Frequently Asked Questions

1. About Images
2. About the ImageWalker user interface
3. File Manipulation
4. About ImageWalker Windows Shell Integration
5. About Web pages
6. About Image Descriptions

1.1 How to view image files

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the image.
  2. Select the image.
  3. The preview window will automatically show the image.

1.3 How to have a slide show

ImageWalker will show all image files in the current folder.

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the images.
  2. Click on the start/stop command in the slide show menu.

1.3 How to scale Multiple Images

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the images you want to convert.
  2. Select the images.
  3. Click on the scale multiple images command in the tools menu.
  4. Set the required creation options.
  5. Follow the steps in the wizard. 

For more information on file formats click here.

1.4 How can I convert Multiple Images

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the images you want to convert.
  2. Select the images.
  3. Click on the convert multiple images command in the tools menu.
  4. Set the required creation options.
  5. Follow the steps in the wizard. 

1.5 Supported Image Types

ImageWalker currently supports the following image formats:

Image Walker also supports various media files. Displaying of these media files requires Windows Media Player to be installed.

If you would like to sponsor ImageWalker to support additional image formats email toSupport@ImageWalker.com

1.6 What is a JPEG?

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEG image compression method works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork, and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or black-and-white line drawings (files come out very large).

JPEG is "lossy", meaning that the image you get out of decompression isn't quite identical to what you originally put in. The algorithm achieves much of its compression by exploiting known limitations of the human eye, notably the fact that small color details aren't perceived as well as small details of light-and-dark. Thus, JPEG is intended for compressing images that will be looked at by humans.

A lot of people are scared off by the term "lossy compression". But when it comes to representing real-world scenes, no digital image format can retain all the information that impinges on your eyeball. By comparison with the real-world scene, JPEG loses far less information than GIF.

Quality v Compression

A useful property of JPEG is that adjusting compression parameters can vary the degree of lossiness. This means that the image creator can trade off file size against output image quality.

For good-quality, full-color source images, the default quality setting (Q 75) is very often the best choice. Try Q 75 first; if you see defects, then go up.

1.7 What is a GIF?

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)


The Graphics Interchange Format was developed in 1987 at the request of CompuServe, who needed a platform independent image format that was suitable for transfer across slow connections. It is a compressed (loss less) format (it uses the LZW compression) and compresses at a ratio of between 3:1 and 5:1.

It is an 8-bit format, which means the maximum number of colors supported by the format is 256.

There are two GIF standards, 87a and 89a (developed in 1987 and 1989 respectively). The 89a standard has additional features such as improved interlacing, the ability to define one color to be transparent and the ability to store multiple images in one file to create a basic form of animation.

ImageWalker can combine multiple images to a single animated gif?

1.8 What is a PNG?

PNG (Portable Network Graphics format)

In January 1995 Unisys, the company CompuServe contracted to create the GIF format, announced that they would be enforcing the patent on the LZW compression technique the GIF format uses. This means that commercial developers that include the GIF encoding or decoding algorithms have to pay a license fee to CompuServe.

However, a number of people banded together and created a completely patent-free graphics format called PNG (pronounced "ping"), the Portable Network Graphics format. PNG is superior to GIF in that it has better compression and supports millions of colors. PNG files end in a .png suffix.

1.9 When should I use JPEG, over GIF or PNG?

JPEG is not going to displace GIF or PNG entirely. For some types of images, GIF or PNG is superior in image quality, file size, or both. One of the first things to learn about JPEG is which kind of images to apply it to.

Generally speaking, JPEG is superior to GIF or PNG for storing full-color or gray-scale images of "realistic" scenes; that means scanned photographs and similar material. Any continuous variation in color, such as occurs in highlighted or shaded areas, will be represented more faithfully and in less space by JPEG than by GIF or PNG.

GIF OR PNG does significantly better on images with only a few distinct colors, such as line drawings and simple cartoons. Not only is GIF OR PNG loss less for such images, but also it often compresses them more than JPEG can. For example, GIF OR PNG compresses large areas of pixels that are all exactly the same color very efficiently indeed. JPEG can't squeeze such data as much as GIF OR PNG does without introducing visible defects. (One implication of this is that large single-color borders are quite cheap in GIF or PNG files, while they are best avoided in JPEG files.)

JPEG has problems with very sharp edges: a row of pure-black pixels adjacent to a row of pure-white pixels, for example. Sharp edges tend to come out blurred unless you use a very high quality setting. Edges this sharp are rare in scanned photographs, but are fairly common in GIF OR PNG files: borders, overlaid text, etc. The blurriness is particularly objectionable with text that's only a few pixels high. If you have a GIF or PNG with a lot of small-size overlaid text, don't JPEG it.

Plain black-and-white (two level) images should never be converted to JPEG; they violate all of the conditions given above. You need at least about 16 gray levels before JPEG is useful for gray-scale images. It should also be noted that GIF or PNG is loss less for gray-scale images of up to 256 levels, while JPEG is not.

2.1 How to use the address bar

The address bar shows the current folder that ImageWalker is viewing. Selecting a new folder with the address bar will change the current folder.

You can type a new folder name directly into the address bar. To enter a new address:

  1. Click the address bar’s edit box to select or focus it.
  2. Enter the new address text.
  3. Press enter.

You can enter either a fully qualified path ‘c:\Images\My Holiday’ or relative path ‘My Holiday’. Entering ‘..’ will take you to the parent folder.

The escape key will cancel editing of the address bar.

2.2 How can I search for files?

To search sub folders for image files using ImageWalker:

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the files and sub-folders you want to search.
  2. Select the Search view tab.
  3. Enter the search criteria (see below).
  4. Click Search Now.

Search Criteria:

Note:

2.3 How to copy or move files

You can copy or move files in two ways.

2.4 How to create contact sheets

Contact sheets are pages of thumbnails stored as image files containing several thumbnails.

To create a series of contact sheets based on images in the current folder.

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the images you want to include in the contact sheet.
  2. Select the images.
  3. Click on the create catalogue images command in the tools menu.
  4. Set the required creation options.
  5. Follow the steps in the wizard.

2.5 How can I capture images using a scanner or camera (Using TWAIN)?

TWAIN defines a standard software protocol and application programming interface (API) for communication between software applications and image acquisition devices.

ImageWalker can use TWAIN to capture Images from digital cameras or scanners.

Select Source

To select a TWAIN-compliant device, scanner or camera, for acquiring images:

  1. Choose Select Source from the Capture menu. ImageWalker will tell TWAIN_32.DLL to open its Select Source dialog box.
  2. Highlight the device that you want to use.
  3. Click the OK button.
Acquire

To acquire an image using the selected TWAIN-compliant device:

  1. Choose Capture from the File menu. ImageWalker will tell TWAIN_32.DLL to open the device software's interface.
  2. Use the interface to set the image acquisition options. For help using the interface, consult its on-line help or the device software's help file. When the device and its software finish processing the image, it will be sent to ImageWalker and shown in the preview window.

2.6 How to make ImageWalker run faster

ImageWalker can use cache files to speed up its operation.

Turning off special effects in the view options can also improve performance on slow machines.

2.7 What is a cache file?

Cache files are databases of pre-generated thumbnails.

Normally every time you browse to a folder, ImageWalker needs to generate thumbnails for any images found. Generating these thumbnails can be slow.

If a cache file exists, thumbnails can be loaded and displayed quickly.

2.8 How can I open a cache file and browse its thumbnails

  1. From either ImageWalker or Windows Explorer open the folder where the cache file is located.
  2. Double-click the cache file you want to open.
  3. The cache file will be displayed in ImageWalker. ImageWalker will show a yellow background in the folder window as a visual clue that you are viewing a cache file and not a real folder.

Note:

2.9 How can I change the thumbnail size?

Depending on what your doing several ways to control the thumbnail size exist.

  1. In the normal folder view you can set thumbnail dimensions from the Tools->View Options Menu. Then 'Thumbnail Size' tab, you can then type in or select the thumbnail dimensions.
  2. If you are creating a web page you can invoke a similar dialog from the web page creation wizard. 
  3. During printing the thumb size is automatically calculated depending on the view options. From the Tools->View Options Menu. Then 'View Layout' tab, you can then type in or select the print or contact sheet settings.

2.10 What is a wildcard?

A wildcard character is a keyboard character such as an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) that you can use to represent one or more real characters when you are searching for files or folders. Wildcard characters are often used in place of one or more characters when you don't know what the real character is or you don't want to type the entire name.

Asterisk (*)

You can use the asterisk as a substitute for zero or more characters. If you're looking for a file that you know starts with "summ" but you can't remember the rest of the file name, type the following:

"summ*" (without the quotation marks)

The search will locate all files of any file type that begin with summ including "Summary.txt", "Summary.doc", and "Summer.doc". To narrow the search to a specific type of file, type:

"summ*.doc"

In this case, the search will find all files that begin with summ but have the file extension ".doc", such as "Summary.doc" and "Summer.doc".

Question Mark (?)

You can use the question mark as a substitute for a single character in a name. For example, if you typed "summ?.doc", the search would locate the file "Summ1.doc" or "Summ2.doc" but not "Summary.doc".

 

3.1 How to Navigate

You navigate through your system with ImageWalker the same way you would with Windows Explorer.

3.2 How to Select Items

Items in the browser window can be selected in the following ways:

To Select an item

Click an item.

To Select a range

Press and hold down the SHIFT key, and click the first and last item in the group.

To Select multiple items

Press and hold down the CTRL key, and click individual items in the group.

Tip:

Selection works as in Windows Explorer.

3.3 Sorting

The arrange icons submenu under the view menu is used to set the sorting method.

Items in the browser window can be sorted in 4 different ways.

3.4 How to Drag and Drop

Items in the browser window can be dragged and dropped.

  1. Select the files you want to drag in the browser window.
  2. Point to an item, press and hold down the mouse button.
  3. Drag item to new location.

The new location can be:

Tips:

3.5 How to Copy and paste

Items in the browser window can be copied and pasted.

  1. Select the files you want to copy in the browser window.
  2. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
  3. Navigate to the destination folder location
  4. On the Edit menu, click Paste.

Tips:

4.1 How to browse a folder with ImageWalker from Windows Explorer

  1. Right click on the folder you wish to browse.
  2. Click on the ImageWalker then Browse with ImageWalker menu options.

4.2 How to set an image as the desktop wallpaper

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the image.
  2. Select the image.
  3. Click on the set as wallpaper command in the tools menu.
  4. Set the required wallpaper options.
  5. Click ok.

The following dialog is used to set the currently shown image as the desktop wallpaper.

4.3 How to use the ImageWalker screen saver

The ImageWalker screen saver can display a series of still images similar to the normal ImageWalker slide show. The screen saver is configured with a series of folders to take images from.

To set or change a screen saver:

  1. Open Display in Control Panel.
  2. On the Screen Saver tab, under Screen Saver, click ImageWalker screen saver in the list.

4.4 How can I access ImageWalker programmatically?

ImageWalker supports interaction vie OLE automation. This means you can control it through scripting or Visual Basic.

Currently supports only a single method to open a specific folder. The following example will open ImageWalker in 'c:\'

Click here to test ole automation!

The scripting to accomplish this operation is as follows.

var obj;
obj = new ActiveXObject( "ImageWalkerViewer.ImageWalker" );
obj.OpenFolder("c:\\");

or in VB:

dim obj
set obj = CreateObject("ImageWalkerViewer.ImageWalker" )
obj.OpenFolder "c:\"

The following code will open ImageWalker in the same folder as the web page!!

dim s
s = mid(window.location, 9)

While Right(s, 1) <> "/"
s = Left(s, Len(s) -1)
Wend 

s = Left(s, Len(s) -1)
s = Replace(s, "%20", " ")
s = Replace(s, "/", "\")

set objIW = CreateObject("ImageWalkerViewer.ImageWalker")
objIW.OpenFolder s

5.1 How to create web pages

The ImageWalker web page contains a tutorial showing how to create Web Pages step by step.

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the images you want to place on a web page.
  2. Select the images.
  3. Click on the create web pages command in the tools menu.
  4. Set the required creation options.
  5. Follow the steps in the wizard. 

Tips:

5.2 What is HTML?

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the language of the World Wide Web.

HTML is the language that web pages are written in. It is displayed as a web page by a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.

HTML is an open standard, owned and updated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It is fairly easy to learn, and many online references and how-to books can help you learn it. A quick trip the HTML area on the W3C site or to your local library or bookstore should get you started.

If you want to see some HTML, click View/Source from the menu in your Web browser (or right-click in Microsoft Internet Explorer and choose View Source) to see the HTML code behind the page you are reading.

5.3 What are Cascading Style Sheets?

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are design templates that provide augmented control over presentation and layout of HTML elements. They allow you to separate the way you design information from the HTML content.

CSS enables you to control the margins, coloring, background images, fonts, and a whole range of elements for virtually every individual element that an HTML file describes (<BODY>, <HEAD> (header), <P> (paragraph), <UL> or <OL> (lists), <TABLE>, and so on).

Using style sheets, you can create Web pages with minimal graphics, and therefore much smaller downloads. Style sheets also provide you with a higher level of typographic control, and they enable you to make changes to an entire site through the use of linked style sheets.

5.4 What is FTP?

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a method for copying files between computers connected to the Internet.

To transfer files using FTP, download an FTP client such as WS-FTP (for Windows) or Fetch (for the Macintosh). Instructions for obtaining and installing these programs are available on the www.download.com.

In most cases your domain host or web page host will be able to provide you with information on how to use FTP on their site.

An online tutorial on using FTP exists on the ImageWalker web page.

5.5 How can I design my own web page templates?

When ImageWalker creates a web page it combines a web page template (HTML), a style sheet (CSS) and a series of images.

Both the style sheet and the web page templates can be edited and modified by the user.

Where are the templates?

In a default installation templates used are located in the folder:

C:\Program Files\Walker\ImageWalker200\Web Templates

How can I add the template?

You need to add an INI file into the template folder for each template you create. ImageWalker will automatically detect new INI files.

The INI file is an ASCII text file that contains sections and keys. Section names are enclosed within brackets. Each key contains one or more entries, each of which has the following format:

name = value

The ImageWalker INI file contains the following sections:

[Index]
template=standard.index.html (This is the template for the index page)

[Image]
template=standard.image.html (This is the template for each image page)

[Required Files] (Include any additional required files)
1=__up.gif
2=__back.gif
3=__next.gif

What is the template format of the Index and Image templates?

The Index and Image templates are standard HTML but contain the following tags that are replaced by the wizard:

In the index template:

In the image templates:

6.1 How to edit image descriptions

The most common way to edit image descriptions is from the description view in ImageWalker. To do this:

  1. Select the description view in the view menu.
  2. Focus the image you would like to edit by clicking on it in the folder view.
  3. Enter the new description.
  4. To update the description, de-select the image in the folder window by selecting an alternate image.

Tips:

Note:

ImageWalker stores descriptions in IPTC format inside the image file. For more information see Where does ImageWalker store the Image Descriptions?

6.2 Where does ImageWalker store the Image Descriptions?

ImageWalker stores description information inside the image file itself.

Many good reasons for storing image descriptions directly in the image file exist. You can rename copy or email the image and the description information remains intact.

The description information is stored inside your image files in a standard IPTC format. The ITPC format is widely supported by many programs including Adobe Photoshop.

ImageWalker can read and update the IPTC details from Jpeg, TIFF, Gif and PNG files currently.

6.3 What is IPTC?

IPTC stands for the International Press Telecommunications Council.

ImageWalker supports the information standard developed by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) and the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to identify transmitted text and images. This standard includes entries for captions, keywords, categories, credits, and origins.

The caption and keyword entries can also be updated and viewed by many other third-party image browsers and editors including Adobe Photoshop.

More information can be found at www.iptc.org.

6.4 How can I import other Image Descriptions?

ImageWalker 2.0 can import descriptions written by ImageWalker 1.05 in the description.xml by using the Description Import Wizard.

If anyone has additional image description formats that they would like to import or export please contact Support@ImageWalker.com.