 Preview Tray Help Index

Find and load photographs

The first step in building a photo album is deciding what photographs you wish to use in it and organizing them in some way in a staging tool.  This is exactly what preview tray was designed to do.  The first step in accomplishing that is to locate (on your computer) the photographs you wish to use, and preview of as many of them at once as possible (subject to screen size and resolution).  To find pictures to preview, you can either:

•	select the menu item File->Open pictures from my computer.  This will bring up a dialog box which will allow you to select one or more files at once.

•	drag a *.jpg or *.bmp file onto the Preview Tray tool

Small views of the contents of these files will then be presented side by side in the preview tray window.


Enhance a photograph

As you view your pictures in the Preview Tray, you may decide that one or more of them needs some enhancements.  To edit one of the pictures you’re viewing, just double-click on the picture with the left mouse button.  This will automatically start the Digital Darkroom tool for you, and load it with the picture you chose.  When you are done modifying the picture, and save it as described in the help for Digital Darkroom, the picture in Preview Tray will automatically be updated to reflect your changes.


Rearrange photographs

You can rearrange the pictures in Preview Tray just by dragging them around with the mouse.  Preview Tray itself can be rearranged to hold the pictures in either a vertical or horizontal fashion just by resizing the border of the window.

To delete a picture from the Preview Tray, select it with a left mouse click.  This will cause the border around the picture to turn bright blue.  Then use either the menu item Edit->Delete or just hit the Delete key on your keyboard.  Alternatively, you can also delete pictures by merely dragging them with the mouse to some other aplication (Digital Darkroom for instance).


Changing your view of photographs

The size of the previe pictures can also be changed to allow for a greater number of pictures to be viewed at once just by using the menu item View->Magnify Object or View->Reduce Object or the corresponding toolbar buttons.  (Don’t worry about any affect this is having on your pictures, as this only affects the size Preview Tray displays them.)


Commands

File menu

Edit menu

View menu

Help menu


File menu commands

The File menu offers the following commands:

New	Creates a new document.
Open Pictures From My Computer	Opens a dialog box which will help the user locate images on their computer.
Exit	Exits Preview Tray.


Edit menu commands

The Edit menu offers the following commands:

Delete	Deletes the highlighted image from the preview tray.


View menu commands

The View menu offers the following commands:

Toolbar	Shows or hides the toolbar.
Status Bar	Shows or hides the status bar.
Magnify	Magnifies the size of the preview pictures.
Reduce	Reduces the size of the preview pictures.


Help menu commands

The Help menu offers the following commands, which provide you assistance with this application:

Help Topics	Offers you an index to topics on which you can get help.
About	Displays the version number of this application.


File New command
New command (File menu)

Use this command to create a new document in Preview Tray. You can open an existing document with the Open command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+N


 Open pictures from my computer command (File menu)

Use this command to open a dialog box which will help you locate and open photograph files on your computer.


File Find dialog box

The following options allow you to specify which file to open:

File Name

Type or select the filename you want to open.  This box lists files with the extension you select in the List Files of Type box.

List Files of Type

Select the type of file you want to open:

The file extensions recognized by preview tray are *.jpg and *.bmp.

Drives

Select the drive in which Preview Tray stores the file that you want to open.

Directories

Select the directory in which Preview Tray stores the file that you want to open.

Network...

Choose this button to connect to a network location, assigning it a new drive letter.


File Exit command
Exit command (File menu)

Use this command to end your Preview Tray session.  You can also use the Close command on the application Control menu.  Preview Tray prompts you to save documents with unsaved changes.

Shortcuts

Mouse:	Double-click the application's Control menu button.

Keys:	ALT+F4


Delete command (Edit menu)

Use this command to remove the selected picture from the preview tray.


View Toolbar command
Toolbar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Toolbar, which includes buttons for some of the most common commands in Preview Tray, such as File Open.  A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Toolbar is displayed.

See Toolbar for help on using the toolbar.


Toolbar

The toolbar is displayed across the top of the application window, below the menu bar.  The toolbar provides quick mouse access to many tools used in Preview Tray,

To hide or display the Toolbar, choose Toolbar from the View menu (ALT, V, T).

Click	To

Open a new document.

Open an existing document.  Preview Tray displays the Open dialog box, in which you can locate and open the desired file.

Magnifies the size of the preview pictures (zoom in).

Reduces the size of the preview pictures (zoom out).


View Status Bar Command
Status Bar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Status Bar, which describes the action to be executed by the selected menu item or depressed toolbar button, and keyboard latch state. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Status Bar is displayed.

See Status Bar for help on using the status bar.


Status Bar

The status bar is displayed at the bottom of the Preview Tray window.  To display or hide the status bar, use the Status Bar command in the View menu.

The left area of the status bar describes actions of menu items as you use the arrow keys to navigate through menus.  This area similarly shows messages that describe the actions of toolbar buttons as you depress them, before releasing them.  If after viewing the description of the toolbar button command you wish not to execute the command, then release the mouse button while the pointer is off the toolbar button.

The right areas of the status bar indicate which of the following keys are latched down:

Indicator	Description

CAP	The Caps Lock key is latched down.

NUM	The Num Lock key is latched down.

SCRL	The Scroll Lock key is latched down.


Magnify (View menu)

Use this command to magnify the size of the preview pictures.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Reduce (View menu)

Use this command to reduce the size of the preview pictures.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Index command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the opening screen of Help.  From the opening screen, you can jump to step-by-step instructions for using Preview Tray and various types of reference information.

Once you open Help, you can click the Contents button whenever you want to return to the opening screen.


Using Help command (Help menu)

Use this command for instructions about using Help.


About command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the copyright notice and version number of your copy of Preview Tray.


Help Using Help Command
Context Help command

Use the Context Help command to obtain help on some portion of Preview Tray.  When you choose the Toolbar's Context Help button, the mouse pointer will change to an arrow and question mark.  Then click somewhere in the Preview Tray window, such as another Toolbar button.  The Help topic will be shown for the item you clicked.

Shortcut

Keys:	SHIFT+F1


Title Bar

The title bar is located along the top of a window.  It contains the name of the application and document.

To move the window, drag the title bar.  Note: You can also move dialog boxes by dragging their title bars.

A title bar may contain the following elements:

Application Control-menu button

Document Control-menu button

Maximize button

Minimize button

Name of the application

Name of the document

Restore button


Scroll bars

Displayed at the right and bottom edges of the document window.  The scroll boxes inside the scroll bars indicate your vertical and horizontal location in the document.  You can use the mouse to scroll to other parts of the document.


Size command (System menu)

Use this command to display a four-headed arrow so you can size the active window with the arrow keys.

After the pointer changes to the four-headed arrow:

1.	Press one of the DIRECTION keys (left, right, up, or down arrow key) to move the pointer to the border you want to move.

2.	Press a DIRECTION key to move the border.

3.	Press ENTER when the window is the size you want.

Note:  This command is unavailable if you maximize the window.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Drag the size bars at the corners or edges of the window.


Move command (Control menu)

Use this command to display a four-headed arrow so you can move the active window or dialog box with the arrow keys.

Note:  This command is unavailable if you maximize the window.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+F7


System Minimize Command
Minimize command (application Control menu)

Use this command to reduce the Preview Tray window to an icon.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Click the minimize icon [image] on the title bar.

Keys:	ALT+F9


Maximize command (System menu)

Use this command to enlarge the active window to fill the available space.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Click the maximize icon [image] on the title bar; or double-click the title bar.

Keys:	CTRL+F10 enlarges a document window.


Next Window command (document Control menu)

Use this command to switch to the next open document window.  Preview Tray determines which window is next according to the order in which you opened the windows.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+F6


Previous Window command (document Control menu)

Use this command to switch to the previous open document window.  Preview Tray determines which window is previous according to the order in which you opened the windows.

Shortcut

Keys:	SHIFT+CTRL+F6


Close command (Control menus)

Use this command to close the active window or dialog box.

Double-clicking a Control-menu box is the same as choosing the Close command.

Note:  If you have multiple windows open for a single document, the Close command on the document Control menu closes only one window at a time.  You can close all windows at once with the Close command on the File menu.

Shortcuts

Keys: 	CTRL+F4 closes a document window

ALT+F4 closes the window or dialog box


Restore command (Control menu)

Use this command to return the active window to its size and position before you chose the Maximize or Minimize command.


Switch to command (application Control menu)

Use this command to display a list of all open applications.  Use this Task List to switch to or close an application on the list.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+ESC

Dialog Box Options

When you choose the Switch To command, you will be presented with a dialog box with the following options:

Task List

Select the application you want to switch to or close.

Switch To

Makes the selected application active.

End Task

Closes the selected application.

Cancel

Closes the Task List box.

Cascade

Arranges open applications so they overlap and you can see each title bar.  This option does not affect applications reduced to icons.

Tile

Arranges open applications into windows that do not overlap.  This option does not affect applications reduced to icons.

Arrange Icons

Arranges the icons of all minimized applications across the bottom of the screen.


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