HTML PowerNailer on-line documentation

Before reading the documentation, you might want to view some Sample Pages created with the HTML PowerNailer or Visit the VirtuaMedia Home Page You may want to look at the Frequently asked questions page or view the latest new features in the What's new page.

Terms of Use: PowerNailer is released as shareware. As such, I make no claims of product reliability or continuing support of said software. Under the shareware license you have 30 days to evaluate this program. After the 30 days evaluation period you must either register PowerNailer or stop using it and erase all created content. PowerNailer was tested to be safe; however, by using this program you acknowledge that VirtuaMedia and the author of this program will not be held liable to any damages, direct or indirect, coincidental or otherwise, caused by the use or misused of this software. In conclusion, you use PowerNailer at your own risk. The registration process may be handled by a third party company that handles money transactions on the internet. If you have any problems with the on-line registration process, please mail your registration by first class mail.

You can scroll this page to read a feature-by-feature explanation, or you can click on an area of the picture below to jump to a specific feature. Several things that don't appear in the actual interface, and are important to know are: The Directory Structure. Multi Page Processing. Multi Page Indexing. You might like to read about these features first. If you need more information on the workings of PowerNailer or require clarification, feel free to eMail Me

The Header File: The Header file is an HTML file which is automatically attached to any new created page. Within this file you define the basic page settings such as the background image and window title. All these are optional, however in order for PowerNailer to work, the header file must contain a table header (As seen within the sample files provided in the PowerNailer archive). An example of a table header syntax is: <Table Border=2 BGCOLOR=#00003A CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0> It is advised that you keep both CELLPADDING and CELLSPACING at zero to avoid spacing problems. Feel free to change the BGCOLOR (background color) and Border settings. Black letters on white always looks good. Another important feature in the header file is a special translation anchor. In every place PowerNailer finds the <PAGE> anchor it will automatically be replaced with the current thumbnail page number. This only occurs when the "Insert Page Number" checkbox is enabled.

The Footer File: The Footer file is an HTML file which is automatically attached to the end of any newly created page. This file contains the HTML page closing elements (see sample file).

The Directory List: Instead of thumbnailing one file directory at a time, PowerNailer can automatically process several directories in sequence. The directory list is a text file which contain a list of directories on which PowerNailer will operate. You can see an example directory list file in the samples provided with PowerNailer (It's called "directory.list"). Inside this file, you list one directory per line, Example: C:\Catalog\Animals\ C:\Catalog\Family\ C:\Catalog\Travel\ And so forth, for as many directories as you might wish . . .

The Picture Directory: If you desire to work on a single directory, simply type in the directory name into this field. Example: C:\Catalog\Animals

The Thumbnail Size (width x height): Each thumbnail is actually a scaled-down version of the original image. In these two fields, you enter the maximum width and height of each thumbnail. There are several things you need to take into account. The first is that you probably want the width and height fields to match the vertical/horizental aspect of the screen. Most screen modes have an aspect of 1.333333 (You get this by dividing 640/480 or 800/600). In order to keep the correct screen aspect for, lets say, a thumbnail with a width of 100 pixels, we divide 100/1.333333 which gives us 75 pixels high as the ideal. The other thing you need to remember is that you have a fixed screen width, and if you make the thumbnails too big you would not be able to fit a lot of thumbnails on one row. You might wish to think in advance of the ratio of thumbnail resolution to the number of thumbnails in one row, and your screen resolution (i.e. 800x600 or 1024x768). Good width (x) and height (y) values are shown as (X)x(Y): 160x120 120x90 100x75 80x60 60x45

The Text Box Height: The Text Box contains all the picture text information. It always contains the picture file name, and it can optionally contain the picture file size and resolution. The default has these data on three lines, which looks very nice. The Text Box width is always set by the maximum width of the thumbnail picture (see above). It's height is automatically set by the browser to the height of the font; this can sometimes produce an irregular text box height, where one thumbnail row is higher than another. To prevent this, you can set your own height for the text box. This is risk free. If for some reason the text box needs to be higher than the number you've set, the browser will automatically compensate and set the correct height itself. You may wish to create a test page for testing the correct text box height you desire. Of course you can leave it all to the browser and just leave this at the default setting of 16. Note: The text box height is in pixels.

The Text Box Font Size: The default size of the font used to list the picture file name and attributes is "1", but you can change this. Note: Type size numbers over "3" are very big.

Thumbnails per line: This is the number of thumbnails that should appear in one row. When selecting this number, take into account the thumbnail resolution and the screen resolution your page is designed to be viewed at. Example: When I design a page to be viewed at 800x600 or larger, I select a thumbnail size of 100x75 (Width*Height). I also remember that the table border itself takes a bit of space, and I want to leave some margins, so I set the Thumbnail per line field to 7 which gives me a margin of about 40 pixels on each side and 7 thumbnails per row. About seven rows of thumbnails print nicely on one page.

Thumbnail Rows Per Page: This is the number of thumbnail rows to be created within a single page. If the number of images in a directory exceeds the number of images in one page ("thumbnails per line" * "rows per page"), more than one page will be created.

JPEG Encoding Quality: The created thumbnails are always created using JPEG encoding, the JPEG format was tested to be far smaller than GIF in most image types (16 Color or lower GIFs are smaller than JPEGs since JPEGs were designed for photo-realistic color images). JPEG is a lossy format. This means that it will lose image quality when compressing images. The better the compression quality, the less the loss. At 100 quality there is hardly any visible loss. The lower the quality, the smaller the file size. The default JPEG encoding quality for PowerNailer is 80. This quality is (in my view) the best size/quality compromise.

The Scaling Quality: Since the original image is always larger than the size our thumbnail will be scaled to, we need to downscale (shrink) the original image into our thumbnail size. PowerNailer employs five different routines to downscale an image: Average (integer): This is the fastest of all the scaling routines and it does not rely on the FPU (math co-processor). It uses a point routine to calculate the image. Average (float): Similar to Average (integer), this quality setting still uses a point routine to calculate the image, however it also uses the FPU to obtain a more accurate result. Good (integer): This routine uses a more complex rectangular area summing technique to get a more accurate and smoother thumbnail. Like the Average (integer) routine, it doesn't rely on the FPU and is thus faster. Good (float): This routine is similar to the Good (Integer) routine, but uses the FPU to obtain a more accurate thumbnail image. Best (float): This routine is highly CPU & FPU intensive, it uses sub-pixel calculation to provide the best and smoothest result, however, it is at least 10 to 20 times slower than any of the other routines. Use this selection for small projects. Note: One of the greater benefits of the Pentium II processor is that it has a very strong FPU performance compared to other processors. Due to this fact it is recommended that you use the (float) routines on a Pentium 2 machines. If the work isn't too big (under 10,000 images) you might want to use the (float) routines on other CPU types. When designing a page, use the Average routines to set a good page layout, when you're satisfied with the page layout, create the page using one of the better quality settings. The Best quality settings is only useful when creating rather large thumbnails, there usually isn't much benefit when used with smaller sized thumbnails.

The Text Box file name Case Setting: This setting controls the case in which the picture file name will appear inside the text box, here are some examples: Unchanged: MyPic.JPG .. MyPic.JPG Lowercase: MyPic.JPG .. mypic.jpg Uppercase: MyPic.JPG .. MYPIC.JPG Capital First: MyPic.JPG .. Mypic.jpg

Including Picture Resolution inside the Text Box: Enabling this feature will add the picture resolution to the text box. This only works when using the internal JPEG and GIF decoders. The information is a real plus.

Including Picture File Size inside the Text Box: Enabling this feature will add the picture file size in kb to the text box, making it all the more informative.

Using Progressive JPEG encoding for thumbnail creation: The JPEG format supports two encoding types. The standard decoding format, and the Progressive format. The progressive format was designed with the internet in mind. Instead of decoding the image in one pass it will use several passes (Similar to interlaced GIF, but with higher quality). You may wish to experiment and decide which encoding type is more suited to your needs. Notice: You will not see any effect of progressive encoding when loading up the pages locally (from your hard disk) as the images usually load too fast.

Overwriting thumbnails: By default PowerNailer only creates thumbnails for images that do not already have them. This is done in order to keep incremental page creation functioning. However, for page testing purposes you may wish to enable thumbnail overwriting. Note: Even though the thumbnails are recreated, the HTML file will not be overwritten.

Inserting the PAGE number into the HTML page: When this setting is enabled, PowerNailer searches for the specialized <PAGE> anchor inside the HTML Header File and replaces it with the correct page number. This only applies to Multi Page Processing. If you do not plan to create more than one page in a directory, or if you don't want the page number listed on the pages, disable this option. Note: You can still have the special anchor inside the header file even if you are not going to use it, as it will be ignored by all the browsers.

Using a list of directories: When enabled, pressing the begin button will use the Directory List file in order to obtain a list of multiple directories to work from. When disabled, the Picture Directory will be used as a single directory to work from.

Moving of broken images: PowerNailer can usually handle most corrupted JPEG or GIF images, but if an error occurs or the picture is simply not in the correct format (Pictures must be in either the GIF or JPEG formats, with the correct format extension), PowerNailer will move the bad image into a directory called "Broken" within the Picture Directory. If such a directory does not exist, one will be created. However, if you wish to have the afflicated image simply ignored, just uncheck this option.

Linking to HTML Files: Instead of linking directly to the actual source images, you can instead have PowerNailer generate a separate HTML file for each and every image. This allows you to customize how the enlarged image is viewed. You can define a Header and Footer HTML file for the generated HTML Image file in the 'advanced' section. You can also set a special HTML tag that will return you to the sending page. All the special HTML tags that can be used in the advanced menu can also be used within the HTML Image file's header and footer files. You can see an example of these files by looking at html_header.html and html_footer.html within the sample.zip archive.

The Begin and Abort Buttons: Once all the settings are complete, press the Begin button to start creating the Page(s), the moment you press this button, it will disappear and an Abort button will appear in it's place. Pressing this button will abort the conversion.

The Quit Button: Em, I think you understand this one. But still, one small note, when you exit PowerNailer all the configuration setting are saved automatically. To return the PowerNailer configuration to it's default settings, erase the ".cfg" file.

The Status Area: The status area contain a lot of useful information that is updated while PowerNailer is working: Current Dir The current working directory, this is either the Picture Directory if Use Dir List is disabled or the current directory being worked on from the Directory List file. Work Pic The current picture being thumbnailed. Page The number of the page currently being created (and the number that appears in the HTML Header file if Use Page Number is enabled. Total Pics The number of new pictures found in either the picture directory or within the directories defined in the list if Use Directory List is enabled. Bad Pics The number of bad pictures found and possibly moved (if enabled) into the broken sub-directory. Section If Use Dir List is disabled, this is always 1, if it's enabled, this is the number of directories found. Time The time elapsed since starting the current operation. Remaining The estimated time remaining before completion of the current operation. Pic Count The number of successfully thumbnailed pictures. Speed Shows you the picture creation speed in PPM (Pictures Per Minute). Section & Total bars These are two progress bars that show you the work progress in both the current section (directory) and the total process. In cases where only one directory is involved these are the same. Message This is a display of various work progress messages.

The Picture Box Entry: This entry allows you to alter the default HTML code used to generate the HTML table cell that holds the image. In here you can specify special background colors, or even bitmap images to be placed behind the thumbnail. As with anything else in the advanced menu, good understanding of the HTML language is required.

The Text Box Entry: This entry allows you to alter the default HTML code used to generate the HTML table cell that holds the picture name, resolution and file size. In here you can specify special background colors, or even bitmap images to be placed within behind the text.

The Empty Picture Box Entry: To maintain good visualization, PowerNailer always adds empty Table cells to the bottom of a page in order to complete a row, in this entry you can alter the HTML code that generates the empty image cell. Note that for a Table cell to exist, some information must exist within it, thus the &nbsp HTML code is used. It just means "non-breaking-space".

The Empty Text Box Entry: Similar to the Empty Picture Box, this entry represents the empty text area below the empty picture.

The Picture Resolution Block: The picture resolution block defines the structure of the picture resolution string that is inserted within the Text Box entry, you can alter this block to change the way the resolution links after the picture file name (if resolution display is enabled on the main menu).

The Picture Size Block: The picture size block defines the structure of the picture size string that is inserted within the Text Box entry, you can alter this block to change the way the picture size links after the picture resolution (if picture size display is enabled on the main menu).

The Picture Line Start Block: Each thumbnail row is started with a new Table Cell line command, if you wish to add or alter this command, this is the place to do so.

The Picture Box - > Text Box Seperator Block: The picture and text cells are in fact two different table cells, and are seprated by a table cell line close, and a table cell line open commands, if you wish to add or alter to these commnad, this is the place to do so.

The Picture Line End Block: Each thumbnail row ends with a close Table Cell line command, if you wish to add or alter this commnad, this is the place to do so.

The HTML File Image Link: When 'Link to HTML File' is enabled, this entry is written into the created HTML file. For correct linkage you must use the special <PicLink> tag when linking to the source image.

The Base File Name: The default base file name for the generated HTML files is "page", this means that each created HTML page will begin with the word "page". Example: page00001.html, page00002.html, page00003.html, etc... By altering the base file name, you can change the name of the created pages. If for example you would change the base file name to "gallery", the generated HTML files would be created as: gallery00001.html, gallery00002.html, gallery..., etc.. Please remember that if you change the base file name, you must make sure that the name is acceptable by your HTML server, otherwise your server may not send the pages (enabling certain characters in the file name may work locally on a windows machine, but not on the internet, an example of such a character is the "space" character).

The Minimum Digits for an HTML file: You would notice that each HTML file is created with leading 0 numbering (e.g. page00001.html). In this setting you can assign the number of leading 0 characters to be added to a generated html file. For example, changing this setting to 3 would create "page001.html" files.

The thumbnail sub-directory: Some users prefer to have the thumbnails created within the same directory as the images. Some prefer to have the thumbnails created in a separate directory. If no name is specified in this field, the generated thumbnails will be created within the picture directory. If a name is specified, the thumbnails will be created within that sub-directory. Example: The picture directory field is set to "c:\pictures\animals" And the thumbnail directory field is set to "TN". All thumbnails will be created under the "c:\pictures\TN" directory.

The HTML File Header & Footer files: When linking to HTML files, you need a header and footer for the newly created linked images. Within these files you can use most of the special HTML tags. These files also can contain the special <PageLink> tag. This tag contains the name of sending page with a correct refferance path. This can link back to the sending page. You can see an example of these files at html_header.html and html_footer.html within the sample.zip archive.

The Default Button: The advanced menu is by no means simple, if you ever get into too much of a mess and wish to return to the default PowerNailer settings for this page, pressing this button will prompt you to do so.

The Help Button: As you can see, the advanced menu contains a lot of specialized HTML tags that are converted during page creation into certain values (like the image file name, size and resolution). Pressing the help button will open a quick reference window with an explanation of that tag.

Loading a different configuration file: The PowerNailer default configuration file is called "powernail.cfg". Optionally you can load different configuration files in order to keep page creation presets.

Saving a different configuration file: The PowerNailer default configuration file is called "powernail.cfg". Optionally you can save different configuration files in order to keep page creation presets. Note: The default configuration file is saved automatically.

Enabling the External Decoder: PowerNailer supports the use of an external commercial image decoder from Hand Made software to support a wide range of formats other than the internal GIF and JPEG. Using Image Alchemy, PowerNailer can support a multitudes of input formats such as BMP,TGA,PCX,PNG and many more. These formats are rarely used however support through Image Alchemy is available. You can get Image Alchemy from Hand Made software's home page (link above). Their demo version is limited to image resolutions of 640x480 and under. If you already own Image Alchemy, make sure you have the latest version installed otherwise Turn OFF progressive JPEG encoding since it was only added in the latest version. A final note: Image Alchemy comes in various EXE file names (alchemy.exe,alch386.exe, alchlong.exe), in order for PowerNailer to work with Image Alchemy, it must find it. To do that, rename the proper EXE file (alchlong.exe is the best for windows operation) into alch.exe and make sure it's in the file path.

Saving or Discarding broken thumbnails When dealing with an external decoder, various unforseen things may occur, one of them is Image Alchemy's inability to support certain corrupt images. If such a case occurs, a broken thumbnail will result. If you want the thumbnail moved along with the badly encoded image into the broken directory, enable this feature, if disabled the broken thumbnail will be erased.

Opening a visual console window on external conversion: Image Alchemy is a console application, this means it opens a DOS-Style window each time it runs. This will slow conversion greatly and is not recommended. If Visual conversion is enabled a console window will appear for each image Image Alchemy is called for. It is recommended to use this option only for debugging purposes.

External encoder scaling quality: Image Alchemy supports four different types of image scaling. All are MUCH slower than the internal scaling. Here is some information regarding the quality setting: A: Very poor quality; avoid this setting. B: Comparable to the Average quality of the internal encoder. C: Comparable to the Good quality of the internal encoder. D: Not much improvement over "C" and very slow.

External encoder JPEG encoding quality: Image Alchemy's JPEG encoding quality seems to work on a completely different scale compared to the internal encoder. A value of 32 seems to be about the same as a value of 78 in the internal encoder. They also say that any value over 95 is useless, so don't try going over 95.

Setting the size to define a broken thumbnail: When Image Alchemy messes up a scaling in mid-process it seems to break the file at about 220-230bytes, a value of 250 should catch all the broken thumbnails. I believe the smallest JPEG is about 700bytes, so no real JPEGS should slip through. You can not set this value to less than 230.

The Directory Structure: Since the release of PowerNailer v1.10 the directory structure has been greatly simplified. As of now, all you need to do is place all your image files in the directory you pointed to, and not the "\image" sub-directory as in previous versions. As in previous versions, all corrupted image files will be moved into the "\broken" directory within the directory you pointed to. If such a directory does not exist, it will be created automatically. Note: The images will only be moved if the "Move Broken Images" checkbox is checked.

Multi Page Processing: One of the strengths of PowerNailer is it's ability to handle Multi-Page thumbnails with ease. When starting to work on a directory PowerNailer does several things: first it checks if previously created pages exist in that directory. For Example PowerNailer searches the dir and finds that pages: PAGE00001.HTML PAGE00002.HTML PAGE00003.HTML Already exist. At that point PowerNailer will automatically start working at PAGE00004.HTML. Next PowerNailer will look for images that do not have a thumbnail. All images without thumbnails will then be added to the list of pictures that require a thumbnail and will then be added to the new page. When PowerNailer exceeds the amount of thumbnails that are defined for a single page, it automatically moves on to PAGE00005.HTML, and so forth. Using this system, when you wish to add more images to your pages, you have two choices: if you want a new sorted list and don't care about timing of pictures and catalogs, then simply erase all the thumbnail and HTML pages (*.html, *_tn.jpg) from the picture directory and start a fresh run; or, for people who want their pages dated and appended upon, copy all the new images into the picture directory and run PowerNailer, which will automatically find the new images (since they don't have any thumbnails) and create sequential pages for them.

Multi Page Indexing: PowerNailer creates all it's output HTML data in files called PAGExxxxx.HTML (i.e. PAGE00001.HTML, PAGE00002.HTML, PAGE00003.HTML ...). A separate program called the HTML Power Nailing Indexer was created in order to create index files that will point to all those PAGE files. You can find it on the VirtuaMedia Home Page.

Command Line parameters: /AUTO Using the '/AUTO' command line will make PowerNailer automatically press the "Begin" button for you, and automatically "Quit" when it's done. This is useful for batch processes. /CFG [FileName] For example: 'Powernailer.exe /cfg myconfig.cfg'. The '/CFG' command allows PowerNailer to load a user selectable configuration file at startup. This can be combined with the '/AUTO' command to use different image parameters for different jobs. /DEBUG The debug command is used to have PowerNailer create a log file (called 'powernailer.log'). This log file contains some information which may help you track down files that cause PowerNailer to crash for some reason.

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