26th December 2000
Thumbnails are awesome -- especially when you're in a hurry and "DSC01043.JPG" isn't a terribly helpful file name. GnomeHUGS to the person at Microsoft who built this functionality into the Windows Explorer. While W98 users must pull up a folder's properties to turn on this feature, W2k/ME rugrats have the option built into the View menu (and toolbar icon). When you encounter a folder containing countless images, thumbnails will help you sort through the selection. Here's a secret: you can make thumbnails for Office documents, too. PowerPoint presentations will work without intervention, but Excel spreadsheets and Word documents require a bit of tweaking. Open one up in its respective application (Word or Excel), then select Properties from the File menu. At the bottom of the first sheet, there's an option to "Save Preview Picture." Put a checkmark in that box. There ya go! It now has an associated thumbnail.