture Image dialog, click the Add Template button, browse to yourfile.ep created in step 1, and load this file. This takes yourfile.ep and makes it a template that is globally accessible from this FrontPage Web.
   
4. Back in the Insert dialog, select yourfile.ep from the list of templates and click OK. This creates an image from the template and inserts it into your current page.
   
5. Double-click on the image to bring up the e-Picture Imager editing dialog. The first tab (Customization) contains a drop down menu to select the various image elements and controls you can use to change these elements. The second tab (General) has fields for precision resizing of the graphic as well as a drop down menu for changing the template this image is derived from.

Those are the basics. To add more images derived from existing templates, just repeat steps 2, 4 and 5 above. Creating a set of menu buttons using this method, for example, is very quick and painless.

A much more in depth discussion of how to use the e-Picture Imager can be found in Chapter 7 of the documentation. In addition, Chapter 2, Tutorial 10 walks you through the process described above using a hands on approach.

A Note about Export to FrontPage
If you choose File > Export, you may notice a check box called Export to FrontPage. This check box is simply a shortcut that will insert the exported version of your image into FrontPage for you, saving you from dragging and dropping the file in yourself. Exported e-Picture Pro graphics are identical to any other web graphics; they cannot be edited using the e-Picture Imager. Double-clicking on these will simply bring up the FrontPage Picture Properties dialog, which is not part of the e-Picture Imager.

To use the e-Picture Imager, you must use the File > Save version of your graphic and follow the steps above to make it a template.