FBHF)a Welcome to The NV's Helpsystem You are now reading a "help window". Press F5 or double click on the title line to enlarge or restore the size of the help window. $ The help windows have highlighten keywords, which guide to others help windows. You may navigate through the help topics with TAB or SHIFT+TAB and then press Enter to pick a topic Using the mouse simply click on an interesting keyword. Press ESC to exit help. The NOMSSI Viewer This program allows you to display pictures from image files, which are archived in different kinds of file formats. It requires a Super VGA card in your Computer to run. To display an image file, you must be in the dialogbox "Load an image file". Open this box with F3 or click on the item 'F3 Load' in the statusline. You open the setup window With F9. You may set default values for the various options and so influence the run-time behaviour of your copy of The NOMSSI Viewer. ) Choose a topic from the following list: n Load image Setup graphic tools SlideShow Shortcuts image files infos inputline image file name Name Enter directory path and/or file name. You may use a file mask. These line has an associated history list. R See also: Load image graphic tools The Helpsystem The file list Files ..\ FILENM04.GIF NVDMP001.TIF TOOLS\ FILENM05.PCX NVDMP002.TIF TEXTS\ FILENM06.PCX NVDMP003.TIF NVIEWER.TIF\ FILENM07.TGA FILENM01.BMP FILENM08.TGA FILENM02.BMP FILENM09.TIF FILENM03.GIF FILENM10.TIF The list window shows all files in the current directory which meet the file mask in the input line or the current filter selection, and the subdirs. 0 Using a mouse, double click on the desired file name to load and display the image. Alternative click on the Load-button or press the enter key or press Alt L to load the actually selected (highlighten) file. To select a file, simply use the arrow keys or click once on it with the left mouse button. Use the space bar or the right mouse button to tag a file. Tagging files is useful for Slideshow or file management (copying, moving, delete). F10 switch to the menu bar. Within the file list you can perform incremental search of files. Type small letters for files and capital letters for directories. The list may sometime not be up-to-date (you may have changed the disc or so), you can force a re-read from the current directory: enter a new file mask in the input line or re-select the drive (see change drive) or change the file mask in filter. R See also: Load image graphic tools The Helpsystem Change drive This listbox shows all autodetected drives in your system. Use the arrow keys to focus a drive name and press the space bar or double click it with the left mouse button to select a new drive. < See also: Load image The system Selecting image file format mask Filter ( ) *.TIF ( ) *.PCX ( ) *.GIF ( ) *.BMP ( ) *.TGA ( ) *.* The selected item in this field is the default file mask used to read the current directory. The list corresponds to the normal file masks for the supported image file formats. You can overwrite this default by entering a new mask in the input line. ; See also: Load image The Helpsystem [ Options ] Click on this window or use the F9 key to open the control panel and setup default values. M See also: Control panel Load image The Helpsystem [ Load ] Click on this button to load and display the selected image file in the file list. You may also press Enter. If the currently selected name is a directory, it will only change to this directory. R See also: Load image graphic tools The Helpsystem [ Cancel ] Close the dialogbox without making any changes. You may also use ESC. ; See also: Load image The Helpsystem Scan Scan all files currently in the file list for image files. Get picture informations (Width, Height, Compression...) and display them in the file info panel. The file list contains only valid images files after the scan operation. R See also: Load image graphic tools The Helpsystem [ SlideShow ] Go for a slide show. You must have tagged at least two files to access this button. A dialogbox with Slideshow options is opened where the parameters can be changed. . You may also use F8 or the shortcut Alt See also: Load image graphic tools The Helpsystem Load an image file Use shortcuts to reach an active field or a Command, use TAB and SHIFT+TAB to change to the next or previous field within the dialogbox. To load a file, double click on its name or enter the file name in the fileinput line or TAB to the file list, use the arrow key to select the file name and press Enter. To tag a file, select it with the *right* mouse button or go for it in the file list with arrow keys and press the space bar. You may also use the gray +, - or * for group selection, deselection or to reverse tags. F10 switch to the menu bar. k Change drive Filter Options Load Cancel SlideShow Scan graphic tools The Helpsystem Mode Select a graphic mode to display the next images. You can force the image to be displayed in a specific mode or let The NV choose the nearest avaible mode according to the picture size. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem Contrast While the image is displayed, you can change its contrast (see: graphic tools). However, you can only change it equally for all color values (linear). You sometimes need non-linear intensity curves to correct the monitor output, especially for scanned images. One generally uses exponential curves, which are analytically described with an exponent "gamma". You may set a "Gamma" here, that will be used to correct your image colors values. H ( ) linear This should be your default, it means no correction of the color intensity. It will work well with all computer generated images and most of the others, since they are already corrected for monitor output. H ( ) Monitor This value is for color images from scanner advisable. Gamma = 2,2 is for monitor output quite a good value. H ( ) user defined This value makes the inputline for Gamma selectable. You can input a gamma value in the range from 0.1 to 7 now. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] disable screen Select this option to disable screen output while drawing the image. The image is drawn in the background and the whole image appears suddenly on the monitor. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] Beep A beep is generated as soon as the loading operation is terminated. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] Center Picture Small images are positioned in the middle of the screen. 1 Exception: TIFF tiled images are not centered. See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] Mosaic Small images are used to form a grid. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [X] show all pages TIFF and GIF files may have several images (pages) in them. By now the pages are beeing shown in turn without pause. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] uses VESA driver By having a video card that has a VESA compatible BIOS, or by installing a TSR program (I recommend the universal VESA for this), The NOMSSI Viewer will work correctly with your Super VGA. U The Universal VESA TSR is a small Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program that provides extensions to the Video BIOS routines of SuperVGA video cards to make them compatible with the Video Electonics Standards Association (VESA) recommended extensions. You may already have a VESA TSR for your video card, check your drivers disk for it. n The Universal VESA TSR is a stand alone program, copyright (C) 1993 by Kendall Bennett, All rights reserved. B The NV will detect and show the available VESA 256 colors modes. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] Auto scan Scan the current directory for image files and get file information after each directory change. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] Continue on error Don't cancel viewing on some faulty image files. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ ] TrueColor This release of The NOMSSI Viewer has no support for HiColor and TrueColor modes. Images with more the 256 colors are dithered and shown in 256 color modes. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem Path to the image files This input line contains the default directory, where the NOMSSI Viewer looks for image files at start. 0 See also: Options The Helpsystem [ OK ] Press or click on the OK button to save your inputs. The NOMSSI Viewer checks and saves them in the NV.CFG file if they are valid and then close the dialogbox. Otherwise it selects the invalid fields in turn to let you correct them. You can nevertheless cancel the input. + You may also use Enter or hotkey Alt see also: Options bersicht [ Cancel ] Close the dialogbox without any change. The NV.CFG file is not updated. D ESC is the corresponding key, you can also use the hotkey Alt See also: Options The Helpsystem Control panel Use hotkeys to execute an active Command. Use TAB or SHIFT+TAB to select (highlight) a field. The following fields are available: Image Graphic Contrast Disable screen Beep Center Picture Mosaic Pages VESA driver Auto Error behavior TrueColor Your default values will be saved in the NV.CFG file. The Helpsystem graphic mode tools After an image loading, you can change the appearance of the picture by means of increasing or decreasing brightness and contrast. Use "Del" and "Ins" keys to change brightness. You can make a negative of the image that way. Change contrast with the "Home" and "End" keys. You can scroll a big picture horizontal and vertical over the screen limits with the arrow keys, assuming you have enough video memory to store more than the visible part of the image. _ To undo your editing press the F10 key, the original palette is restored. Use the F2 key to save an image file with your editing as a numbered, uncompressed, 256 color TIFF file with the name NVDMPxxx.TIF (x is a number between 0 and 9). This file ist *not* equally good with the original, since The NOMSSI Viewer uses fixed parameters to create it. 8 Press Enter or click on the mouse left button to exit. The Helpsystem Slide show options Time in Seconds Enter delay time in seconds (0 up to 99s) to specify how long a single image from the sequence of tagged files will be displayed, though you can influence the pause for the current image. T [X] auto repeat Decide whether The sequence will be cyclic repeated or it should break after a cycle. You can stop the running slide show with ESC. T [ ] superpose pictures The current image will not be cleared prior crossing to the next image. However it will only work if no graphic mode switch is necessary. T [X] reset tagged files All selected tags will be cleared after the slide show. 5 See also: SlideShow The Helpsystem [ Start ] An valid delay time is accepted and the slide show started. [ Cancel ] Cancel or ESC or Alt C break off your action, you go back to the dialogbox Load image file. 2 See also: SlideShow The Helpsystem SlideShow With The NOMSSI Viewer you can realize a slide show. Do to this select several image files, which are one after the other displayed, with a given delay. Select files in the file list, then press F8 or click the "Slideshow" button. The image files are shown exactly in the selection order. n The delay time between two images can be set from 0 up to 99s, a cycle can be repeated (slide options). While the slide show is running, you may click on the mouse right button or press the space bar to hold on an image (freeze the slideshow) and later click on the mouse left button or press enter to go on. You can always use the graphic tools. ESC quit a running slide show. u Attention: The slide show stops after midnight (on the PC internal clock) and must be continued with the Enter key. The Helpsystem TIFF TIFF is a tag based, rich file format for storing and interchanging raster images. It enables storing bi-level, grayscale, palette color and full color image data in several color spaces. The NOMSSI Viewer is (should be) a Baseline TIFF 6.0 reader with support of some TIFF 6.0 Extensions (CCITT 1D Compression, TIFF Tiles, planar and packed images, YCbCr color space) + TIFF is a trademark of Aldus Coropration. , Image formats The Helpsystem The PCX image file format is in widespread use on the PC. The NOMSSI Viewer will use a grayscale palette for 256 color PCX files without palette. It will probably not interpret the CGA-Palette correctly. , Image formats The Helpsystem "The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated." The NOMSSI Viewer doesn't care about the GIF89a extensions. It will only display graphics. , Image formats The Helpsystem Bitmaps are used under Windows 3.x and OS/2 to store bi-level, palette color and full color images. The NOMSSI Viewer can load both Windows 3.x uncompressed and compressed Bitmap (BMP/RLE) files. It does not load OS/2-Bitmaps. , Image formats The Helpsystem Truevision TGA file format is mostly used to store TrueColor images. g The NOMSSI Viewer can handle TGA file types 1,2,9 and 10 (uncompressed and run-length encoded files). , Image formats The Helpsystem SVGA SVGA (Super VGA) is a graphic card standard for PCs, that electronically take control of the screen output in graphic modes with a resolution of at least 640x480 pixels with 256 simultaneous colors. A SVGA card converts the digital color values in analog voltage to control analog monitors using a digital-analog-converter (DAC). A normal DAC includes 256 registers, each subdivided in three groups of 6 bits (for the colors red, gree, blue). thus there are max. 64 gradations for a priming and altogether possible 262144 colors. However only 256 colors can be displayed at a time (HiColor and TrueColor DACs allow more colors). | The NOMSSI Viewer supports only the 256 color modes for a variety of SVGA cards (using VGADOC (c) 1993 by Finn Th gersen). The Helpsystem Raster image data Bi-level images contains two colors - black and white. Grayscale images store shades of gray for each pixel and have one component per pixel. Color pictures are usualy described using the RGB model. Each pixel is made up of three components (red, green and blue). In the RGB full color case, each component is 8 bit deep. Palette color images still have one component per image, but the component value is used as an index into a full RGB lookup table. - image file formats The NOMSSI Viewer 1.0 supports the following raster image file formats TIFF Aldus tag-based Image File Format PCX ZSoft PC Paintbrush Format GIF Compuserve Inc. Graphics Interchange Format BMP Windows Bitmap TGA Truevision TGA File Format The Helpsystem Range error ! You have tried to input a numerical value out of the allowed bounds. Correct the value or cancel the operation. The Helpsystem Invalid char error ! You have used an invalid char while entering a numerical value. Correct or cancel the input. The Helpsystem Shortcuts -general Alt + Key select an active Option. Press left Alt-key *together* with the lightening letter. (i.e. Alt + S for "SlideShow", Alt + A for "Scan", Alt + N for "Name"). ESC Cancel the current operation. Enter Confirm a vaild input/selection TAB select (highlight) the next field in a dialogbox. Alt+F3 Close window -Help: F1 Open Helpwindow F5 Zoom/restore size of the active helpwindow Ctrl+F5 Change the size and/or position of the active window -File: F3 Open dialogbox "Load an image file" / Space bar select (tag/reverse tag) file. Needed for slide show or for group copy Gray + tag all files Gray - clear all tags Gray x or * reverse all tags F10 go to the menubar F7 copy file(s) F8 slide show -Options: F9 Open dialogbox "Options" -Tools Ins Brightness + Del Brightness - Home Contrast + End Contrast - F10 restore original palette F2 Save as TIFF-file PgUp/PgDn scroll up/down (slow) arrow keys scroll (fast) -Slide show: F8 Space bar freeze image, stop (Mouse right button) Enter continue, next image (Mouse left button) TAB reverse image ordering ESC cancel slide show, end Helpsystem Gray +, Gray -, Gray * The keys +,- and * on the keypad simplify the selection of files group for slide show or file operations. ) Hotkeys The Helpsystem Copy file This menu item opens the the dialogbox "Copy", where you can set what and where to copy. The Helpsystem Move file This menu item opens the dialogbox "Move". You can move files to another drive or directory. The Helpsystem Rename file This menu item opens the the dialogbox "Rename". You can only rename one file at a time. The Helpsystem Erase file This menu item opens the the dialogbox "Delete", where you can specify the files to delete. The Helpsystem Search for file This menu item opens the the dialogbox "Search", where you can set a file mask to match. The Helpsystem Change directory This menu item opens a directory tree. You can navigate through the directories on the current drive and easily change the current directory. The Helpsystem File Read/Write error You may cancel or retry the operation, depending on the error cause. The Helpsystem Copy to Enter the target directory. You must enter a valid path here or no copying will occure. The Helpsystem Copying selected files ( ) current file Select this item to copy only the curently focused file (highlighten) to the target directory. K ( ) selected files Select this item to copy all tagged items in turn to the target directory. The selection remains intact. The Helpsystem [ OK ] Press Enter or click on the OK button or use Alt+O to confirm and start copying. e Shall the path be invalid, then the dialogbox will not close until you correct or cancel the input. The Helpsystem [ Cancel ] With this button you close the dialogbox and cancel copying. " You can also use ESC or Alt + C. 1 See also Shortcuts The Helpsystem Toggle video mode Choose screen size, use a display of 25 lines by 80 columns or 50 lines by 80 columns. 1 See also Shortcuts The Helpsystem Beenden (Alt+X) This command exits The NOMSSI Viewer. 1 See also Shortcuts The Helpsystem DOS shell With this command you temporarily exit The NOMSSI Viewer to DOS. Type EXIT and then press Enter to return. 2 See also Hotkeys The Helpsystem Scanning All files in the current directory are beeing scanned, searching for valid image files. Just wait a moment or press ESC to break.