Before proceeding, make sure you are in Basic View by choosing View > Basic

Before you can use your own images in Acces4, you must save them in the User Folder. The location of this folder can be specified by choosing Edit > Preferences and clicking on Paths. The default is Documents\My Acces4 Content\. Acces will look for files in this folder before looking in any other folder. For more information about where Acces looks for images, refer to Precedence in Acces4. We recommend using images with a resolution of 300 dpi for the best print quality.

Images can be inserted into problems as inline figures or as xfigures. Inline figures are inserted into the text of the problem. XFigures, on the other hand, "float" around a problem and have properties that can be configured to change the placement of the image as well as conditional formatting options. For example, an XFigure can be configured to display one message if it is displayed and a different message if it is hidden. For information on using inline figures, refer to Inserting Figures Using the Visual Editor.

XFigures are useful if several problems refer to the same figure, but you want the figure to display only once. Using xfigures in this way allows you to change the order of the problems without having to change the properties of the figure. Acces4 can automatically display the figure with the problem that appears first and hide the figure for subsequent problems.

  1. Select a problem and open the Visual Editor.
  2. Click the XFigure tab.
  3. Click the folder icon to browse for a figure
  4. Select the source for your image by double-clicking a source in the list.
    If "My Content" is not one of the options, then you have not saved a compatible image in the User Folder.
  5. If you have image editing software installed, and wish to edit the image before adding it to the problem, click Edit or Edit a Copy. Edit will edit the image for all problems referencing the image. Edit a Copy will create an edited copy of the image for the current problem. In either case, when you save your changes to the image in your image editing program, Acces will automatically update the image in your problem to reflect the changes.
    If you edit an image for all problems, then decide later that you want to revert to the original copy of the image, delete the image file from your User Folder and Acces will refer to the original copy in the database.
  6. If you don't need to edit the image, select the image and click Insert to add the image to your problem as an xfigure.
  7. By default, xfigures will inherit the style options set in the Format > Inserts... menu. To change these options for this xfigure, deselect Use default style option. The position of xfigures can be set to:
    • beginning
    • right
    • above
    • below
    • optimized
    If the position of the xfigure is set to beginning, then the xfigure will appear above the problem, aligned with the problem label.
    If the position of the xfigure is set to right, then the xfigure will appear to the right of the problem (and multiple-choice options, if the problem is multiple-choice).
    If the position of the xfigure is set to above, then the xfigure will appear above the problem text and problem label, aligned with the text.
    If the position of the xfigure is set to below, then the xfigure will appear below the problem text (and multiple-choice options, if the problem is multiple-choice), aligned with the text.
    Regardless of how xfigures are configured, they will always display on the same page as the problem with which they are associated. In the diagrams above, the dashed line around each problem represents an "unbreakable box" that will not break across pages.

    Setting the xfigure position to optimized allows Acces4 to determine the best placement of the xfigure.

    If a problem does not have multiple-choice items, then setting the xfigure position to optimized will position the xfigure below the problem text, aligned with the text.
    If a problem has multiple-choice items, then setting the xfigure position to optimized will position the xfigure to the right of the answer choices, if there is room.
    If there is not room to the right of the answer choices, then the xfigure will be positioned below the problem text and above the answer choices.
  8. If two or more consecutive problems include the same xfigure, the default behavior is to hide the xfigure in all problems except the first one. To display the xfigure for all problems, deselect Hide figure if already shown in previous problem.
  9. To set conditional text for your xfigure, enter the text you wish to display if the figure is shown and/or hidden.
  10. Click OK to close the editor and return to the Document Window.