Multimedia Xplorer version 2.0.0 PRE-RELEASE BETA TEST VERSION 4
Copyright ⌐ 1996-1998, Moon Software. All Rights Reserved.
Date: August 8, 1998
OS: Windows 95/98/NT4
Cost: $25, shareware
Author: Moon Software, Estonia (Europe)
mail: ahto@moonsoftware.ee
WWW: www.moonsoftware.ee
NOTE! If you view this is notepad, please turn on word
wrapping from the Edit menu.
NOTE! This is pre-release beta software. This means this program is still in development and may contain bugs. Also, some features may change in final version. Use it only if you feel comfortable using beta software.
NOTE! Please give me feedback about this all-new release. Both good or bad, no matter - just tell me what you think. It's not late to change how things work :-)
Contents
========
1. What is Multimedia Xplorer
2. All is new in this release
3. Known issues
4. Ordering
5. Distribution
1. What is Multimedia Xplorer
=============================
Multimedia Xplorer is an easy click'n'view application for viewing/managing most types of multimedia files, including images, sounds, videos, icons and cursors. It is designed to be efficient for power users, and simple for novice users. Includes image converter, slide show editor, startup & shutdown logo changer, Multimedia Detective file finder, icon extractor, batch converter etc.
Has interface similar to Windows Explorer and supports most it's functionality.
2. What's New in This Release
=============================
Beta 4:
added: While closing application and something is placed to the clipboard, you now see image of the picture in clipboard and have options to leave it or clear clipboard.
added: Help menu command to the slideshow.
added: Images in menus
changed: Browse for Folder dialogs are now enhanced - show files and allow creation of new folders
changed: Image decoding errors are now displayed on display area, not in message box, so you don't need to hit OK
changed: Under Windows98, file Open and Save common dialogs allow resize
fixed: Sometimes, in the Tagged Files dialog, if browsed for folder to copy/move files, and the Browse for Folder dialog was canceled, tagged files were cleared and Tagged Files dialog was closed
fixed: Some strings in Options dialog were not loaded from resource
fixed: The Help button in Convert dialog worked partially ;-)
fixed: If last image was converted with Resize option enabled and Aspect was checked, then next image used initially the same sizes used last time, even is Aspⁿect was checked
fixed: In the Batch Convert dialog, pressing the Explore button with no or invalid folder specified in the Folder field displays an error message
fixed: If image was rotated by 90 degrees and image was converted with the Resize option enabled, image was saved with wrong dimensions
fixed: In the Convert dialog, if icon file was open and Resize was checked, some items under the Resize were not disabled
fixed: If the Disable Context Menus option was active, then slide show editor still showed them
fixed: Windows Explorer deadlock on Windows98 when opening associated files by double-clicking
fixed: Some cosmetic fixes with One-Click Destinations toolbar
fixed: The print preview and printing should work now on most printers
fixed: If the "Use last filter" option is used and the last filter accidentally was the same as All Supported Files filter, access violation "happened".
note: see the issues section later
Beta 3:
added: Select Tagged Files command into the Edit menu. This allows you to select files that are tagged in browser
added: option to see tagged files in browser with different color
added: option to disable shell context menus in file and folder lists, since some extensions that use custom owner drawing may cause problems
added: options Allow Enlarge and Keep Aspect Ratio into the Batch Convert dialog
added: option to add a prefix or suffix to names of converted files in Batch Conversion. Useful for making thumbnails and add prefix "thb_" to thumbnail images.
added: possibility to resize images when saved
added: ZoomIn & ZoomOut menu items
added: Copy Filenames command into Tagged Files dialog
added: Zoom menu items and toolbar button are now disabled if no zoomable image open
fixed: problem, when after entering registration information, some menus didn't open any more
fixed: Access Violation when MX is closed via File -> Exit and image file was open
fixed: problem where in Batch Convert dialog, initially was no file format specified
fixed: some problems with highlighting filename and in-place renaming node if user has switched displaying file extensions off from Windows Explorer
fixed: Access Violations if MX was open and Windows is shat down
fixed: disabled some image operations if image decoding is still in progress
fixed: part of help file (contents dialog) was missing
removed: DAT file type from all supported and video files list. You can still see them if you activate All Files filter. There are too much DAT files that are no videos, so people are confused and report that they don't play
Beta 2:
* Resizing One-Click Destinations form so that one of entries displayed "..." modified that entry to include this ellipsis. That was main reason for releasing beta 2.
* Fixed problem, where QuickShow with Subfolders and Add With Subfolders command in Slideshow Editor didn't find any files from subfolders, if no files were in the current folder.
* Help button in Logo Changer works now.
* Uninstall now removes Multimeida Xplorer entry from folders' context menu and also from SendTo menu
+ Now includes registration application.
Overall in version 2 vs version 1.
Incomplete list of added functionality:
+ SuperFast image display
+ See image during decoding
+ Printing with print preview
+ Windows Explorer-like interface with full drag and drop support
+ Shell context menus for file and folder objects (use WinZip from MX if installed etc)
+ Multiple file operations
+ Image zooming
+ Integrated Media Player that pops up only if sound or video file is open
+ Allows tagging files, so you can later take action on all tagged files at once
+ Create thumbnails with Batch Conversion
+ One-Click Destinations, floating toolbar that allows one-click access to your Destination folders, making sorting of large file collection snap
+ Batch Rename allows to rename many files at once, as serie
+ Multi-image icon support - view all images in an icon at once
+ Destinations, Favorites, Programs allow you to define more than 10 items
+ You can use custom command line and pass short filename to programs in Run With menu
+ Position Wallpaper command allows you to drag image to the right position
+ Evaluation version has no reminder screen
+ much more :-)
Most of user interface is redesigned in version 2.0. New interface is similar to Windows Explorer and it actually acts like thas too: full drag and drop support, shell context menus for file and folder objects, compatible shortcut keys etc. Also, this version features superfast image decoding. If you are user of version 1.x, it's nice if you can go though all menu items and see what's new. Most old commands and dialogs are also enhanced. program itself should be more reliable too, when displaying invalid images.
Some stuff is also removed from new version. Currently there are no Tile Image function and you cannot display PNG images. Also, Batch Conversion has no separate menu entry - just select multiple files and use Convert command. Same is with the Rename, that allows renaming of multiple files now.
3. Known Issues
===============
* Beta 4 introduced a problem on Windows NT, where the main form caption contains garbage.
This happened after converting project from Delphi 3 to Delphi 4. Since not many people use Windows NT, this will be fixed for next release.
* Position Wallpaper doesn't work on Windows98. If anyone knows if it's possible to use this undocumented functionality in Windows98, please let me know. Free copy is your's :-)
* Sometimes some icon may draw with only black color. Try to reload the icon several times.
* Some third-party context-menu extensions that use undocumented (hook) functions to display images in context-menus may cause Multimedia Xplorer to crash if you right-click to get file context menu. Please try to disable image-drawing in such extensions. Please report any of such problems and also the name of shell extension that causes problems.
* The WinZip command in the Tagged Files dialog requres WinZip version 7.0 or newer. It won't work with the older versions, since older versions had poor command line support.
* During the slideshow, if in automatic mode and popupmenu is displayed, after closing the popupmenu, cursor remains visible.
4. Ordering
===========
You can order this beta version if you wish. The registration code will work with all coming 2.x versions. But please be sure to order version 2, not version 1 :-) All people who have purchased version 1 after May 1st 1998, will get free copy of version 2. Others can order upgrade, that costs $12.50. Full version costs $25 for new user.
5. Distribution
===============
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO RE-DISTRIBUTE THIS PRE-RELEASE BETA VERSION! You are welcome and encouraged to distribute the release version subject to the terms of the license agreement. If you know someone interested in trying the pre-release version, please ask them to download it from the Multimedia Xplorer Home Page at http://www.moonsoftware.ee .
