ACDSee version 1.23 Copyright 1994-1995 by ACD Systems, Ltd. This file is a ASCII format dump of selected parts of the acdsee.hlp on-line help file. CONTENTS ~~~~~~~~ Introduction Installation Running ACDSee Image Browser Viewing Window Registration License and Distribution Version History (What's new) Possible Future Enhancements Credits How To Contact Us For Support and Feedback Frequently Asked Questions INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Congratulations on obtaining ACDSee, the fastest, easiest- to-use Windows image viewer there is! Current features * effective image browsing shell interface * supports most JPEG, GIF, Windows BMP, PCX and TGA files * rapid JPEG decompression * view images as they are decompressed * full-colour image previews * easy, quick image panning, even during decompression * supports 256, 32768, 65536 and 16 million colour screen modes * automatically launch other applications through file associations by clicking on document files * supports viewing & editing 4DOS descriptions * drag-and-drop support for single and multiple files * automatic or manual slideshow with optional read-ahead decompression * always-on-top and full-screen viewing window options * shrink image to fit window or screen Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~ System Requirements * 386sx or better (Pentium 90 is nice) * 256 colour or better graphics card (high/truecolour recommended) * 4 Megs of RAM (8 Megs or more recommended if running in high/truecolour) * Windows 3.1 * ~300k of disk space Installation Procedure If you obtained your copy of ACDSee on disk, then just run the setup.exe program to install. Otherwise, you need to follow the following steps: 1) Copy the ACDSEE files anywhere you like 2) Create an icon for ACDSEE.EXE in Program Manager 3) If you do not already have CTL3DV2.DLL in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, then install the copy included in the ACDSee distribution with the DOS prompt command, expand ctl3dv2.dl_ c:\windows\system\ctl3dv2.dll Then delete the CTL3DV2.DL_ file from your ACDSee directory. 4) You will probably want File Manager associations for image files with ACDSEE.EXE This will allow you to view pictures from File Manager by simply double-clicking on them. Running ACDSee ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can start ACDSee from the Program Manager by double- clicking on its icon. You will immediately be presented with the Image Browser dialog where you can browse your directories for images to look at. If you have made a File Manager association between image files and ACDSee, you can also start ACDSee from the File Manager by just double clicking on an image file. You can supply one or more image files as the command-line arguments to ACDSee. You can even use wildcards. e.g., acdsee.exe *.jpg would start ACDSee and have it slideshow all the files in the current directory. Note: When ACDSee is run in this manner, pressing Escape will exit the program, rather than take you to the Image Browser. The reason for this is to avoid confusion when using the Spawn Viewer option Image Browser ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is where you can pick an image to open. Image Browser - Current Directory ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This bar contains the current directory the image browser is looking into. You can change the current directory by clicking on one of the directories or drives in the File List. Image Browser - File List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a list box that contains a number of entries. There are several different kinds of entries in the file list: Parent Directory [..] Current Directory [.] Files Subdirectories Drives You can change the currently selected entry by: * clicking on another entry with the mouse button * moving the selection bar with the cursor keys * pressing a lowercase letter, which will take you to the next entry starting with that letter * pressing an uppercase letter, which will take you to the previous entry starting with that letter You can select several entries by: * clicking on one entry with the mouse and dragging down or up the list * holding down shift and moving the selection bar with the cursor keys or by clicking on another entry with the the mouse * pressing Shift-F8 to enter Multiple Selection Mode. Various actions may be taken on the selected file(s) with the Buttons below the file list. Image Browser - Buttons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ View/Launch/SlideShow/ChDir Open one or more files, or change the directory Preview Show a preview of the currently selected image Delete Delete the currently selected file(s) Edit Desc. Edit the description(s) for the currently selected file(s) Options Bring up ACDSee's Image Browser Options dialog Help Bring up ACDSee's on-line help About Show the ACDSee About dialog Exit Quit the program Image Browser Pop-up Menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A pop-up menu of commands will appear after clicking with the right mouse button on an entry in the Image Browser's file-list. One of the following commands may be applied to the selected entry or entries. View/Launch/SlideShow/ChDir open one or more files or change the directory. Preview show a preview of the currently selected image Delete delete the currently selected file(s) Edit Desc. edit the description(s) for the currently selected file(s) Image Browser - Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ File List Options Multiple columns Sort by file extension Show associated application Show file size Show image dimensions Show description Miscellaneous Options Don't cache image dim. in descript.ion Automatic image preview Spawn viewer Show image files only Remember last directory Preview Options Gray JPEG preview Auto-size Full size 1/2 size 1/4 size 1/8 size Image Browser - Preview Area ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A preview of the currently selected image in the file list can be made to appear in the Preview Area of the Image Browser by clicking on the Preview Button. See also: Auto-Preview Checkbox Image Browser - Preview Options Adjusting The Amount Of Space Available For The Preview Area You can control how much room is available for displaying the Image Preview as follows: Horizontal adjust the horizontal size of the Image Browser window. Vertical adjust the vertical SplitBar Image Browser - Split Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The split bar is an invisible control located in the space just below the File List and above the Buttons and Preview Area. You can adjust the relative amount of vertical space alotted to the File List and Buttons/Preview Area by clicking on this control and dragging it up and down. The File List, Buttons and Preview Area will automatically resize themselves accordingly. Viewing Window ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is where the images are displayed. If ACDSee is viewing more than one image, they will be shown in slideshow mode. If the image is larger than the size of the ACDSee window, you can pan (scroll) the image The View Window (and the ACDSee icon, when ACDSee is minimized) is Drag-and-Drop aware, which lets you view images by dragging them from File Manager onto ACDSee. Pop-up Menu Commands You can activate the pop-up menu in the Image Viewer by clicking anywhere in the window with the right mouse button. Next Image Prev Image Stop Slideshow Resume Slideshow Browser Options Reload Image DecompressionTime About Help Exit System Menu Command Always On Top Image Panning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the mouse cursor appears as a hand, the image is larger than the size of the Image Viewer window. To pan (scroll) the image being viewed, click anywhere on the image and drag it. Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the image within the window. This can be quite fun, especially on an accelerated video card. For those of you that don't like to wait, the scrolling feature can be used even while the image is being decompressed! SlideShow ~~~~~~~~~ When more than one image is selected for viewing, ACDSee enters SlideShow mode. Here you can look at each file in sequence by using the Prev and Next menu commands. ACDSee can also be configured to page through the images automatically: see Slideshow Options Viewer Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Slideshow Options Slideshow Options 256 Colour Mode Dither Option 256-Colour Mode Dither Option Window Options Always On Top Full-Screen Auto-size Options Shrink Image To Fit Window Change Window Size To Fit Image Option Buttons Save Window Position Saves the current size and position of the View window to the ACDSEE.INI file. Whenever ACDSee enters View Mode, it will position the View Window accordingly (unless Auto-Size Window is enabled) This command also saves the Always On Top and Full-Screen window attributes. Save Options Dismisses the View Options dialog box, saving and using the new options settings. This command also saves the Always On Top and Full-Screen window attributes. OK Dismisses the View Options dialog box, using the new option settings (but does not save them) Cancel Dimisses the View Options dialog box and restores original option settings Help Brings up this help reference. Registration ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACDSee is ShareWare ACDSee is "ShareWare". This entitles you, the customer, to try out the software for up to 30 days without obligation to pay for it. Shareware (non-registered) ACDSee is a "full" version. This means that the same capabilities available in the registered software are present in the non-registered software. In fact, the non-registered software includes a bonus feature - the shareware nag box If you use ACDSee beyond the 30 days, you should register it. Registration entitles you to free upgrades to the software, which is nice. How To Register Before you register, please take a look at the Licensing section of this help file. You may register by credit card over the phone, via Compuserve, or by money order. In any case, the cost of registration is a modest $US 15. If you are part of a business and wish to use several copies of ACDSee within your company, greatly reduced site licensing rates are also available. Please call 1-800-414- ACDS for a quote. CD-ROM publishers please contact us if you are interested in including a special non-shareware CD-ROM version of ACDSee on your CDs. Unlocking the Software You will receive a notification of registration from ACD Systems which contains your personal registration name and number. First, bring up the Reigistration Dialog by first invoking About dialog box, then clicking on the Register button. (Or you can select Help|Register from the View Window menu.) Enter your name in the registration dialog. Be sure to type your name exactly as it appears in your notification, as capitalization, spaces and punctuation are all taken into account when computing your registration number. Now enter your personal registration number, and select Register If all is well, ACDSee will respond with a message thanking you for your registration. Otherwise ACDSee will complain that your name and number don't match, and you will have to correct the information. ACDSee Software Licensing and Distribution Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Licensing By receiving and/or using ACD Systems software, you accept the following Evaluation and Registered User Agreement. This agreement is a binding legal agreement between ACD Systems Ltd. and the purchasers, users or evaluators of ACD Systems' software and products. If you do not intend to honor this agreement, remove all installed ACD Systems software from your computer now. (1) Evaluation (Unregistered) and Registered User Agreement You may evaluate the Shareware program for maximum of thirty calendar days, after which you must register the program with ACD Systems Ltd. or remove the software from your computer. You may allow other users to evaluate copies of the unregistered Shareware. All evaluation users are subject to the terms of this agreement. The evaluator/user/buyer/owner is not allowed to attempt to reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile ACD Systems Software and products. ACD Systems name and any logo or graphics file that represents our software may not be used in any way to promote products developed with our software. All parts of ACD Systems software and products are copyright protected. No program, code, part, image, video clip, audio sample, text or computer generated sequence of images may be copied or used in any way by the user except as intended within the bounds of the single user program. The evaluator/user/buyer/owner of ACD Systems software will indemnify, hold harmless, and defend ACD Systems against lawsuits, claims, costs associated with defense or accusations that result from the use of ACD Systems software. ACD Systems is not responsible for any damages whatsoever, including loss of information, interruption of business, personal injury and/or any damage or consequential damage without limitation, incurred before, during or after the use of our products. Our entire liability, without exception, is limited to the customers' reimbursement of the purchase price of the software (maximum being the suggested retail price as listed by ACD Systems) in exchange for the return of the product, all copies, registration papers and manuals, and all materials that constitute a transfer of ownership from the customer back to ACD Systems. Each registered copy of the ACD Systems software may be used in only one single location by one user. Use of the software means that you have loaded the program and run it or have installed the program onto a computer. If you install the software onto a multi-user platform or network, each and every individual user of the software must be registered separately. You may make one copy of the registered software for backup purposes, providing you only have one copy installed on one computer being used by one person. If any person other than yourself uses ACD Systems' software registered in your name, regardless of whether it is at the same time or different times, then this agreement is being violated! The sale of and or distribution of registered copies of this software is strictly forbidden. It is a violation of this agreement to loan, rent, lease, borrow, or transfer the use of registered copies of ACD Systems Software products. Distribution ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This shareware software may be freely distributed, provided that: (1) Such distribution includes only the original archive supplied by ACD Systems, Ltd. You may not alter, delete or add any files in the distribution archive. (2) The distrubution does not include a registration number. In particular, you may not distrubute a registered version of ACDSee. (3) No money is charged to the person receiving the software, beyond reasonable cost of packaging and other overhead. Version History ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + = new feature o = bug fix or performance enhancment Version 1.23 + Added "Shrink image to fit window" option + Image previews are now in full colour, with optional JPEG grayscale preview for speed + JPEG decompression is between 20% (486) and 40% faster (Pentium) + Added "Reload image" command to Image Viewer + Image preview mode option: Full Image, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, or auto size preview + You can now switch into the Image Browser after starting ACDSee from the File Manager + The slide show can not be stopped/resumed on command. The slide show is now automatically stopped when the the view window is minimized. o Replaced Viewing Window menu bar with a pop-up menu (use right mouse button) o With Auto-Size Window on, the Viewing Window is now maximized if the image is larger than the screen. o The split bar now preserves the height of the list box when the height of the Image Browser window is changed, rather than moving proportionally o The Image Browser buttons will align into a single column when there is enough vertical space o Executable is smaller and loads faster o Moved all Viewing Window options into a single dialog box o Retired the Chunk Decompression option - the decompression rate (lines per tick) is now inversly proportional to the image width o Fixed bug which sometimes caused ACDSee to crash after changing Image Browser options o Fixed bug that arose in version 1.22 where ACDSee didn't close itself properly when lauched in Image Viewer mode o Popup Image Browser menu now works properly in a multiple column file list Version 1.22 - Mar. 1995 + Created the nifty on-line help file (using ForeFront's ForeHelp software) + You can now independently turn on/off the display of associations, file sizes, image dimensions and descriptions, as well as control whether the file list is multi-column or single-column + Added option to start up in the directory that ACDSee was in when it last exited + Added option to show image dimensions only on fixed drives, which should bring some relief to CD-ROM owners + Added option to *not* cache image dimensions in descript.ion, which seemed to annoy some people + Added pop-up menu to Image Browser file list + Image Browser options moved into a separate dialog box + The location of the split between the Image Browser file list and the buttons/preview area may now be changed + Added button to save Image Browser options + Added menu items to save Image Viewer options and Image Viewer window position + ACDSee now accepts wildcards (eg, '*.jpg') on its command line + The unregistered ACDSee nag box appears less frequently while ACDSee is viewing images, (although you shouldn't notice any difference, right? ;-) o The font in the Image Browser's file list may now be set by editing ACDSEE.INI (FontName=fontName) o ACDSee now recongizes JPEG files with the extension ".JPE" o ACDSee now runs properly under Windows NT and Windows '95 as a 16-bit Windows application (tested under version 3.5 of NT and Windows '95 final beta) o ACDSee no longer "looses your place" in the file list after deleting a file o Files can now be selected/deselected with the space bar (using the Shift-F8 selection mode) o Fixed bug in v1.21 that caused ACDSee to complain that "Dropped file could not be read" when a single image was dragged and dropped into the View Window. o It turns out that the smaller executable of version 1.21 was the result of accidentally excluding a resource from the EXE. (ACDSee generated the missing resource automatically at run-time, however this increased the application startup time.) The resource has been re- included so that the EXE is larger, but loads faster. o Reading in large directories is much faster now o Fixed a bug that caused ACDSee to show blank images and/or crash when another application deleted files that ACDSee was attempting to slideshow o Fixed a bug that sometimes caused ACDSee to delete file descriptions created by another program while ACDSee was running in the same directory o Fixed a bug that prevented ACDSee from recongizing descript.ion files with upper case file names o When you switched from ACDSee to another application and deleted the descript.ion file, and then switched back to ACDSee, it would not realize that the descript.ion file was deleted and not update its file list accordingly o Fixed bug that potentially caused ACDSee to report the wrong associated application for certain file types o ACDSee now displays only one delete confirmation box for a multiple file deletion o With image information turned off, ACDSee was still trying to write the image information into the descript.ion files, which caused a rather long wait when changing directories or quitting the program. My apologies particularly to owners of CD-ROM drives! o CTL3DV2.DLL now distributed in compressed format, to avoid the warning message if the user forgot to delete it. Version 1.21 - Jan. 1995 o Uses CTL3DV2.DLL instead of CTL3D.DLL o Executable is a lot smaller o Fixed bug that caused images in the root directory of a drive to not be recognized properly o Fixed bug that caused ACDSee to crash if the root directory of a drive contained no files or subdirectories o Having two top-level windows was the source of some grief for the Windows window manager. Now the Image Browser and View Window are both child windows of an invisible main window. o Targa (TGA) images which are RLE-compressed are now read properly o Thumbnails are now generated properly for Grayscale Targa (TGA) images o Fixed bug that caused thumbnails to sometimes be displayed in full size and colour o ACDSee will now spawn itself to view an image even if no association has been made to ACDSee for that file type Version 1.2 - Jan. 1995 + Replaced the Open Image dialog with the Image Browser window, providing + optional quick image preview + coloured filenames + optional 4DOS descriptions and image information + 4DOS descriptions may be edited + window may be resized + option to spawn a new copy of ACDSee for each image opened + allows launching of other application via file associations + Added slideshow support + Added option to automatically resize the viewing window or not + Added Always-On-Top option + Added Full-Screen option + Added Drag-and-Drop support + The view window may now be scrolled using the cursor keys + Added GIF interlaced support, and GIF preview + Added PCX support + Added TGA support + Added BMP support (no OS/2 or RLE right now) + Added new quantization/dithering routines: No dithering, Ordered Dithering and Floyd-Steinburg dithering (except for JPEG Ordered, which is hard-coded into the decoder) + Added Floyd Steinberg dithering process to the thumbnails when the source image is highcolor or truecolor (except to JPEG, which is Ordered and hard coded into the decoder) No dithering for paletted images right now. o Removed support for scroll bars in the view window o Fixed a bug in the registration dialog box that prevented people with long names from registering Version 1.1 - Dec. 1994 + Added support for non-interlaced, single-image GIFs + Added JPEG quick preview feature + Added the #colours in the image to the title bar display o Improved the registration system o ACDSee uses less memory now o Changed the halftone palette system Version 1.01 - Dec. 1994 o Fixed bug that caused ACDSee to crash when multiple copies were running simultaneously (the problem was that I was grabbing a device context and holding it during compression, which is a no-no -- windows only supports five concurrent device contexts) o Vast improvement in image quality when displaying grayscale JPEG's in 256-color mode. o Reorganized code to make it easier to add other image formats, such as GIF (yes, it's coming...). Version 1.0 - Nov. 1994 o Initial release. Possible Future Enhancements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o support for Photo CD, TIFF, Amiga IFF and other file formats o faster decoding of all image formats o faster JPEG colour preview o 2-pass quantization support for 256 colour users o faster dithering o copy image to clipboard function o optional command buttons and status bar for the Image Viewer window o image info - display image format information o ability to copy, rename and move files Credits ~~~~~~~ The colour quantization/dithering features of ACDSee were made possible through the use of code produced by the Independent JPEG Group. How to reach ACD Systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ E-Mail dhooper@dataflux.bc.ca Compuserve ID# 74404,2711 Telephone (604) 475-6722 (between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM PST, Monday to Friday) FAX (604) 475-6651 Post ACD Systems, Ltd. P.O. Box 730 Victoria, BC Canada V8W 2P9 Frequently Asked Questions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1) Where can I find the latest version of ACDSee? The latest version of ACDSee is available via anonymous internet ftp from: wuarchive.wustl.edu in pub/msdos_uploads/win_graphics 2) ACDSee says, "ACDSee will not run in less that 256 colours". What do I do to make it run? This message indicates ACDSee has determined that Windows is running in fewer than 256 colours. If you know your video card is capable of displaying 640x480x256 or better (most 512k + cards can do this) then you can change your video driver with Windows Setup (in the Main program group in Program Manager). 3) When I run ACDSee, I get a nasty message saying "Cannot find CTL3DV2.DLL" and it won't run. See the note about CTL3DV2.DLL in Installation procedure 4) When I run ACDSee, I get a message saying "This program uses CTL3DV2.DLL, which is not correctly installed." The file CTL3DV2.DLL exists in the same directory as ACDSee. This file must be moved into the WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory for ACDSee to work properly. 5) ACDSee is generating hidden files in all my directories. What are they for? These are 4DOS description files. They hold file descriptions and information about the images in the directory. You can delete them, if you wish, with File Manager by selecting View|By File Type... and checking Show Hidden/System Files. To prevent ACDSee from generating these files, use the Dont Cache Image Dimensions option. 5) Will there be a 32-bit version? A 32-bit version of ACDSee is under development.