Thumbnail View

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General

The Thumbnail View shows the thumbnails of all the images in the directory. The background color for the thumbnail window and the size of the thumbnails can be set using the preferences settings dialog. Select a single image by clicking on it, a range of images by clicking on the first image and then click on the last image while holding the SHIFT key down. Individual images can be added to or removed from the selection by clicking on them with the CTRL key held down. Selected images are highlighted as shown in the screenshot above where images CRW_0180 through to CRW_0195 are selected.

In thumbnail mode most actions apply to the selected images e.g. rotate, delete, HTML, proofs. Some actions only apply to one image e.g. rename image, convert raw image. Actions applying to a single image are performed on the image which has focus. Focus is set when you click on an image and the focused image is displayed with a different text color. The focused image in the screenshot is CRW_0195 and a summary of its EXIF data is displayed in the status line at the bottom of the window.

Each thumbnail shows the image with the image filename underneath and the image type (the same as its file extension) in the top left hand corner. Long filenames may be truncated to fit in the available space and will have "..." appended to them e.g. "a_very_long_name.jpg" might be displayed as "a_very_long...". The image type is color coded to make it easier to identify the different types. JPEGs are displayed in blue, Canon raw files in red, AVI files in green and all other types are displayed in black.

If the image has been tagged a blue tick will be displayed in the top right hand corner. In the screenshot above image CRW_0179 is tagged.

Double-click on an image to switch to the Main View with the image displayed.

You can also change the display using one of the following keyboard shortcuts:

Right click on an image to display a menu of the operations that can be performed on the selected image or images:

  1. Main View - switch from Thumbnail View to Main View
  2. Tag Image - add or remove the tag on the focused image
  3. Play Sound - play the sound annotation file associated with the image (only displayed if the image has a corresponding WAV file)
  4. Play Video - play the video clip using the default Windows viewer (only displayed for AVI files)
  5. View Actual Image - display the image under the mouse cursor full size in a separate window
  6. Edit Image - edit the image under the mouse cursor in the editor specified in your preference settings
  7. Slideshow - display the currently selected images in the slideshow window
  8. Create EOS 1D/1Ds viewing JPEGs. This option is only displayed if the linking of EOS 1D or 1Ds JPEGs to raw images is selected in preference settings and the selected image is a EOS 1D or 1Ds raw file
  9. Convert Raw Image - display the raw conversion dialog for the image. If you press the 'Convert All' button only the currently selected images will be converted
  10. Convert Selected - display the raw batch conversion dialog. When you press the 'Convert' button only the currently selected images will be converted
  11. Extract embedded JPEGs - extracts embedded JPEGs from Canon CRW raw files
  12. Proofs - display the proofs dialog. When you press the 'Proof All' button only the currently selected images will be proofed
  13. HTML - display the HTML page generation dialog. When you press the 'Generate HTML' button HTML pages will only be generated for the currently selected images
  14. Rotate Left (CCW) - rotate the selected images 90 degrees counter-clockwise
  15. Rotate Right (CW) - rotate the selected images 90 degrees clockwise
  16. Edit Comments - display the 'Edit Comments' dialog for the image. If you press the 'Apply to All' button the comments will be added to the currently selected images
  17. Edit IPTC Data - add or edit IPTC data in the focused image (see IPTC Data)
  18. Rename the focused image
  19. Batch rename the selected images
  20. Move To Folder - move the selected images to a new directory
  21. Copy To Folder - copy the selected images to a new directory
  22. Image Properties - display the EXIF data for the image
  23. Email Images - email one or more images with the option to resize them for easy viewing on a PC screen and to reduce file size
  24. Delete - delete the selected images by moving them to the Windows Recycle Bin or the 'Deleted' sub-directory according to your preferences settings

NOTES:

  1. If an image file has become corrupted the thumbnail will be displayed as a red cross.
  2. Thumbnailing of JPEG2000 images is currently turned off as it is very slow. JPEG2000 thumbnails will be displayed with a red cross
  3. Extra large thumbnails use a lot of memory and can affect system performance on machines with limited RAM. BreezeBrowser can handle directories with very large numbers of images and has been tested with a directory containing 2500 raw files and 1500 JPEGs.

Regenerate JPEG Thumbnails

JPEG images from digital cameras often contain small thumbnail images in their EXIF data and BreezeBrowser will use these when available. Some applications do not update the EXIF thumbnail when modifying the image and this can result in the thumbnail and main displays in BreezeBrowser becoming out of sync. Use the "Regenerate JPEG Thumbnails" option under the "Tools" menu to regenerate the thumbnails be replacing the old thumbnail with a new one derived from the main image.
NOTE: This option will add a thumbnail to a JPEG image if it doesn't already contain one provided the JPEG contains EXIF shooting data.

Changing the order in which images are displayed

BreezeBrowser can sort thumbnail images in a variety of different orders. To change the order in which thumbnails are displayed select "Image Order" from the "View" menu.

The available sort methods are:

  1. Sort Alphabetically - Images are sorted alphabetically using their filenames. Use this option if you use Zoombrowser to transfer you images from your camera.
  2. Sort Numerically - Images are sorted numerically using the first group of numbers found in the filename. If duplicate numbers are found the images are sorted alphabetically. Use this option if you use Downloader or a cardreader to transfer you images from your camera.
  3. Sort by File Type - Images are sorted alphabetically using their type followed by their name. Use this option if you would like images of the same type to be grouped together.
  4. Sort by Timestamp - Images are sorted according to their EXIF date and time (or file creation time if the EXIF date and time aren't available). If images have the same timestamp they are sorted alphabetically. Use this option if you use a filenaming scheme which doesn't lend itself to sorting by filename or if the directory contains images from more than one camera.
  5. Custom Order - the image order can be changed by dragging and dropping thumbnails in thumbnail view. This is useful if you wish to change the order in which images are displayed in HTML pages or on contact sheets.

In addition there is an option to reverse the order in which images are sorted. One use for this is to sort images so that the most recent ones appear first.

To enable custom order simply drag one or more thumbnails and drop them in their new positions. The image order and sort method is saved when you leave a directory and restored when the directory is revisited.

Tagging

Tags are a way of marking files in a more permanent way than just selecting them in the thumbnail view. The list of tagged files is automatically saved when BreezeBrowser exits (or a new directory is loaded) and are restored next time the directory is browsed.

Tags are automatically saved in a file called "tagged_files.txt" in the same directory as the images and are restored next time the directory is browsed (this only works on read/write drives and won't work on CDs). Use the "Edit" menu to tag the currently selected files or to select the currently tagged files.

The list of tagged images can also be saved to a separate file by selecting "Save Tags..." from the "File" menu. This will save the full pathname of each tagged image (i.e. drive, directory and filename) to a simple text file. Previously saved lists of tagged images can be loaded by selecting "Load Tags..." or "Merge Tags..." from the "File" menu. The tags will be removed from any currently tagged image and new tags added for each image listed in the tag file.
NOTE: only the filename is checked when loading a list of tags. This is to allow lists of tagged files to work even if the directory has been moved.

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