- In Options | Preferences | General, select Enable tracking of file and folder changes when ThumbsPlus isn't running.
- Also in Options | Preferences | General, select Use Windows recycble bin settings to avoid permanent deletions.
- Keep regular backups of your entire system! This is imperative in any situation where you do not want to lose data!
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Try going into Options | Preferences |
Advanced and changing the Maximum Image Bitmap Cache
Size and the Bitmap Window Size For Larger Images
both to 0. If this doesn't help, try changing both to larger
sizes than they were originally. You may just need to play
around with these numbers until you find something that works.
You may also want to check with the manufacturer of your video
card for newer drivers. You can link to most of the manufacturers
from our web site http://www.cerious.com/driverlinks.shtml.
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Comments are actually embedded in the image.
GIF, JPG, PNG and TIF files support comment tags. To add a
comment to an image, open the image and go to Edit | Add
Comments. Note that the file must be re-saved when adding
a comment. You can also force T+ to show available comments
in a view window. Go to Options | Viewing | Other and
check Show Image Comments When Available.
Annotations are stored in the T+ database
and associated with the thumbnail record itself, not the image.
To annotate a file, right click on a thumbnail and go to Thumbnail
| Annotate on the fly-out menu. You can view annotations
by going to the properties of the file or by selecting annotations
to show in the thumbnail view, Options | Show for Files
| Annotation.
When moving a file from one computer to another,
the image comment will be available but the annotation assigned
in T+ will not.
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There are several reasons that this problem
could occur. The most frequent problem is that the original
TWAIN and TWUNK files are installed into an incorrect directory
and when ThumbsPlus installs TWAIN, it installs it into the
correct directory (Windows and not Windows Systems). Download
and run fixTWAIN.exe.
This should take care of the problem. If this .exe file does
not fix your TWAIN problems, then try the following:
- Make sure that all TWAIN and TWAIN 32 directories
are in your Windows directory and not in Windows/Systems
and that there are not duplicates in both places.
- You can also try deleting all TWAIN and
TWAIN 32 directories and then re-install your TWAIN software.
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Go to Options | Preferences | Advanced and turn on/off
Disable Banded Printing. If this does not help, follow
the instructions below.
For any large print jobs, such as batch printing
in ThumbsPlus (*especially* to inkjet printers, which eat
disk space like candy), it can be quite helpful to modify
the printer settings. These instructions are for Windows 95:
- Start | Settings | Printer
- Right-click the printer, pick 'Properties'
- From the 'Details' tab, pick 'Spool Settings'
- Click 'Print directly to the printer'
- Set 'Spool data format' to RAW.
You may want to experiment with just setting
5 (and leaving spooling on), and selecting 'Start printing
after first page is spooled' as well. These options should
reduce enormously the amount of disk space required for printing,
and should enable you to batch print many images, or large
catalogs, without running out of disk space or receiving unexpected
errors.
Also, because inkjet printer drivers generate their own temporary
files (unrelated to the spool files), when they run out of
disk space, the error is often not reported properly to the
printing program. The temporary disk space is not required
or allocated by ThumbsPlus, but by the Windows 95 Print Manager
(spooling system), and sometimes by the printer drivers themselves.
Printing to a file bypasses the Print Manager and writes printer
data directly to a disk file. Two other options are available
in the Printer Setup, Details, "Spool Settings" that can reduce
the disk space required when printing to a printer:
- Select "Print data directly to printer."
This bypasses print manager entirely and requires only about
as much disk space as is required for a single page. However,
the program will continue running just about as long as
printing is occurring.
- Spool data format - select RAW instead
of EMF. This often makes printing faster, and requires less
disk space as well.
With spool settings of "Spool print jobs
so program finishes printing faster" *and* "Spool data format"
of EMF, Windows may require 4 to 10 times as much disk space
as printing to a file!
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ThumbsPlus shows system and hidden directories
because Microsoft elected to make the Windows 95 and 98 Fonts
directory a hidden, system directory. You can select whether
hidden files are shown using Options | Preferences
| Disks & Folders, or Options | Which
Files | Hidden.
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The size of the Thumbnail Database (.td4 file)
depends on several factors:
- The total number of thumbnails in the database.
- The complexity of the original images (simpler
thumbnails compress more readily).
- The size and color depth of thumbnails
selected from Options | Preferences
| Thumbnails.
- Whether orphaned thumbnails are automatically
removed (Options | Preferences | Thumbnails | Automatically
Remove Orphans).
- Whether you're using keywords, annotations,
and/or user defined fields. Especially, automatic keyword
generation by file name can create thousands of unique keywords.
If you remove thumbnails, the space is not
freed for use by other programs, but will automatically be
reused for new thumbnails you create.
Automatic orphaned thumbnail removal only
removes orphans when you display a directory which has orphans
in it. To remove all orphans (especially recommended before
compacting the database), use Thumbnail | Remove |
Orphans.
You can often decrease the physical size of the thumbnail
database by using the File | Database | Compact
option. This also makes thumbnail accesses quicker, as thumbnails
near each other in the file list are placed nearby in the
.td4. The Compact option creates a new database, then copies
all information from the old one into it. Then, the old database
is deleted and the new database is renamed. Therefore, you
must have enough free space on the drive for the compacted
database; generally, you should be sure you have as much free
space as the original size of the .td4.
In T+ v4.50, we added a feature to use JPEG
thumbnails File | Database | JPEG Compress.
Use this menu selection to convert thumbnails, stored in the
current ThumbsPlus database, into JPEG compressed thumbnails.
The internal thumbnail data is stored as complete JPEG file
stream.
ThumbsPlus will prompt you with the following
dialog box, before converting the database thumbnails.
Quality. Enter a quality value, between
25 and 90. Values below 25 are likely to degrade the image
far too much, and values above 90 make the thumbnail storage
size larger without any appreciable quality increase.
Compact database after conversion.
Check this option to compact the actual database file (MS
Access ONLY) after converting the thumbnails. This will
release all disk space occupied by deleted or moved thumbnails
so it can be used for other files.
We have received reports that using this setting
and then compacting your database can reduce a 2 gig database
to half a gig or less.
If you can not, for any reason, compact the
database to a much smaller size, you may want to consider
purchasing a single copy of MySQL. This will work as the back
end database portion of ThumbsPlus. Using a SQL database gives
you unlimited size. (Well considering how much hard drive
space you actually have!)
Scripts for using an SQL database are located
on our ftp site. If you get this far and decide to import
into an SQL database, write our support
department for further instructions.
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There are two ways to compact/repair the database
outside of ThumbsPlus. Open Access and go to File | Open
Database. Change the Files of Type to All Files
and locate the thumbs.td4 file in your Thumbs4 folder. Once
you have the TP database open, go to Tools | Database Utilities
| Compact Database/Repair Database. If this does not work,
try going to Control Panel | 32 Bit ODBC | Add | Microsoft
Access Driver | Finish | Compact/Repair and find the TP
database in the Thumbs4 folder. Make sure to change the Database
Name to *.td4. Once you have located the database, click on
OK.
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ThumbsPlus displays a red dot in the upper-right
corner of a thumbnail to indicate that the file has changed
since the thumbnail was created. Remaking the thumbnail will
update the outdated thumbnail.
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Some display drivers will not properly render
a metafile in memory. Check with your video card manufacturer
for updated drivers.
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This is usually caused by making thumbnails
on a fixed disk that does not have a volume label. Use File
| Volumes | Label Disk to give the drive a valid
label, and Edit | Find by Query should work
properly.
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It seems that IOmega distributes many disks
with the same serial numbers. This confuses ThumbsPlus. If
you Format each JAZ or ZIP disk before using
it, Windows will assign a unique serial number. This will
make ThumbsPlus happy.
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In order to make a thumbnail of a font that
is not installed, ThumbsPlus has to temporarily install it.
Some corrupted or invalid TrueType fonts will cause Windows
to crash or hang. There is really no way for ThumbsPlus to
know this in advance.
If this happens to you, remove the TrueType
font causing the problem.
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Removable, writable media (diskette, floppy,
CD-R, CD-RW, Syquest, ZIP, JAZ, Magneto-Optical, etc.) need
to have a volume label for proper processing and handling
by ThumbsPlus. You can use File | Volumes | Label
Disk in ThumbsPlus, or the Label
command from a command prompt, or use Windows Explorer/My
Computer to label the disk.
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ThumbsPlus is not responsible for the thumbs.db
files. These files are created by Windows itself. You can
turn off this feature by changing your folder view from Thumbnails
in My Computer or Windows Explorer.
You may also need to uncheck the "Do
not cache thumbnails" option in folder options. There
is a bug in WinXP that causes Windows Explorer to sometimes
"reset" the folder view to thumbnails when you open
a folder. Also, when you save an image with IE, the "My
Pictures" folder is default every time, and it always
lists the contents as thumbnails.
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ThumbsPlus provides the option to produce
progressive JPEG files, but this format is not yet widely
supported. It is useful in specific situations (i.e., Web
pages that are going to be accessed only with PJPG-compatible
browsers such as Netscape). The progressive format does not
offer any advantage in size for local storage; it is designed
for being able to view an image in progressing amounts of
detail while being downloaded over slow links.
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ThumbsPlus only supports 32-bit import filters
- if you have older sixteen-bit filters, ThumbsPlus will not
be able to call them. Also, ThumbsPlus only supports filters
that comply with the Aldus standard.
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It sounds like ThumbsPlus is trying to connect
to a remote shared drive that you have opened in ThumbsPlus
in the past. Right-click My Computer and go to Properties.
Disconnect any network drives and anything else that is remote.
If this does not solve the problem with ThumbsPlus, try either
of the following:
- Open the thumbs.ini file from within the
Thumbs4 folder and add the following entry under the [Startup]
heading: IgnoreNetwork=1
- Delete the thumbs.tdo and thumbs.ini files
from within the Thumbs4 folder. This will reset your preferences.
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Generally, gamma correction is a process to
make pictures appear more accurately on a specific monitor.
Differences in color value do not exactly map to changes in
brightness on the screen; the gamma value defines a curve
which specifies the way a monitor displays specific color
values. The Monitor Gamma dialog box helps you find the appropriate
gamma value for your monitor. The other piece of the equation
is figuring out the corrected gamma value to which an individual
picture was adjusted. The Compuserve GIF definition specifies
that GIFs should be adjusted for a gamma value of 2.0 -- you
can set the assumed gamma for any picture, or set the default
for any file type. Generally, if pictures appear dark and
have little detail in the shadow regions, they're probably
linear (gamma = 1.0). Try setting your monitor gamma to an
appropriate value, and the assumed gamma to 1.0. Note: If
either the assumed gamma or the monitor gamma is zero, ThumbsPlus
will not gamma correct the image for display.
Main Window, Options | Viewing • Monitor Gamma
View Window, View | Viewing Options • Monitor Gamma
A gamma value of zero (0.0) means that ThumbsPlus will not
gamma correct any image. Simply adjust the scroll bar, using
either the arrows at the ends or by dragging the central box,
until the central gray square is as close as possible to the
color of the surrounding pattern. For best results, calibrate
in a darkened room. As some monitors exhibit different characteristics
at different display resolutions and color depths, ThumbsPlus
will save a different gamma value for each combination. Some
image types have a specific gamma value for which they are
corrected (for example, GIF files are corrected for a monitor
gamma of 2.0). If you choose to use gamma correction, you
need to set each type appropriately, from the Assumed Gamma
dialog box. Unless this value is set for a specific file type,
it will not be adjusted. View Window, View | Assumed Gamma
G This dialog box allows you to assign the assumed gamma value
for an image, and to set the default for a file type (so that
any files loaded with the given type will be assumed to be
adjusted for that gamma value.)
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This is a new feature in ThumbsPlus that allows
the user to move folders in other programs. Then, in ThumbsPlus,
the user has the opportunity to drag the entire folder containing
the orphaned thumbnails to the new folder. Understand that
any keywords, annotations or user fields you assign to files
are associated with the thumbnail itself, not the file. This
information is held in the database. When you move, outside
of ThumbsPlus, the file or the folder in which it resides,
the database information does not travel with the file. The
integrity of the database is maintained with the ability to
reassociate this information with the files and their new
location using the gray folders and orphaned thumbnails. If
you do not wish to reassociate the orphan thumbnails with
the files, you can just right click the gray folder and go
to Remove Thumbnails on the fly out menu.
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Here is a list of all the small icons you
may find on your files in ThumbsPlus v4:
- A blue + in a page indicates a multi-page
file (including animated GIFs)
- A green i indicates that IPTC/NAA information
(aka Photoshop File Info) is available. You can view it
from the Properties dialog (Info tab).
- A green f indicates that the font is installed.
- A red bar in a circle indicates that the
file is offline or orphaned.
- A red clock indicates that the thumbnail
is out of date (was a red dot in 3.x)
- A red copyright symbol indicates that the
image has a Digimarc watermark (you must enable Check
for Digimarc Watermarks when making thumbnails to see
this, in Options | Preferences | Thumbnails).
If you do not want to see any of these decorations
on your thumbnails, go to Options | Preferences | Thumbnails
and un-check Show Decorations.
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To stop this behavior, go to Options |
Preferences | General and un-check Enable Shell Extensions
Context Menus and Enable Shell Folder Operation Monitoring.
This is a new feature in T+ that allows you to do graphic
file management while T+ is closed.
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Please read the entire passage below before
attempting to fix the problem.
You could be receiving this error because you do not have
any ODBC components installed on your system or the ODBC components
have been hosed by another application. (Which does happen
unfortunately.) ThumbsPlus uses an MS Access database with
a .td4 extension for the database.
Here is a site you can use to determine this. After determining
which files you need, then close everything in startup and
install the appropriate MDAC and JET for your system.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q239114
If you are still having trouble after this, please go through
the following suggetions to see if any will help with your
problem.
Download and install MDAC
2.6 (this link opens a new window
and takes you to Microsoft's web site) and Jet40sp4.exe.
If Jet40 service pack 4 does not fix the problem, please download
and install service pack 3, Jet40sp3.exe
Before installing any of the odbc components
above, disable everything in startup and make sure
to reboot immediately after each install.
MDAC 2.6 is supported on the following configurations:
- Windows 95 with the Y2K Update and Internet
Explorer 4.01 SP2 or later
- Windows 98 with the Y2K Update 2 and Internet
Explorer 4.01 SP2 or later
- Windows 98 Second Edition
- Windows Millennium
- NT 4 SP5 (or greater) and IE 4.01 SP2 or
later
- Windows 2000
If you are running Windows XP, download and
install MDAC
2.7.
If this doesn't help and you are on Win95/98/NT,
you can try the following fix file:
Download an application called FixODBC4x.exe.
This app will clean up the ODBC files and reinstall MDAC v2.5.
After you have downloaded the file, make sure nothing...including
in the system tray...is running on your system and run the
executable. Note that this application will install the English
ODBC drivers. We suggest using the English version as Microsoft
does not produce the localized versions. The English version
is much more reliable having fewer bugs and memory leaks.
If you do not wish to run the English ODBC drivers, do not
use this application! The above links to the web installer
which will download the appropriate files for each OS. DO
NOT INSTALL THIS APPLICATION IF YOU ARE RUNNING WIN2K or WINME!!
After running this file, please reboot your
system.
Database errors can also be caused by an incorrect
setting in the registry for the MDAC components.
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Something is definitely corrupted in your ODBC components.
The following applications are known to corrupt the ODBC components
on a system by either installing them or uninstalling them:
- WordPerfect
- Earthlink Total Access
- World Book Encyclopaedia
Read these instructions in their entirety
before attempting to fix the problem as there are several
alternatives depending on which program has caused the problem.
1. First, download the latest and greatest
ODBC components for your OS:
Microsoft recommends different MDAC and/or
Jet 4.0 installers depending on platform so please go to the
url below and download and install the correct version for
your XP. We understand you have already downloaded and installed
these files, but weI want to make sure that you get the latest
and greatest ODBC components from Microsoft.
You can find all of the ODBC components on this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q239114
2. If you have installed/uninstalled WordPerfect,
the registry edit fix is the next step.
Please note that ThumbsPlus did not cause
the problem, and we are trying to help because of your support
for Cerious Software/ThumbsPlus.
Any registry editing is done at your own risk!!
For the WordPerfect installation that corrupted
your database components, you will need to do the following
at your own risk as it is a registry edit:
Go here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q320757
One gotcha that has been experienced:
In Step 1, you need to export the ODBC sections from a good
Registry.
After reinstalling Office, then uninstalling
and reinstalling T+. (Or if you never successfully installed
ThumbsPlus, just attempt the install once again!)
This fix should still work even if you aren't
running Office and have the same type of problem.
3. For the Earthlink installation that corrupted
your database components, you will need to do the following
at your own risk as it is a registry edit. The instructions
that follow are quoted from Earthlink. If you prefer, please
contact the electronic support at Earthlink.
Before following these instructions, please
read the note below:
WARNING: Using the Registry Editor incorrectly can cause
serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Editing
the Registry should only be done by experienced users or technicians. Earthlink cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of the Registry Editor can be solved. Edit the registry at your own
risk and always back it up prior to making any changes.
To remove the EarthLink TotalAccess 2003 software and all
of the registry entries it creates, please follow the steps
below:
- From the Start menu, choose Run.
- In the Open field, type regedit.
- Click the OK button.
- From the Registry menu, choose Export Registry File.
- Click the down arrow on the Save in drop-down list and choose
Desktop.
- In the File name field, type ELN.
- Click the Save button.
- Click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER so that its
contents are shown.
- Click the plus sign next to Software so that its contents
are shown.
- Click the EarthLink item.
- Click the EarthLink folder with your right mouse button,
then choose Delete.
- Click the Yes button.
- Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE so that its
contents are shown.
- Click the plus sign next to SOFTWARE so that its contents
are shown.
- Click the EarthLink folder with your right mouse button,
then choose Delete.
- Click the Yes button.
- Close all windows.
- Double-click the My Computer icon.
- Double-click the C: icon.
- Double-click the Program Files folder.
- Locate and select theEarthLink TotalAccess folder.
- Click the EarthLink TotalAccess folder with your right mouse
button, then choose Delete.
- Click the Yes button.
4. Please check with the company that distributes the World
Book software. If they are corrupting ODBC components, they
simply MUST have some sort of registry fix.
5. Several ThumbsPlus users have downloaded
and installed this JET version with complete success: Jet40sp3.exe
Please email our support
department if you need further assistance.
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We have just discovered a key in the registry
causing this problem, and shouldn't be there, that is added
with the install of ODBC. ODBC is a standard component on
Windows as distributed by MicroSoft.
Deleting the registry key:
- Start | Run | regedit
- Local Machine
- Software
- Microsoft
- Windows
- Current version
- Run
- Delete the entry: MDAC run once.
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Try the following to speed up T+:
- If you are working with large files, turn
off Automatically Crop Edges in Options | Preferences
| Thumbnails.
- Try turning off both Automatically Remove
Orphaned Thumbnails and Show Orphaned Thumbnails
from Options | Preferences | Thumbnails.
- Turn off Check For Digimarc Watermarks
in both Options | Preferences | Thumbnails and Options
| Viewing | Other.
- Make sure that Always Show Child Folders
is off in Options | Preferences | Thumbnail View.
- If creating thumbnails is very slow, the
fewer auto generated keyword options assigned, the faster
this function will be. You can check to see how many you
have turned on by going to Options | Preferences | Keywords.
- Check that you don't have a file called
SQL.LOG. This means that Tracing has been turned on in the
ODBC options. This will slow everything to almost a halt.
You can check this and turn off ODBC Tracing from the ODBC
control panel.
- Turn off Indicate Expandable in
the Tree menu.
- You can also turn off the Make Thumbnails
Automatically in Options | Preferences | Thumbnails.
- Change the Thumbnail Cache Size
to 100 in Options | Preferences | Advanced.
- If you are running Norton and/or McAfee,
try disabling them. T+ should start up and run much faster.
- Make sure Maximum Local Database Cache
is set to 0 in Options | Preferences | Advanced.
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This can be one of two things:
- The font size in Windows is set to something
other than Small or Large fonts. You can check this by going
to your desktop, then right click. On the fly-out menu,
go to Properties | Settings | Advanced. Change the
Font Size to either Small or Large.
- This may also be an issue with an older
comctrl. Download
40comupd.exe and run it.
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The thumbnails have been stretched using the
size percent function on the main interface.
To increase the thumbnail size without distorting the image,
go to Options | Preferences | Thumbnails and change
the actual size of the thumbnail. After you have set a new
size, you will need to remake your thumbnails. You can remake
the existing thumbnails by going into a folder and pressing
CTRL+A to select all of the files in the folder. Then, click
on the single thumb icon on the toolbar.
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