Adding Images to Notes
- Dylan Nigh
There are several different methods of adding images to notes:
IMPORTANT: We strongly recommend storing images tied to patients in the Attachments/Images Ability, as this ability is designed to permanently store your images and keep them tied to that patient. The Notes Ability is intended to store images not directly associated with patients, such as logos and other graphical images.
Add Image Directly to a Note
An image can be added to a note (without the use of pull fields) by using the Add Image button, or by dragging the image into the note.
Insert Image Button: Click the Insert Image button (highlighted in the image below). A new window will open - navigate to the image and click OK to add it to the note.
Drag and Drop: Images can also be directly added via dragging and dropping from Finder.
Notes Images Node
The Notes Images node allows non-patient image files to be stored so they can be used in multiple templates or notes.
To add a new image to this node, select the Notes Images node and click the big green plus button in the upper left hand corner. Enter a Tag and click Import to select the image. A new window will open - select the image, click Open, and the image will be displayed in the Note Image box, as illustrated below.
In the Images section of the Pull Field list there is now a new pull field that matches the Tag of the previously created Notes Image. The pull field can be added to a note or template just like a text pull field. If the field is added to a patient note the image will be immediately added to the background of the note. If it is added to a template, a text placeholder will be displayed until a patient note is created, at which point the image will be displayed in the note.
The image will retain its original dimensions - large images may need to be resized before importing into the Notes Images node.
Images Pull Field
There are a number of built-in pull fields that can pull images associated to a patient into a note or template:
Drag and Drop Image
Add the Drag & Drop Image pull field to a template (or note) as a placeholder for an image. After a patient note has been created, an image can be dragged and dropped into the image placeholder.
Patients Recent Images
The Patient Recent Images pull field will pull the patient's most recent Patient Photo into the note. When the field is added to a template, a Patient Image placeholder will be displayed.
When a patient note is created from a template, or if the pull field is added directly to a patient's note, the Patient Photo will be pulled into the note.
Note: Only the newest Patient Photo will be added with this pull field. If an earlier patient photo is needed, it is best to save it outside of MacPractice and add it directly to the note.
Imaging Image/Digital Radiography Image
The Imaging Image (MD, 20/20, DC) or Digital Radiography Image (DDS) pull fields pull images into a note from the Imaging or Digital Radiography Ability. When added to a template it will display with the following image placeholder:
When a patient note is created from the template, or the pull field is added to a patient note, a new window will open and an image can be selected. All images from the patient's visits in Imaging or Digital radiography are displayed here. Select "Original Image" to pull in the unannotated image or "Enhanced Image" to pull in the image with annotations.
The selected image will appear in the note instead of the placeholder.
Editing Images in Notes
Once the image is added to the note, blue handles will appear around it. The handles can be dragged to resize the image.
Right clicking on the image will provide a few additional options:
Rotate Clockwise/Rotate Counter-Clockwise: Select these options to rotate the image within the note.
Send to Background: By default, text will wrap around the image. Selecting Send to Background will allow text to be added on top of the image.
Place Image Into Text: By default, the image will remain in the position its placed into and any text will wrap around it. Selecting this option locks the image in its current position with the current text around it, meaning that any additional text added to the note might cause the image to move.
Print On All Pages: If the image is in the background this option will become enabled. Select it to add the image to the background of every page of the note.
Display Capture Date: Displays the date the image was imported or captured in MacPractice for Imaging or Digital Radiography images.