| ImageViewer Intro | Topics |

Undo
Copy And Paste
Select All
Transfer To
Preferences
Display Preferences
Image Display Preferences
File Preferences
General Preferences
Previews & Icons Preferences
Editing Keywords And Comments
View Modes(Image)
Auto Browse

Undo

You can select Undo, to undo the last modification to an image. The last modification will appear as text in the undo menu item(e.g. Undo Crop). If undo isn't currently available, this item will be grayed and the text will read "Can't Undo".

To Undo choose "Undo " from the File menu.

Note: ImageViewer uses a simple disk based undo, which creates temporary files and a temporary folder(named Temporary Folder), which is located in the ImageViewer folder. When you quit ImageViewer, these temporary files and folder are deleted. If you see this folder, there was a problem deleting files in the folder, so I suggest deleting the folder manually as it is using disk space for no good reason.

Copy And Paste

Copying refers to placing a copy of all or part of the image into the clipboard. Once in the clipboard, the contents can be pasted into another application. If there is a current selection, only that portion is copied, otherwise the entire image is copied to the clipboard.

To Copy to clipboard, choose the "Copy" command from the Edit menu.

Pasting Into Another Application

To paste the contents of the clipboard into another application, open the target application and choose "Paste" from the Edit menu.

Another way to accomplish paste is to use drag-and-drop. Make a selection then move the cursor over the selection area, the cursor will change to an arrow. If you hold the mouse down, you can "drag" the selection to another application's window. If the target application supports receiving a drag, it will work just like paste.

Limitations: You cannot currently paste into an ImageViewer document.

Select All

Selects the entire image or list of images(if in a list view mode). If you have chosen Select All, the menu item text changes to Unselect All, which allow you to remove the image selection or for list views, change the selection to a single file(the first file in the list).

To Select All, choose the Select All command from the Edit menu.

Transfer To

Transfer allows you to open the current image file in another application, as though you had dragged the file's icon onto the application's icon. Transferring allows you to edit images in another application without losing image quality as can occur with copy/paste. The target application will be launched if necessary.

To specify the Transfer application use the File preferences panel. To Transfer, use the Transfer To command in the Edit menu.

Preferences

ImageViewer allows you to set many options that affect its behavior and display. Use the Preferences popup menu to choose a particular panel. Of special importance are the settings for preview/icon creation and image display.

*Factory Settings: Sets all values, for all panels, to defaults.

*Cancel: Exits with no changes affected.

*OK: Applies new preference settings to current settings, some changes won't take effect until you run ImageViewer again.

To view or set preferences, choose the Preferences command from the Edit menu.

Note: ImageViewer writes current settings to preference file whenever you Quit the application.

Display Preferences

At StartUp:
*View: Set this to your preferred view, the first window opened will always use this view.

Colors:
*Messages Text: Color selected is used as text color in messages box.

*Messages Background: Color selected is used as text background color in messages box.

*Progress Bar: Color selected is used as progress color.
Auto Browse:
*Pause Seconds: Number of seconds to pause before moving on to another image.

*Wraps Around: If checked, displays first file after the last file. If unchecked, stops when it reaches the last file.

*Skip Error Messages: If checked, ignores error messages. If unchecked, displays error messages and stops Auto-Browsing when they are encountered.

*Dither Display Image: If checked, dithers image when displaying to screen, which usually makes the image look better. If unchecked, doesn't dither image when displaying to screen.

*Build Custom Color Palette When Opening Files: If checked, the image is scanned and a color palette is made based on the most prevelant colors. This will improve display on 256 color monitors dramatically, though it can take a few seconds. If unchecked, no palette is built. Should be unchecked for monitors above 256 colors.

Limitations: The algorithm for making the palette could be improved as occasionally images will display with "blotches", areas where the colors aren't smoothly rendered.

*Translucent Dragging: If checked, whenever possible, translucent Dragging will occur. If unchecked, only the drag frame region will be outlined when Dragging.


Image Display Preferences

Image:
For single image view.

*Border: Choose options from popup menu. Border surrounds the image when its displayed.

*Color: Choose color for background.

*Pattern: Choose pattern for background.

*Use Color, Use Pattern: Uses specified color or pattern, one or the other.

List:
For non-text list views.

*XBorder: Choose options from popup menu. Border is drawn at intersection frame between list items.

*Border: Choose options from popup menu. Border surrounds each image of list(preview or icon) when its displayed.

*Color: Choose color for background.

*Pattern: Choose pattern for background.

*Use Color, Use Pattern: Uses specified color or pattern, one or the other.

Hint: If you'd like to add your own patterns(resources of type 'ppat'), you can add them to the file "Patterns" in the ImageViewer folder, using your favorite resource editor. ImageViewer will make available all 'ppat' resources in this file, starting with resource ID 200 and ending when a resource can't be found(i.e. they must be contiguous starting with ID 200).

File Preferences

Transfer:
*To: Shows the current application to be transferred to with the Transfer To command.

*Specify Application: Clicking here, brings up a dialog box that allows you to specify the Transfer To application.

Limitations: Currently, only one application can be specified to Transfer To.

Plug-ins Folder:
*Is: Shows the current folder to be searched at startup for PS Plug-ins.

*Specify Folder: Clicking here, brings up a dialog box that allows you to specify the "Plug-ins folder.

*Search sub folders when forming file lists: If checked, when Open Folder is selected from Open dialog, all folders within the base folder(i.e the folder selected, or folder containing the file selected), are scanned for files to be added to the file list. If unchecked, only the files in the base folder are scanned.

Hint: If you are viewing files one folder at a time(i.e there are no sub folders), this will have no real affect. If you are viewing folders--or a volume--that contain many sub folders, this can add quite a bit of time to the build process(See General, File Lists).

*Auto Save changes to keywords and comments: If checked, changes to keywords and comments will be saved automatically, whenever you move to another current file, or Quit. This can be useful if you are primarily changing keyword or comment data and don't want the Save Changes... dialog appearing. If unchecked, you will be prompted to Save changes, whenever you move to another current file or Quit.

*Enable Undo: If checked, Undo is enabled. This will slow down operations slightly and use some temporary disk space. If unchecked, Undo will not be available.

*Delete Files(Don't Move To Trash): If checked, files will be deleted, rather than moved to the trash. If unchecked, files are moved to trash(See File, Move File To Trash/Delete Files).

**Warning: If you choose to delete files, rather than move to the trash, you do so at your own risk. There is no way to recover a file once it is deleted.**

General Preferences

Save To Clipboard Quality:
When an image is copied to the clipboard.

*Direct Pixels: Image data is copied directly, when making PICT for clipboard.

*Dithered Pixels: Image data is dithered, when making PICT for clipboard.

Save To Clipboard Resolution:
*Printed Size: Image dpi is used, when making PICT for clipboard.

*Screen Size: Screen dpi is used(72 dpi), when making PICT for clipboard.

*Sound On: If checked, brief sounds will accompany certain operations, such as Delete. If unchecked, no sounds will occur.


Previews & Icons Preferences

You can control, to a great extent, what types of previews are created and if/when previews and icons are created.

Note: No previews or icons will be automatically created, unless at least one of the Create at Open/Save checkboxes are checked. You will need to create previews manually(See File, Create Previews And Icons) if neither of these are checked.

Create Previews:
*Always: Previews are always created.

*If settings differ: A simple test is made to see if some obvious change has occurred, regarding size. For a fully accurate test to occur, a new preview would have to be created, which would not accomplish any time savings.

*If none exists: Previews are created if no preview currently exists in the image file.

*Never: Previews are never created.

Preview Size:
Note: Previews are always made in a manner which retains aspect ratio(i.e they aren't streched to fill the bounds specified), so the bounds specified is really a maximum size the preview can be(i.e if its width and height are equal).

*80 x 80: Bounding size is 80 x 80 pixels.

*120 x 120: Bounding size is 120 x 120 pixels.

*160 x 160: Bounding size is 160 x 160 pixels.

Preview Compression:
*JPEG: Created previews are JPEG compressed. Resulting preview will take up less space, but be slower to create and display. Depth must be Millions to choose this option.

*None: Created previews are not compressed. Resulting preview will take up more space, but be faster to create and display.

Options:
*Depth: Choose Millions, Thousands, or 256 Colors. Can have a great affect on preview size and quality. Generally, specifying Thousands is a good tradeoff between size and quality.

*Dither: If checked, preview is dithered when scaled down from image. If unchecked, no dithering occurs. In general, dithering automatically occurs as the image is scaled down to preview bounds, however, when the image is small(i.e little or no scaling occurs), this can make a differance in quality.

Create Custom Icon:
*Always: Icons are always created.

*If none exists: Icons are created if no icon currently exists in the image file.

*Never: Icons are never created.

Icon Type:
From left to right, top to bottom.

*Stretched, no dog ears: Icons are stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, no dog ears are added.

*Stretched, with dog ears: Icons are stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, dog ears are added.

*Aspect Ratio maintained, no dog ears: Icons are not stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, no dog ears are added.

*Aspect Ratio maintained, with dog ears: Icons are not stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, dog ears are added.

*Create At File Open: If checked, whenever a file is opened, based on Create options above, previews and icons are created.

*Create At File Save: If checked, whenever a file is saved, based on Create options above, previews and icons are created. Can be useful, if you modify the image and want the preview/icon to reflect the modifications.

Hint: It is more efficient to create icons while creating previews, as the icon can be created using the same scaled image already formed to create the preview.


Editing Keywords And Comments

Comments are nothing more than text that can be saved along with an image's content. Keywords are similar, but are Mac-specific and are stored in a file's resource fork, thus can't be transferred to other platforms. ImageViewer displays and edits comments for both JPEG and GIF files. Keywords can be displayed and edited for all ImageViewer readable file types.

To edit keywords or comments, open the floating window for the appropriate task and type into the edit field. When you want to add keywords or comments to a number of files, you can save time by choosing the preferences option "Auto-Save Keywords and Comments". If this option is on, comments and keywords will be saved whenever you move to another file.

Another way to edit keywords or comments, choose the "Comments" or "Keywords" command from the Edit menu.

You can toggle the visible state of these windows via the Window menu.

Limitations: Currently, comments are only saved for JPEG and GIF files, you can type in the comments window for other file types, but the comments will be ignored(i.e won't be saved).

Image View Modes

ImageViewer allows a number of "View" modes to display images. Single image modes include: Fit To Window, Full Screen, and scaled display between 25% and 800%. There are two single image preview modes as well. List view modes include Gallery, Gallery Small, Text View, and Icon View.

Single image modes allow you to view an entire image in detail and to modify. List view modes are intended to allow viewing many files at the same time, depending on the list view mode and window size.

Use the view mode buttons to set the view display mode. You can also use the tab key to toggle between current list view mode and current single image view mode. You can select the image view mode from the View menu, or a list view(including Icon view) from the List menu.

Choose Reduce or Enlarge to step up or down in the scaling used to display the image(25%..800%).

Hint: To leave Full Screen mode, just about any command-key will work.


Auto Browse

Auto Browse is an ImageViewer feature that when activated, automatically steps through the files in the image list, displaying each file one at a time. Similar in concept to "slide show" features found in other applications, but doesn't require changes in view mode or interface.

Auto Browse works for both active and inactive windows, but turning too many windows "on" can cause sluggish behavior. Auto Browse can be used as a mini-batcher to create previews and icons.

To turn auto-browsing on or off either click the toggle button at the top of window (middle of small three buttons), or choose "Turn Auto Browse On/Off" from the View menu.

You can customize some of the Auto Browse behavior via Preferences "Display" panel. Auto Browse Pause allows you to set the number of seconds to pause before opening the next file in the list. Auto Browse Wraps Around, if set "on", the first file in the list is opened after the last file, if set "off", Auto Browsing stops after the last file. Skip Error Messages When Browsing prohibits error alerts while browsing.