ThumbsPlus will run on XP as long as you do
not install the MDAC components shipped with ThumbsPlus. XP
has the latest ODBC drivers for XP. If you do experience trouble
with ThumbsPlus on XP, please write to support@cerious.com
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ThumbsPlus will run on ME as well as 95, 98,
NT and 2000. If you have any problems running on a specific
platform, please send a report to support@cerious.com.
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ThumbsPlus is a graphic file viewer, locator
and organizer that simplifies the process of finding and maintaining
graphics, clip-art files, fonts and animations. It displays
a small image (thumbnail) of each file. You can use ThumbsPlus
to browse, view, edit, crop, launch external editors, and
copy images to the clipboard. You can use drag-and-drop to
organize graphic files by moving them to appropriate directories.
ThumbsPlus will also create a slide show from selected graphics,
and install bitmap files as Windows wallpaper. You can print
individual graphic files, or the thumbnails themselves as
a catalog. ThumbsPlus can convert to several formats, either
one at a time or in batch mode. You can also perform image
editing in batch mode. ThumbsPlus will also convert metafile
graphics to bitmaps (rasterize). ThumbsPlus can process dozens
of file types internally. You can also use Object Linking
and Embedding (OLE) to create thumbnails for and view any
proprietary file type for which the server application is
loaded on your system.
ThumbsPlus is not album software. It does
not create copies of your graphic files. ThumbsPlus works
off of your internal directory structure, like Windows Explorer,
and creates a link to your files. The thumbnail created in
ThumbsPlus is not a copy of the file but rather just a "preview"
of the file itself and is stored in the ThumbsPlus database,
thumbs.td4, located in the Thumbs4 directory. The ThumbsPlus
database contains the thumbnail records, keywords, annotations
and user fields you assign to files. When you create a new
database, this information is not transferred from database
to database. Different databases do not show different files,
only the different database information assigned in each respective
database, i.e. thumbnails, keywords, annotations and/or user
defined fields.
You can download a 30 day evaluation copy
from http://www.cerious.com/download.shtml
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When you first open ThumbsPlus, it will show
the entire directory structure of your computer. It also shows
any removable media drives attached to your system and your
network neighborhood should you be attached to one! To find
and view your graphic files, navigate through the drives and
folders just like you would in Windows Explorer/My Computer.
Please note that ThumbsPlus is NOT album software. It does
not create copies of your images. It merely creates a link
to where the file is actually saved. Any changes, including
editing, moving or deleting, done in ThumbsPlus will take
effect throughout your system. When you first open a folder
that has graphic files in it, ThumbsPlus should make thumbnails
automatically. If you do not want ThumbsPlus to make thumbnails
each time you open a folder, you can turn off this option
by going to Options | Preferences | Thumbnails
and un-checking Make Thumbnails Automatically. To manually
make your thumbnails, click on a file once to highlight it.
Then, click on the single thumb icon on the toolbar. This
will make your thumbnail. You can also hold down the CTRL
key while clicking once on each file to select multiple files
to thumbnail.
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The thumbnails you are seeing are a feature
of ThumbsPlus that enables you to catalog your removable media.
Then, when the floppy, CD, zip disk, etc is removed, you can
peruse the offline thumbnails and find which removable media
to insert to view a file without having to insert each floppy,
CD, zip disk, etc. trying to find that file. An offline thumbnail
is a thumbnail that exists in the ThumbsPlus database while
the volume (disk) that contains the original file is not available.
Volumes may not be available for several reasons:
- Floppy diskettes and CD-ROMs that aren't
currently in the drive.
- Hard disks that have been removed or damaged.
- Network connected drives that have been
disconnected.
To remove these offline volumes after you
have removed the media, right click on the offline entry and
go to Remove Thumbnails on the fly-out menu. This will
remove the thumbnails and the reference to the removable media.
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You can create a shortcut or BAT file which
starts a ThumbsPlus slide show by providing the "-s"
option and the directory name to display.
For example:
"C:\Program Files\Thumbs4\thumbs.exe" -s D:\Bitmaps
The slide show settings last set in Options
| Viewing | Slide Show will be used, and ThumbsPlus
will automatically exit when you stop the slide show.
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We are now considering an OSX version. However,
we don't have any intention of revisiting an OS8/9 port.
ThumbsPlus encompasses over a million lines
of code, 200 dialog boxes, and a very complex user interface,
so even a user interface port will be an enormous task. We're
a small company, and hiring someone else to do the work is
not within our means.
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Not likely for OS/2, but we are investigating
the use of portability libraries for Unix/X-windows.
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Unless and until we work on a Linux version
of ThumbsPlus, I would recommend vmware http://www.vmware.com
for running Windows applications on Linux. One thing that
is bothersome about a Linux port is that so many of the Linux
users who have written have exclaimed how wonderful it is
to have a free operating system and free software (like Gimp).
We could never afford to port to Linux and give it away! The
investment required is enormous when you're looking at a code
base of nearly a million lines of code. We're also not likely
to pay any outside company or people to do it; although it
is possible that we could *hire* someone. Bottom line, I wouldn't
plan on seeing a Linux version of ThumbsPlus for quite some
time.
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Go to Options | Preferences
| File Types and check on the option Associate Selected
Types with ThumbsPlus.
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ThumbsPlus uses an Access database to store
thumbnails, keywords, galleries, and user-defined fields.
In order to provide appropriate access to the original files
in many enviroments (local disks, CDs, floppies, ZIP/JAZ,
network drives), ThumbsPlus uses the following 3 tables:
- Volume -- Stores information about each
volume (disk or other media) for which thumbnails have been
made. By organizing images this way, T+ avoids problems
with absolute paths and drive letters, which are likely
to change for many reasons.
- Path -- Stores information about each path
(on each volume) where thumbnails have been made.
- Thumbnail -- Stores file and image information,
the thumbnail data, annotations, and image metrics.
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Ask Microsoft, or the manufacturer of the
specific application you're dealing with. In-process servers
are generally much faster than executable-driven OLE servers
but are rare. For example, CorelDRAW starts up (and loads
the entire program into memory) to serve an object. And a
new instance is started if Corel is already running, rather
than simply calling the existing program to do the work.
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There is no practical limit to the number
of thumbnails that can be stored - the database is limited
to an entire size of 2Gbs. Each thumbnail requires about 4-5K
depending on the thumbnail size and color depth set at Options
| Preferences | Thumbnails. To decrease the
amount of memory each thumbnail requires, make the thumbnail
dimensions smaller, set the color depth to High or True Color,
remake your thumbnails and compact the database File
| Database | Compact. We have tested with databases
of over 100,000 thumbnails without experiencing significant
speed problems. If you are running a SQL database, there is
no limit to the database size.
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Microsoft Access 97/2000
MS SQL Server 6.5, 7, 2000 (Note that we would
rather not support the SQL Server 6.5, SQL 7 and 2000 are
much better. We highly recommend 2000.)
SQL Anywhere
Scripts for SQL Server are located here:
ftp://ftp.cerious.com/pub/cerious/thumbs_asa.sql
ftp://ftp.cerious.com/pub/cerious/thumbs_mssql2000.sql
ftp://ftp.cerious.com/pub/cerious/thumbs_mssql.sql
ftp://ftp.cerious.com/pub/cerious/thumbs_mssql7.sql
We are working on Oracle and DB2.
We use ODBC for all data access, retrieval,
and table maintenance (including creating dropping a table,
which is used for user-defined fields).
Database maintenance is generally assumed to be separate,
though we do embed Compact and Repair functions for the default
MS Access
database, and would like to do similarly for any other redistributed
database.
Because of its runtime cost, MS Access is
the default database for single users and small workgroups
(5-10 concurrent users), though its obvious
limits make it impractical for many users or large (>1Gb)
databases.
We are looking for a redistributable (embedded)
database appropriate for 5 to 100 concurrent users, and as
an add-on for single user licensees
requiring large (>1Gb) databases.
1. ODBC access to the database must include
these SQL capabilities:
- SELECT INTO
- INSERT <table> VALUES
- DROP TABLE
- CREATE TABLE
- SELECT ... INNER LEFT JOIN
- UPDATE ... WHERE (subquery)
- DELETE ... WHERE (subquery)
2. The database we select for embedding must
additionally have these capabilities:
- Auto-increment (Identity) columns (used
as primary key)
- Blobs (binary and text)
- Unconstrained database size (or at least
100Gb), with tables capable of spreading across multiple
files in the file system.
3. Multiple instances on the same machine
should count as a single user (and a single-user licensee
must be able to open multiple instances!)
4. The SQL syntax or DDL for creating a database
is (so far) the only thing that varies between the different
databases. We do not specially code anything for specific
databases, except the Compact and Repair functions mentioned
above.
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Dave Grems, an independent
software developer, has created a process for conversion of
an Image AXS database to a ThumbsPlus database. If you would
like to discuss this with him or get a price quote, please
contact
Dave directly. Please do not send
him general questions regarding ThumbsPlus as he does not
work for Cerious Software.
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