VuBe

Image Viewer for BeOS R4^TM on Intel PCs

This is the fourth alpha release of VuBe, released on 31^st July, 1999. There are still some bugs in this version, and there are also a huge number of planned features to be included too. This document will explain how to use the features of VuBe, as well as covering some of the features we plan to implement.

If you have any queries, suggestions, or comments, then feel free to contact us at vube@silentsw.com. In the quest for new versions, seek out www.silentsw.com.

Overview

VuBe is a graphical file viewer for the BeOS R4. It enables you to quickly browse the images stored on your hard disk with an easy to use interface, a slideshow and customisable preferences. It also allows you to view your images in thumbnail mode, so that you can quickly scan for the image of your choice.

Thumbnail Mode

When you first open VuBe, it will display the thumbnail view of the last folder you viewed. An example thumbnail view is given above. On the left is a list of folders, whilst on the right are the thumbnails for the currently selected folder.

You can navigate to different folders by selecting a folder from the folder view.. When you select a folder it will display a list of the subfolders beneath your selection, as well as update the thumbnails. Double clicking on a thumbnail will switch the window to image view, where the currently selected image is displayed.

Image View

Having opened an image, you can select portions of the image, as well as zoom in and out, or pan the image, as follows:

Zooming

Use the keyboard shortcuts, Alt+= to zoom in, and Alt+- (minus) to zoom out
Use the zoom button to select a predetermined zoom level between 12.5% and 1600%.
If you have set zoom functionality on one of the mouse buttons, you can click to zoom in, or press Control and click to zoom out.

Panning and Gliding

Use the scrollbars or the cursor keys to move around an image. If you have set the mouse to perform panning, then you can drag with the appropriate mouse button to pan the image.

In previous versions of Vube, panning was like moving on ice, and although we preferred it, some didn't. From alpha 3 onwards, panning now acts like in most graphics applications, where you have to drag the mouse a lot to move around. The old functionality, can now be accessed by gliding. In glide mode, you only need to move the mouse a little, and the image will automatically pan until you release the corresponding mouse button.

Selecting an area

You can select an area of the current image using the mouse. You must first have set up a mouse button to provide selection functionality (by default this is primary mouse button). To select an area of the current image, merely hold down the appropriate mouse button, until you have selected the area you require. The current selection is shown by inverting the image over the selection area.

Opening a file or folder

There are three ways of opening a file or folder:

From the File menu, select the open option.
From the toolbar, press the open button.
Use the ALT+O keyboard shortcut.

From the Open dialog, select the file or folder that you wish to open. It will be opened in a new window, leaving the existing window open.

NOTE! To open an image in the current window, use the folder or thumbnail views to select the image you require.

Browsing through the current folder

Having opened an image, you can browse the other images in the same folder, as follows:

Use the 'Image' menu options to jump to the first, last, previous or next images in the current image directory.
Use the toolbar next and previous buttons to navigate the images.
If you have configured the mouse to support image browsing, then you can click a mouse button to move to next or previous images. By default, this functionality is switched on.
Use the keyboard shortcut keys a follows:
First Image ALT+F
Last Image ALT+L
Next Image ALT+N
Previous Image ALT+P

Drag and Drop

You can now use Vube to drag and drop images from the Thumbnail window into folders. Currently, files will only ever be moved, either to folder you drag to, or to the Trash. To drag an image, simply click and hold the image to drag in the Thumbnail view, and then either drop it in a Tracker window, or other the appropriate folder in the Vube Directory List.

We hope to provide support for dragging files into the Vube window, but this currently does not work.

Saving an image

You can save the current image, or a portion of the image, using the Save As command. Whilst in image view, navigate to the image you wish to save, and then select Save As from the File menu. From the Save dialog enter the name you wish to save the image under, and then select the image format you wish to save it in.

NOTE! In this version, you can only save from the Image view. To save an image from the Thumbnail view, you must first have viewed the image.

Changing the Mouse functionality

The mouse can be configured to perform different actions whilst in the Image view. By default, the left mouse button selects an area of an image, whilst the right mouse button pans the image. To change the functionality, click the Mouse button on the toolbar, and select one of the options:

Mouse button

The Mouse button displays the following menu when clicked:

Left mouse selects
Select this option if you want the left mouse button to allow you to select areas of an image.
Left mouse zooms
Select this option if you want the left mouse button to zoom in to the image when clicked, or zoom out when clicked with the Control key held down.
Left mouse pans
Select this option if you want the left mouse button to allow you to pan around the image by dragging.
Left mouse glides
Select this option if you want the left mouse button to allow you to glide around the image with minor mouse movements (similar to panning).
Left mouse for next image
Select this option if you want the left mouse button to move forward through the current image folder.
Left mouse for previous image
Select this option if you want the left mouse button to move backwards through the current image folder.
All commands are available on the right mouse button as well, allowing for complete customisation of the mouse from within VuBe.

The Preferences Panel

The Preferences Panel allows you to change your preferences for VuBe. You can get to it by selecting the Preference menu item from the File menu.

The General Tab

This tab allows you to set some general preferences for VuBe.

The Open Options allow you to alter the default folder that will be used when Vube is started. Select 'Last used folder', and you can continnue browsing graphics files from where you left off last time.

Selecting 'Always use this folder' will enable you to set a static folder. With this option selected, you can type in your preferred folder, or use the 'Browse' button to find the folder.

Use the 'Slideshow Timer' control to alter how long each image will be displayed when using the Slideshow.

Use 'Fit image to window size' to have the current image scale to the same size as the window. The image will always maintain its proportions when scaled to fit the window.

The Thumbnails Tab

This tab allows you to set the preferences for the Thumbnail view of VuBe.

Select 'Background Color' to draw a solid gray color as the background of the thumbnail view.

Select 'Background Image' to tile an image of your choice as the background of the thumbnail view. You can either enter the fully pathed filename of the image to use in the text control, or click the Browse button to locate the image of your choice.

Use the 'Thumbnail Size' slider to select what size you want the thumbnails to be. This option is global across the system. If you change the thumbnail size, then thumbnails will automatically be regenerated when you move to a folder which is not using the new size. The smallest size is the same as a large icon (32x32), while the largest size is the same as a small movie (240x240).

You can change how thumbnails are drawn. If you check 'Draw border around thumbnail' then each thumbnail will have a thin gray border drawn around it. If you check 'Draw shadow behind thumbnail', then each thumbnail will have a slight drop shadow drawn behind it.

Slideshows

You can automatically scroll forwards through the images in the current directory using the slideshow feature, by either selecting the 'Slideshow' option from the 'Image' menu, or by clicking the Slideshow button.

Refreshing Thumbnails

Although VuBe will try and work out when a folder's thumbnails need to be updated, occassionally it needs a gentle prodding! To force thumbnails to be refreshed, select Refresh thumbnails from the Tools menu.

Questions and Suggestions

Software can only get better from feedback, and we'd appreciate yours. Send any feedback and/or bug reports to either vube@silentsw.com or steve@silentsw.com. We can't promise anything, but we'll do our best :)

License

This software is freeware, and is freely distributable. Neither the source code or object code (which you don't have), nor the documentation, binary files or additional files (which you do have), may be modified or distributed separately.

We do not warrant this software fit for any purpose, because yes, it is another viewer for the BeOS.

Version History

29-Jun-99 - 0.9.6.1 Alpha 3
The following features were added in this version:

Drag and drop into Tracker windows.
Ability to glide around images, rather than just pan.
Right mouse support added to thumbnailview, except we're not telling anyone what it does. It should be completed by the next release!

The previous version had a bug which caused it to crash with certain images. This turned out to be the translator being used to display the image.

09-May-99 - 0.9.5.1 Alpha 2
The following features were added in this version:

Thumbnail view and associated folder view.
Save As and Save Selection
Zoom, Pan, and Selecting part of an image.
Mouse customization using the Mouse toolbar button.
Zooming via the Zoom toolbar button.
Multiple windows.
Internal thumbnail creation, allowing for user-definable thumbnail sizes.

Although many bugs were fixed, some of the key ones include:

When downloading images from the Internet to a folder you are viewing an image in, VuBe will occasionally crash.

09-Feb-99 - 0.9.1.2 Alpha 1
This is the first alpha release.

Planned Features and Bug Fixes

The following is some known bugs we plan to fix...

Quickly switching folders (less than 0.5 seconds between each folder) in the folder view will cause VuBe to hang, so that it must be shut down.
The toolbar buttons do not disable, and can therefore be clicked whilst in thumbnail view.
Save As and Save Selection work on the image displayed in the Image View, and not the highlighted image in the Thumbnail View.
We don't have a clue whether you can force images to be opened by VuBe (instead of ShowImage say). Currently, VuBe can only ever be opened in the default thumbnail view, and then images opened from there.

We plan to implement the following features. We've also tried to include roughly when this feature will be available.

Configurable toolbar so that you can make it go away, or make the buttons smaller (July 1999).
Threaded image viewing (since moving between images is not fast enough just yet) (July 1999).
Context menus in thumbnail view, allowing for copying and deleting of images from thumbnail view (August 1999) - already partially done, and available in this release!
Image add-ons, i.e. customisable extensions to the software.
Other bits and pieces we're not going to let on to <g>