You may use RealView for 30 days. If you decide to keep it beyond this period you must register. The registration fee is $25.
How to Register
To learn how to register "RealView" please read the file named "How To Register RealView" in this folder.
Note: If you have already paid the shareware fee for previous versions, you can entitled for a free upgrade. See the "How To Register RealView" for details.
What is RealView?
RealView is a fast, flexible and simple to use text and image file viewer.
RealView will enable you to open any file of any size, view its content in different modes, change its appearance, perform on-the-fly conversions, search it and save it.
For detailed information about how to use RealView, please see the section titled "How to Use RealView," below.
Do You Need RealView?
You may find RealView useful if:
• You want to open text and images with one application
• You need to read files received from PC or Unix Users
• You need to open very large text or image files, fast
• You encounter files that no other application is able to open
• You need to perform 'on the fly' conversion of text
• You want to read 'clean' HTML files, without tags
• You like your applications to be fast and simple
• You've had enough of buggy and sluggish software
New in RealView 2.7
• Appearance Manager Support: RealView is now compatible with the Appearance Manager, enabling you to access the more advanced features of System 8.1 or later.
• Navigation Services Support: RealView now supports Navigation Services. This means that you can enjoy all the more advanced capabilities in opening and saving files under System 8.5 or later.
• A (MUCH) Better "Find": The "Find" option is much more flexible now and enables you to determine if the search will be Case Sensitive or not, if Accents will be ignored or not and if the search will be for whole words or not. A search will automatically start from the beginning of the document when reaching its end.
• Flexible Zoom: You can now zoom in and out by pressing the Command or Option keys, respectively.
• Dynamic Scrolling: You can now see the document scrolling as you move the scroll bar thumb (the 'elevator') up and down.
• Flexible Zoom Again: There are more zoom steps.
• Prefer otherwise: The Preferences were moved to the Edit Menu, to accommodate Apple's recommendations.
• New From Clipboard: Was relocated more sensibly in the File Menu.
How to Use RealView?
Using RealView is very easy. All you really need to know is how to OPEN files and how to conveniently VIEW them and manipulate their looks.
Opening Files
There are three ways to open files:
• Choosing "Open" From the "File" Menu. This is the easiest way to open files if RealView is already open. This is also a good way to access hidden files (files that are not visible in normal finder view). With the new support for Navigation Services in RealView 2.7 you can now open several files at once from the also open in this way multiple files at once with RealView by shift-clicking them from within the "Open" dialogue box.
Picture One: Opening files from the "File" Menu
• Dragging a file over the icon of RealView. This is an easy way to open multiple files in one folder.
• Dragging a file over an open window in RealView. In this method an already open file serves as a wide and convenient "canvas." There's no need to pin-point your dragging here. This option is the preferred method to view picture or text 'clippings'.
Picture Two: Opening files using an already open window
• New from Clipboard: got something in the clipboard? Go to the "New from Clipboard" command in the "File" menu (or simply press Command+K) and RealView will present the content of the clipboard with all its indisputable magnificence.
• Dragged Text: any text, from any application that enables "drag and drop" may be directly opened as a new file in RealView. This works even with files opened in RealView (see "Quick Open" tip).
Picture Three: Try the Dragged Text option with this picture. Simply drag it outside the window and without releasing the mouse button pass it over this window and release the mouse button
Viewing Files
There are three modes in which RealView enables you to view files:
• Plain Text: this mode is ideal for quick-and-dirty viewing and for viewing files that cannot be viewed otherwise. This mode is especially useful for viewing and converting HTML files, PC or Unix files.
• Original: this mode is ideal for viewing Styled text (SimpleText files) or Images, including PICT, Photoshop, GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, and tens of other image file formats.
• Hexadecimal: the ideal mode for viewing really BIG files FAST. Presents the raw data inside a file alongside it's hexadecimal values. This mode is also very good for those of you interested in hacking, reverse engineering or those simply curious.
Besides view modes, there are several ways in which you can make viewing more convenient:
• Using the Preferences: through the "Preferences" Dialogue box you can determine the way file will open by default. You can set the default display mode, font and default size of fonts, to set the size of the page and choose whether or not to show document details.
Picture Four: RealView's Preferences Dialogue box
• Smart Open: You can save a lot of time by letting RealView decide how best to open a file. If you choose "Original" as the Default Display Mode in the "Preferences" RealView will make its best to determine how to display a file according to its file type and content. This method also speeds things up with images and files that should be viewed in hexadecimal mode.
• Changing Font and Size: with files that are viewed as plain text you can easily change the font and font size of the text. RealView will display the font sizes for which the font has a bitmap in outline, to help you choose sizes in which the text will look best.
• Zooming in and Out: RealView offers the ability to view image files and to zoom in and out viewing them in 12 zoom levels, from 12 percent to 800 percent. You can easily change zoom level by pressing Command (to go up one level) or Option (to go down one level). The cursor will change its appearance to a magnifying or de-magnifying glass, accordingly. The default mode while viewing an image is the "drag" mode (the "hand"). Using the hand you will be able to navigate within the image.
• Converting Text: some files look extremely ugly and unreadable when initially opened. This is doubly true for files that originate from Unix, PC and HTML files. This is what the "Convert" menu is for. Take this ugly HTML file, for example:
Picture Five: ugly HTML file
Now the "HTML->Text" convertor does its stuff and voila:
Picture Six: stupid blurb, but now at least it's a readable blurb
• Image Data: Sometimes, an image may look too small or too big. This is because it was saved in a resolution other than 72dpi. You can easily view the data detailing the size (in pixels) of an image, its resolution and colour depth by clicking the small triangle at the top-left end of the window. Usually, to solve the problem of images that looks out of their desired size you should choose "No Zoom" from the "Zoom" sub-menu in the "Display" menu.
• Find: The "Find" feature in RealView was always a marvellous thing, but now that we got it right, we can admit that it was rather crappy (that's our hand in "Microsoftspeek"). Now, you can find words or strings, hexadecimal values and also set conditions to the find: make RealView find words in "Case Sensitive" (Upper and Lower case matters), "Find Whole Words" (if you look for "Thingy" in this mode RealView will ignore "thing," "thin," etc.) and "Ignore Accents" (RealView will regard é or ë as e, or not). Of course, having three additional checkboxes doesn't mean that the find moves more slowly - it's as snappy as ever.
Tips
• No Zoom: when opened, some image files will appear too small or too big. This is because they were saved in a resolution other than 72dpi. To adjust this, try choosing "No Zoom" from the "Zoom" sub-menu in the "Display" menu.
• Quick Open: There's an easy way to open highlighted text in a RealView document as a new file. Simply highlight a text, drag it outside the window and then return (the mouse button still pressed) inside the window's boundaries. The "clipping" will open as a new file.
• Best Performance: RealView has a default memory partition of 1024k (1MB). This memory allocation should serve you perfectly with most tasks, but increasing the memory partition (through the "Get Info" Dialogue box in the finder) will allow RealView to open files even faster. This is especially true concerning big data files and high resolution images.
• Not Enough Memory? If you try to open very large files and get a "not enough memory" error message, try to increase RealView's memory allocation to the size of the file plus 200K.
• Pressing Command+. During the opening of a file will cause RealView to revert to Hexadecimal mode (I.e., open instantly).
• Closing All Windows is easily achieved by clicking on a window's close box while holding the Option key pressed.
• Arrow Keys Navigation: Too lazy to click the scroll bar? You can press the arrow keys to get the same effect. This is especially useful when navigating inside an image.
System Requirements
• PPC version: Any Power Macintosh
• 68k version: Any Macintosh computer with at least a 68020 processor (Mac II)
• Mac OS 8.1 or later
• QuickTime™ 2.5 or better for image files viewing
Contact Information and Support
If you have any questions, requests, suggestions, comments or bug reports we would like to read them. Please send letters to one of the following addresses:
Localized Versions of RealView: If you're interested in localizing RealView, please contact us and we'll do our best to assist you (we didn't in the past, sorry for that).
User License and legal stuff
RealView may be freely distributed provided that the following restrictions are met:
• All rights for RealView are reserved to its owner, Eyal Redler.
• No changes will be made to this file, other files in this folder or the application file.
• This file and all other files in this folder must be distributed, unchanged, with the software file.
• any Distribution, Renting, Loaning or any other type of transfer of RealView, made for a charge is prohibited unless specifically authorized by Eyal Redler.
• Distribution of RealView on CD-ROMs or any other form of media for commercial or non commercial purposes is prohibited unless the author, Eyal Redler has given his written consent in advance.
• No government official, in Israel or abroad, is allowed to use RealView at a government building or institution. No government agency, in Israel or abroad, will be allowed to use RealView, regardless of if it paid the shareware fees or not.
• Bill Gates is not allowed to use this software product.
Version History
Version 2.7
• Navigation Services Support: when available.
• Better Find1: Added "Find" options, including 'Case Sensitive', 'Ignore Accents' and 'Find Whole Words'
• Better Find2: When reaching the end of the file, the search is restarted from the top.
• Moved "Preferences" into "Edit" menu.
• Moved "New From Clipboard" into "File" menu.
• Dynamic Scrolling
• Apperance Maneger support.
• Zoom In and Zoom Out with clicking.
• More Zoom Levels.
• ORiX filter support.
Version 2.6.6
• No printer driver dependency: RealView can now operate without a printer driver.
• More Drag and Drop: RealView can accept Text and Picture clippings.
• Bug Fix1: Fixed a bug that caused RealView to draw only part of the window in some rare occasions.
• Bug Fix2: Fixed a bug that caused improper display of Pict2 files.
• Bug Fix3: Fixed a bug that caused the "Windows" menu items to become dimmed when an image file was open.
• Bug Fix4: Improved RealView's relations with "Mac OS Easy Open."
Version 2.6.5
• Native support for Image files: With QuickTime™ installed RealView can open and display the following image file kinds:
PICT, QuickTime Image, MacPaint, Photoshop (versions 2.5 and 3.0), Silicon Graphics, GIF, JFIF/JPEG, BMP, PNG, Targa and TIFF.
NOTE: More file kinds may become available with future versions of QuickTime.
• Drag And Drop 1: You can drag text and pictures embedded inside the text to the desktop or to another application window.
• Drag And Drop 2: You can open files by dragging them on to an open RealView window.
• New from clipboard (Edit Menu): You can open the clipboard contents in a window (and later save it to a file, if you wish) currently only text (plain or styled) and pictures are supported.
• Zoom in and out Images: You can view images at 12%, 25%, 50%, 100%, 200%, 300% and 400% using the "Display/Zoom" menu.
• "Smart" file opening: When the default display mode is "Original" RealView will detect if the file is suited for display as text or image. If not then RealView will open it in Hex mode (which is very fast).
• Image Details: When clicking on the little triangle gadget at the top of an Image window RealView will display image information such as size (in pixels) resolution and color depth.
• Improved Window Redraw: Faster and better.
• Arrow key navigation: Pressing on the arrow keys scrolls the window by one line up, down, left or right.
• Native line feed line breaking: Apart form breaking the line at the edge of the page and at a carriage return RealView will also break the lines at a line feed. This speeds up RealView's performance when opening HTML, UNIX or PC files.
• Rotating Watch cursor: When performing time consuming processes that require a long time RealView shows a rotating wrist watch cursor.
• Bug Fix1: The splash screen will not show when launching RealView by dragging a file on its Icon.
• BUG FIX2: Fixed a bug that caused RealView to open files on top of a pending Error Message. RealView now waits until you press "OK" before going on.
• BUG FIX3: If the selection is styled text, RealView will also put the text styles on the clipboard and not only the text.
• BUG FIX4: "Save Selection" will also save the styles (if there are any) and not only the text.
Version 2.5.1
• Improved line layout Speed: especially in Hebrew (2.5.1)
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused RealView not to respond when an uninitialized disk is inserted. (2.5.1)
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused RealView to sometimes not select the right word when double clicking. (2.5.1)
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused RealView not to print some documents. (2.5.1)
• Improved embedded pictures support: RealView now displays embedded pictures in "Text" display mode also. (2.5.1)
• 68k native: RealView2.5.1 comes also in a 68k (Classic Mac) version. (2.5.1)
Version 2.5
• PowerPC native: RealView2.5 was completely rewritten in C and compiled to PowerPC native code.
• Improved HTML to TEXT filter: The HTML->TEXT filter was rewritten and is now 'smarter'. The filter now converts HTML spacial character codes (such as ) into real characters. The filter also "unbreaks" the lines in the HTML code, removing unnecessary line breaks.
• Improved "Find": You can now Cut and Paste text into it.
• Finder integration: Just kidding, I changed RealView's windows to look like the finder windows.
• Better PICT Display: PICTs now scroll without flicker.
• Bug Fix1: Fixed a bug that sometimes caused text highlighting problems in plain text viewing mode.
• Bug Fix2: You can now perform HTML->TEXT conversion on any file even if it doesn't start with an <HTML> tag.
Version 2.4
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused windows to appear as narrow slots when there was no printer selected in the chooser.
• Added 'Save' in 'File' menu.
• Added 'HTML -> TEXT' in the conversion menu.
• Added 'PICT' file support.
• Added support for Embedded pictures.
• Included style runs in file save.
• Included embedded pictures in file save.
Version 2.3
• Added an option to display and print Styled Text.
• Added the 'Preferences' option to toggle on/off the Document Details display.
• Improved Save, Save As...: Saves files as Type "TEXT" (some Apps. didn't see RV files before)
• Improved "Edit" menu: the menu is now the standard Apple "Edit" menu.
• Improved "Convert" menu: converts the whole file (no need to select a part to convert).
• Improved ugly menu 'blinking' (wiped out several AdjustMenus in several places).
• Improved Horizontal Scrolling: did not reset when scrolling horizontally with the selection.
• Improved menus: "Search" menu eliminated. It's options can be reached from the "File" menu.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused the appearance of an empty 'Not Enough Memory' dialog box while trying to open files that are too big for allocated memory.
Version 2.2
• Added Find feature (Text and Hex).
• Added Double click word selection.
• Added Shift-click to extend selection.
• Improved behavior of Windows: New windows now Auto-zoom to best location and size.
• Improved behavior of Windows: Window width is limited to page width.
• Improved: Smother and faster redraw
• Fixed a bug that caused default Page Setup settings to be saved even if the user choose "cancel" in the preferences dialog box.
• Fixed a bug that caused the selection to be drawn incorrectly in large documents.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused a system crash after choosing the default font in the 'preferences' dialog box.
Version 2.1
• Added support for 'Page up', 'Page down', 'Home' and 'End' keys.
• Added 'Zoom Box' in windows.
• Added Line breaking calculation based on page size instead the window size (You no longer have to wait a long time when you change the window size (like in 'Teach Text')).
• Added ability to change the font size.
• Added 'Save as' in 'File' menu.
• Added Default Page Size option in 'preferences'.
• Added Horizontal scroll bar.
• Added Simple 'Convert'' menu that includes UNIX -> MAC and MAC -> UNIX conversions.
• Added 'Windows' menu.
• RealView diet. (Version 2.0.1 was 180k Version 2.1 less the 60k)
• Fixed a bug that caused the menu titles to become garbled.
