Whenever you create an object on your page, such as an Image object, or add a sound to a publication you are using resources. Once you start adding resources to a publication, you should consolidate resources, which means you create a Resource folder in which your resources are kept.
Below is a description of what resources are and how they are used in Opus along with a recommendation as to why you should consolidate resources.
We have already said in Creating Objects that anything you add to a page is an object, such as a Text box or an Image box. A resource is simply any file added to the object.
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For example, if you create an Image object on the page named Photo and add a graphic named family.JPG, then you have added one resource file to the Image object.
The types of resource files you can add to objects are: Image, Cursor, Video, Animation, Animated Gif, Sound or Text file.
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Opus supports a variety of file types for each type of resource. For example, when adding a video resource you can enter GIF, FLC, MNG, MPG, AVI, MPEG, MOV, MP4, ASF, WMA, WMV, VOB and FLV files into a Video object.
When you add a resource to an object, the resource file still exists at its original location on your system e.g. on a floppy disk, a folder on your machine or on the network.
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Continuing the example in point 1 above, the resource family.JPG is stored in C:\Graphics on my computer. When you preview your publication and show the image, the Image object looks for the file:
C:\Graphics\family.JPG
This is the potential problem! If you move the resource while you are working on your publication, then the resource will be missing and will not work in your publication.
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For example, if you added the sound effect ping.WAV to an object and you got the sound effect off a floppy disk. The sound effect will not play if the floppy disk is not in the drive.
The solution – Consolidate Resources.
When you consolidate resources you create a new Resource folder that contains a copy of all the resource files you have used in your publication and the objects on your page now use the copy in the Resource folder and not the original source.
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Using the example in point 4 above, when you consolidate resources, the Resource folder contains a copy of ping.WAV and the object uses this copy as the source. You never need the original on the floppy disk again, which means you can throw away the floppy and your sound will always play in your publication.
All resources in one folder – a single folder contains all the resources you have used in your publication, which is easier than managing lots of folders.
Using the publication at work and home – when you want to work on your publication on two different systems you can copy the IMP file (i.e. the publication you open in Opus) and the Resource folder and your publication will work the same. For example, if graphics are stored in one folder on one machine and a different folder on another and you add new graphics to your publication, this will cause no problem if you consolidate resources; because all new resources added will be in the same Resource folder for your publication.
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You can also email your publication – see Email your publication for more information.
Avoids missing records – as all resources are in one folder there is less chance that you will get a message saying resources are missing when you open your publication – this normally happens because the floppy-disk or network containing the resource is not available.