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Multimedia Fields

Multimedia fields enable you to link diverse types of media, such as images, sound files, PDF documents and video files to your Calm records. The media are copied into a folder (by default it is \dscribe\Archive\images, but this can be changed in the Admin program) when you link to them so that Calm can always access them.

Multimedia fields are not on record types by default, but they may be inserted into your record using the Insert option from the Field drop down menu or by using the Admin program to customise your record types.

Supported media types in Calm include:

Image Formats: TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, Photoshop PSD
Audio formats: MP3, OGG Vorbis, Windows Media Audio (WMA), MIDI, WAV, Real Audio, Flac Lossless, Monkey’s Audio Lossless (APE).
Video formats: Real Media, Windows Media Video (WMV), AVI,  Flash Video (FLV), MP4
Application formats: PDF, ZIP, RAR, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word

Multimedia fields in your records

Multimedia fields in Calm employ a dynamic display feature. The thumbnail associated with the multimedia field will change depending on the type of media you have linked, for example sound files display as a “sound” icon and image files display as a thumbnail image.

Multimedia files may be opened by clicking on the thumbnail. The file will be opened using your default software dependent on the type of file.

A multimedia field, when inserted into a record, appears as a blank field. There are several ways to link a file to the multimedia field, depending on the location of the file you wish to link.

Ways of Linking to Multimedia Files

Linking a file from your computer
  
  • Right click on the multimedia field. The right click menu appears, as shown below



     

  • Select the Import... option. The Choose Graphic dialogue appears, as shown below


     

  • Select the file you require and click Open. A thumbnail or icon representing the file is added to the multimedia field as appropriate. Also, Calm copies the file into your designated Multimedia folder.

Linking to a file that is already "in Calm"

If the file to which you wish to link is already in your default Multimedia location on your Calm server (usually \dscribe\Archive\images), then:

  • Right click on the multimedia field, the right click menu is displayed, as shown below

    •    
     

  • Select the Attach to existing item... option. The Attach Image dialogue box appears, as shown below



  • Browse for the file you require, if the file is an image then the selected image is displayed as a thumbnail in the dialogue box
     
  • Select the file you require and click OK, a thumbnail or icon is added to the multimedia field as appropriate

Linking an image from your scanner
 
  • Right click on the multimedia field, the right click menu appears, as shown below



     

  • Select the Acquire from scanner or camera... option, the Scan Image dialogue appears, as shown below

     



     

  • Select the name of your scanner from the drop-down list

  • Click the Scan button; your scanning software will open
     
  • Scan your image as usual. When you have completed the process, a thumbnail version of the image is added to the record

Further options

It is also possible to edit linked files by right-clicking on your multimedia field and selecting the Edit option. Linked images are edited in the Calm ImageViewer application. Please note that you will need to refresh your record to update the visible thumbnail having edited the image. The size of the thumbnail image may be altered by right-clicking on the Thumbnail, selecting Options and changing the number of pixels for height and width. The Properties option under the image right-click menu displays metadata properties such as the image size and file type.