Auto Viewers Options Page

To Display this Options Page

Use the Options | Program Options... command from the main menu (or click its command button) and select Auto-Viewers from the list of option pages on the left side.

Setup for File Viewers

External tools allow you to specify a program that will be called whenever a entry in the contents window of any FileBoss view is highlighed. You can match tools to file patterns so that the tool is only available for certain file types.

You can even use the special Intenet protocols describbed below to search the internet for information on a file or file type or even a specific website for a file or type. See Configuring an Internet Tool below for all the details.

List of Installed Auto-Viewers

Displays a list of currently installed tools. The viewers will be displayed on the menu in the same order as they are listed here. To change the order select a tool and use the Up and Down buttons.

Select a tool to modify its attributes in the fields below.

Creating a new tool by duplicating the current one

To make a copy of a tool highlight it and click the Duplicate button. Making duplicates can save time when configuring the same tool for different purposes such as one instance for all selected files and one that just opens the entry with focus.

Select a tool to modify its attributes in the fields below.

Saving and Loading Definitions for External Tools

The Save and Load button in the upper-right corner...

Select a tool to modify its attributes in the fields below.

Enable Auto-Viewer

Enables or disables the auto-viewer. When disabled the auto-view will be active.

Note that auto-viewers can also be quickly turned on and off from the list displayed using Tools | Auto-Viewers On/Off  > from the main menu.

Menu Labels

Defines the text that will be displayed on the Tools | Auto-Viewers On/Off  > menu from which they can be quickly turned on and off..

To add a shortcut key put an ampersand in front of the desired letter, e.g. &NotePad would display the title as NotePad and pressing the 'N' key would select that tool from the menu.

Program To Execute

Enter the name of the program that executes when FileBoss calls this auto-viewer. Sometimes, especially when the program is a standard Windows program, only the name is needed. But for other programs it is always best to use a complete path.

If this field is empty and the Arguments field contains "<PathAndFilename>" FileBoss will attempt to open the file using the default program for that type of files. This can be useful for standard file types such as MP3 and TXT files.

Program Arguments

Enter any arguments that should be passed to the program when FileBoss calls the auto-viewer. Typically the arguments will be some form of the highlighted entry's name and/or command switch's that control how a specific program starts.

Available Meta Arguments are:

It is normally best to surround each of the arguments with double quotation marks. If in doubt check the documentation for the tool's program.

Specifying a Start Folder

Enter the folder you want the program to start in. If in doubt just enter <Path> which will be substituted with the folder that contains the program.

Many programs do not use this parameter.

<Path>        e.g. C:\Program Files\FileBoss

Apply Tool to Files or Folders

Apply to File or Folders

Determines whether the selected tool will be available for folders or for files. For instance if a file is highlighted and the tool is for folders it will not be displayed on the popup (right-click) menu.

Clearing and Starting Logs

Allows you to specify where and for which files an auto-viewer will be called.

Each time an entry in the contents window is highlighted FileBoss with match the entries name against the list of file patterns entered in these fields. If the file matches one of the file patterns (but not any of the excluded patterns) the auto-viewer will be executed.

In the above example this auto-viewer will be called if the highlighted file's extension is bmp, jpg, jpeg, or gif.

Third Party Tools and Viewers Examples

Quick View Plus (Version 7)

url:        http://www.avantstar.com

Menu Text:        Quick View

Program:        C:\Program Files\Quick View Plus\Program\qvp32.exe

Arguments:        "<PathAndFilename>" -dn -da -x

Start Folder:        <Path>

Filter:        *

Irfan View (Version 3.95)

url:        http://www.irfanview.net or http://www.irfanview.com

Menu Text:        Irfan View

Program:        C:\Program Files\IrfanView\i_view32.exe

Arguments:        "<PathAndFilename>" /one

Start Folder:        <Path>

Filter:        *.bmp | *.jpeg | *.jpg | *.ico | *.gif | *. png

NotePad

url:        <Internal Microsoft Windows Program>

Menu Text:        NotePad

Program:        NotePad.exe

Arguments:        "<PathAndFilename>"

Start Folder:        <Path>

File Specs        *.txt | *.log | *.bat

Write

url:        <Internal Microsoft Windows Program>

Menu Text:        Write

Program:        write.exe

Arguments:        "<PathAndFilename>"

Start Folder:        <Path>

File Specs        *.doc | *.rtf

Power Point

Menu Text:        Power Point

Program:        C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\PowerPoint Viewer\PPTVIEW.EXE

Arguments:        "<PathAndFilename>"

Start Folder:        <Path>

File Specs        *.ppt

Confguring an Internet Viewer

For the Program Field:

Either WWW, Internet or HTML. Use whichever you wish. There is no difference in the way the are executed.

For the Arguments field:

For the Start Folder field:

Example 1:

Menu Text:        Net Search

Program:        INTERNET

Arguments:        http://www.google.com/search?&q="<Name>.<Ext>"

Start Folder:

If the currently highlighted file is 'FileBoss.Exe'

Will open the default browser go to the url:

       http://www.google.com/search?&q="FileBoss.exe"

Example 2:

Menu Text:        Internet Search

Program:        INTERNET

Arguments:        http://www.google.com/search?&q="<Filename>"

Start Folder:

If the currently highlighted file is 'FileBoss.Exe'

Will open the default browser go to the url:

       http://www.google.com/search?&q="FileBoss.exe"

Example 3:

Menu Text:        FilExt.com Extension Search

Program:        INTERNET

Arguments:        http://www.filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=<Ext>

Start Folder:

If the currently highlighted file is 'FileBoss.Exe'

Will open the default browser go to the url:

    http://www.filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=exe

Ref: HIDD_OPTIONS_TOOLS

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