FAQ 6 Part D: ACDSee

You can find a list of changes at:

There are a large number of changes, though most of them are difficult to notice.

ACDSee now has features found in ThumbsPlus, Changename 5.0, LviewPro, and Filesearch built in.

Here are the settings I recommend (as always it is only a recommendation):

• Browser Options-show toolbar, status bar, menu, path box, and preview (don't show folder tree). Shortcuts is optional (it's very convenient and useful, but not for everyone). Also, save window size and position, as well as check on the box for start in previous folder. Hide preview in thumbnail mode is optional; I keep it off.
• File List-Check column auto-width, full row select, and highlight image files. "Use system icons" is optional; it's more familiar, but slows down loading a folder slightly. Preview delay is up to you (if it's low, then when you pause on a file, it'll wait only a short time before loading a small preview of the file. I choose "never" for reading image information and I don't cache descript.ion, though there are some advantages of doing so. I also don't do "auto-refresh" because it slows things down a little (auto-refresh constantly checks to see if any new files have been added, as opposed to checking only when you enter the directory or when you hit the reload button).
• Thumbnails-configure as you like. I prefer having a very thin border.
• Viewer-The only thing I check for the viewer is: shrink to fit window and view all images in screen
• Slideshow-I choose forward, also read ahead (very nice), delay flip until next image ready (only applies when using an automated slideshow...which is useful if you want both hands free...ho hum. ;)
• Dithering-Use ordered dithering.
• Filing-"Ask" when moving or copying duplicate files. This way, if you try to copy a file into another directory with a file by the same name, ACDSee will give you a preview of both files and ask you what to do (rename, replace, cancel, etc...).

There are a ton of features in ACDSee that many people are unaware of. I strongly suggest getting the Win 95 version and experimenting with all of the features yourself. You will be reborn a happier person if you do.

The ACDSee File Explorer

• allows almost complete control using only the keyboard (up, down, page up, page down, home, end, delete, enter for slideshow, press any letter of the alphabet to skim down to first file/folder starting with that letter, etc...)
• appearance is sort of like the frames when you look at a webpage, where you can adjust the size of each frame by dragging the dividing bars. You can also make a frame go away.
• when in viewer/slideshow mode, you can right click for options, press + to zoom in, - to zoom out, spacebar or pagedown to go to next file, pageup for previous (files are preloaded so given enough time the next image will be instantly displayed when you press the spacebar). To enter slideshow mode, hit ENTER after selecting an image. To exit, also hit ENTER.
• If you're in the shell and you want to launch an image, right click, go to shell command, and the launch.
• Renaming files works just like windows explorer, as is dragging files (though it's not nearly as dumb as explorer in this aspect).
• There are several ways to go up a level in the file structure. My preference is to use the icon button, though I also sometimes press Pageup and then hit enter (pageup will take you to the ".." folder, and hitting enter on it takes you up one level). If you are really addicted to windows explorer, you can also set one option to have a seperate shell nearly identical in appearance to windows explorer.
• I strongly suggest listing the files by detail (one of a group of five buttons on the toolbar). This is so you can easily highlight a large number of files (go to the first file, hold down shift, hit page down until you've reached the bottom of list, press up or down to adjust, let go of shift, and you've got them all selected. If you didn't understand what I just said, read it again and you will be reborn a happier person.)

1) Thumbs Plus has a few some advantages and some disadvantages compared to ACDSee.

• ThumbsPlus allows you to do batch conversion of files. If you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it. If you do need it, it's pretty convenient. I advise against this option, but it's up to you.
• ThumbsPlus doesn't allow you to control the slideshow (determine when to advance or go back), at least as far as I know.
• ThumbsPlus apparently does not display a preview upon selecting an image.
• ThumbsPlus is not very good for browsing using only the keyboard, especially compared to ACDSee.
• It does allow editing of images. ACDSee does not. This is both a blessing and a curse. Personally I would only use Adobe to edit an image, or LView at worst to handle a conversion.
• The editor has mostly the same features of LViewpro, with a few disadvantages.
• The program takes up several times the space of LViewpro and ACDSee combined.
• Allows searching. =)
• Has some nice little features that ACDSee doesn't. =)
• Lacks many features ACDSee has. =(
• Allows uudecoding. ;)
• Can view avis and movs, though when I tried, it only showed me first image (still trying to figure out how...)

ACDSee - 4.5 seconds
Thumbs32 - 11 seconds
Note: Thumbs caches these thumbnails so that it doesn't have to generate them a second time. Unfortunately, this does take up disk space. I don't like this, but if you're the casual collector or have a really slow computer with a large hard drive, you might.

ACDSee - 9 seconds
Thumbs32 - 15 seconds
Note: These were opened up by the computer automatically (i.e. once one was opened the next one immediatly began to open).
These programs both generated images of similar dimensions to fit the screen.

Note: This trial used a different set of files than the trial of opening up 10 images. The average filesize in this trial was larger.

My conclusion is that Thumbs32 takes longer because it spends the extra time enjoying the pictures you view. ;)

Note that there is information that I left intentionally out of this FAQ. If you're desperate enough to want such information, find it yourself. !)