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Section 1: Overview:

Section 2: How to:

    -View the thumbnails   There are several ways to do this. You can check the "AutoView Pictures" checkbox to load the thumbnails automatically each time a directory is opened that contains pictures. This, however, can be inconvenient if you have a slower computer or have to navigate through lots of folders to get to the pictures you want to process. Alternatively, to view the pictures one at a time, you can double-click the filename in the "Included Pictures" file list to load its thumbnail picture. Also, you can double-click in the picture area to open the larger view of the picture. On editing the caption and closing this window, the thumbnail is loaded.

    -Add/Remove Pictures to a page   There are two file lists: "Included Pictures" and "Available Pictures." To remove a picture, right-click on the picture in the right hand portion of the screen. A pop-up menu will appear giving you the choice of removing one or all of the pictures. Click the appropriate choice, and the file will be added to the "Available Pictures" list. To add the picture back to the page, double-click the filename in the "Available Pictures" list.

    -Arrange pictures in a certain order   Remove all the pictures from the right portion of the screen (right-click, then choose 'Remove All Pictures'), then add them (by double-clicking them in the list) in the order you want to present them. In development is a way to drag and drop your pictures into the space you want them presented. Look for this feature in future releases.

    -View a larger picture   Double-click the thumbnail view to open a window containing a detailed view..

    -Crop a portion of a picture   Double-click a thumbnail to bring it up in the Edit window. Once the image is displayed, click and drag to select the portion of the image you want to keep, then right-click on the image to bring up a popup menu. From the popup menu, choose 'Crop Selection'.

    -Rotate a picture   Right-click a thumbnail. From the popup menu, choose 'Rotate Clockwise' or 'Rotate Counterclockwise'. A new window will pop up and the picture is rotated. Alternatively, you can double-click a thumbnail to open the picture in detail view. Right-click the picture and choose the appropriate action from the popup menu that appears.

    -Shrink a batch of pictures   Select a directory full of pictures you want to shrink, then click the 'Shrink Pics To:' button, making sure the proper size is selected in the drop-down list to the right. This operation will make a copy of all of the pitures in the current directory, shrink them to the size specified, and move them into a subdirectory under the current directory. The new subdirectory is called xPercent, where x is the percentage of the original size of the pictures. For example, if you shrunk the pictures in the C:\Pics\ folder to 50%, the directory with the new smaller pictures will be C:\Pics\50Percent\ . Depending on the size of the pictures, this operation may take a while.

    -Customize the page beyond what this program does   In keeping with the original goals of the DigiCam Companion, namely to keep it simple and easy to use, there is lots of functionality that this program does not address as it might make things significantly more confusing to the typical user. After the page is created, however, you can edit the page with any number of standard HTML editors, including Netscape Composer, Microsoft Word, etc. to add extra text or scripts of your choosing. Keep in mind, though, that if you open the page in the DigiCam Companion after editing with another program, it may not load as expected, and if you save the page, you will lose any changes made with an external editing program.

Section 3: Individual controls

    -Border? (checkbox)   When checked, the webpage will have a border aroung the thumbnailed pictures, as well as around their associated captions.

    -Open when saved? (checkbox)  When checked, a browser window will be opened containing your webpage whenever it is saved.

    -Columns? (dropdown list)  This dropdown list lets you choose how many columns of pictures will appear in your page.

    -Delete Page (button)   This button is only enabled for directories that contain a webpage made by The Digicam Companion. Click it to delete that page and all the associated thumbnails for the page. *NOTE: This function only deletes files made by The DigiCam Companion. It does not delete your original pictures.

    -Make Page (button)   When clicked, this makes a page called 'index.htm' including all entered captions and text, along with thumbnail files for all pictures selected.

    -Shrink Pics To: (button)   When clicked, the program will make a copy of all of the pictures in the current directory, shrink them to the size specified, and move them into a subdirectory under the current directory. The new subdirectory is called xPercent, where x is the percentage of the original size of the pictures. For example, if you shrunk the pictures in the C:\Pics\ folder to 50%, the directory with the new smaller pictures will be C:\Pics\50Percent\ . Depending on the size of the pictures, this operation may take a while.

    -Rotate Clockwise / Rotate Counterclockwise / Crop Selection (Right-click popup menu)  When clicked, Does exactly what it says. You will be prompted whether or not you would like to save the rotated picture, which will overwrite the original.