Preferences settings

"Catalogues" tab

Catalogues saving
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Catalogues tab
Keyboard access: Alt+P

Choose here the mode used by 3D Photo Browser to save catalogues:

• Never save catalogues
  Catalogues are never saved. The advantage is to preserve your disk space. However catalogues size has been reduced as much as possible, so it's inadvisable to use this mode. In fact, 3D Photo Browser must recompute thumbnails each time you change the current directory (it may take a long time, specially for 3D files). More, information linked to files (legend, keywords...) are not saved, so file search based on keywords is not possible, as these information are missing.
  
• Save catalogue in the directory which contains files
  Catalogues are saved in the directory which contains the files. This is the more practical mode since catalogue is not lost when you rename or move a directory from the Windows explorer. This mode is really convenient to archive files and catalogues on a CD-ROM for example. However, it can be undesirable to scatter catalogues among your directories, if you don't want to modify their contents. If so, use the following mode.
  
• Save all catalogues in the Catalogues directory which is in 3D Photo Browser directory
  Use this mode when you don't want to scatter catalogues among your hard disk directories. Using this mode, catalogues will be saved in the Catalogues directory which is in the 3D Photo Browser application directory. This mode is less convenient to archivate files on a CD-ROM, as catalogues are not saved in the directories which contain your files. More, when you rename or move a directory, you lose it's catalogue.

By default, 3D Photo Browser uses Save catalogue in the directory which contains files mode.

Create hidden catalogues files
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users

Check this button to create catalogues that have hidden file attribute. This is the default mode.

Catalogues contents
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Catalogues tab
Keyboard access: Alt+P

Choose here which information will be saved in your catalogues:

• Save recognized files thumbnails and information about files
  Thumbnails are created and saved for recognized files. File information edition is possible for all files (recognized and unrecognized) and these information are saved in the catalogue. File search based on keywords is possible for every file.
  
• Save recognized files thumbnails and information
  Thumbnails and information are saved for recognized file. If file is not recognized by 3D Photo Browser, file information edition is not possible. file search based on keywords is not possible for unrecognized files, as these information are missing.
• Save 2D files thumbnails and information only
  2D files information and thumbnails are saved. 3D files thumbnails are recomputed each time you change directory. Using this mode is inadvisable because recomputing thumbnails for 3D files may take a long time and slow down your works with 3D Photo Browser. More, information linked to 3D files (legend, keywords...) are not saved, so 3D file search based on keywords is not possible, as these information are missing.
  
• Save 3D files thumbnails and information only
  3D files information and thumbnails are saved. 2D files thumbnails are recomputed each time you change directory. Recomputing thumbnails for 2D files is fast, and using this mode saves space on your hard disk. On the other hand, information linked to 2D files (legend, keywords...) are not saved, so 2D file search based on keywords is not possible, as these information are missing.
  

By default, 3D Photo Browser uses Save recognized files thumbnails and information about files mode.

Thumbnails quality
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
access menus: Edit / Preferences settings, Catalogues tab
Keyboard access: Alt+P

Set a low value to reduce catalogues sizes saved on your hard disk. Beware, low quality factor spoils the preview quality.
By default the value is set to 90.

"Fast applications access" tab
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Fast applications access tab
keyboard access:Alt+P

Choose applications that are displayed when you move the mouse on the status bar, at the bottom of 3D Photo Browser main window.
For more information about using fast applications access, please see Editing a file using the fast applications access toolbar.

• Create a fast access
  A dialog containing the list of applications availables on your computer is displayed.
  If the application you need is not in the list, click on the Other... button, then select application (*.exe) directly in its directory.
  Once done, a fast access is added to the applications list.
• Delete a fast access
  Select one application in the applications list, then click on the Delete button in order to remove selected applications from the fast applications access toolbar.
• Create defaults access
  Click on this button to reinit applications displayed in the fast applications access toolbar. 3D Photo Browser chooses applications likely to edit files recognized by 3D Photo Browser.
  
• Description
  This field defines the text of the the tooltip which is displayed when you put the mouse above its icon in the fast application toolbar.
• Program arguments
  Some applications need parameters to be correctly launched. Enter here parameters needed for launching the application selected in the list.
  
• Working directory
  By default the working directory if the application directory. But it can be useful to define another working directory for some applications. Click on Browse... to select the working directory for the selected application.
• Application hot key
  Defines the keys combination which launch the selected application. By pressing this combination, you open or reactivate the application (reactivation is possible only when the application has been previously launched using a fast access).

"Display" tab

Background image
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Display tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

Check this Background image box and select an image. Click on Browse... to display a file selector.
This image is use as a background in the thumbnails window.
By default, Background image is checked and .\preferences\defaultbk.gif is used.

Note: if the selected image is not in a sub directory of the application, 3D Photo Browser asks you for creating a copy of the file. This will allows you to correctly display the background if you run 3D Photo Browser through the network.

Icons display and position
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Display tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

Check Display file icon to display the icon of the application associated with files in the thumbnails and custom display mode.
Select one of the four possible positions to display the icon where you want.

By default this setting is checked and icons are displayed in the top left corner of each thumbnails.

Colors
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Display tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

These settings allow customizing the thumbnails window appearance, by selecting different colors for elements.

Screen background
This setting is only available when Background image is not check.
Select the background color of the thumbnails window.
By default, the default system background color is used.

Thumbnails background and opacity
Select the color for displaying thumbnails background and set the opacity of this color according to the screen background. Opacity setting makes sense when you use a background image.
Select also the color in which the selected thumbnails should appear.
By default, thumbnails background is related to the screen background and the default system selection color.

3D scenes background
Select the background color used to create 3D scenes thumbnails.
By default, the color is identical to the thumbnails background color.

Texts
Select the text color used to display file names, when thumbnails are or are not selected.
Default color is black for not selected thumbnails and white for selected thumbnails.
Note : these settings have no effect on the color of the text displayed in custom display mode. This text has its own colors attributes.

Defaults colors
Click on this button to set back colors to their defaults values.

Tooltips information
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Display tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

These settings allow customizing the content of the help bubbles, which appear when you move the mouse above a thumbnail.

Display mode selection

• Never display
  Tooltips are inactive and are never displayed.
• Always display
  Tooltips are always displayed whatever the display mode.
• Always display except in custom mode (Version: for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users)
  Tooltips are inactive in the custom display mode only because tooltips information might be redundant with information displayed in this mode.

Tooltips text
Edit the content of the help bubbles. Use tags to get access to the properties of the file, which is underneath the mouse cursor.

Files category
You can edit a different text depending on the files category. This allows displaying different and relevant information for each files category. Select one of the following categories to edit the corresponding text:

• Images
• 3D scenes
• Audios
  
• Others files

Formatting toolbar
This toolbar allows you to embellish your text and to modify the formatting attributes such text font, color and size. You can also align it left, center or right and use bullets.

Tags insertion
Tags are dynamic parts of the text, which give access to file properties. Look at the using tags page to get more information.
Click on the tags button and select a menu entry to insert a tag in the text. The inserted tag uses the font attributes of current caret position.

Open Wordpad
Click on this button to open Wordpad and use it to edit your text.
Once the text edited, you can reimport it in 3D Photo Browser, using cut and paste operation or clicking on Import text if you saved it before.

Text importation
Click on this button to select a file, which contains the text to import. You can import a simple text or a formatted RTF text.

Width
Enter the width in pixels of the tooltips window. Adjust the size according to the size of the text you want to display. When you increase the width, tooltips height decreases because tooltips size is computed to make the whole text being displayed.

Default text
Click on this button to use the default tooltips text.

"Custom display" tab

Thumbnails size
Version: for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Custom display tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

Enter the width and height (in pixels) for displaying thumbnails in Custom display mode. Set this size according to the text you want to display on the right of each thumbnails.
Click on Reinit to use 3D Photo Browser default size.

Custom display text edition
Version: for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Custom display tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

Files category
You can edit a different text depending on the files category. This allows displaying different and relevant information for each files category. Select one of the following categories to edit the corresponding text:

• Images
• 3D scenes
• Audios
• Others files

Formatting toolbar
A toolbar allows you to embellish your text and to modify the formatting attributes such text font, color and size. You can also align it left, center or right and use bullets.

Tags insertion
Tags are dynamic parts of the text, which give access to file properties. Look at the using tags page to get more information.
Click on the tags button and select a menu entry to insert a tag in the text. The inserted tag uses the font attributes of current caret position.

Open Wordpad
Click on this button to open Wordpad and use it to edit your text.
Once the text edited, you can reimport it in 3D Photo Browser, using cut and paste operation or clicking on Import text if you saved it before.

Text importation
Click on this button to select a file, which contains the text to import. You can import a simple text or a formatted RTF text.

Text position
Click on one of the 3 squares to define the vertical position for the header, the footnote and the cell texts. If the text is larger than the area in which it is displayed, top alignment is automatically selected, so the beginning of the text is always visible.
Horizontal alignment depends on the settings you made when you edit the text (left, right or center alignment).

Default text
Click on this button to use the 3D Photo Browser default text.

"Extensions and Windows shell" tab

Add and remove 3D Photo Browser to/from the explorer Open with menu
version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
menu access: Edit / Preferences, Extensions and Windows shell tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

• Add
  Adds 3D Photo Browser from Open With... menu of Windows Explorer for every file type recognized by 3D Photo Browser.
• Remove
  Removes 3D Photo Browser from Open With... menu of Windows Explorer.

Associate 3D Photo Browser to an extension
version:Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
menu access: Edit / Preferences, Extensions and Windows shell tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

Check an extension to associate it to 3D Photo Browser. Associating an extension allows you to open the file with 3D Photo Browser from the Windows explorer. 3D Photo Browser stores existing associations, so you can set back your previous associations simply by unchecking an extension.

During the setup you might have choosed to associate the whole recognized extensions to 3D Photo Browser. Simply uncheck an extension if you want to restablish associations you had before the application setup.

Use Associate all to associate all extensions to 3D Photo Browser.
use Remove all associations to remove all associations with 3D Photo Browser.

Define the application to use with the Open and Open with... command
version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
menu access: Edit / Preferences, Extensions and Windows shell tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

You can define the application to use with the Open and Open with... command for each extension.

By default, for each extension, the 3D Photo Browser internal viewer is associated to the Open command. The Open With command is associated to an application that can open a given extension.

For each extension, click on the Open or Open With column to select the internal viewer or the application to use for opening files. For example, for the PSD extension, you can associate the internal viewer to the Open command and Photoshop to the Open With command.

Use Copy to store the application choices for the selected extension and Paste to copy these choices to one or more extensions, by selecting them.

'Network repository and search' tab

Gather catalogues in a repository folder in order to perform network searches
version: for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users (Windows NT/2000/XP only)
menu access: Edit / Preferences, network tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

This option is not available under Windows 98/Me.

Select a repository folder to store your catalogues in order to make them available through the network, when you perform a search. In fact, in order to reduce the space disk needs and to ensure that the information is updated, only a shortcut to the catalogue is stored in the repository.
By using a repository folder you simplify searching for files on a network, particularly if 3D Photo Browser is setup several times on the network. Select the same repository folder for each 3D Photo Browser setup. Links to catalogue is created each time an user browses a folder, allowing the application to localize multimedia files over the network.

Look at Search for files in a local network for more information.

Note: the repository folder must be reading and writing shared.
The browsed folders must be shared at least in reading, so their contents can be accessed from any computers.

Define a directories list for seaching files
version: for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
menu access: Edit / Preferences, network tab
keyboard access: Alt+P

This list is another way to search for files on a single computer or on a local network. It is really useful when your multimedia files are gathered in a single directory. Add one or more directories to the list and check Search in repository and search list in the search panel to look for files in these directories.

"Other" tab

Do not recycle viewers windows
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Others tab
Keyboard access: Alt+P

3D Photo Browser uses a single viewer when this option is unchecked. When you want to view a file, 3D Photo Browser the current opened viewer is replaced by a new viewer displaying the required file.
It's possible to open several viewers by checking this option. This can be useful to display and compare files. Automatic viewer substitution is not done by 3D Photo Browser and you can have a lot of visualization windows on your screen.
By default, this option is unchecked.

Copy / Rename / Delete files
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Others tab
keyboard access:Alt+P

These options defines automatic rules to apply, when 3D Photo Browser performs Copy / Rename / Delete operations.

• Keep the extension if removed
  Check this option to automatically adds the extension, if you rename a file, without entering its extension.
  For example, when checked, if you rename file.jpg to example, the file is finally renamed example.jpg.
• Rename also associated files
  Check this option to rename automatically files associated to a given file. This allows to keep the link between associated files. For example, file.jpg is associated to file.wav. By checking this option, when file.jpg is renamed to example.jpg, file.wav is automatically renamed to example.wav.
• Copy also associated files
  Check this option to copy automatically files associated to a given file.

Automatically add directory to favorites
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Others tab
keyboard access:Alt+P

When this option is checked, current directory is automatically added to the favorites (if it contains files recognized by 3D Photo Browser).
If this option is unchecked, use "Add to favorites" function to add the current directory to favorites.
This option is unchecked by default.

Others
Version: Light / for Dig. Cam. / for 3D Users
Menu access: Edit / Preferences, Others tab
keyboard access:Alt+P

• Use large icons for toolbar
  When this option is unchecked, 3D Photo Browser uses small icons in toolbars.
  This option is checked by default.
• Minimize 3D Photo Browser in the systray
  If this options is checked, 3D Photo Browser is reduced to a systray icon whenever you minimize the window or press the 3D Photo Browser hot key.
  If this options is unchecked, 3D Photo Browser is reduced in the task bar application list when you minimize it or press the 3D Photo Browser hot key.
  This option is unchecked by default.
• 3D Photo Browser hot key
  Define key which allows to activate/deactivate 3D Photo Browser from Windows (key is enabled only if 3D Photo Browser is already launched).
• Language
  Define the 3D Photo Browser interface language. 3D Photo Browser needs to be restart when you change the language. This feature is available only under Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.