AC Browser 2002 doc.

Applies to version 2002 - 1.2 Freeware.

Konrad Papała.

http://www.conrad.250x.com

http://www.geocities.com/konrad128

Welcome to AC Browser’s help.

In this short document I will try to shortly describe the program’s key features. However, the best way to learn using this application, is to start using it.

What is it ?

AC Browser is a file manager with the ability to Add Comments to the files and directories. This can be done with one simple mouse click.

Key features.

- Adding comments to files and directories. A comment in AC Browser is a short text, which you can see in the corresponding column in the main window list, or by moving the mouse on a Hot Point – a small red rectangle on each icon. A comment is moved when file is moved, copied, when file is copied, and deleted, when file is deleted. In other words, behaves like a usual file property. Comments can be also added to a directory.

- The font size, color, and other font specifications can be defined by the user, separately for every file’s extension. So documents may be shown brown, music files blue with light-blue shadow and bold font.

- Quick view. After pressing F3, you can view text, image and multimedia files. More about Quick view – below.

- Hot Point – a small red rectangle on each file shows you the file properties, and quick view (images and text).

- All the problems at start – while any file operation – copying, moving etc. all the problems are shown on the beginning – it guarantees that the operation will not be stopped because of some problem. The space of the source is calculated before the operation starts, and hit against the space on target drive. The expected time of finishing is very precise. This is a new thread, which means you can still work with the manager.

- File searching – is a new thread, which means you can still work with the manager. You can search files (by name, date, size) and text in files. Regular Expression supported. More.

- Supported Regular Expression while searching files, text in files, and in a text quick view. So you can search in files e.g. r[eo]d which matches red and rod. Or [0-9]*[0-9] – matches any text beginning and ending with one digit. Also operators “OR” and “AND” supported. So you can search ‘music’ OR ‘multimedia’ OR ‘movie’ – then all the files having ANY of these words will be listed. More.

- Thumbnails’ view – with dynamically changed size.

- Ability to follow the links while searching files. If you want, AC will follow the links to the directories if any. This can be used to create a set of directories of some type (which can be anywhere) to be searched. More.

- Quick Access Bar – Two lists – important files – then the newest files are shown (usually this is what You are looking for when entering a new directory), and : index.html, readme.* etc… In the second list – you can type letters, and files HAVING specified text are shown (when you type ‘help’ all the files having this word will be show: Help.txt, helpme.doc, winhelp etc. Useful when you know that a file has some word but you don’t remember the whole name, and even the first letters. Also useful when filtering files – when you’ll type .bmp all the bitmaps will be shown). More.

- Browsing while Dragging & Dropping – when you are in a c:\ directory for example, and you want to move some files to a c:\windows\system – usually you used to open two windows, or you have used Ctrl+C – clipboard operations. In the AC Browser you start dragging files\directories, move them over the c:\windows and… hit space. AC Browser will enter into that directory (c:\windows), then you can drop the files on a ‘system’ directory. You can move in this way across all the directory tree… ( By the way – pressing CTRL with ‘space’ will open a new window).

- More than Quick View. With AC Quick View you not only can see images, but also convert to another type (supported jpg, png, tiff, gif, bmp), you can change the resolution and number of colors.

- Image specials – to AC Browser you can drop files from some other application (like Explorer), but not only files. Also images – run some image editor, select some part of an image and move it (drop it) to the AC Browse window, you will be able to save it in a directory you dropped it. Also try doing so with some WWW viewer, just drag some image from some web site to the AC Browser. If you work with graphics in any way, this will be useful for you. Also you can Paste an image (CTRL + V). The same with text.

- Running programs in new threads. Applications executed from within AC Browser are started in a new thread. If starting this application takes a lot of time, it doesn’t lock the AC Browser, you can still work, and the starting procedure is in another thread. Also, if the executed application breaks and\or doesn’t respond, the AC Browser is still alive.

- Threads, threads – most of the operations – file\directory copying, moving, deleting, searching, even calculating space occupied by a directory – all of these are new threads, which means you can continue your work.
In one window : calculate space occupied in all directories in c:\ drive, in other window calculate some other directories, simultaneously open a new browsing window (CTRL + N) and search for some files (you can open many file searchers), and then play a movie and a few mp3 files simultaneously using quick view.

- List of files – you can create and save a document – AC Browser’s list of files. E.g. you can create a list of all images on your hard disk and then you can use it as it was a directory. On the files in this document you can operate as on normal files. More.

- Temporary directories – do you frequently create a new directory just to temporarily backup there some files ? Or to unpack some archive, before installing program ? Well, with AC you can quickly create a temporary directory – you don’t have to bother about where it is created, or about providing a name. Simply create it and use it. Before you close AC you can delete all created temporary directories with one simple click. More.

- Dynamic font size changing – press Ctrl and Numpad+ and the font size will be increased. Useful after a few hours of working.

- Widely used CTRL – it’s a very nice feature – always – when browsing into some new directory – when CTRL is pressed a new browsing window is opened. Whatever you do – enter a directory, change the current drive, select a new directory from the Favorites menu, or go Up in directory tree – always, when CTRL is pressed a new window is opened. And you can use both of them.

About this document

All here was written by me (Konrad Papala). This is the main reason of many grammar errors :) The second is that I had to write it in a really short time.

Notes

- In this document when it is said ‘files’ it usually means both files and directories.

- You will not find answer to every question, This documentation assumes that you are already familiar with the basics of the file operations (copying, moving etc.) as well as the basics of using the Microsoft Windows environment (Clipboard operations, Drag&Drop etc.).

- Not every command is described here. I think most of them is clear to understand. Also not all of the possible keyboard shortcuts are presented here. You can find all of them in the appropriate menu items.

- If you are familiar with some file browser like Windows Commander, or Windows Explorer, you may read only the last parts of this document – the IDEAS.

File operations

Editing comments. You can do this in three ways. The simplest – click in the comment column on the desired file. The other – hit Alt+C or select the Edit Comment command in context menu.

Copying, moving. You do this by the Drag & Drop operation. Then the new thread is created. It checks for problems – for example if any files are to be overwritten. If so, you will be prompted. Then the space needed is calculated, if fits, the operation is continued and don’t worry, that it will stop because of some reason. If doesn’t fit – you will be asked if continue.

Deleting. Press delete. Full directories can also be deleted. But there is a small problem – in this version files are really deleted – a recycle bin is not used.

Image Dropping – you can drop an image into some directory, just as you would do this with files. Try doing so with some WWW viewer, or some image editor – simply drag some image from some web site to the AC Browser.

Text Dropping – you can drop a (plain) text into some directory, just as you would do this with files. Simply drag some text from a text editor to the AC Browser.

Creating a directory – hit F7. A dialog box will appear when you can set the directory name, and comment. Note that you can create many directories at one time – just separate them with ; You can also automatically copy or move the previously selected files to that directory. This is the quickest way – when you have some file, and you want to move it to some newly created directory - select these files and hit SHIFT+F7. Set the name of a directory and hit enter. The directory will be created, and selected files will be moved there. It works also with many created directories (separated with ;). CTRL+F7 tells AC to create a directory and copy there the selected files.

Creating a temporary directory – hit F8. Read more.

Creating a new file – hit shift+F4. You can choose some other type of file to be created (default is : empty txt file). The files you can create are in the \File Types directory in the application directory. You can copy there files you want to be able to create.

Renaming – F2 or Shift+F6.

Creating shortcuts – hit F9.

Selecting – Numpad+, unselecting Numpad-. Use alt to select file Like Selected. So when files my_cool_web_site.html, and my_great_style.css are selected, and you will hit Alt+Numpad+ - and then Enter – all files in current directory, which have extensions html and css will be selected.

Separate files with semicolon - ;. Use the standard ‘dos-like’ wildcards or full Regular Expression supported by AC Browser, like [0-9] – files with numbers will be selected… More about Regular Expression searching in AC Browser here.

Clipboard operations

The selected files you can copy to clipboard (Ctrl+C) and the paste from clipboard (Ctrl+V). But there is another, strange option – Add to clipboard (Ctrl+Shift+A). This will add files – it means when there are some files in the clipboard, the currently selected will be added to them. You can do this as long as you want (add concrete files). Note that pressing Ctrl+C clears the clipboard, and copy there only the selected files.

Quick View

With AC Browser you can view multimedia files, graphical files, text files.

Multimedia

These file extensions are recognizable as multimedia files and therefore Multimedia Quick View is used :

avi,mpg,mpeg,mpe,mp3,mid,mid,rm,wav,asf,cda,wmx,wma,wmx,aif,aiff,aif,au,snd. These are recognizable by Windows Media Player.

Many simultaneously playing viewers are allowed, there is no control in that matter. Keyboard : space stops\plays, up and down arrow keys change the volume, right and left – move the current position of movie/music to the right \ left. With shift – moved faster.

Graphics

These file extensions are recognizable as graphics files and therefore Graphics Quick View is used : jpg, jpe,gif,bmp,ico,tif,tiff,png.

Commands.

Zooming in/out with Numpad + and Numpad -. Numpad * - fits to the window, Numpad / - sets the original size. Also (Corel Draw style) F3 zooms out, F4 fits to the window.

Tools, magnify tool – ‘z’ or F2, selector – ‘s’, hand – ‘h’.

Browsing – you can view next (Page Down) or previous (Page Up) image in the current directory. Also you can go to the first one (home) and last one (end). You can also turn on Slideshow – such a small car icon in the toolbar, or hit space. Also, in the view menu you can turn on Tile mode.

Converting. You can change light and contrast, size, type, number of colors. Note that Viewer will not prompt you to save the file.

Copying to the clipboard. With CTRL+C you can copy the image to the clipboard. Also you can copy just a selection – press the appropriate button on the toolbar (blue symbol of selection) then make the selection, and copy. Note that after copying, or refreshing the window the selection is no longer valid.

Pasting from the clipboard. With CTRL+V you can paste the image from the clipboard. Then you can convert it, and then save it, or copy back to the clipboard.

File operations. You can set a comment to the currently showed image (Alt+C), delete the image (Delete key), copy (F5) and move (F6) to… When you select copy to or move to you have a choice of all currently opened browse windows in the main ACB window.

If you don’t get the meaning of the icons on the toolbar, check it out, don’t worry about the image, as long as you don’t save it, it remains untouched on disk.

It’s possible that not all keyboard shortcuts are mentioned here. But for sure, all of them are in the menus, just after the commands.

Text

Every file which is not recognized as multimedia or graphics are shown as text in text viewer. However there is a size file limit, 20 mb. max. allowed . Ctrl+F – searching text (Regular Expression supported). F3-find next. Standard clipboard operations plus – adding to the clipboard (Ctrl+Shift+A).

Searching files

You can search files and directories with Search Files tool (Alt+F7, or Ctrl+E). I think that most of the dialog elements are clear to understand. Maybe except text searching.

Search for.

In here you can define file names to find. You can use wildcards. More, you can use all the possibilities of Regular Expression searching provided by AC Browser. Examples:

*.jpg defines jpg files to find.

[a-zA-Z]*.* - files beginning with a letter. So ‘program.exe’ will be shown, but ‘01.zip’, or ‘$tmp’ will not be.

*.[0-9][0-9] – files of any name, with the extension which is two digits, like ‘file.01’, ‘file.45’ – ‘file.0’ or’ file.-0’ will not be found.

*.* - means all files.

sys – all files having word ‘sys’ will be found, eg. system, system.ini, a_sys_bleble.txt, info.sys

But sys.* - only files whose title is sys, with any extension.

sys.txt – only files sys.txt will be found.

*sys*.txt – files having word ‘sys’ with txt extension.

my_great_program.c - my_great_program.c will be found, my_great_program.cpp will not be.

*.c – as above, files with c extension will be found, cpp, cdx will not be.

*.c?? - my_great_program.c will not be found, my_great_program.cpp will be.

You can define many such definitions, just separate them with semicolon – ‘;’ e.g. *.jpg; *.tif; *.gif – jpg, tif, gif files will be found.

With the combo box on the right you can select the predefined files’ extensions. If you will select a new group with CTRL down, it will be ADDED to the current list.

More about Regular Expression searching in AC Browser here.

Search In

In here you can define directories in which searching will be done. Separate them with asemicolon (;). Current directory is a directory from which searching was started. Selected directories are the directories which were selected, when searching was started.

Text searching. Search text.

In here you can define text to find in files. You can define if it’s case sensitive comparing, and if using Regular Expression. Also if it’s only one sentence or a number of, separated with a semicolon. Let’s take two files as an example.

a1.txt – which consists of “C++ is the best programming language in the whole world”

a2.txt – “AC Browser will be the most popular file manager in the world”. (I’m an optimist :)

Now , in the ‘search text’ edit box:

“world”, both files will be found.

“best” a1.txt will be found.

“Best”, with Match Case checked – none will be found.

“in*world”, if Regular Expression checked – both files will be found.

“world*in” – nothing will be found.

“[A-C][A-C]” – a2.txt will be found, because only there two characters in the range from ‘A’ to ‘C’, one by one, would be found.

Now, take a look at the combo box, three possibilities, SIMPLE – the default, means that there is just one sentence to find. It’s assumed in the above examples. AND – there is a number of words (or whole sentences) separated with a semicolon. ALL of them must be found in the file. The order doesn’t matter. OR – also there is a number of sentences, but it’s enough that one of them will be found. You must separate them with a semicolon - ; Examples :

“world;C++” with AND operator – only a1.txt will be found. Only this file has both words (in different order, but it doesn’t matter). a2.txt has “world”, but there is no “C++”.

“world;C++” with OR operator – a1.txt and a2.txt will be found. The first of them has both of the words, the second one – only ‘world’ – but will be found because OR operator is used.

“The most popular;AC; manager” with AND operator – a2.txt will be found. The order is so different but it doesn’t matter.

“will be*in the*world;is*in the*world” with OR operator and Regular Expression checked – both files will be found.

In other words – OR extends the search criteria, AND limits them. OR finds ‘one of”, AND ‘All of”. The main adventure is – the order doesn’t matter.

You can also use ranges of characters – use []. For example [0-9] will match a digit. [0-9a-z] will match a digit or a lower-case letter. More about Regular Expression searching in AC Browser here.

Exclude binaries check box. The default is : checked. When checked, binary files are not searched while searching text. You can define these files in the options\special file types. Generally the idea is like that : when you search for a text in files, you usually mean the document files of any type (doc, xls, txt, ini, cpp, c, html, h, etc…). You don’t mean exe, com, jpg, gif, avi etc. This is THE way you can exclude these files with one mouse click.

By deafault these files are treated like “binaries” and not searched if mentioned check box is checked : executive (exe, com, dll), graphics (jpg, gif, bmp, etc.), multimedia (mp3, avi, etc.), and many others , this is the full list :

(*.exe,*.com,*.dll,*.tmp,*.sbr,*.bsc,*.obj,*.acb,*.plg,*.ncb,*.map,*.pdb,*.idb,*.pch,*.cnt,*.gid,*.000,*.001,*.cpl,*.swp,*.bmp,*.gif,*.jpg,*.jpe,*.jpeg,*.ds4,*.dwg,*.dib,*.tif,*.tiff,*.wmf,*.emf,*.tga,*.pcx,*.cdr,*.cpt,*.cmx,*.ico,*.png,*.vxd,*.ttf,*.ocx,*.scr,*.inf,*.avi,*.mpg,*.mpeg,*.mpe,*.mp3,*.mid,*.mid,*.rm,*.wav,*.asf,*.cda,*.wmx,*.wma,*.wmx,*.aif,*.aiff,*.aif,*.au,*.snd,*.bin,*.dat,*.msk).

You can change these extensions as said before. If you want to look into these files too, uncheck the option.

Date and size

It’s clear, isn’t it ? Some notes – date between – dates given ARE INCLUDED. If you have a file which modification date is 2002.10.10 and you start searching file with Date Between defined as follows : from 2002.10.05 to 2002.10.10 the file WILL be found (also the file modified in 2002.10.05).

The same with sizes.

Follow the links options.

Causes AC to read directories pointed by links (*.lnk files). Read more.

The result list

Here you can find found files. You can click one with alt pressed – then AC Browser will go to this file (in the current browse window, if any – if not - new will be opened). Note that this happens in background – you will still see the searching tool. You can run the file – by double clicking. You can also View the file with F3. You can sort the result with any column. If you searched text – you will find the sample – in the last column. You can also copy the files to the clipboard, copy their paths or names to the clipboard. Note that you must select the files you want to be copied. You can also create AC list.

You can create a list of certain files in the current directory in one step, use ‘?’ in the address bar to 1. find specified files, 2. create AC List, 3. Close the search window. E.g., in the address bar : ?*.bmp;*,jpg – will find these files, and create a list of them. See Address Bar section for more.

Quick Access Bar

The bar (usually on the left of the main window) has two windows. The first one, on the top is the proper “quick access list”. The second, at the bottom shows basic file properties as well as a comment. This part of the help is about the first one, the “quick access list”.

This is there to provide an easy way to filter files, but not in the main window, but just there, in the list. The files can be filtered with three buttons. Then you can select some file in the Quick Access list, and the corresponding file will be selected in the current directory. The three buttons are :

Important shows the newest files and files which names are ‘index.html’, ‘index.htm’, ‘readme.*’ etc. – in one word – usually the most important in current directory.

With Quick Search edit box you can supply your own filter, or filters (separated with semicolon - ;). By entering just a letters, like ‘my’ or ‘help’ file having these letters will be shown. You can use all the possibilities of Regular Expression searching provided by AC Browser. For example – ‘[0-9]’ will show the files having numbers in the name. *.jp? will show jpg and jpe files too. More about Regular Expression searching in AC Browser here.

The ‘Copied\Moved’ button shows the files\directories which were copied\moved to or from the current directory. Example – go to the windows directory, select some files, copy them to the system32 subdirectory. Repeat this with any files from any location. Let’s say, that was a mistake, and you want to repair it. Go to the system32, press ‘Copied\Moved’ button on a Quick Access Bar, select all the files there, the corresponding files will be selected in the current directory, press delete. System shouldn’t crash.

Some technical notes about the ‘Copied\Moved’ button :

- Both, source and target files are showed. It means that when you copy file c:\a\data.txt to c:\b\data.txt, the file data.txt will be showed in this filter in both directories.

- When you copy files from one location to another, all the files are remembered, and therefore, showed in the filter ‘copied\moved’. But when you copy a directory, only the directory is remembered, the files it contains are not.

Address bar

To quickly access the address bar, you can hit Alt+F2, then, to go back to a list, Ctrl+Tab.

The address bar is usually used to change the location you want ACB go to. You can type it or choose from the previously visited locations.

However you can also execute programs. Keyboard :

Enter – go to a location, or if it’s a program, execute it.

Shift +Enter – the program will be executed using command interpreter, and the window will not be closed.

Ctrl +Space– file name under the cursor will be copied to a address bar

Ctrl+Alt+Space – file path under the cursor will be copied to a address bar

Note, that the above shortcut keys work differently while the focus (cursor) is in the list, then the selected files will be copied to the clipboard.

If you want for surely execute some program in the command interpreter, use shift with enter.

Used command interpreter depends on the system ACB is working, in Windows XP it will be – ‘cmd.exe’, in Win Me\98\95 it will be ‘command.com’.

You can also create a list of files of certain type , simply type ? and then files’ extensions to search in current directory, and/or text to search enclosed in “ ”. Examples:

In address bar type : ?*.txt”help” - press enter, txt files having “help” text will be found.

?*.jpg;*.bmp - bmp and jpg will be found. Next, the search window is said to create the AC List, and close itself. If you don’t want him to do this, press enter with shift.

Also, you can quickly go to some location of your favorites. Type * as a first character, and then some text, it ACB will try to find it out in your favorites directory, and then go there. The example : let’s say, in your favorites, you have a link to c:\Documents and Settings, c:\program files\Microsoft Visual Studio\vc98\samples. And then in the address bar, type *sampl – and ACB will try to find it in the favorites – in our example - ACB will go to c:\program files\Microsoft Visual Studio\vc98\samples.

Keyboard shortcuts

Note that most of the keyboard shortcuts are displayed in the menus.

Main Application Window.

Alt+Q - Maximize\Restore current browsing window – Very useful.

Alt+S - Tile

Alt+X - Close current browsing window.

Alt+R - Redraw

TAB – Next browsing window.

Ctrl+N - New browsing window

Alt+1 - Toggle Quick Acces Bar.

Ctrl+F3 - Toggle Auto Quick View

Alt+F3 - Auto Quick View as text – it means that even mp3 will opened as text.

Alt+G - Go to window…

Alt+Ctrl+G - Go to directory (opens the directory tree dialog)

Alt+A - Favorites, note, that you can choose some favorite with Ctrl pressed – new window will be created.

BrowsE windows

F7 - Create a new directory.

Ctrl+F7 - Create a new directory and copy there the selected files.

Shift+F7 - Create a new directory and move there the selected files

F8 - Create a new temporary directory.

Ctrl+F8 - Create a new temporary directory and copy there the selected files.

Shift+F8 - Create a new temporary directory and move there the selected files.

F9 - Create new ACL (AC List of files)

Ctrl+F9 - Create new ACL, and copy selected files to it.

Shift+F4 - Create new file.

F5 - Copy to… see Go to tip

F6 - Move to… see Go to tip

Alt+F5 - Create shortcut

Space - Calculate space

Shift+Alt+Enter – Calculate space of every directory in the list.

Backspace – Go up

Shift+Backspace – Go to the root

Alt+left arrow - Go back

Alt+right arrow – Go forward.

Ctrl+A - Select all.

Ctrl+Space - Copy file names to the clipboard.

Ctrl+Shift+Space - Copy file paths to the clipboard.

Shift+Ctrl+0 - Thumbnails

Shift+Ctrl+1 - Large icons, etc.. see menu for more

Shift+Ctrl+5 - Thumbails and Autoview arrangement.

Alt+F1 - Select Driver

Alt+F2 - Go to address bar

Ctrl+Tab - Go to files list.

Ctrl+J - (Jump to…) Start quick searching. The same, as any letter.

Ctrl+Space - When focus in address bar, copy file names to the address bar.

Ctrl+Alt+Space - When focus in address bar, copy file paths to the address bar.

Adress bar

Enter – If this is a directory – open it

if it’s a program, execute it, if ‘?’ is the first character – create a list of files (e.g. ?*.bmp), if ‘*’ is the first character – find expression in favorites, and the open\execute.

Shift +Enter – The program will be executed using command interpreter, and the window will not be closed.

Ctrl +Space – File name under the cursor will be copied to a address bar

Ctrl+Alt+Space – File path under the cursor will be copied to a address bar

While Dragging&Dropping

Ctrl - Copy files

Shift - Move files

Alt - Create shortcuts to files

Space - Enter into the directory under the mouse pointer.

Ctrl+Alt - If an image file is being dropped (e.g jpg), the background image of the directory will be changed to that image.

Quick View

Multimedia

Space - Stops\plays

Up and down arrow - Change the volume

Right and left – Move the current position of movie/music to the right\left. With shift – move faster.

Graphics

Numpad+,- - Zoom out\in (also F3)

Numpad* - Fit to the window (also F4)

Numpad/ - Oryginally

T - Tile mode

Z - Magnify tool (also F2)

S - Selector tool

H - Hand tool

Page down - Show next image

Page up - Show previous image

Home - Show first image

End - Show next image

Space - Turn on\off slideshow

I - Image information

C - Convert image

B - Change image’s brightness

Ctrl+C - Copy the image to the clipboard (or just a selection if exists)

Ctrl+V - Paste the image from the clipboard

F5 - Copy file to…

F6 - Move file to…

Delete - Delete file

Alt+C - Edit file’s comment

Text

Ctrl+F - FInd text

F3 - Find again

Ctrl+C - Copy the selection the clipboard

Ctrl+V - Paste the selection from the clipboard

Using Regular Expression

Regular expression notation is a compact way of specifying a group of strings that all match some criteria. A target string is said to match the regular expression if it is a member of this group of strings. Regular expressions are character strings in which plain text indicates that that text must exist in the target string, and special characters are used to indicate what variability is allowed in the target strings.

In AC Browser this kind of notation is used in a variety or ways : while searching files, searching text in files, in Quick Access Bar, in Select files (on Numpad + keystroke).

So this general rules below concerns all these windows.

Ordinary characters. Any character that is not used in other sorts of regular expression syntax is an ordinary character. To match the regular expression, the target string must have that same character in the same position as it occurs in the regular expression. For example, the single character regular expression “g” indicates that the target string must have a “g” in the appropriate position.

Escaped special characters. The characters left bracket ([), right bracket (]), asterisk (*), question tag (?) are special in that they are used to form other types of regular expression syntax.

?
Any single character. ?onrad matches Konrad and Conrad. Let sleeping ???? lie – can be dogs, cats and other 4-letters animals.

None or more of the preceding characters or expressions. For example, ba*c matches bc, bac, baac, baaac, and so on.

[] ]
Any one of the characters contained in the brackets, or any of an ASCII range of characters separated by a hyphen (-). For example, b[aeiou]d matches bad, bed, bid, bod, and bud, and r[eo]d matches red, rod, but not reod or roed. x[0-9] matches x0, x1, x2, and so on.

Examples :

[a-zA-Z0-9]
Any single alphanumeric character.

[a-zA-Z]
Any single alphabetic character.

[0-9]
Any decimal digit.

[0-9a-fA-F]+
Any hexadecimal number.

Note that using Regular Expression when matching file names (eg. searching files with F7 is slightly different that searching text in files. When there is no dot (.) in a file name, AC treats it like “match any file which HAS the letters”. This is done… by adding asterix (*) on both sides of expression. So ‘win’ will be replaced with ‘*win*’ so windows or helpwin will be found. This is what user would expect I think. When there is a dot in a specified file name – AC doesn’t change anything, so win.* is win.*, so windows or helpwin will NOT be found. Only win , with any extension, will be. It is important in : Searching files with F7, filtering files on Quick Access Bar and Selecting files with Numpad+.

It doesn’t apply to searching text in files.

Image conversions in AC Browser

In AC Browser you can drop some image from some image editor to an opened browse window. It will be saved in a chosen format. Also, in a Quick View, you can save a viewed file in some other format. Also you can paste an image using Ctrl+V. The quickest way to try is to press Print Screen (what is on the screen will be inserted into the clipboard), and then Ctrl+V.

In all the above situations there is a conversion. AC can save, load and convert images of these types – bmp, jpg, gif, tif, png, ico. You must be aware of some facts. When you convert to gif, AC decreases the number of colors to 256, if needed, as this is the maximum number of colors gif can hold. AC does it automatically, and you are not prompted. When saving to JPEG, the number of colors is increased to 24 bits, if needed. TIFF and JPEG uses very strong compression, but it may slightly make the quality worse.

This is a good idea to use AC Quick view to quickly convert some image before pasting to some application, like Word. You can use it to convert size, as well as number of colors. This is much faster, than using some specialized image applications. You view an image file with F3, change it, copy it (or just a part of it) with Ctrl+C, then paste it to some other application…

The precedence of conversion. In ACB conversion dialog all the possible conversions are in one place (size, colors, format, compression level). One may ask, what is done first when changed e.g. all the properties. This is important because of the quality, if you increase the size, and change the number of colors, it’s good to first change the size, then colors. If vice-versa, the quality would be worse. So, ACB will first change the size. Always the step, which improves the quality is made first, then the next one etc.

The idea of temporary directories.

By pressing F8 you can create a temporary directory. This part of the document is about this feature.

Well, many times I’ve created a directory, not because I wanted to have one, but to use only the functionality of a directory. E.g. I have an archive and I want to unpack it just to see something, run some application from within the archive, etc. Or I want, just for a while, make a backup of some files, because I’m gonna change something and I want to have a backup copy. Or reorganizing some directory structure. In all these situations, a temporary directory is needed. The name of a directory doesn’t matter. Also, I don’t care where it is. I want just the functionality of a directory. The rest doesn’t matter. In AC you can create such a directory with one mouse click, or one keystroke. You can even simultaneously create one and copy\move there currently selected files\directories.

Press F8. Your are prompted to set a name – but you don’t have do this , the name provided by AC is guaranteed to be unique. A new window is created. Don’t bother about where the directory is. Simply use the window. You can open many such windows. You can close the window – don’t be worry that you will be not able to delete the directory later – it’s remembered by AC in a special list. Also you can quickly reopen it – command “edit” in “Commands \Temporary directories” menu.

When you are finished, I mean – with all the job in this session, simply choose the menu “Commands\Temporary directories\Delete all of this session” to delete all created temporary directories.

Notes.

The general rules when creating a new directory applies to creating temporary directories. When you press F8 with CTRL down, currently selected files will be copied to the newly created temporary directory, when F8 with SHIFT down, files will be moved there. Also when you click a button on a toolbar with CTRL or SHIFT, the files will be moved or copied respectively.

The place where the temporary directories are created is C:\Program files\AC Browser\TmpDirs – if you keep AC in c:\program files, of course.

Generally AC Browser isn’t expected to be executed in a number of windows (many processes created). But if you do so, note that when you choose to delete temporary directories, only directories created in this session, in this process will be deleted.

The idea : searching with following the links.

When searching files (Alt+F7) you can tell AC to follow the links. It means, that AC will search directories pointed by *.lnk files (which you can create with F9, or dropping with Alt down).

The idea is like that : with this ability, you can create folders, which consist such links, which then can be used to search concrete directories, which can be anywhere. In other words, you may create a set of directories to be searched (e.g. for a text), and then use it. In my situation, it would be for example a group of directories consisting C++ source codes. These directories are everywhere – these are many samples (e.g. from Microsoft Visual C++), these are downloaded programs, source codes, these are my own programs, and many other. Well, many times I wanted to find some expression, some example of use of some part of a language etc. I wanted to simply search ALL source code files on my disk. But these directories aren’t in one place. So the idea of entering links appeared. I’ve created ONE directory. There I’ve created links to all the directories consisting files of C++ implementation. With one keystroke (Alt+F7) I can now search all of it.

Other example : You can create a set of image directories, music directories. They can be anywhere on your disk(s). You can search all of them for a specified text, file name etc. Simply create links to them in one place.

All what was said until now was about links to directories. Simply – these links are treated as usual directories, - AC enters into them. But if follow the links is checked, also links to files are treated differently. The target of a link is checked for the conditions defined in the search dialog. So, if you look for *.cpp files, bigger than 10 kb, having words “Hello world!”, and in the searched directory is a link to the file in a different directory, - hi.cpp, which is 11 kb. size and has mentioned words, it will appear in a result list. The reason is the same, although this is less useful. You can create a set of files to be searched.

In other words, when following the links is checked, links are read and their targets are searched.

Some notes.

The depth of reading links = 1. The example :

Lets create a directory in c:\searching\, let’s call it ‘images’. In this directory lets create links to : c:\windows\web, and c:\some cool icons. When you are in c:\searching\images and press Alt+F7, then check ‘follow the links’ and press start both of these directories will be searched. Also the directory ‘images’ will be. Also will be searched all the subdirectories of all these directories. But if in the c:\windows\web will be found some link to some directory – AC will not go there. The maximum depth is 1. What would happen if there was (in c:\windows\web) a link to c:\searching, or to c:\ ? AC would never finish his job. Maybe in the future I will add the control in that matter (checking if there is no circle), so the depth could be larger than 1, but I don’t think it would be so cool.

It’s good to have one directory, let’s say ‘searching’ and there directories like ‘images’, ‘music’, ‘source codes’ etc. That would be the categories for searching. In these directories you would create links to the corresponding directories on all of your hard disks…. Then add ‘searching’ directory to your favorites, and… done! In two seconds you can start searching in the category you want…

The idea : ACL – Ac Browser’s list of files

You can create a list of files. Then you can save it. Then anytime, you can open it and operate on files. You can copy them, delete (from a list or really, from disk), and see in thumbnails’ view. You can do everything, as it was a normal directory, while it’s not.

The ACL –AC Browser List of files behaves almost like a directory, but the files aren’t really there. It’s only the information about – where there are.

First creating a list – select List in main menu and then Create. This will open a new window, which looks a little differently to show that the files in there aren’t real. You can also start searching files with Alt+F7, and then push Create AC list button. Note, that as with directories, and temporary directories, you can immediately copy files (their locations) to the list, simply press Ctrl+F9. However, you cannot use Shift+F9 (immediately move files to created window), because you cannot move files to a list.

Operating on a list.

Copying.

A list’s window looks similarly to the normal browsing window, but it behaves differently in some cases. First of all – when you add files to a list – in any way (by Dragging&Dropping or Ctrl+V) the files\directories aren’t really copied, because (as mentioned) the list doesn’t contain any files, only the information about them. So, the information will be copied. (Because of this reason you cannot ‘move’ the files to a list). However, if you will Drag&Drop files from a list to a real directory, files will be copied. From their destinations to the target directory. You can also Drag&Drop the files from one list to another – the information about them will be copied.

Moving.

If you move files from a directory to a list, the information about the files will be copied. If you move file from a list to some real directory, the files will be moved from their destinations to the target.

Deleting.

If you press delete on a file in the list – the entry in a list will be deleted, the real file will not be touched. If you want to really delete a file, press alt+delete. You can see these shortcuts in a context menu.

Checking status.

You can check which files changed and which don’t exists any more. Then you can update the information about the files and delete the not existing ones. List\status.

Exporting. You can export the files to the text file. List\export. By the way, to create a text file, consisting the listing of certain files in the current directory, you can use ‘?’ (question tag) in the address bar to search files and create a list of them in one step. Then export the list using the fields you want. More about creating lists using ‘?’ read in Address Bar section.

Using.

Many possibilities. E.g. the file “index.html” – it means, what you are reading now - is on the list of files ‘to update when publishing AC Browser.acl’. I just run this acl, move the files on the list to the FTP app – and… done, it’s on my website. I don’t have to select the concrete files every time I want to do this. They are on the list…). Other example is using a list like a clipboard. A clipboard to which you can drop files, and delete files from. Then when you are finished collecting files - copy, or move them really to some place. Or, if you have many directories with images, and you would like to see all of them, or create another categories than you have now, create ac lists….

Tips

Go to window…

When you choose Copy to… or Move to… commands from the context menu, or Go to window… command from the tools menu, a dialog box is opened, and there you can select one of the currently opened window, or set a new path, you can also open the “Browse for folder” dialog , and then in a tree view, choose a folder. But if you don’t want a list of windows, but directly select a new directory there is a way. Well, when you will do any of these operation, with CTRL down, Browse for folder will be opened direclty. So, if you will select Copy to… command with CTRL down – there will be no list of currently opened window, you can immediately choose the folder in the tree of folders, if you want it. Also, Ctrl+F5 (Copy to…) opens the “browse for folder” dialog directly.

Read tips

Read the tips of day.

Drop some image file to some directory with Ctrl+Alt down and the background of this directory will be changed.

You can Search files from the address bar, simply type ? and then files’ extensions to search in a current directory, and/or text to search enclosed in “ ”. Examples :

In address bar type : ?*.txt”help” - press enter, txt files having “help” text will be found.

?*.jpg;*.bmp - bmp and jpg will be found.

Also, you can quickly go to some location of your favorites from the address bar . Type * as a first character, and then some text, it ACB will try to find it out in your favorites directory, and then go there.

Right - click on the columns in browser window – you will see files in a menu, grouped by the extension.

Other stuff.

If you have any suggestions, I would be pleasured : konradp@o2.pl

Some notes :

Installation – no install procedure. Simply unpack the files to some directory and run.

Copyright notice.

This software product is freeware. So you can use it freely so long as you don't infringe the author's copyright. The author is not responsible for any damage which might occurs while using this software. Re-distributions of this program is free (you don't need the author's permission). You can use it by unlimited time on unlimited number of computers.

Author : Konrad Papała.

Thanks to all the people whose part of the work I have used.

I have used the work of The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software. This is the part of their license\readme :

LEGAL ISSUES

============

In plain English:

1. We don't promise that this software works. (But if you find any bugs,

please let us know!)

2. You can use this software for whatever you want. You don't have to pay us.

3. You may not pretend that you wrote this software. If you use it in a

program, you must acknowledge somewhere in your documentation that

you've used the IJG code.

In legalese:

The authors make NO WARRANTY or representation, either express or implied,

with respect to this software, its quality, accuracy, merchantability, or

fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you,

its user, assume the entire risk as to its quality and accuracy.

Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute this

software (or portions thereof) for any purpose, without fee, subject to these

conditions:

(1) If any part of the source code for this software is distributed, then this

README file must be included, with this copyright and no-warranty notice

unaltered; and any additions, deletions, or changes to the original files

must be clearly indicated in accompanying documentation.

(2) If only executable code is distributed, then the accompanying

documentation must state that "this software is based in part on the work of

the Independent JPEG Group".

(3) Permission for use of this software is granted only if the user accepts

full responsibility for any undesirable consequences; the authors accept

NO LIABILITY for damages of any kind.

These conditions apply to any software derived from or based on the IJG code,

not just to the unmodified library. If you use our work, you ought to

acknowledge us.

Permission is NOT granted for the use of any IJG author's name or company name

in advertising or publicity relating to this software or products derived from

it. This software may be referred to only as "the Independent JPEG Group's

software".

We specifically permit and encourage the use of this software as the basis of

commercial products, provided that all warranty or liability claims are

assumed by the product vendor.

ansi2knr.c is included in this distribution by permission of L. Peter Deutsch,

sole proprietor of its copyright holder, Aladdin Enterprises of Menlo Park, CA.

ansi2knr.c is NOT covered by the above copyright and conditions, but instead

by the usual distribution terms of the Free Software Foundation; principally,

that you must include source code if you redistribute it. (See the file

ansi2knr.c for full details.) However, since ansi2knr.c is not needed as part

of any program generated from the IJG code, this does not limit you more than

the foregoing paragraphs do.

The Unix configuration script "configure" was produced with GNU Autoconf.

It is copyright by the Free Software Foundation but is freely distributable.

The same holds for its supporting scripts (config.guess, config.sub,

ltconfig, ltmain.sh). Another support script, install-sh, is copyright

by M.I.T. but is also freely distributable.

It appears that the arithmetic coding option of the JPEG spec is covered by

patents owned by IBM, AT&T, and Mitsubishi. Hence arithmetic coding cannot

legally be used without obtaining one or more licenses. For this reason,

support for arithmetic coding has been removed from the free JPEG software.

(Since arithmetic coding provides only a marginal gain over the unpatented

Huffman mode, it is unlikely that very many implementations will support it.)

So far as we are aware, there are no patent restrictions on the remaining

code.

The IJG distribution formerly included code to read and write GIF files.

To avoid entanglement with the Unisys LZW patent, GIF reading support has

been removed altogether, and the GIF writer has been simplified to produce

"uncompressed GIFs". This technique does not use the LZW algorithm; the

resulting GIF files are larger than usual, but are readable by all standard

GIF decoders.

We are required to state that

"The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of

CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of

CompuServe Incorporated."

I have used the work of Glenn Randers-Pehrson. This is the part of their license\readme :

This copy of the libpng notices is provided for your convenience. In case of

any discrepancy between this copy and the notices in the file png.h that is

included in the libpng distribution, the latter shall prevail.

If you modify libpng you may insert additional notices immediately following

this sentence.

libpng versions 1.0.7, July 1, 2000, through 1.0.11, April 27, 2001, are

and are distributed according to the same disclaimer and license as libpng-1.0.6

with the following individuals added to the list of Contributing Authors

Simon-Pierre Cadieux

Eric S. Raymond

Gilles Vollant

and with the following additions to the disclaimer:

There is no warranty against interference with your enjoyment of the

library or against infringement. There is no warranty that our

efforts or the library will fulfill any of your particular purposes

or needs. This library is provided with all faults, and the entire

risk of satisfactory quality, performance, accuracy, and effort is with

the user.

libpng versions 0.97, January 1998, through 1.0.6, March 20, 2000, are

distributed according to the same disclaimer and license as libpng-0.96,

with the following individuals added to the list of Contributing Authors:

Tom Lane

Glenn Randers-Pehrson

Willem van Schaik

libpng versions 0.89, June 1996, through 0.96, May 1997, are

Distributed according to the same disclaimer and license as libpng-0.88,

with the following individuals added to the list of Contributing Authors:

John Bowler

Kevin Bracey

Sam Bushell

Magnus Holmgren

Greg Roelofs

Tom Tanner

libpng versions 0.5, May 1995, through 0.88, January 1996, are

For the purposes of this copyright and license, "Contributing Authors"

is defined as the following set of individuals:

Andreas Dilger

Dave Martindale

Guy Eric Schalnat

Paul Schmidt

Tim Wegner

The PNG Reference Library is supplied "AS IS". The Contributing Authors

and Group 42, Inc. disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied,

including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of

fitness for any purpose. The Contributing Authors and Group 42, Inc.

assume no liability for direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary,

or consequential damages, which may result from the use of the PNG

Reference Library, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.

Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute this

source code, or portions hereof, for any purpose, without fee, subject

to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this source code must not be misrepresented.

2. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such and

must not be misrepresented as being the original source.

3. This Copyright notice may not be removed or altered from

any source or altered source distribution.

The Contributing Authors and Group 42, Inc. specifically permit, without

fee, and encourage the use of this source code as a component to

supporting the PNG file format in commercial products. If you use this

source code in a product, acknowledgment is not required but would be

appreciated.

A "png_get_copyright" function is available, for convenient use in "about"

boxes and the like:

printf("%s",png_get_copyright(NULL));

Also, the PNG logo (in PNG format, of course) is supplied in the

files "pngbar.png" and "pngbar.jpg (88x31) and "pngnow.png" (98x31).

Libpng is OSI Certified Open Source Software. OSI Certified Open Source is a

certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.

Glenn Randers-Pehrson

randeg@alum.rpi.edu

April 27, 2001

I have used the work of Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler. This is the part of their license\readme :

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied

warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages

arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,

including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it

freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not

claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software

in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be

appreciated but is not required.

2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be

misrepresented as being the original software.

3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler

jloup@gzip.org madler@alumni.caltech.edu

If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not*

receiving lengthy legal documents to sign. The sources are provided

for free but without warranty of any kind. The library has been

entirely written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not

include third-party code.

If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include

in the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes.

I have used the work of Davide Pizzolato (CxImage class). This is the part of their license\readme :

Special thanks to Troels Knakkergaard for his precious work, since release 1.00 he has worked on a parallel version of CxImage adding new features, enhancements and bugfixes. His release offers support for serialization, unicode, a different approach with file handling and other nice features, you can find it here.

CImage is: (c)1995-1998, Alejandro Aguilar Sierra.
IJG JPEG library is: (c)1994-1998, Thomas G. Lane.
LibPNG version 1.0.12 is: (c)1998-2001 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
LibTIFF is: (c)1988-1997 Sam Leffler, (c)1991-1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
LIBMNG version 1.0.2 is: (c) 2000,2001 Gerard Juyn.
FreeImage 2.4.0 : Design and implementation by Floris van den Berg.
Thanks to Rajiv Ramachandran for CTwain code.

More specific credits and disclaimers are in every header file of each library.

Updated 29. december 2001 00:00 by Davide Pizzolato <ing.davide.pizzolato@libero.it>

Most of the icons (the cool ones, because the rest is my job) is from the NBSI - http://www.nbsintl.com

Thank you all. And thanks Tomasz Nadolski for ‘duchowe wsparcie’ :) don’t know the synonym in English… and beta-testing.

THE NEXT VERSION IS COMING…