Linked images

[John Gavin]

I began linking images to my database last week (jpegs
about 500 so far.) When I went to back it up on to disk
(CDRW) to my surprise the size of the database had gone
from 29,000KB to 1.72GB!! I understood that linking would
not take up a lot of room like embedding does. Any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[Bruce M. Thompson]

I began linking images to my database last week (jpegs

about 500 so far.) When I went to back it up on to disk
(CDRW) to my surprise the size of the database had gone
from 29,000KB to 1.72GB!! I understood that linking would
not take up a lot of room like embedding does. Any ideas?

The fact is that when you specify the "Linked" OLE Type, Access still stores a
bitmap image in the field in order to display the image, so this isn't as
desirable as simply storing the path and filename of the image and then passing
this value to the "Picture" property of an image control when appropriate. See
the following page at The Access Web for more information:

Handle/Display images in forms/database
http://www.mvps.org/access/forms/frm0030.htm

 

[Larry Linson]

I began linking images to my database
last week (jpegs about 500 so far.) When
I went to back it up on to disk (CDRW)
to my surprise the size of the database had
gone from 29,000KB to 1.72GB!! I under-
stood that linking would not take up a lot of
room like embedding does.

The sample imaging databases at http://accdevel.tripod.com illustrate three
approaches to handling images in Access, and the download includes an
article discussing considerations in choosing an approach. Two of the
approaches do not use OLE Objects and, thus, avoid the database bloat, and
some other problems, associated with images in OLE Objects. The article
explains, as did Bruce, why there is such bloat even with linked images.

If you are printing the images in reports, to avoid memory leakage, you
should also see MVP Stephen Lebans' http://www.lebans.com/printfailures.htm.
PrintFailure.zip is an Access97 MDB containing a report that fails during
the Access formatting process prior to being spooled to the Printer Driver.
This MDB also contains code showing how to convert the contents of the Image
control to a Bitmap file prior to printing. This helps alleviate the "Out of
Memory" error that can popup when printing image intensive reports.

 

[Guest]

Well, I'm going round and round with this problem. I
deleted all the images from my database that I had linked
but the size of the database is still significant, and
much larger than it was before I added the photos. Did
deleting the links just delete the path and not the
compressed bitmaps??

 

[Bruce M. Thompson]

Well, I'm going round and round with this problem. I

deleted all the images from my database that I had linked
but the size of the database is still significant, and
much larger than it was before I added the photos. Did
deleting the links just delete the path and not the
compressed bitmaps??

The size of your database will not be reduced until you compact it to recover
the freed space. Go to the menuitem "Tools, Database Utilities, Compact and
Repair Database".

 

[Guest]

OK, well... I compacted the database as suggested and it
worked fine thanks! I read the supplied links to the
information on linking images and i decided to use the
image control with a path to the external images. However,
when I tried to insert an image control into my form under
design view the insert image window popped up and I
couldn't minimize it without the image control field
dissapearing too, so how do I get to the properties on the
image control?? How do I insert an Image Control into my
form or data view for that matter, so I can have different
images linked to each individual record?? I figured out
how to do a hyperlink in the data view table but it won't
transfer to forms.

 

[Bruce M. Thompson]

OK, well... I compacted the database as suggested and it

worked fine thanks! I read the supplied links to the
information on linking images and i decided to use the
image control with a path to the external images. However,
when I tried to insert an image control into my form under
design view the insert image window popped up and I
couldn't minimize it without the image control field
dissapearing too, so how do I get to the properties on the
image control?? How do I insert an Image Control into my
form or data view for that matter, so I can have different
images linked to each individual record?? I figured out
how to do a hyperlink in the data view table but it won't
transfer to forms.

Go ahead and select a graphic image file in order to keep the image control on
the form. I usually pick a file that contains an image that came with windows
(such as "setup.bmp" or a background graphic). When an image isn't associated
with the current record, I usually just make the image control not visible, but
you can create your own default image that says "No Image Available", for
instance, and use that when appropriate.

 

[Guest]

OK, I inserted an image control in form design view with
a .jpg. Now the same graphic is showing up in each of my
7500 records. How do I insert different images for each
record? When I am in form view I cannot access the image
control clicking on the field gets no response.
Thanks!

 

[Bruce M. Thompson]

OK, I inserted an image control in form design view with

a .jpg. Now the same graphic is showing up in each of my
7500 records. How do I insert different images for each
record? When I am in form view I cannot access the image
control clicking on the field gets no response.

Did you check out the web page I referenced in my first reply in this thread?
The second link on that page describes how to make this work, and it is:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=148463

There is no point in my reproducing the scenario and code provided at that
resource. If you have any specific questions about how to handle individual
circumstances, such as hiding the image control or displaying a default image
when there is no associated image for the record, go ahead and ask.

And don't overlook the links that Larry Linson included in his reply in this
thread. These resources should provide more than adequate examples to get you
started.

 

[karim boussetta]

wech bien ou quoi