I'm not sure if this is a bug or not - it certainly isn't a good feature.

After publishing and 'gathering' files, if you then move or delete an image from its previous location, WE2 doesn't show it in the work window. It's still looking in the original place and not in the place where it gathered files to.

Surely WE2 (and SS) should now reference files to where they have been gathered and not to where they were originally.

It does make it very difficult to manage files on your computer which WE2 happens to use.

Cheers,

Ray D

"Gathering" is only used when publishing and is designed to consolidate your published "media" type files into a common location(s) on your site.

Since gathering is done during publishing, it is not performing a "file move" function, but rather a "file copy" function. I surely would not want SiteSpinner to move my files off my computer and onto my site, especially since there would be no way to then reference those files within a SiteSpinner project.

I think VM was thinking that it is best to keep the published site separate from the project site. If you integrated the published and project sides too closely, a disk problem could cause a complete failure. With the current method, some recovery, if not all, can be accomplished.

I didn't mean to imply that WE2 and SS should MOVE files when publishing, but it does COPY them into a specified folder, apart from the copy put in the published images folder.

When publishing with 'gather' selected it brings up a box suggesting the image be copied into a central location, as well as copying it into the publish image folder.

What it DOESN'T do is reference that copy in the .ims file.

Cheers,

Ray D

When you publish using gather, you should not have extra copies being made anywhere but the publishing site. Are you seeing additional image copies somewhere else? Are they in the preview folder?

The ims file uploaded to your web site is a backup of your local version. If it were changed when published to point to files on your web site, then it could not be used as a backup on your local machine since the paths would no longer point to the images on your local machine.

After you drag (or copy/paste) an image into your workpage, SS and WE will suggest you save it into a permanent location. It will then, in future, reference the image from that new location -- if you give one. If you don't give one, it will treat the image as if already in its permanent location.

If you don't want that behavior, import the image via the Mona Lisa icon -- the program then assumes the image is already in its permanent location.

So after that initial time, SS and WE will use only one source location -- the permanent one. As you note, it is just a reference -- there is no copy of the image built into your .ims project. The image remains in its permanent location.

On publish with the gather option, SS and WE will, if required, copy the file into the appropriate place in your publish folder.

If you don't want that behavior, use relative or absolute links to the file. (Publisher > Pages tab). This is a more advanced option and means that you are responsible for copying the file to the place your html page(s) expect.

That's how I believe it works -- if you find something different, we are all interested

quote:

After you drag (or copy/paste) an image into your workpage, SS and WE will suggest you save it into a permanent location. It will then, in future, reference the image from that new location -- if you give one. If you don't give one, it will treat the image as if already in its permanent location.

If you don't want that behavior, import the image via the Mona Lisa icon -- the program then assumes the image is already in its permanent location.

Thanks for that Bruceee! I have been wondering why it sometimes pops up the suggestion box and not other times. When it did, I assumed it copied ALL the images to the central location, but, as you say, only the ones dropped in.

I think I will try and drag & drop images from now on.

Cheers,

Ray D