Cerious Software This Week's Windows Me/98 Pick!
 

Release Notes


Version 3.30 Release Notes

New File Types Supported
File Support Improvements
Miscellaneous New Features
Problems Fixed

Version 3.21 Release Notes

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Version 3.20 Release Notes

Problems Fixed
New File Types Supported
Miscellaneous Enhancements

Version 3.10 Release Notes

Note: ThumbsPlus version 3.10 does not represent major changes since version 3.0g; instead, it re-aligns our version numbers and indicates the enormous amount of development that has occurred since the original version 3.0.

Problems Fixed
Miscellaneous Enhancements

Version 3.0g Release Notes

New File Types Supported
File Support Improvements
Web Page Wizard
DDE Commands
Toolbar Extension
Printing and Catalog Improvements
Image Processing and Viewing Enhancements
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Problems Fixed
Problems Fixed (3.0g1)
Miscellaneous Enhancements (3.0g1)

Version 3.0f Release Notes

New File Types Supported
File Support Improvements
Metafile Processing Enhancements
Miscellaneous New Features
ThumbsPlus Registry Utilities
Problems Fixed
Problems Fixed (3.0f2)
Problems Fixed (3.0f1)

Version 3.0e Release Notes

Shareware Enhancements
File Support Improvements
Problems Fixed

Version 3.0d Release Notes

File Support Improvements
View Window Functions
Miscellaneous New Features
Problems Fixed

Version 3.0c Release Notes

New File Types Supported
File Support Improvements
Multi-Page File Support
View Window File Functions
Miscellaneous New Features
Problems Fixed

TDButil Documentation

Introduction
Converting Version 2.x Databases
Repairing ThumbsPlus Databases
Compacting ThumbsPlus Databases

 

New File Types Supported 3.30

.CEX Multiple-image JPEG files distributed by Walmart and Fujifilm. These files are handled as multi-page files within ThumbsPlus. You can also split them into individual files. Note: I only have a few samples of CEX files. If you have any that do not work, please send them to us or upload to our FTP site.
.PIC BioRad Confocal PIC files
.PIC SoftImage PIC files
.FPX Kodak FlashPix. This is a read-only implementation. (FlashPix was designed as a whole philosophy of image storage and processing that clashes with the support for dozens of formats and the methods of image processing in ThumbsPlus. I have provided FlashPix Support in ThumbsPlus mainly for compatibility with digital cameras that produce FPX files. Write capability will likely be added in a future release; however, support for storing and modifying the image transforms is unlikely.)

ThumbsPlus reads the transformed image data; rotations and adjustments stored in the FPX file are applied. If you want to read the original image instead, add the following to the THUMBS.INI file:

[FlashPix]
NoTransform=1

 

File Support Improvements 3.30

  • ThumbsPlus will now read digital camera (APP12) markers in JPEG files and display the information in the image comments.
  • Several problems with ATM font recognition and loading were fixed.
  • Fixed a problem with some unusual SFW files.
  • Fixed a problem reading grayscale DCS files.
  • Fixed a problem in GIF animation painting.

 

Miscellaneous New Features 3.30

  • When assigning keywords from the View window, the keyword dialog is positioned to the side or below the view window if possible.
  • ThumbsPlus will no longer allow a JPEG quality less than 20, and performs some additional checks when using the original quality.
  • ThumbsPlus now retains the original case of the extension when generating file names, such as during Batch Processing. (For example, conversion from ABC.BMP will result in ABC.JPG rather than ABC.jpg).
  • In all places where ThumbsPlus accepts a file mask (Edit|Select by Mask, Options|Preferences|File List, Options|Which Files|By Mask), ThumbsPlus will accept multiple masks separated by a semi-colon; for example: "*.jpg;*.gif;*.bmp."
  • The menu item for toggling between showing Selected Types and By Mask has been split into separate items for clarity. Additionally, selecting "By Mask" now allows you to enter a new file mask without having to open the File List preferences.

 

Problems Fixed 3.30

  • Fixed a resource leak when thumbnailing or viewing icon (.ICO) files.
  • Eliminated a memory leak when thumbnailing or viewing raster PICT files.
  • Autocrop did not work properly with bi-level (monochrome) bitmaps.
  • Fixed a paint problem with the selection rectangle in the view window.
  • Print Catalog no longer prints a blank page if the last page is completely full.
  • Made the file recognition routines less likely to incorrectly identify a MacPaint file.
  • The maximum values for number of columns is adjusted properly in Print Catalog and Contact Sheets.
  • A problem writing TIFF 48-bit palettes was corrected.
  • ThumbsPlus now zeroes the buffer for reading TIFF data, which works around problems reading some files that were stored with incomplete strips (especially some invalid CCITT group IV files.)
  • The "Category" drop-down in New Filter and Edit Filter is now properly filled in.

 

Miscellaneous Enhancements & Fixes - 3.21

  • You may now select for animated GIF files to loop in Options | File Loading | GIF. Only one GIF animation may be active at a time.
  • CMYK TIFF files with alpha channels are now loaded properly.
  • Support has been added for BioRad Confocal .PIC files.
  • Support has been added for Olympus Confocal .TIFF files
  • FLC files will now automatically thumbnail from the first frame.
  • New versions of DCS (Kodak Professional Camera) files are now supported.

 

Problems Fixed - 3.20

  • Fixed a filename display problem on Win32s (the filenames displayed with path information).
  • L*a*b color space conversion in TIFF and PSD files is now much more accurate.
  • Support provided for BMP files with BI_BITFIELDS and more than 8 bits per pixel.
  • "Customize toolbar" now remembers "office 97 style" toolbar setting.
  • Options | File Loading | PhotoCD now saves your selected PhotoCD resolution and format so you don't have to reset each time you start ThumbsPlus.
  • When saving a GIF file, the GIF type (87a,89a) option was not set appropriately.
  • ThumbsPlus will now read JPEG files with invalid COM marker lengths (i.e., some Accusoft-generated files).
  • The Equalize Histogram command was not available from Batch Conversion.
  • Slide show (-s) and some DDE commands didn't change to the indicated directory.
  • ThumbsPlus now shows any defined alias when asking you to insert an offline volume.
  • The File | Open Database and File | New Database commands now default to current database's location.
  • The Web Page Wizard shortcut key has changed to Ctrl+Shift+F8 (the previous shortcut key conflicted with multi-file keyboard select).
  • ThumbsPlus no longer needlessly builds a palette when batch converting images to Truecolor (RGB) mode.
  • Some WPG files that reported "out of memory" because of extremely complex Bézier curves now render properly.
  • In a view window, the Next File and Previous File options were disabled after reloading a file.
  • Import filter names were not evident because of long paths (now shows name at start, followed by the full path).
  • ThumbsPlus now forces a space between the font sample text and the font name
  • Combine keywords (Options | Database | Edit Keywords) didn't work unless you entered one of the selected keywords.
  • The slide show became the "slide slow" after a while, and would sometimes consume unnecessary system resources.
  • I changed the background color for histogram. ThumbsPlus now uses the Tool Tip color from Control Panel, unless it is a shade of gray, in which case blue is used as the default.
  • "Match by share name" now disables matching network volumes by serial number.
  • The view window scroll bars are now proportional to the size of the viewable portion of the image (Windows 95/98/NT 4 only).
  • Fixed problem where thumbnails did not always move when moving files (overwrite). Any old thumbnail is now properly overwritten when the file is overwritten.
  • Movies (AVI, MOV, MPG, etc.) now appear in the Slide Show, and on Windows 3.1/Win32s.
  • Other minor fixes.

 

New File Types Supported - 3.20

.IPL IPLab images. Image files generated by versions 2 and 3 of IPLab. ThumbsPlus supports 8-bit grayscale, 16-bit grayscale, 32-bit grayscale, and 32-bit color images. Multi-frame files are also supported. 16 and 32-bit graycale images are scaled to 8-bit when loading.
.FIT, .FITS, .FTS, .LBL, .HDR NASA FITS images. ThumbsPlus supports many variations of FITS images, including various record formats (VAX, CRLF, fixed).
.PBM, .PGM, .PPM, .PNM Portable bitmap, graymap, pixelmap and anymap (popular Unix intermediate formats for converting between file types using the PBMPLUS and NETPBM utilities).
.PDS NASA Planetary Data System files
.IMQ Compressed PDS files (NASA)
.255 A variant SBIG format (similar to .ST5). Compressed and uncompressed images are supported.
.FLC, .FLI Autodesk Animator animation files (Windows 95/98 only).
.AU, .SND, .AIF, .AIFF, .AIFC These sound file formats are now supported, as long as Microsoft ActiveMovie is installed on your system.

Miscellaneous Enhancements - 3.20

  • Picture | Find by filename - to search the ThumbsPlus database for specific file names or masks.
  • By checking the "Auto view" box in Image | Color Adjust and View | Assumed Gamma, you can now automatically view color adjustments as they are being made. (Not recommended for slow displays!)
  • You can now pan view windows (by dragging with the right mouse button, or CTRL+left button).
  • I added an image processing option (Image | Process | JPEG Cleanup), which smoothes the edges of JPEG DCT blocks. It won't recover losses from JPEGs compressed too far, but often makes them prettier.
  • The most recently assigned keywords (single or multiple) are available for quick assignment when using the right-click context menu to assign keywords in the main window.
  • On startup, ThumbsPlus checks for unlabeled hard drives and gives you the opportunity to label them.
  • The slide show now (again) defaults to all files if only one is selected. I'll make this an option if enough people request a "single-file slide show."
  • Database import and export, for combining or splitting databases, and for transferring database information to other programs.
  • Improved external filter support. Many more Aldus filters work properly, including the ones distributed with Microsoft Office products.
  • ThumbsPlus now properly orients TIFF files with unusual orientations.
  • You can now specify planar-organized raw RGB/BGR files (Options | File Loading | Raw).
  • ThumbsPlus now uses horizontal differencing (for improved compression) with LZW saves of 24-bit TIFF files.
  • ThumbsPlus shows memory requirement for loading image in Info box, and size of image in the view window status line.
  • The preview in the Color Adjust dialog is a wee bit larger.
  • The file resolution (dpi) for JPEG files now appears in File | Properties.
  • The File context menu now includes the Print command.
  • New splash screen.
  • Histogram stretch (contrast stretch) now available from Histogram and Batch Convert/Edit.
  • The help file has been enhanced and updated (there's still more to do, but it's more up-to-date than it was).

 


Problems Fixed - 3.10

Note: ThumbsPlus version 3.10 does not represent major changes since version 3.0g; instead, it re-aligns our version numbers and indicates the enormous amount of development that has occurred since the original version 3.0.

  • Using some display drivers, 8-bit RLE BMP files would not load with the correct colors.
  • Loading a CAM file showed the progress indicator and brought the ThumbsPlus main window to front.
  • Reducing to 8-bit color is more accurate and faster in some cases.
  • The "disappearing toolbar" magic trick is gone (where the toolbar would occasionally display blank).
  • The volume information and disk drive letter are properly displayed on Windows 3.1/Win32s.
  • A default toolbar can now be stored in the THUMBS.DEF file for network installations.
  • I fixed problems with multiple keyword lookup dialogs and the "found" list disappearing when pressing <ESC> in a view window.
  • "Save As" would not work properly on Windows NT 3.51.
  • View window accelerator keys work in slide show again.
  • Fonts were sporadically installed during catalog/contact sheets.
  • AVI files in the same folder caused catalog, contact, and web page problems.
  • An IPF occurred in DIBENG when auto-cropping some metafiles.
  • Pasting a screen capture did not work properly on Windows NT 4.0 with some 16 or 32-bit display drivers.
  • The monitor gamma was ignored in the color adjust preview and view.
  • The annotation and keywords would not always print when printing images.
  • Fixed a problem communicating with some incorrect TWAIN data sources.
  • Invalid compressed BMP files that would crash some display drivers.
  • Some invalid KDC files would cause a GPF or IPF.
  • The result of cropping a monochrome (bi-level) bitmap would often be off by several pixels.
  • The Remove Orphan options "Current Drive" and "All Local Drives" are now operative.
  • "Best fit for sizing" now properly selects "Resample" when reducing and "Bi-cubic" when expanding an image without rotation.
  • Bad or malformed ICO files could cause ThumbsPlus crashes, especially on NT.

Miscellaneous New Features - 3.10

  • A "Multi-page" keyword is now automatically assigned for animated GIFs, multi-page TIFs and DCX files, if Automatically generate keywords … From image attributes is checked in Options | Preferences | Keywords.
  • Minolta RD-175 (.MDC) camera files can now be read and thumbnailed by ThumbsPlus.
  • ThumbsPlus can now thumbnail and view Adobe Type 1 (ATM) fonts (.PFB files) on Windows NT if ATM deluxe 4.0 NT is installed.
  • You can sort the file list by numeric file name. This will correctly sort file names such as "abc1.jpg," "abc10.jpg," and "abc2.jpg."
  • I moved the file name displayed in the slide show to the bottom-left corner of the screen, as it is more likely to be visible there.
  • The dates and times DC40, DC50 and DC120 images were taken are now included in the comments and details for KDC files.
  • Web Wizard thumbnail files (tn_*) now include the original file extension to avoid duplicate thumbnail file names when multiple originals had the same name but different extensions.
  • I added a "Save and Close" option to the View Window. This will save the file and close the window using one command.
  • A new DDE command, ExportThumb is available. This command will extract all selected files’ thumbnails as images and save them to files. Its syntax is:

ExportThumb(type;extension;path)

Where type represents the file type to write, extension represents the file extension to use, and path provides the output path for the thumbnail files.

  • ThumbsPlus now recognizes GIF files that contain garbage before the GIF header (such as files saved by Microsoft’s proxy server), and GIF files with zero sizes in the screen header.
  • Autocrop now ignores images that are entirely one color. This produces more visible thumbnails for solid files (rather than only a vertical line).
  • I added a "Save" button to the Edit Comments window so you can save image comments to a text file.
  • Uncompressed TIFF files with invalid strip lengths can now be read.
  • You can now acquire and save to multiple files without viewing first (especially useful for auto-document feeders). The menu option Picture | TWAIN Multiple Acquire produces a dialog box where you specify the prefix, sequence number, and file format for the stored scans. To help you keep things in sync, ThumbsPlus uses the same prefix and sequence number for single acquisitions.
  • ThumbsPlus can save TIFF files with reduced color information (6 bits red, 6 bits blue, and 7 bits green) for increased compressibility. To enable this option, select Skim low-order bits from the Tiff Options dialog while saving. This option is only useful for saving 24-bit images; for other image color depths, it is ignored.

Problems Fixed - 3.0g1

  • Selecting the "Include Lores" option in the Web Page Wizard caused ThumbsPlus to crash.
  • ThumbsPlus did not position to the startup directory when a new database was opened.
  • The font selected for displaying image comments was not saved.
  • EPS files would sometimes be left open (and unable to delete) after thumbnailing or viewing.
  • Images and metafiles were always cropped on catalogs and contact sheets, without regard to the option setting.
  • The third view window cursor (Options | Preferences | Viewing) did not work properly.
  • 24-bit RGB Raw images were not decoded properly.
  • Metafiles are now copied to the clipboard to be compatible with Office 97 applications, which do not follow Microsoft's own guidelines for pasting metafiles! This should also work around problems with other programs that were not pasting metafiles correctly.
  • Anti-aliasing is faster and more accurate when converting metafiles to bitmaps, and when making thumbnails of metafiles.
  • Attempting to combine or rename keywords of exactly 32 characters would cause ThumbsPlus to crash.
  • ThumbsPlus would sometimes crash in the Rotate/Resize dialog, especially when fitting to height or width and entering numbers directly.
  • .MND (Mandelbrot) files could not be loaded.
  • The Professional DCS camera library (PDC_API.DLL) was not distributed in the 3.0g Registered Upgrade.
  • Options | Which Files | Child Folders now works properly for offline volumes.
  • I fixed several other small bugs.

 


Miscellaneous Enhancements - 3.0g1

  • You can now specify up to five keywords for the keyword lookup (Picture | Find), and the keyword search is somewhat faster.
  • The .PMP file type (Sony digital camera) is now supported.
  • There's an "Office 97 style" option for the toolbar (Window | Customize Toolbar), and the small toolbar buttons are sharper.
  • ThumbsPlus will refuse to delete the Windows or System folders, and EXE, DLL, SYS and DRV files incur an additional warning while deleting.
  • You can turn on the option for viewing thumbnails for the entire current tree (child folders) by default from Options | Preferences | File List. Note that this can be rather slow, especially for drives with many files or directories.
  • A few new THUMBS.INI file options are available:
[KDC]
UseThumbnails
Set to one (1) to cause ThumbsPlus to use the thumbnail present in some KDC files.
[Catalog]
AlwaysCenter
Set to one (1) for ThumbsPlus to always center the columns. (The default is to left-justify when annotations or keywords are selected.)
[ContactSheets]
AlwaysCenter
Set to one (1) for ThumbsPlus to always center the columns. (The default is to left-justify when annotations or keywords are selected.)
[Startup]
NetworkAsRemovable
Set to zero (0) for ThumbsPlus to treat network drives more like local disks (each drive will be queried for its label or connection info upon startup).
[Startup]
NoExpand
Set to one (1) for ThumbsPlus to open with all drives collapsed.
[Autocrop]
Tolerance
Set to a value between 0 and 255 to set the autocrop tolerance level for truecolor images. The higher the number, the less similar the border pixels have to be. This is especially useful for JPEG files.

 


New File Types Supported - 3.0g

The following file types are now supported by ThumbsPlus:

KDC Kodak DC120 native camera format. I believe that DC25 images are also supported, but do not have any examples for verifying this. ThumbsPlus also loads the image information for all KDC files (exposure time, zoom focal length, f-stop, distance from camera, etc.) into the image comments, and displays them in Picture | Properties | Details.
SGI, RGB Silicon Graphics Image files. These are the native raster files from Silicon Graphics workstations.
SFW Seattle Filmworks (Mangled JPEG files). SFW files are standard JFIF files with different codes for the markers and DCT tables removed.
DCS (registered only) Kodak Professional Digital Camera TIFF files. Images produced by the DCS4xx series of Kodak cameras are now supported. They have the standard TIF extension, but are not really TIFF files. Unfortunately, the DCS library requires that the extension be TIF to load them, so don’t rename them!
MIC Microsoft Image Composer files. ThumbsPlus loads these files as a single image (all layers are combined).

 


File Support Improvements - 3.0g

TIFF 16-bit grayscale TIFF files are now auto-scaled to 8 bits when loading (rather than simply using the high-order 8 bits). This behavior can be reverted to the original behavior by adding a line "AutoScale16=0" to the [Tiff] section of THUMBS.INI
PNG PNG files may now be saved. Transparency and interlacing are not yet supported.
JPEG Saving JPEG files as grayscale is no longer available. As far as I could tell, this option only caused problems. To save a JPEG image as grayscale, just use Image|Color Depth to reduce it to grayscale before saving.
JPEG The original JPEG image quality is now computed from the quantization tables and used by default for re-saving JPEG files.

 


Web Page Wizard - 3.0g

The Web Page Wizard, available on the Thumbnail menu, provides a way for ThumbsPlus to generate web pages of thumbnails for publishing on the World Wide Web.

The wizard will guide you through the steps required to make an on-line catalog of images, and several templates are available for different web page appearances. The catalog can be a single page, or may span several pages.

If you select more graphics than will fit in the table, ThumbsPlus will automatically generate multiple pages; each generated page will have link to the next and previous pages.

It requires a fair amount of information to build the web pages; here are the fields that ThumbsPlus requests on each Wizard page:


Web Page Style

Style The style (template) to use to generate the web pages.
Thumbnail Table Only ThumbsPlus will not use a template, and will build HTML files that contain only the tables. Such files are intended for inclusion in other pages, and are not designed to be published (they don’t include HTML header information or tags).
File Name Prefix Enter the HTML file name you want to use. ThumbsPlus will automatically append the page number to this. So, if you specify "Page" here, ThumbsPlus will generate "Page0001.html," "Page0002.html," etc.

Table Format

Number of Columns Number of columns in the thumbnail tables.
Number of Rows The number of rows in the thumbnail table. If more files are specified than fit in the table (rows x columns), ThumbsPlus will generate multiple pages.
Border Size The width and height of the table border. To disable table borders, set this field to zero.

Thumbnail Format

Thumbnail Width The width, in pixels, of each thumbnail. Larger thumbnails require more disk space for you and more download time for users. The default is 96 pixels, which is the same as the default ThumbsPlus thumbnail size.
Thumbnail Height The height, in pixels, of each thumbnail. Larger thumbnails require more disk space for you and more download time for users. The default is 72 pixels, which is the same as the default ThumbsPlus thumbnail size.
Format (GIF/Jpeg) Select the format for the thumbnails. Generally, JPEG works best for photographic images, and GIF for line-drawn. You may wish to experiment with your particular graphics.
Jpeg Quality The quality level for JPEG thumbnails. This option is available only if you select JPEG thumbnails. Because thumbnails are small, you can usually get away with a fairly low quality of 60 or so.
Include Lores When you select JPEG thumbnails, ThumbsPlus can also generate low-resolution black and white GIF images. Some browsers will load these first, giving the overall appearance of the page, then load the full-resolution JPEG images.
Use originals if smaller than thumbnail size When the original file is smaller than the thumbnail size (above), ThumbsPlus will use the original rather than make a separate file for the thumbnail. (However, if you choose "custom locations" below, ThumbsPlus will still make a copy of the file in the thumbnail directory.)

Files to Thumbnail

All Files in the current folder Select this option to generate thumbnails for all files in the current folder. The files will be ordered just as in the current thumbnail list.
Selected files only Select this option to generate thumbnails only for the selected files. If no files are selected, this option will be disabled.
Copy files to destination folder Check this box if you want ThumbsPlus to automatically copy the original graphic files to the destination directory.
Lower case file names Forces the file names to lower case.
Netscape compatible names Removes spaces and special characters from the file names.

File Information

File Name Select to show the original file name beneath each thumbnail.
File Size Select to show the original file size (in bytes, Kb or Mb) beneath each thumbnail. This can be useful to give users an idea how long it will take to view the original.
Image Dimensions Select to show the width and height of the original image beneath each thumbnail.
File Date Select to show the original file’s date and time beneath each thumbnail.
Keywords Shows the keywords associated with each file in the ThumbsPlus database.
Annotation Shows the annotation for each file from the database.

Web Page Text

Heading Enter the title of the web pages.
Comment Enter any additional text to go on each web page. In the templates supplied with ThumbsPlus, this information goes between the heading and the thumbnail table.
Home page URL Enter a "Return to" URL. Each page contains a "previous page", "next page" and "home" link; this URL will be used for the "home" link.

File Locations

Same URL/Folder for Everything Select this option to place all files (HTML, supporting graphics, original images, and thumbnail images) in the same folder on your system. This is definitely the simpler option, and especially recommended for new users.
Custom URLs/Folders For advanced users, this option provides the opportunity to place the HTML pages, original images, and thumbnail images in different folders (and URLs).

Select Location (when "Same URL/Folder" is selected)

Select Location This is the folder on your system where you want to place everything.

Select Locations (when "Custom URLs/Folders is selected)

Base Folder for HTML pages Enter or browse for the folder in which you want ThumbsPlus to place the generated HTML pages.
Folder for Images Enter or browse for the folder in which you want ThumbsPlus to place the images. (The images are only copied here if you selected "Copy files to destination folder."
URL Enter the URL (relative or absolute) that corresponds to the Images folder. Assuming that your HTML pages are in c:\myweb\catalog and your images are in c:\myweb\catalog\images, the proper URL would generally be images/.
Folder for Thumbnails Enter or browse for the folder in which you want ThumbsPlus to place the thumbnails.
URL As for the Images URL above, enter the URL (relative or absolute) that corresponds to the Thumbnails folder.
No Prefix ThumbsPlus does not prefix the thumbnail file name with "tn_".

Ready to Build

Launch Browser when Done Select this option for ThumbsPlus to launch the first page when the thumbnails and pages have been created. The local file name will be passed to your current browser, so if you specified custom folders or URLs, they should match appropriately. If you specified absolute URLs, or different URL paths than the physical sub-folder names, you’ll need to copy your pages and graphics to your Web server before testing.

If you wish to create your own templates, you can do so using any text or HTML editor. ThumbsPlus replaces tokens in the template with the information you provide using the wizard, and with a table of thumbnails. You should give your templates different names, as updates to ThumbsPlus may overwrite the templates provided. Your template file should have the extension ".tpt".

ThumbsPlus recognizes the following tokens in the web page template:


{{Heading}} The heading for the web page. This text is used for the HTML title, and also shown at the top of the page.
{{Comments}} Comments (general text). The text may contain HTML directives.
{{Thumbnails}} The thumbnail table itself. The wizard includes options to specify the width (in columns), the height (in rows), and the border size for the thumbnail table. You can also specify the size of thumbnails, and which information will be shown for each file.
{{Page}} Current page number.
{{Pages}} The total number of pages generated.
{{Prev} The beginning of the link to the previous page.
{/Prev}} The end of the link to the previous page.
{{Next} The beginning of the link to the next page.
{/Next}} The end of the link to the next page.
{{Home} The beginning of the link to the home page.
{/Home}} The end of the link to the home page.

If your template references graphics, you should either provide references which you know will be valid when transferring to your web server, or give them names that start with the template name, so that ThumbsPlus will automatically copy them to the destination folder. For example, the provided template "Fancy" has several associated graphics: FancyLt.gif, FancyRt.gif, FancyBg.gif, and FancyHm.gif. (These names are short to ensure compatibility with Windows 3.1; yours do not have to be.)

Here is the "Simple" template provided with ThumbsPlus:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>{{Heading}}</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<h1>{{Heading}}</h1>
<p>{{Comments}}</p>
{{Thumbnails}}
<p>{{Home}Home{/Home}}|{{Prev}Previous Page{/Prev}}|{{Next}Next Page{/Next}}</p>
<p>Page {{Page}} of {{Pages}}
</body>
</html>

 


DDE Commands - 3.0g

ThumbsPlus will respond to the following DDE commands, each of which is covered in detail more detail:

Close Close a view window
CopyClipboard Copy an image or metafile to the clipboard
Exit Exit the program
Find Find files by assigned keyword
Keyword Assign/remove keywords from files
LocateFile Locate and select a file or set of files (by mask)
MakeThumb Make a thumbnail for a file or for currently selected files
Open Open a file and show it in a view window
OpenDB Open a specific ThumbsPlus database
OpenDir Position the directory list in a specific directory
Print Print a file
RefreshTree Re-reads the directory tree
Remove Remove thumbnail from selected files
RemoveTree Remove thumbnails from a directory tree
ScanTree Scan a directory tree and create thumbnails
SlideShow Start a slide show
UpdateAll Update all thumbnails in a specific directory or the current directory

Note: Most commands accept a file name as a parameter. You may enclose the name in quotes if you wish, but this is not required. When the filename parameter is optional for a command, it is shown in blue. You should always use the complete path to the file.

If you use a UNC name (i.e., \\PHILLIP\C\TEMP) for OpenDir or LocateFile, ThumbsPlus will automatically map a drive letter for you.

 

CopyClipboard

Syntax: CopyClipboard(filename)

Abbreviation: B(filename)

Copies the currently-selected file or a specific file to the clipboard. If a file is specified, the directory tree and file list are positioned, and the file becomes selected.

Close

Syntax: Close(filename)

Abbreviation: C(filename)

This function closes any view window for the file specified.

Exit

Syntax: Exit()

Abbreviation: X()

This function closes ThumbsPlus.

Keyword

Syntax: Keyword(keyword-list|filename)

Abbreviation: K(keyword-list|filename)

This command assigns keywords to or removes keywords from a file.

The keyword list is separated by semicolons; each keyword may be preceded by a '-' or '+' to indicate that the keyword should be removed or added. The default is to add.

Examples:

Keyword("+large;+dog;+animal;-cat|c:\images\animals\dog.jpg")

Find

Syntax: Find(keyword-list)

Abbreviation: F(keyword-list)

Finds files associated with particular keywords. The keyword-list is formatted as follows:

[how]keyword1;keyword2;…

'How' is a single character to indicate whether all ('&'), any ('|'), or most ('*') keywords must match. For example:

Find("&raster;.jpg;truecolor")

Find("*raster;truecolor;palette")

LocateFile

Syntax: LocateFile(filename)

Abbreviation: L(filename)

This function locates a file. The directory list is positioned at the file’s directory, and the file itself is selected. You can use a file mask to specify a set of files to select; for example:

LocateFile(C:\Temp\*.*)

MakeThumb

Syntax: MakeThumb(filename)

Abbreviation: M(filename)

This function creates thumbnails for a specific file or a set of files. The filename parameter is optional; if not specified, thumbnails are made for any currently selected files. Like #LJdde_locatefile#LocateFile, this command will accept a mask for the file name. The directory list will be repositioned if the file is in a different directory from the current one.

Open

Syntax: Open(filename)

Alternate: FileOpen(filename)

Abbreviation: O(filename)

This command opens a specific file in a view window. The current directory position and file selections are not modified by this command, and this command does not accept a file mask.

OpenDB

Syntax: OpenDB(filename)

Abbreviation: DB(filename)

This command closes the currently-open ThumbsPlus database and opens another.

OpenDir

Syntax: OpenDir(path)

Abbreviation: D(path)

This command positions the ThumbsPlus directory list in a specific directory.

Print

Syntax: Print(filename)

Abbreviation: P(filename)

This command prints a specific file. The current directory position and file selections are not modified by this command, and it does not accept a file mask.

RefreshTree

Syntax: RefreshTree()

Abbreviation: T()

This command causes ThumbsPlus to re-read the directory tree, allowing updates from other programs to be visible. It's also useful as a DDE command to initialize the tree when ThumbsPlus is started minimized (ThumbsPlus does not read the tree by default until the main window is visible -- this improves performance when the "simple" DDE commands are used, such as Open and Print).

RemoveThumb

Syntax: RemoveThumb(filename)

Abbreviation: R(filename)

Removes the thumbnail from the currently selected file, or from a specific file. This also removes any associated keywords.

RemoveTree

Syntax: RemoveTree(path)

Abbreviation: V(path)

Removes thumbnails from the current tree, or from a specific path.

ScanTree

Syntax: ScanTree(path)

Abbreviation: S(path)

This operation scans the current or a specific directory tree, creating thumbnails.

SlideShow

Syntax: SlideShow(path)

Abbreviation: W(path)

This function runs a slide show from the current directory (if no path is specified), or in a specified directory. If a directory is specified, the directory list is repositioned in that directory.

UpdateAll

Syntax: UpdateAll(filename)

Abbreviation: U(filename)

This function updates all thumbnails in the current directory (if no filename is specified), or in a specified directory. If a directory is specified, the directory list is repositioned in that directory.

 


Toolbar Extension - 3.0g

This release of ThumbsPlus allows you to add toolbar buttons that correspond to other applications. When pressed, these buttons cause the application to execute and open any selected file(s).

In order to provide this capability, the Customize Toolbar dialog has a new button, labeled "External Program." When clicked, another dialog displays, giving you the opportunity to locate and configure an external program:

Toolbar External Program DialogWhen in toolbar editing mode, you can also double-click any external program icon to modify its behavior.

Either enter the complete path to the Program to Run, or click on the browse ("…") button to locate it. You may locate either the program itself or a shortcut to it.

Then, select the Icon to be shown as the toolbar button for the application, and enter Toolbar & Tooltip Text for the application

If the program is capable of opening multiple files simultaneously, click on the Accepts Multiple Files check box. If DDE is also used, then ThumbsPlus will send a separate DDE command for each selected file; otherwise, the selected file names will be passed on the command line, each enclosed in double-quotes, separated by spaces.

If the program is a 16-bit (Windows 3.1 program), or for some other reason does not accept quoted long file names as parameters, check Use Short File Names.

If the program responds to DDE commands for opening files, click on the Use DDE Command check box. In this case, you’ll also need to fill in the DDE fields to show information for how ThumbsPlus should conduct a DDE conversation with the application.

Enter any required command line options for starting the program in the DDE Options field. Specify the application’s service name in the DDE Service field. The DDE Topic field should contain the topic for the DDE conversation (which is almost always System). In DDE Command, place the command that ThumbsPlus should send for each file. Use the string ‘%s’ to represent where ThumbsPlus should place the file name.

All of these fields are often contained in the Windows registry for many applications; check the file extension for the file type in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. If this key has a sub-key called ‘shell\Open\ddeexec’, then the application is probably capable of opening files using DDE. Sometimes, the default value for the extension key has an entry itself that has the shell\Open\ddexec. For example, if the application ‘XYZ Image Editor’ uses a default extension of .XYZ, you could find either of these situations in the registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz\shell\Open\ddexec

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz value: XYZ.Image

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\XYZ.Image\shell\Open\ddeexec

In either case, the information in the shell\Open sub-tree can be used to specify the DDE fields:

…\shell\Open\command

Has any DDE Options required for running the program (often -dde, /DDE or /N).

…\shell\Open\ddeexec

Has the DDE Command to run; i.e., [Open("%1")] or [FileOpen("%1")]. Note that ThumbsPlus uses "%s" rather than "%1" to represent the program name.

...\shell\Open\ddeexec\application

Specifies the DDE Service name to use.

…\shell\Open\ddeexec\topic

Show the DDE Topic that should be specified (usually System). If this key is not present, then you should use System.

Note: A future release of ThumbsPlus may provide the ability to automatically extract this information from the registry.

 


Printing and Catalog Enhancements 3.0g

  • When printing images, you can now select whether to print them at the resolution (DPI) stored in the image.
  • You can now include various textual items with printed graphics (Picture | Page Setup), including: Name, Size, Date/Time, Dimensions, Resolution, Keywords, Annotation, and IPTC/NAA information.
  • When printing a catalog or making contact sheets, you can now include the keywords and annotation.

New Image Processing and Viewing Functions 3.0g

  • Image filters are now directly accessible from the Filters sub-menu of the Image menu in a view window. When filters with options (i.e., direction, channels or aperture) are picked this way, the last settings are used. To bring up the settings dialog box, press SHIFT when selecting the menu item.
  • ThumbsPlus can now generate a common optimized palette from multiple images. You can create such a palette by itself (Edit | Common Palette), or when batch processing a group of images (select "Common Optimized" from the Palette drop-down in Picture | Batch Convert/Edit | Color Depth).
  • Resample is available as an interpolation method when resizing images. This is best for reducing the size of images.
  • Bi-level images may be scaled-to-gray when reduced for display (Options | Preferences | Viewing).
  • ThumbsPlus can dither output to 15 or 16-bit displays (Highcolor) for improved appearance. You can turn this on in Options | Preferences | Viewing.
  • There are several image processes available from the Image menu in the view window:
Auto Color Balance
Shift+A
Attempts to color balance the image, based on an average of all pixels or an average of the pixels in the current selection. If you make a selection, select an area that should appear gray rather than colored.
Improve Video Capture
Shift+V
Increases the image saturation and contrast, and lightly sharpens the image.
Fluorescent Lighting
Shift+L
Attempts to eliminate the color shift caused by fluorescent lighting. Since different cameras and videos have different responses to the shift, and because different lights have different effects, this filter only handles some cases.
General Enhancement
Shift+G
Increases image saturation and contrast, and sharpens the image.
Contrast Enhancement
Shift+C
Increases image contrast and adjusts assumed gamma by 20%.

 


Miscellaneous New Features - 3.0g

  • You can set the minimum time between automatic directory updates (the default is 5 seconds) in the Thumbs.ini file. Add the entry "DirectoryScanFreq=5000" to the [Startup] section. The value is the number of milliseconds between refreshes.
  • You can now assign multiple keywords to selected file(s) by separating them with semi-colons in the Assign Keyword dialog box.
  • ThumbsPlus now identifies files faster if their extension matches the file type (i.e., it checks if a file named "xyz.jpg" is a JPEG before attempting to identify it as any other type).
  • On Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 98, the default "Save As" dialog box is now the new Explorer style.
  • Several file types have been added as shown by default.
  • You can map and disconnect network drives from within ThumbsPlus.
  • Thumbnail|Scan System is now available. This provides you the opportunity to scan all drives (or categories of drives) in a one fell swoop.
  • You can save the list of errors generated to a file.
  • The font window saves and uses the last size and position.
  • The file list builds and updates somewhat more quickly. For the fastest updates in directories with lots of images, you should set these options:

Options|Preferences|General – Show Orphaned Thumbnails is OFF.

Options|Preferences|General – Automatically Remove Orphans is OFF.

Options|Preferences|File List – Order by is Unsorted.

  • You can now do a slide show for the files in the current folder and all its sub-folders (recursive).
  • You can specify, in each TDO file, whether hidden and system folders are shown in the directory tree:
[Tree]
ShowHiddenDirs=1 The default is to show these directories (i.e., MS Internet cache)
ShowSystemDirs=1 The default is to show these folders (i.e., Windows\Fonts)
ShowHiddenSystemDirs=0 The default is to not show these folders (i.e., Recycled)
  • Prettier icons (at least I think so).
  • (Beta 3) There are several menu items which can be modified by pressing ALT or SHIFT when selecting them:
Picture|Slide Show Press ALT or SHIFT to bring up the Slide Show Options before running the slide show.
Image|Filter Press SHIFT to bring up the Filter Options dialog for the specific filter selected.
Options|Sort By|… Press SHIFT to toggle ascending/descending when picking a new sort order.
  • You can now select that all thumbnails in sub-folders be included in the current file list (thumbnail view). The menu option is Options|Which Files|Child Folders.
  • You can toggle between selected file types and a file mask using Options|Which Files|All Files.
  • The startup options have been removed from Options|Save for Startup, and are now available in Options|Preferences|Startup. This makes saving current window size, tree, and directory much more convenient.

 


Problems Fixed - 3.0g

  • Creating a contact sheet or batch converting a group of files that includes sounds, cursors, or fonts no longer causes an IPF.
  • Invalid or partial ZIP files no longer cause spurious message boxes when scanning a drive or tree.
  • View while Loading is no longer available for PhotoCD files (it didn’t work correctly anyway).
  • A memory leak was fixed when loading PhotoCD files, and they are loaded considerably faster.
  • When Gamma Correction is set, View While Loading is on, and JPEGs were loaded in 8-bit mode, the colors were wrong until the view window was resized or modified.
  • Page Setup now correctly displays all margins when.
  • Incorrect values for free space were reported when more than 2GB was free on a drive.
  • Blank headers & footers in contact sheets and catalogs are now properly saved to the INI file, and blank lines are no longer added.
  • The "New page for each directory" option now works correctly for both contact sheets and catalogs.
  • The selection rectangle is now easier to see and behaves more properly.
  • Write errors in TIFF files are now only supported once.
  • Edit|Select All (Ctrl+A) did not work properly when only a single file was in a folder.
  • The "screen background" is eliminated by default from when saving GIFs.
  • Options|Viewing|Zoom-Fit to Width did not work properly.
  • Zip files on CD-ROMs did not work.
  • CD-ROMs and removable volumes without volume labels would not show up.
  • Orphan thumbnails no longer disappear when the file list refreshes because of a change in the folder.
  • Folders are colored properly when files are moved or copied into them.
  • ThumbsPlus responds more appropriately when you change the display color depth on-the-fly.
  • Adobe Type Manager font names now appear in the file list.
  • Multi-page DCX images are now handled properly, and the DCX file type has been added to the file type list.
  • The file list is more appropriately positioned after deleting or moving a bunch of files.
  • Many fixes to printing catalogs and making contact sheets.
  • Fonts with 8-bit characters in the font name are now properly thumbnailed.
  • When the TWAIN update is selected during installation or upgrade, ThumbsPlus now properly forces all TWAIN DLLs and EXEs to the Windows directory.
  • Several other small bugs were fixed.

 


Problems Fixed - 3.0f2

  • A Win32s problem caused ThumbsPlus to repeatedly update the file list on Windows 3.x.
  • To fix the problem where the mouse could not sometimes be used in confirmation dialog boxes, ThumbsPlus no longer updates the file list when a dialog box is shown.
  • 256-color icons are now shown and thumbnailed properly.
  • The recycle bin, automatic removal of thumbnails, and aspect fit in the slide show are now on by default after installing ThumbsPlus.
  • An "Unsorted" option was added to Options | Sort By.
  • When multiple drive letters are mapped to the same network disk, drive entries no longer disappear when switching between them.
  • File library warnings (which do not affect the loading of files) are now off by default. You can enable them using Options | Preferences | Advanced.
  • Options | Preferences | File List now includes an option to disable automatic detection of directory changes. (Window | Refresh or F3 can still be used to update the list manually.)
  • ALT+Enter is now another keyboard shortcut for Picture | Properties.
  • The pixel position and color were not reported correctly in the View Window status line. (The pixel below and to the right of the current pixel was shown instead.)
  • Volume | Properties (from the context menu) now shows additional information about both the physical volume and how it is matched in the database.
  • ThumbsPlus now loads as much as possible of incomplete TIFF files ("Read Error on strip…").
  • Images are now only auto-cropped when printing if "Autocrop when Viewing" is on in Options | Preferences | General. (In a future release, printing will receive its own option setting).
  • The keyword drop-down lists can now be turned off (Options | Preferences | Keywords) to improve performance when thousands of keywords are in use, or for when the database is on a network.
  • The error messages generated by the ThumbsPlus Database Utilities are now more meaningful.
  • Black pixels in PiNG files were sometimes rendered as transparent.

 


Problems Fixed - 3.0f1

Installation issues:

  • Registry utilities combined into a single utility (which now works).