images disappearing

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Simeon
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Joined: 2016-01-15 08:53:59

images disappearing

Post by Simeon »

I have a document with a number of images. The images have shown up just fine for quite some time. Recently I did a system update because of a migration to a new computer. Whether it is due to the migration, the update, or some other issue, some, but not all of the images now do not show up, but rather an empty box or space now appears in place of the image.

This is a real problem (aren't they all?) and I would like to know the cause and solution.

I have tried to upload the file but even a selection of it with a missing image is too large.

Many thanks,

Brother Simeon
Light of the Spirit Monastery
Brother Simeon
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adryan
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Re: images disappearing

Post by adryan »

G’day, Simeon et al

Have you looked at the recent thread, "Paste pdf from clipboard into a Nisus document”? The discussion there had relevance to missing images.

Cheers,
Adrian
MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 2021)
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Vanceone
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Re: images disappearing

Post by Vanceone »

What is most likely to have happened is that when you imported the images, for whatever reason you had "save a copy in the document" off and only a "link to image" checked (if that).

My guess is that the alias got broke somehow in the move/upgrade and Nisus cannot find the image. I ran a test where I imported an image, link only, and then deleted the image and emptied the trash. Nidus promptly puts up an empty box, just like you described. Putting the image back where Nisus saw the link restored the image.

So: if you hover your mouse over the blank image for several seconds without moving it, hopefully a small box (tooltip) appears with the path to the image that Nisus is expecting, but cannot find. Assuming you have the image still, you can copy it back to that same path, and it will reappear in your Nisus document (after closing and reopening it; no changes will happen until then). It might be easier to just delete the blank image and reinsert it. If you do not plan on editing the image after it is inserted, make sure that "include a copy in the document" option is checked.
Simeon
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Re: images disappearing

Post by Simeon »

The images have no path, but rather, have an image name such as:

image-3.pict
6.22 x 2.66 in
File Size: 559 K

I assume this indicates an embedded image. The "why" of the image's disappearance is still a mystery.

What can be done?
Brother Simeon
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adryan
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Re: images disappearing

Post by adryan »

G’day, Simeon et al

I would have thought that Vanceone is right here: what he says accords with what we were discussing in that other thread I mentioned.

I can’t reproduce your exact problem, no matter how I adjust the settings. I can see the image data you describe, but only when hovering over a visible image. Even then, the little floating data box does not appear reliably, and it doesn’t show the file size.

Hopefully you made a backup before you upgraded. I suggest retrieving that file and trying it on your new computer.

If you still have the old computer, you might try adding another image to the file there, using the same procedure you always did, but this time observing closely how you have the Insert Image settings set. You may now find that you’ve only been inserting links all along. If this is the case, you may need to reinsert the images proper, which you could do on either machine, providing it had all the components (file and images) required.

It occurred to me that recreating on your new computer the previous path structure between the file and the folder containing the images might just work if the links were relative, but I think they are absolute links, and aliases at that.

Cheers,
Adrian
MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 2021)
macOS Ventura
Nisus Writer user since 1996
Vanceone
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Re: images disappearing

Post by Vanceone »

Ah yes. That set of text you have is what Nisus calls the "image description". Why it exists, I don't know; as there seems to be no way to edit it.

That shows up with a right click on the image, or if you hover over the box in some scenarios. But if you hover over the image in a different spot, it may well put up the path it's expecting to find that image in. I found it worked best when I hovered over the right side of the image box, just a little ways in from the margin. It's a tricky thing, but it will show up eventually.

Alias's aren't supposed to break when files or images are moved; it's one of those legacy Mac OS features that is quite useful. However, they can break and it's a bit unfortunate that Nisus didn't allow a way to "fix alias."

They use a lot of "magic" with these images--you can edit them in their original app and the changes will automatically update inside your Nisus document--but the flip side is when the magic breaks it can be difficult to fix.
Simeon
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Re: images disappearing

Post by Simeon »

These posts are useful, but what I would like would be if the nisus people could actually look at the file, and determine difinitively what the problem actually is, not just what it might be. The file, being image intensive even without the images showing, is too large for the normal forum upload. Is there a way I can upload a larger file for the kind Nisus techs to look at?

Thank you, Vanceone and Adryan for your thoughts and help.
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phspaelti
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Re: images disappearing

Post by phspaelti »

If you want Nisus to look at something you should use "Send Feedback" from the NIsus "Help" menu. Don't post your problem files here on the forum. The forum is primarily for fellow user advice, though Martin from Nisus does check in periodically.
philip
Simeon
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Re: images disappearing

Post by Simeon »

Thanks, phspaelti, for pointing this out!
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martin
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Re: images disappearing

Post by martin »

Simeon wrote:The images have no path, but rather, have an image name such as:

image-3.pict
This provides the piece of information that is most relevant: your image is a Mac PICT. That's an old image data format, from way back in the days of Classic Mac / OS 9. It's basically a dead image format.

Nisus Writer relies on the system (macOS) to display any images in your documents. That includes your PICTs. As versions of the system have moved on, support for the PICT format has gotten worse and worse. I've seen blank images as you describe, and also plenty of cases where text in a PICT shows completely incorrectly. We reported some of these issues to Apple years ago, but honestly I don't expect them to be fixed. I expect that in some future system update PICT support will just be silently removed altogether.

The best advice I can give you is to update any of your images using the PICT format to a modern format, eg: PNG or JPEG. I'd do this for all your images, whether they display correctly now or not, while you still can. I'm sorry I don't have better news.
Vanceone
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Re: images disappearing

Post by Vanceone »

a PICT image? Can't believe I missed that. Yes, PICT is fairly well unsupported after Mac OS 10.6 or Snow Leopard. After a certain point I'm pretty sure the OS itself refuses to handle PICT at all; and only a few graphics apps retain support. Since Nisus image support is partially provided by the OS, PICT support is problematic at best.

GraphicsConverter will open and convert PICT files to something more modern.
Simeon
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Joined: 2016-01-15 08:53:59

Re: images disappearing

Post by Simeon »

Thank you Martin and Vanceone.

Alas, I will now have to try to find the original graphics files (which were probably tifs) somewhere on my computer. When your drives are multi terabyte drives, this becomes fun (not)!
Brother Simeon
Light of the Spirit Monastery
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lightofthespiritpress.com
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