ThumbNailer ver 95.6.28 by Rob Reuss (copyright 1995) rsr@i-2000.com BRIEF ThumbNailer utilizes Netscape 1.1 or greater as a thumbnail graphics viewer. INTRODUCTION ThumbNailer will examine the contents of whatever directory or subdirectory you choose, it will identify "gif" and "jpg" files and will write out a file called "thumb.htm" to the directories. Each file contains html code to display the directory contents as thumbnail images. It will automatically launch Netscape with an index file loaded listing the directories it wrote files for and you can click on them to see the thumbnail contents. If you click on the thumbnail or the filename, it will load that image. INSTRUCTIONS Installation Unzip the file THMBNAIL.ZIP and put the file THMBNAIL.EXE in it's own directory, which you may call whatever you wish. Using ThumbNailer Use the drive and directory controls on ThumbNailer's main window to identify the directory which it should begin with in creating thumbnail files. There are a number of options in terms of exactly how ThumbNailer will operate, and these are accessed through the menu item SETTINGS. Settings Thumb Size This option gives you control over how large of a thumbnail Netscape will display, with the height on the right and the width on the left. You can use the scrollbar to increment or decrement in 25 pixel quantities. # of Columns This let's you determine how many thumbnail images Netscape will show on each line. This will be in effect regardless of whether you have "Use Tables" checked. You can enter a quantity here or choose from the drop down box. Browser Checking "Launch Browser" will cause ThumbNailer to launch Netscape when it is through building the thumbnail files. If there is no browser entered and you check this box, you will be given the opportunity to show ThumbNailer where your Netscape browser is located. Or you can use the "Find" button. Regardless of whether or not you have "Launch Browser" selected or a browser specified, ThumbNailer will copy the URL of the main file it creates to the Windows clipboard. This is particularly useful if Netscape is already running, because ThumbNailer is unable to force an already running Netscape to the newly created page. Include Subdirectories This setting determines whether or not, if subdirectories exist below the selected directory, ThumbNailer will produce thumbnail files for those directories as well. If this box is checked, ThumbNailer will go through *all* subdirectories, even deeply nested one, so use this with care. HTML File o Single Thumb File: check this to have ThumbNailer produce just a single page of thumbnails, even including subdirectories. Using this option, you can essentially create a single page with all of the graphics on a disk displayed. (See notes below regarding Netscape's ability to handle huge files.) o Multiple Thumb Files: check this, in contrast to "Single Thumb File", to have ThumbNailer create individual thumbnail files in each subdirectory, along with an index to access them. o Display Full Size: check this if you want Netscape to display the images full size, rather than according to the geometry given in "Thumb Size". o Include File Names: if this is checked, ThumbNailer will insert the name of each file underneath it. o Use Tables: if this is checked, ThumbNailer will employ Netscape tables in displaying the thumbnail images. o Background Color: DOUBLE CLICK on this panel to select the color you would like Netscape to display as a background to your thumb- nail images. File Names The INDEX and HTML file names tell ThumbNailer what to call it's output files. If you are doing any WWW development, you may already have files called INDEX.HTM on your hard drive. If ThumbNailer encounters a situation where an existing file has the same name as the one it is trying to write, it will examine the file to see if it is a ThumbNailer-produced file by looking at it's first line. If it is not a ThumbNailer file, it will give you the option of over- writing it or skipping over it. If you encounter these naming conflicts often, change these entries to legitimate DOS file names and be happy. You must close the Settings dialog box in order to continue BUILDING YOUR THUMBNAIL FILES Once you have used the drive and directory controls to locate the directory you want ThumbNailer to work on, and adjusted the settings to your needs, choose "File" and then "Build" on the menubar and ThumbNailer will do the rest. DELETING THUMBNAIL FILES If you wish to remove ThumbNailer produced files at any time, choose the directory and/or subdirectories you want the files deleted from, and choose "File" and then "Delete Build" on the menubar. ThumbNailer will delete only ThumbNailer-produced files according to the filenames currently entered in the "Settings" dialog box. USING OTHER BROWSERS ThumbNailer, at it's core, relies on Netscape 1.1's ability to control the geometry of the images it displays, so it's utility with other browsers is limited to displaying full size images, regardless of whether "Full Size" is selected in the "Settings" dialog box. It is recommended that you uncheck "Use Tables" if you are employed another Browser. PROBLEMS WITH USING NETSCAPE FOR THIS PURPOSE You will find that your thumbnail pages, if they contain many images, will take a while to load into Netscape. This is because Netscape *must* load the entire file to create the thumbnail. With files that contain many graphics, you may find Netscape showing the broken image symbol it uses when it can't load a graphic. You may find that increasing the cache size under "Cache and Network" in Netscape to improve this situation. You may also find Netscape crashing with larger files...I did. ABOUT THE PROGRAM AND THE AUTHOR ThumbNailer is for personal, non-commercial use, and for such uses it is freeware. If you wish to use it in any commerical situation, please contact the author for licensing arrangments. The program was created using the Delphi programming environment from Borland. I created it to begin honing my Delphi skills on a relatively small project. I do not intend to further develop ThumbNailer unless I hear from people who find it useful and want additional features. Some additional features that might be possible include: more control over Netscape tables; getting Netscape to send files to an external viewer, like Lview; adding more complex indexing for sub-directories, somehow dealing with other file formats, somehow taking advantage of the fact that Netscape loads the entire image for each thumbnail by putting the full images down below the thumbnails. If you find any bugs, or wish to make suggestions about how this application may be improved, please send them to rsr@i-2000.com and I will do my best to respond. It would be helpful if you included the word "THUMBNAILER" in the subject line of the message. The most up-to-date version of ThumbNailer will be made available at ftp.soc.qc.edu in directory /pub/GoSlip/thmbnail Enjoy!