Quick View Plus

6: Configuring Quick View Plus

Quick View Plus can be configured to work with other applications on your system; this is usually done during installation. If, however, you need to modify Quick View Plus settings or you install a new application, do one of the following:

  1. From a Quick View Plus viewing window select View on the menu bar, then Configure Quick View Plus....
  2. Right-click on the Quick View Plus magnifying glass icon on the Taskbar , and select Configure Quick View Plus....

6.1 Configuring for Applications

  1. In the Configure Quick View Plus with other programs dialog box, click the Application tab to see the list of applications.
  2. Use the following table to guide you through the steps needed to modify your application settings.
    3.  
     
    To
    Do this
    Disable a currently enabled application
    Select Applications, click on the check mark to disable the currently enabled application. The message Disable integration will appear in the Action column and a red x will appear in the box to the left of the application name.
    Enable an application
    Select Applications, click in the box to the left of the application name to generate a check mark The message Enable Integration will appear in the Action column.
    Enable a new application
    Click on the name of the application. The Properties button is activated. Click on the Properties button. The properties dialog box displays. It will contain at least one tab – General. Some applications, such as, Netscape or Internet Explorer will also contain the Options tab.
    Under the General tab, you can either scan or browse to add the new application. The Options tab displays values relevant to the selected application.
    Modify the properties of an active application
    Click on the name of the application. The Properties button is activated. Click on the Properties button. The Properties dialog box contains at least one tab – General. Some applications such as Netscape or Internet Explorer will also contain the Options tab which allows you to customize certain aspects of the integration.

Optional Windows Desktop Integration

Quick View Plus integration with the Windows Desktop Explorer can be enabled or disabled, according to the same procedures listed above for enabling or disabling applications. When this integration is disabled, you will:

  1. Not have access to Quick View Plus from the Windows Explorer context menu (for viewing, printing, or compressing)
  2. Still have use of Microsoft’s Quick View capabilities, if originally installed

If you choose to disable Windows Explorer integration, this will also affect the status of other integrations, including Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Exchange.

6.2 Configuring for Plug-ins

Programs that can operate within Netscape's web browser are called 'plug-ins'. Netscape allows such plug-ins to display files in its browser window. Quick View Plus can view files from within Netscape as either a plug-in or a helper application.

 
Plug-ins
Helper applications
A plug-in is an object that allows some file formats, such as Microsoft Word, Lotus 1-2-3 or Microsoft PowerPoint, to be displayed and used inside Navigator, just like the HTML web pages are. A plug-in tells Navigator what MIME type it supports and when a file of that type is clicked on. Netscape invokes the plug-in to display the file. Plug-ins can also be used to display files embedded in web pages and to display email attachments. From the user’s point of view, the plug-in operates within Netscape, thus removing the intermediate step of having the user tell Netscape to run an outside Helper Application.
A Helper Application is an external application that the user can instruct Netscape to invoke when it encounters a file it cannot normally view. Quick View Plus still possesses the ability it always had to function as a Helper Application within Netscape, but the advent of the plug-in architecture allows Quick View Plus to provide a more seamless way to integrate its viewers within Netscape.

Netscape has defined a framework that other software developers can use to make their software work within Netscape's Web browser as plug-ins. Quick View Plus can also use some of these same plug-ins to display files within the Quick View Plus window.

Note icon Netscape Navigator versions 2.0 and above support plug-ins. Quick View Plus can only plug into the Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows 95, or Windows NT versions of Netscape Navigator.

If you already have Netscape plug-ins installed on your system that you would like to also use inside of Quick View Plus, you can use the Configure Quick View Plus with other programs dialog box to select plug-ins.

If you would like to use a supported plug-in within Quick View Plus but don’t have it installed on your system, the Properties dialog for each supported plug-in provides a link that you can use to connect your web browser to the plug-in download site.

To Configure Quick View Plus for Plug-ins

  1. In the Configure Quick View Plus with other programs dialog box, click the Plug-ins tab to see the list of plug-ins.
  2. Use the following table to guide you through the steps needed to modify your plug-in settings.
    3.  
     
    To
    Do this
    Disable a currently enabled plug-in
    Click in the box to the left of the plug-in name to create a red x mark, then click the OK button.
    Enable a plug-in
    Click in the box to the left of the plug-in name to create a check mark , then click the OK button.
    Enable a new plug-in
    Click on the name of the plug-ins to be added. The Properties button will be activated. Click on the Properties button. Using the Location tab, you can scan or browse to locate a plug-in already on your system or you can select Link to URL to download the plug-in.
    Using the File Extension(s) tab you can specify which file extensions should be used as identifiers of the plug-ins file type. The extensions page is not enabled for plug-ins whose file types are recognized by Quick View Plus.
    Modify the properties of an active plug-in
    Click on the name of the plug-in. This activates the Properties button. Click on the Properties button. Use the Location or Extension tabs as described in the previous table entry.
Note icon Most file types are recognized by Quick View Plus, regardless of the file’s extension (the part of the file name after the ‘.’). However, there are a few file types supported by plug-ins that Quick View Plus can’t recognize. These are the only file types that might require additional information to be recognized by Quick View Plus. This information can be provided by doing the following:

1. Highlight the name of the Plug-in.
2. Click the Properties button.
3. Select the File Extension(s) tab in the resulting Plug-in dialog.
4. Enter the extension in the text box in the Extension List section.
5. Click the Add button.
6. Click the Plug-in dialog’s OK button.

6.3 Configuring Quick View Plus with Netscape

To change the way Quick View Plus displays files within the Netscape browser, or to add or remove viewing support for specific file types, use the Options page of the Properties dialog for Netscape Navigator:

  1. While viewing a file in Quick View Plus, click View on the menu bar, then Configure Quick View Plus….
  2. In the Applications dialog, select Netscape Navigator then click Properties....
  3. Click the Options tab to see the dialog that configures Quick View Plus’ integration with Netscape Navigator or Communicator
Note icon Netscape Navigator cannot be running while you are trying to configure Quick View Plus with these applications.

The Options dialog consists of a two-column list of the file types viewed by Quick View Plus, and some controls that allow you to modify this list.

MIME Type Column

This list shows the MIME type for which Quick View Plus establishes itself as a plug-in.

Extensions Column

The corresponding extensions are listed in the column to the right of the MIME types. Netscape uses these extensions to determine MIME type of a file when it is not provided by the server. For instance, when looking at an FTP site. MIME types are not included within the files, so Navigator uses these extensions to determine the MIME types of the files. More than one extension can be entered for a single MIME type. For instance, both the extensions .tif and .tiff are associated with the image/tiff MIME type, so files named picture.tif and picture.tiff would both be identified as image/tiff. Multiple extensions should be separated with commas like so: “tif, tiff”.

Viewing Method

This section is enabled by highlighting one of the MIME types. The viewing method for the highlighted MIME type, Netscape Plug-in or Helper Application, can be changed by selecting the alternate radio button.

Add...

Pressing this button generates an Add MIME Type dialog, in which you can define a MIME type not included in the list established by Quick View Plus. The corresponding extension(s) can be entered in the File Name Extension(s) box. When entering extensions, do not use periods and remember to separate multiple extensions with commas.

Modify...

Pressing this button generates a Modify MIME Information dialog, in which the user can adjust the MIME type and/or subtype. This dialog also permits the user to add to or remove from the list of corresponding file name extensions.

Remove

Pressing this button deletes the highlighted MIME types without requesting confirmation from the user. Use of this button causes Navigator to return to its default behavior for the MIME type selected for deletion.

6.4 Configuring Quick View Plus with Internet Explorer

Like Netscape Navigator, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer allows outside programs to operate within the browser and display files. It does this through a mechanism called ActiveX.

ActiveX Document Viewing

Microsoft Internet Explorer supports the embedding of other applications within the Internet Explorer window. This is accomplished through Microsoft’s ActiveX Document specification. An ActiveX Document viewer such as Quick View Plus will merge with Internet Explorer’s window frame and menus for a truly seamless integration. When Quick View Plus is invoked within Internet Explorer, the Edit and View menus control the Quick View Plus display. Quick View Plus help is also available from the Help menu. The Quick View Plus toolbar is also available within the Internet Explorer window, and can be displayed or hidden. (For information on the commands available on the toolbar, see “Toolbar Buttons” in Chapter 2).

To change the way Quick View Plus displays files within Internet Explorer, or to add or remove viewing support for specific file types, use the Options page of the Properties dialog for Internet Explorer:

  1. While viewing a file in Quick View Plus, click View on the menu bar, then Configure Quick View Plus.
  2. In the Applications dialog, select Microsoft Internet Explorer, then click Properties....
  3. Click the Options tab.
Note icon Internet Explorer cannot be running while you are trying to configure Quick View Plus with this applications.

The dialog consists of a two-column list of the file types viewed by Quick View Plus, and two buttons that allow you to modify this list.

Name Column

This column contains the icon and descriptive name of each file type that will be viewed by Quick View Plus.

Content Type Column

This column shows the Internet content type name (MIME type) for each file type.

Add...

Pressing this button will bring up the Add File Type dialog, in which the user can define a file type not included in the list by entering information for the new type.

Remove

Pressing this button deletes the currently selected type or types from the list of file types that will be displayed by Quick View Plus.

6.5 Using Quick View Plus in an Intranet Environment

In a corporate Intranet environment, having Quick View Plus plugged into the web browsers on your user’s machines saves you the time and hassle of converting all your content into HTML files. Word documents, 1-2-3 spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and all the other file types Quick View Plus supports can simply be referenced directly or embedded (using the HTML EMBED tag) in your web pages.

The “MIME Types and Setting Up MIME Types on a Server” topic is intended to help a webmaster set up a Web server so that Quick View Plus can be used in the browsers that access the server to view documents that are not supported by the browser. The fundamental problem to address is how best to get the browser to use Quick view Plus when the user is accessing a file type that is not supported by the browser.

6.6 MIME Types and Setting Up MIME Types on a Server

The Problem with MIME Types

Web servers tell a browser the type of file being accessed by specifying the file’s MIME type. There are two problems with MIME types.

MIME types have not been defined for all file formats that Quick View Plus supports. While most of the major applications have MIME types (like application/msword or application/x-wordperfect6), many of the lesser known formats (like R:Base, Wordstar and Q&A Write) don’t. While this is an inconvenience for people who want to expose these legacy file types on the web, it does not present a major problem for more recent file types.

MIME types must be specified in a very exact way. In general, Internet file servers use the file’s extension to match a MIME type to a document. This means that documents must be named correctly or the MIME type will be wrong and the Web browser will not be able to run the right application to view the file. For instance, if you have a WordPerfect document that is named Document.doc, your server is likely to tell the browser it is a Microsoft Word document, not a WordPerfect document. Moreover, many servers have incomplete or incorrect MIME type associations. This often causes files to be identified by the server as some default value like “text/plain defeating the browser’s ability to choose the correct plug-in viewer.

Setting Up MIME Types on a Server

This is perhaps the simplest way to set up your server’s MIME types so that Quick View Plus can be invoked automatically by browsers. Simply put, you should set up your MIME types file so that only a minimal set of file extensions are mapped to MIME types, then set the default MIME type to one that is supported by Quick View Plus.

  1. Remove all the MIME type mappings except the ones that map to your browser’s built-in types such as text/html, image/jpeg, etc. If you have MIME types for specific applications other than your browser or Quick View Plus that you would like to continue to use, don’t remove their mappings either.
  2. Once this is done, you can setup the default MIME type on your server to be application/x-quickviewplus (it’s usually text/plain). Support for the application/x-quickviewplus MIME type is installed by default when Quick View Plus plugs into Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

After setting up your mime.types in this way, any file with an extension that is not explicitly mapped in mime.types will be viewed in the browser using Quick View Plus.

Note icon It is recommended that you not map your browser’s built-in MIME types such as text/plain and text/html to application/x-quickviewplus, as it can cause unpredictable behavior.