BookMaker File Questions

[PhotoGeek1]

Question - When I create books in the BookMaker software, does it store my books' information in the compressed bmsetup file that I find in C:\MyPrograms MyPublisher\BookMaker?
Question - Multiple books are stored in the same file?
Question - Is a reference or link to my picture files saved in this file, rather than an embedded copy? So I do not have to worry about loosing quality, due to compression, when I hit Save many times?
Question - Is a thumbnail of each photo I use in my books also in this file?
Question - When I work on my books, am I looking at the thumbnails?
Question - When I preview my book, am I looking at the thumbnails or the actual images?
I noticed that the program still worked fine, even when the hard drive with the images was removed.
Thanks

[mypublisher]

Your books are saved in individual folders in Application Data on your C\ drive.

Images are copied (not moved or linked) into these folders. In addition to the copying of the original image, a thumbnail and screen view image is rendered and stored in this folder. You can save as often as you like without degrading the images. In essence, you're not viewing the orignals. Instead, BookMaker keeps them in app data until the book is uploaded, and you're viewing the thumbnails and screen images in originals.

[PhotoGeek1]

Cool! I found them, but crashed my Windows file system several times - all open folders. That happens quite a bit anyway. Then I totally locked up my whole computer. A little thing called Microsoft Passport was insisting I sign up. Do I need Passport to view these? Is it a Hewlet Packard thing, as the folder was in HP Administrator? I was able to get into other things, your templates and stuff. It was just when I opened the book folders and tried to look at the properties for sizes. First couple times, did not get that far. Should I be able to look at these? Is there any reason I shouldn't? Should I back up this data if I reconfigure my computer? If I restore it to original? Or, would uploading it before completion be enough? Do the larger files disappear from the folder at upload?
I suppose, I could copy the folders elsewhere and open them fine, couldn't I? They appear to be standard .jpg and thumbnail files, are they? Or do they have other data encripted in them?
Just curious..

[mypublisher]

You don't need any fancy access privileges to access this data.

While the folders may been 'hidden' in some cases, you should be able to access them with ease. Regarding the back-up, your better off exporting .dime files from BookMaker to archive your work. Just be sure that these files are less than 2gb; otherwise, your bound to have trouble getting them imported back in. The files in app data remain intact upon upload -- the app creates a dime file specifically for the purpose of upload, which contains the optimized images.

On the contrary, all of these files are included in the exported .dime file, untouched. In addition to the various incarnations of the images, there is an .xml file that essentially describes the book's layout to our servers, which allows them to compile all of the images and text into what ultimately becomes the PDF file that goes to our press.

Phew -- wipes brow... ;-)

Makes sense?

[karenschulz]

So if you MUST import a 3.4 gig .dime file into another computer, is there a way to do it?

Thanks,
Karen

[Cruiser]

Deleted

[mypublisher]

In essence, this actually not a BookMaker limitation. It's actually a limitaion of the Windows operating system. The thing is, regardless of how much physical RAM is available, the OS can only 'address' -- or make sense of -- a 2GB file. Once the Windows world moves to a 64 bit world, this will be lees of a concern.

The real rub is this: the program doesn't really delete images. It actually keeps deleted images in appdata, and these wind up in the exported dime file. As such, if one 'gets' a lot of images and deletes them, the exported file becomes necessarily bloated. BookMaker has worked this way since 2.2. Thankfully, it will be resolved in 3.0, which you all will be abel to get your hands on shortly.

[Cruiser]

Deleted

[mypublisher]

This was imparted on me by MyPublisher's senior software developer.

This OS limitation, along with the ever increasing size of image files, is the driving force behind the export changes instituted in 3.0. The widespread use of 64 bit OSs is a ways off, so BookMaker exports have to change in order to deal with this in the meantime.

You can read more about in a variety of places on the web, but here's an easily accessible accurate description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_file_support

Makes sense? It took me a while to wrap my brain around this, but I'm no programmer. I'll happily try to get some more info on this if you'd like.

[Cruiser]

Deleted

[PhotoGeek1]

Don't know much about this, but checked my Hard Drives. I have NTFS file system on two and FAT 32 on one partition. Took a quick look at NTFS.com and what they were saying. In theory, NTFS has unlimited file size, BUT, the windows installation program does not know this, THEY said. On a 64 bit (depends on disk/partition size and file system. FAT is max 32 bit). THEY said the max file size with 64 bit was 4 Gig. Perhaps FAT 32 is 2 Gig and NTFS 4 Gig. I have not tried this. They mentioned NT. I am running XP MC (Media Center), equivalent of XP Pro, which should be same setup as NT. So it sounds like it may have more to do with the file structure of your hard drive or partition.

[PhotoGeek1]

Regarding image size. Megapixel is not the ultimate determiner of file size. You set a camera for both the resolution and the quality (the amount of jpeg compression) Then, if you have a lot of sky or one solid color, you will have a smaller file size, than if you have a compostion with much detail and many colors. The camera settings may be the same, but the .jpg file will be a larger size, if you have a lot of detail to record, as it does not compress as much. Generally a two megapixel camera gives a half meg file, but this varies from camera to camera. What would be nice to know, for us PhotoShop users, is what end file sizes would be best for which molds. I think I did get some answers on this. What would be really cool, would be if each mold had the min and max file size printed right in the empty mold for that particular size mold in the particular size book AND the 300 dpi pixels vertical and horizontal for those who would like to see these details.

I understand that not all people are so techie and that you don't want to scare away the casual user, but it would be nice if you could accomodate both. Thanks for listening.

[mypublisher]

PhotoGeek1 is on to something here...

I was remiss in simply pointing the finger at Microsoft in this case. This was an oversimplified answer to a complex problem, and for that I apologize.

In fact, there's more to it than that. It's not just a 32 vs 64 bit OS thing. It has to do with

a) the way BookMaker is coded
b) addressing memory in the 32 bit OS
c) the files system or format of the hard drive

So under the 32 bit OS with BookMaker 2.3 the, the ostensible limit for a usable dime file is 2.1 GB on the FAT 32 drive and 4.2 GB on the NTFS.

The truth is, these monster dime files have not been tested against extensively because they were a 'one in a million' occurrence -- now they're a dime a dozen. Books are getting bigger, image files are getting bigger, and dime files are getting bigger.

Believe me, I kvetch about this one to the developers all the time and I believe that it's now on their radar.