The FotoWeb Desktop plugin for Microsoft Office allows you to place files from a FotoWeb archive directly in a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation. Since the plugins work the same way in both Word and PowerPoint, the topic deals with both varieties and explains differences in operation where necessary.
To access the FotoWeb Desktop plugin from Word or PowerPoint, click on the Insert menu and then click on the From FotoWeb icon. The FotoWeb search panel opens and lets you perform a search across all the FotoWeb archives that you have access to.
To perform a search, type in the search word(s) in the search field at the top and press Enter or click on the magnifying glass. The search results are shown below the search field, where the 25 first hits are displayed. By scrolling to the bottom of the hits you can load another 25 hits, and so it continues.
Tip: The top hits are the ones that are rated highest in the archive. Use the rating feature in FotoWeb to make sure your most used assets are listed at the top!
When you enter more than one search word in the search field, FotoWeb fills in the spaces between each search word with the AND operator.
However, you can use any combination of and/or/not, with parentheses if required to distinguish between the different parts of the query. Quotation marks ("") can be used to search for an exact phrase. In short, you can use all the operators and special search syntax that Index Manager supports.
When a search has been performed, the hits are displayed below the search field. The first archive is expanded, and can be collapsed using the encircled arrows to the right. This allows you to quickly get an overview of which archives produced hits for your search. You can also adjust the size of the thumbnails by adjusting the slider control below the search field.
Retrieving metadata
To retrieve metadata from the files, simply let the mouse hover over a thumbnail. FotoWeb Desktop will then display a tooltip window with the file's metadata content. Which information you are getting in the tooltip depends on how the FotoWeb server has been configured.
If you frequently need to reuse the same files, such as logos or other corporate artwork, you can add these files to your favorites. To do so, click on the little pin in the top left corner of the thumbnail. The pin will stand up and turn red to indicate that the file has been added to your favorites. The next time you need to get to this file, you can just click on the pin symbol directly below the search field to switch from the Search results page to the Favorites page. To remove a file from your favorites, just click on the pin again.
If one of your favorite files is removed from the server, a blank thumbnail with a cross in it will indicate that the file is no longer available.
Note: The list of your favorite files is stored locally, not on the server. Hence, if you work on different computers you will not see the same favorites. Also, if you reinstall your operating system without having a backup of the FotoWeb Desktop configuration files, you will lose your favorites.
When you have found a file that you want to insert in the document, you can drag and drop that file directly onto the page. This will insert the smallest available version of the image rescaled to 220 dpi. If you would like to insert another size, click on the arrow on the right side of the thumbnail (it will appear when your mouse closes in on it) and then choose a size to insert. You can choose between small, medium and large, which translates to a quarter, a half or the full width of the open document. You can also double-click on the image you want to place on the page - this will insert the medium size image on the page.
Note that Word handles graphics differently from PowerPoint. In PowerPoint you can drag files in and position them freely. Word, however, relies on the position of the cursor when the file is inserted. Changing the text layout may move the graphics, so it will often be a good idea to enable text wrapping around the graphic object to allow the text to flow around it rather than move it when the text is edited.
The plugin lets you crop and resize a picture before placing it in the document. To do so, click on the arrow on the right side of the thumbnail you want to insert and choose Crop...
The white background space in the crop window resembles the size of your document. This will help you see how big the image will be when it's finally placed in the document. The little picture in the top right corner previews the final result with cropping and rotation applied.
The crop frame can be adjusted by clicking and dragging the white dots on the sides and in the corners of the crop frame. By placing the mouse pointer outside the crop frame you can click and drag to rotate the image. You may find the white guidelines helpful in lining up the picture. If you would like to set the pixel size and rotation angle manually you can do so by entering values or dragging the sliders in the panel to the right.
When you are happy with the crop frame and rotation angle you can resize the picture by clicking and dragging the Size slider. Then, to insert the picture in the document, click on the OK button.
You can also embed other media types on the document. For instance, you may want to add a sound file or a video clip to your PowerPoint presentation. When you perform a search that returns these media types, you can use the dropdown menu on the file thumbnail to insert the object into your document. The screenshot above shows how this looks when you insert a movie clip into PowerPoint.
Depending on the type of file you insert, you may be able to play back or edit the file natively in PowerPoint or Word, or you may be able to double-click it to edit it in another application.