DP Tool Club 12/CD_ASCQ_12_0294.iso/vrac/pmv86a.zip/TUTORIAL.DOC

Text File | 1994-01-14 | 6KB | 125 lines

USING THUMBNAILS AND THE FOC: A Tutorial on PMView 0.86a
========================================================

This tutorial will help show off the power, flexibility, and ease of
use of the new File Open Container, and thumbnails.

Start by entering PMVIEW at an OS/2 prompt. (Or, if you've made an
icon, double-click the icon). Don't specify a filename. PMView will
start up, with an empty black window.

The black window means that we are in Image mode. One major difference
between PMView 0.86 and earlier versions is that there are two main
modes: image mode and slideshow mode. (Older versions only had image
mode.) Check out SLIDESHW.DOC for information on slideshow mode.

Let's load an image. Select _File _Open from the menu bar, or type
Ctrl+O. This will bring up the File Open dialog. If there aren't any
image files in your current directory, please change to a directory
that has several image files.

PMView's file open dialog should look much like the standard OS/2
file open dialog, with one major exception -- the large white area in
the lower left corner shows icons and text, rather than just a list of
text. This large white area is the File Open Container, and it's one
of the major features of PMView.

The File Open Container (FOC) is a standard OS/2 container. It has its
own settings that you reach in the standard way. Please try that now:
Move the mouse to a part of the FOC that doesn't have any icons, and
right-click. A menu will pop up that will have "Views" as its top
item. (If you get a menu that starts with "Open," you've got the menu
for an icon. Move to an empty spot and try again. If you can't find an
empty spot, try resizing the File Open dialog; when the FOC resizes,
you'll probably find an empty spot.)

By default, PMView started with the FOC in icon view. Try switching to
text view (by clicking "Views" and then selecting "Text." This takes
the icons away and gives you a single column of filenames: It looks
almost exactly like the standard OS/2 file open dialog. Try some of
the other views, picking the one you like best. (My preference is
"Icon"; one of my friends prefers "Detail.")

While the standard-sized OS/2 icons are okay, PMView's new thumbnails
are better. To see them, go into a FOC view mode other than text (or
text, flowed ;-) and select "Views" from the FOC popup. Click
_Thumbnails to turn it on (it's at the bottom of the menu). The small
OS/2 icons will be replaced by larger, more legible thumbnails.

All the thumbnails currently say, "No Thumbnail Available," but we'll
fix that now. Right-click on one of the images to bring up its popup
menu. Click "_Thumbnail" (for now, *don't* click on the arrow). The
thumbnail will turn blue, and it will say "Creating Thumbnail." After
a few seconds (or minutes, depending on the size of the file), you
will see a small version of the image. A thumbnail is attached to the
file's extended attributes; it takes up 9540 bytes. Note that PMView
also attaches a standard icon to the file; if you look at the file
using a Drives object, you can see it. (Or, of course, you can toggle
the Thumbnail view off for the FOC.) This icon behaves just like you'd
expect; for example, you can set a desktop object's icon by dragging
the file from a Drives object to the icon on the _General page.

There are three other things you can pick off an icon's popup menu. If
you click on the arrow to the right of _Thumbnail, you can also choose
to delete the object's current thumbnail (thus freeing up the 9K the
thumbnail takes). Or you can click Delete to delete the file. (PMView
will ask for verification). Finally, you can click Open to load the
image into PMView. Try that now (preferably with an image that won't
take too long to load).

There's one other thing you can do to an icon, though not by clicking a
menu item: Just like on the OS/2 desktop, you can rename a file by
Alt+Left mouse click on the filename. You might want to try this now.

Let's get back to the FOC popup menu. Click "Thumbnails." You can
choose _Manual Create, _Automatic Create, or _Loading Creates. The
first means that thumbnails are created only if you right-click on the
icon and choose _Thumbnail Create. If you choose _Automatic Create,
then whenever you enter a directory, PMView will split off threads to
automatically create thumbnails for every image file in that directory.
This can be convenient, but it can also bog down your system! My
preference is to use _Loading Creates: This creates a thumbnail
automatically for each file you open and view in PMView.

The other option under _Thumbnails is Transparent _Fill. If it's on,
PMView creates square thumbnails with "transparent" areas where there's
no image. If it's off, these areas are created black.

The other two commands on the FOC's menu should be self-explanatory:
_Refresh rereads the files in the current directory (in case you've
added or deleted files from another OS/2 session). S_elect gives you a
quick way to select (or deselect) all the files in the current
directory.

Finally, there's a new option for 0.86a: Sor_t. Sort lets you choose
how you want files sorted in the FOC. By default, files are sorted by
name. Here are the available choices:

   _Name: This sorts the files by filename and extension.

   _Type: This sorts files by their type (currently, this means
      "extension").

   Image _Size: This sorts files by their width and height in pixels.

   Image _Depth: This sorts files by how many colors they have. (Or,
      for nitpickers, how many colors their format supports. For
      instance, a file in a 256-color format will come before a file in
      a 24-bit format, even if the latter only actually uses 2 colors.)

   File Si_ze: This sorts files by how much disk space they take up.

   _Date and Time: This sorts files by their date and time stamps.

and one other option:

   Descending _Order: By default, files are sorted in increasing order
      (e.g., if you choose _Name, all files that start with "A" will
      come before all files that start with "B"). If you choose this
      option, the files will be sorted in "reverse" order.

Whew! There's more I could say, but I think I'll stop here. The best
way to learn about PMView is to *experiment*. I hope you have fun.

Raja Thiagarajan / TUTORIAL.DOC / 1-14-94 release