Changes to preview function in recent betas

pissant · Post by **pissant** » 15 Oct 2006 02:58

Not long ago, I used to be able to preview any file without a problem. But now, XY uses MSIE somehow, so I had to make changes.

I had to enable file downloads in the "My Computer" MSIE zone. Yes, I had it disabled, because you never know what MSIE bug will make use of that setting. I never had a problem with file downloads being disabled before.

OK, so now I feel less secure but I can preview files in XY again. Actually no, I can't, because now when I try to preview a file in XY, I get a "File Download" dialog that asks "Do you want to open or save this file?" When I click Open, the file is opened with the associated application. When I click Save, I get a "Save As" prompt.

What do I have to do to make things just ... work?

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 15 Oct 2006 03:31

XY has always used IE to preview some files (Web & Office), so I'm thinking you probably mean the most recent changes, like *.txt & *.log being previews through IE now. If you don't want that and wanna have them previewed with XY file viewer (as before and like on Raw View tab) you can simply go in Configuration (F9)/Previewed Formats and uncheck the formats you don't want to go through IE (they're under Web & Office).

So unchecking *.txt for example will make so text files will not be previewed through IE but with XY's own file viewer (Raw View) just like they were before thoose changes.

pissant · Post by **pissant** » 15 Oct 2006 03:47

Yeah, thanks, that's great! (But very unintuitive.) Now it seems to work as before. Thank you.

Separate but somewhat related question: Is it normal to have this much dead space around the preview area?

Post by **admin** » 15 Oct 2006 08:38

pissant wrote:Yeah, thanks, that's great! (But very unintuitive.) Now it seems to work as before. Thank you.

Maybe I can improve the text in "configuration|previewed formats" to make it clearer.
"All checked file types are previewed (Preview tab) and raw-viewed (Raw View tab). Unchecked types are just raw-viewed". Not so good... any ideas anybody?

pissant wrote:Separate but somewhat related question: Is it normal to have this much dead space around the preview area?

No that's not normal. How do you do this???

pissant · Post by **pissant** » 15 Oct 2006 08:59

admin wrote:Maybe I can improve the text in "configuration|previewed formats" to make it clearer.

That would be good. The way it is now, it says that if you uncheck a box for a file type, that file type won't be previewed anymore.

[/quote]

admin wrote:No that's not normal. How do you do this???

I run 1920x1200 at 120 DPI. I'm guessing the 120 DPI is what induces it.

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 15 Oct 2006 10:13

Here's one attempt at clearer text (just before my bedtime):
Check file types to be shown in preview tab using related application.
Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view mode.

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 15 Oct 2006 17:30

j_c_hallgren wrote:Check file types to be shown in preview tab using related application.
Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view mode.

Not entirely true, Pictures/Videos/MP3s/etc are previewed with XY only. This would only applied for "Web & Office", and then it's through IE really.

I'd say a more "global/general" thing could be better, like: Checked formats will be previewed within XY Preview Tab ; Unchecked formats will be shown as binary/text files, like on Raw View Tab.

Maybe add a note, like "Office & Web formats will be previewed on Preview Tab through IE" is you want

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 15 Oct 2006 21:18

So...then if that's true, why does XY help file specify that preview depends on which Media Player is installed?

And...as I understood it, preview of Office files (such as XLS) requires that Office (or similar) be installed, so while the interface handling may occur via IE, the actual display occurs via Excel for XLS.
Also, if one didn't have Adobe or equiv installed, would PDF's be previewed? I'm not sure but I don't think so, as they are not native to IE.

I'd agree that web files are done via IE, but that is what I meant by related application...as PDF files show the Adobe icon, and XLS show the Excel icon, etc...I may be 100% off-base but I didn't think XY has its own decoding/rendering engine for pix/video/music...I believe it hooks into whatever routines are available on user system, thus the comment in help file as stated is needed, and my proposed text would be essentially correct.

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 16 Oct 2006 00:16

j_c_hallgren wrote:So...then if that's true, why does XY help file specify that preview depends on which Media Player is installed?

I think, cause it matters when it comes to which codecs ae installed/usable, but XY does handle the preview "itself", as in you can have JPG associated with Photoshop, and AVI with VLC, and MP3 with WinAMP, etc all thoose will be previewed by XY's own preview thing, not the related application.
Regarding videos, it's pretty much how many video software works: if you have the codec installed, it'll work on VirtualDub, MPC, XY, etc but if you don't, none of them will be able to read/play the files. Yet none of them uses any "related application" to render the files.

And yes, you're right when it comes to Office/Web, then in the end it will be shown with Word, Adobe, or whatever is associated with that file format. But that's only true for Office/Web formats, hence why IMHO it'd be confusing to say here "to be shown (..) using related application".

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 16 Oct 2006 02:40

Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view mode.

Maybe just adapting this to say: "Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view (binary/text)." would work? And then not specifying exactly what occurs to those checked, as it is then implied that they will be rendered as needed.

And then also say something like: "All checked file types will be processed using embedded or defined formatting" instead of reference to related app.

Post by **admin** » 16 Oct 2006 08:09

j_c_hallgren wrote:
Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view mode.
Maybe just adapting this to say: "Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view (binary/text)." would work? And then not specifying exactly what occurs to those checked, as it is then implied that they will be rendered as needed.

And then also say something like: "All checked file types will be processed using embedded or defined formatting" instead of reference to related app.

I would rather tell the people what they get instead of how I do it. I would tell them that image files are previewed as images, sound files played as sounds, font files as fonts, etc. I have used the word "interpreted" as a summary term for this but that might not be very helpful. So what about this:
"All checked file types will be previewed according to their content: image files as images, sound files as sounds, etc. Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view mode (binary/text)."

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 16 Oct 2006 09:15

Yes...that seems quite good...but I think we could skip/tweak a few words and still get same or improved results by: "All checked file types will be previewed according to their content and/or file format"
As "images as images, etc" is bit redundant, as is "content" and "format", but some people may understand better with both of those terms used.
And then using the raw view sentence as you stated for 2nd line.

Post by **admin** » 16 Oct 2006 19:55

j_c_hallgren wrote:Yes...that seems quite good...but I think we could skip/tweak a few words and still get same or improved results by: "All checked file types will be previewed according to their content and/or file format"
As "images as images, etc" is bit redundant, as is "content" and "format", but some people may understand better with both of those terms used.
And then using the raw view sentence as you stated for 2nd line.

Redundancy is not a bad thing when it comes to (foolproof) explanation. What about this now:
"All checked file types will be previewed according to their content (file format): image files as images, sound files as sounds, etc. Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view mode (binary/text)."

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 16 Oct 2006 23:50

admin wrote:"All checked file types will be previewed according to their content (file format): image files as images, sound files as sounds, etc. Any file types not checked will only be shown in raw view mode (binary/text)."

Sounds good to me.