SEARCH.EXE VERSION 1.30A06 Written By Robert Thivierge SEARCH.EXE is a freeware Windows 3.1 program that produces HTML Web pages consisting of small in-line GIF images. These images can be clicked on in a Web browser (like Netscape or Mosaic) to see the full sized JPEG picture. The output can be customized to suit your tastes. _________________________________________________________________ Note: After you have read the legal stuff, downloaded the ZIP File, installed the program, and run it, please take the time to tell me how it worked out. Contact me at thivier1@canuck.com or thivier1@freenet.calgary.ab.ca Table of Contents * SEARCH.EXE News * Current Features * Planned Features * Program Stability * Obtaining the Program * Legal Issues and Credits + Ownership + Freeware Status + Credits + Disclaimer * System Requirements * Installation Procedures * A Picture of SEARCH.EXE * Known Bugs * Contacting the Author SEARCH.EXE News Version 1.3 of Search means that all the features of Search can now be accessed with user friendly dialog boxes. Within a dialog box you can now change any of the descriptive text that is to appear on outputted web pages. You can attach meaningful descriptive text to individual pictures. You can use pre-defined or user-defined fields to describe pictures. For instance if your site consists of pictures of people, you can have the name of the subject and/or photographer appear next to the picture. The information on pictures can easily be layed out in an infinate number of ways, such as in tables (which is the default layout). And you can group pictures however you wish, to make them easy for people to find the one(s) their interested in, and not feel the need to download everything, wasting bandwidth. Also, the informative text you attach to pictures is not only shown next to the picture on the web page, but is contained inside the JPEG file. So someone downloading pictures from your site can view the descriptive text before and after they download the pictures that interest them. Current Features WEB FEATURES * For every JPEG file in your site, it creates a smaller GIF version. * It generates one or more HTML files which contain links to these pictures. If you choose to have a sophisticated multi-page site (which you don't have to) a browser of your site will be able to traverse through all the pages by following links. * Your site can have one more pages in any directory and any number (zero, one, or many) sub-directories and any level of sub-directories. * You can have SEARCH.EXE organize pictures in different pages based on their file names. You can use this feature in combination with sub-directories or without sub-directories. * You can have SEARCH.EXE automatically generate a layout for your pictures with the "AutoOrg" button. It recognizes repeated file name patterns (ie. cc01.jpg, cc02.jpg, etc...), and groups them for you. Optionally you can edit this default layout. * All text outputted in pages can be changed. You can make changes globally that effect all pages, make changes that effect a certain type of page, make changes that effect only a particular directory, or effect only a particular page. You can also specify certain text to go next to individual pictures. For instance, next to the photo you can have the name of the subject and a description. People using text-only browsers will especially appreciate this. The text you specify may contain any HTML tags you wish. Pretty much, anything that can be done in HTML can be done with SEARCH.EXE. * You can have any number of pictures appear on a row in a table. * You can control the display width and height of images. SEARCH.EXE (by default) uses the WIDTH and HEIGHT tag to tell the browser the dimensions of a picture. This speeds up the display of your page for browser users. * As an optional alternative to having the Directory Index Pages link directly to the anchor image, you can have them link to a picture Detail Page. This detail page can optionally show the full sized image or the reduced size image. Typically this page will show additional information about the picture. * You can choose from a pre-defined list of sample layouts. * Support for the new progressive-JPEG file format. Progressive-JPEG files take less disk space and have a fade in effect when viewed by Netscape. You can also convert old JPEG files to the new format. * Customizable file extensions for HTML Web Page files produced. * New! - You can use the Configure Layout dialog box to specify descriptive text to appear on pages and next to pictures. Information describing a picture (such as subject name, etc...) is stored in the JPEG file, and can be accessed by a browser user before and after downloading the file. If there's anything you can't get SEARCH.EXE to do when making Web Pages, please let me know. OTHER FEATURES * Inside SEARCH.EXE, if you click on a particular JPEG file you will see the image dimensions of the file shown. * SEARCH.EXE can be used to produce a listing of all files matching a pattern in a directory and its sub-directories. You can limit the listing to files that contain a string inside them. Of course this includes comments inside of JPEG files. * SEARCH.EXE will decode JPEG files from saved uuencoded articles off the UseNet. Unlike most decoders SEARCH.EXE will read information such as the "Subject" line and will store this information in the JPEG file. This information can be used to have SEARCH.EXE organize your pictures into logical groups. * Without running another program, you can preview GIF images inside of SEARCH.EXE. As well, you can double click on any file and launch the associated program to view/edit that file. Planned Features These are features I would like to implement if I get feedback on their usefullness. * Provide an easy built-in way to package files to be uploaded to a UNIX box. * Allow finer control over the size of GIF files created. * Let the user choose between GIF and JPEG format for in-line images. * Allow the user to use GIF files as anchor files. * Allow the user to group picture files onto different pages based on the values in user defined fields. Pictures with the same value in a given field would go on the same page. Program Stability This program still has bugs that I am working out. However, it seems to work OK for me and other users. Remeber you are using my program at your own risk. There is no warranty. Obtaining the Program If you are viewing this document on the Web, just load this anchor to disk and follow the installation procedures later in this file. Otherwise you should go to http://www.canuck.com/~thivier1/search.html to view the on-line version of this document or mail me at thivier1@freenet.calgary.ab.ca or thivier1@canuck.com. Legal Issues and Credits OWNERSHIP SEARCH(c) 1995 The Picture Page Generator Written by Robert Thivierge All rights reserved by Robert Thivierge Any attempt by a person other than myself to reverse compile, sell, or to represent the program as their own is prohibited. You may give a copy of the the program to someone else free of charge, provided you include all the files you received yourself. They then should notify me of receipt of it. However, any person or organization may distribute my program as freeware. They may charge a fee for the service of distribution (such as on-line charges, charge for distribution media, etc...). An acceptable form of distribution is including my program on CD-ROMs containing freeware/shareware, where there is a charge for the CD-ROM. However, it must be understood that they are not selling my program. And absolutely nobody, but me, may imply or suggest that they authored this program or that it is their property. I must always be given full credit. FREEWARE STATUS This program is freeware. I do not require financial payment for use of this product. Since users benefit from my time I think its fair to ask for some feedback. I like to know everytime someone gets my software and every time someone uses it for the first time. I also like suggested improvements, and friendly constructive criticism. I also appreciate being sent the URLs of sites made with the program. There is a special form to collect user responses, located at http://www.canuck.com/~thivier1/survey.html. You are always encouraged to let me know by e-mail what you're doing with and how its going with my program at thivier1@freenet.calgary.ab.ca or thivier1@canuck.com. Remember, one of my main rewards for making this program is seeing sites made with it. CREDITS I appologize to all the people who have helped with suggestions, for not taking the time to give individual credit where due. I hope to attempt to do so when I have some more time. Your help is very much appreciated. * This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. They are kind enough to allow programmers to use their code library without financial charge. * The Graphics Interchange Format(C) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(SM) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated. * The actual compression method used in GIF is copywrited by Unisys Corporation. I thank them for allowing freeware authors to use their compression method without obtaining a license or paying royalties. See the Unisys FAQ on GIF for further details. * The tabbed dialogs in SEARCH.EXE were made with the source code for TabDlg.DLL. TabDlg.DLL is Copyright (c) 1994 Edward McCreary DISCLAIMER Use my program at your own risk. There are bugs I know of, there are bugs I don't know of. I assume no liability for any losses incurred by use of my program. I myself half accidently overwritten files and deleted files with SEARCH.EXE. So, if I can loose stuff, you can too. System Requirements * Operating System: It was designed for Windows 3.1. Users have also run it on Windows 95 and Windows NT OK. * Memory: The amount required is semi-proportional to the size of the largest JPEG picture you wish to compress. Installation Procedures To install, do the following: 1. Make a directory for the program (such as C:\SEARCH). It is very important that you have a directory set aside exclusively for SEARCH.EXE. Never use the same directory for the program that you use for your Web Site. 2. Copy the ZIP File into it. 3. Unzip it with PKUNZIP or a compatible program. 4. If you're upgrading, you may wish to keep your old *.txt files and SEARCH.INI file, in order to preserve your layout and settings. The only files that should always be updated is SEARCH.EXE and SEARCH.HLP. 5. Make sure all the files are in the same directory, with no other files present. Never use this directory to put your pictures or HTML files in. 6. Double click on SEARCH.EXE in the File Manager or create an icon for it in the Program Manager. To create an icon in the Program Manager, simply drag the file from the File Manager to the Program Manager. 7. Click on the "Settings" button and make sure they are all as you wish. A Picture of SEARCH.EXE If you are viewing this document on the web you can view a picture of SEARCH.EXE running. Known Bugs Please tell me of any bugs not on this list. 1. Periodically Search will cause a General Protection Fault. If this happens let me know all the details of how it happened. 2. Although Search will now let you use the "html" file extension for output, it still can only read the old 8.3 file name format. So, it's best to have the "Always Purge HTML First" setting selected, in order to remove any long file names that may cause a problem. Contacting the Author You are welcome to contact me with your comments, suggestions, and bug reports at either thivier1@freenet.calgary.ab.ca or thivier1@canuck.com. Visit my Home Page at http://www.canuck.com/~thivier1