FirePoint can store your digital camera photos

FirePoint allows you to import ".jpg" and other popular photograph formats into Incidents, Occupancies, Projects and Violations.  Because of the need to "crop" personnel photographs, FirePoint uses a different photo interface in Personnel.

Preparing FirePoint to Store Photographs

Before working with photographs make sure your path to the Pictures folder is correctly set.

1. At the Command Window press the Maint button.

2. Press the Set Paths button.

3. Make sure the path to the Pictures folder is accurate. You can use the buttons on the Set Paths page to test the paths. Or select the Pictures path from the drop-down list of paths you can set. Locate and open the Pictures folder (in the folder where FirePoint is located) and press the "Select" button.

If your fire department is using the client server version of FirePoint the Pictures folder must be shared over the network so the same path is used for file sharing at all client workstations.

Creating an Acceptable Picture File

Most digial cameras store pictures in ".jpg" format. "JPEGS" are images which automatically compress data so the size of a ".jpg" file is only a small fraction of the size of the information which is used to load the picture into computer memory.

The size of a ".jpg" image is dependent on its resolution. Resolution can be set on your digital camera. If you want large photographs to be printed on paper, you would set your digital camera to its highest resolution setting. If, on the other hand, you primarily want your pictures to be viewed on a computer screen you would select a low resolution. 640 X 480 is a common low resolution setting for viewing photos on a computer screen.

FirePoint is designed to import and store low resolution pictures, those intended for viewing on a computer screen. If you use the low resolution setting on your digital camera, you will create ".jpg" images which are ready to be read by FirePoint. If you use high resolution settings read the next section.

Storing High Resolution Photographs and Floor Plans

If your digital camera needs to be set to high resolution for printing photographs you can still use FirePoint to store video-sized ".jpg" images.

Note: The following procedure is also useful for storing ".jpg" images of floor plans and maps acquired from any software program which can be viewed on your computer.

1. Using any software product you wish display your photograph on the computer screen.

2. Use a "Screen Capture" utility to select the portion of the photograph, floor plan or map you wish to store in FirePoint. Save the screen capture as a ".jpg".

If you don't have a screen capture program capable to performing this operation you can download HoverSnap for free. Simply go to:

http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Download HoverSnap and follow the installation instructions.

Photographs in Incidents, Occupancies, Projects and Violations

FirePoint loads entire photographs in Incidents, Occupancies and Violatoins. For data storage purposes photographs should not be "mega-pixel" size. Lower resolutions work well on computer screens and take-up far less room.

In FirePoint open the record where you wish to store the picture. Follow the instructions on the screen.

1. Use the "Picture Options" menu to load a photograph. A file navigation box will appear. Locate the photo file you wish to open and double-click on it. Your photograph will appear on the screen.

2. In the same "Picture Options" menus to "Save the Loaded Picture". The saving process will require you to give the picture a short name which will appear on the list of pictures. If you get an error while attempting to save the picture make sure you Picture path is correctly set.

3. You may use the "Picture Options" menu to edit the information about the picture you have saved. This option will allow you to select the numbered order picture display.

4. You can view multiple picture by pressing the Next button or selecting the picture title from the lower drop-down list.

Personnel Photos

Open the photograph with Paint or any photo editor you wish. Use the selection tool in Paint to select the portion of the photograph you wish to display in Personnel. Copy the cropped part of the photograph to the clipboard.

Click on the photograph field in Personnel. Paste the photograph into the photograph field. The photograph will appear like a negative. That's because the photograph field is selected. Press the tab key to select the next field and the photograph will appear as normal.