The Tip of the Day dialog box is normally displayed when you start PMView, except when you are opening a file. You can change this behavior so tips are never displayed or always displayed when PMView is started. If you turn the Tip of the Day off and later want to see the tips, choose "Tip of the Day" from PMView's "Help" menu.
The shortcut keys in PMView are configurable. You can change the current definitions to your liking or add shortcut keys to any menu item that currently has no key assigned. You can even add multiple keys for the same function if you wish. Shortcut keys can be configured on the "Shortcut keys" page of PMView's options notebook. Select "View->Preferences" from the main menu to open the options notebook.
The screen capture feature of PMView has many uses, some of which you may not have thought of. For instance, it may be of use in file conversion.
If you can view a specific file format in one program, you may be able to use PMView to convert the file to other formats even though PMView cannot read the format.
The trick is to use the screen capture utility in PMView to capture the image on-screen. Once PMView has captured the image you can save it in any of the file formats supported by PMView. The capture function can be found under the File menu.
You can hide the tool bar, status bar, menu bar, and other components of PMView's main window. These options can be found under the "View->Show" menu.
You can use the "Move Window" tool to move PMView's main window by clicking anywhere on the window (not only on the title bar). This is especially useful if you are using PMView without a title bar. Clicking the 6th toolbar button from the right enables the "Move Window" tool. You can also assign a shortcut key for this function.
Double clicking anywhere in the main window changes into full screen. A second double click takes you back to normal viewing.
You can use the "Selection" tool to select an area for cut/copy/paste or cropping. Clicking the 3rd toolbar button from the right enables the "Selection" tool. You can also assign a shortcut key for this function. This is especially useful if you prefer to use PMView without the toolbar control. Use the Esc key to clear a selection.
Pressing F1 will give context sensitive help for the current dialog or menu item. Try pressing F1 when you have the mouse on top of an expanded menu item.
PMView makes heavy use of popup menus. For instance the File Open window has four different popup menus. Each menu offers context specific functions. Try to find all four of them in order not to miss out on any of PMView's features.
You can configure how PMView sizes and moves its main window when loading images. You can set it to never move or size the window, to always center it, etc. These settings are located on the "Window" page of PMView's options notebook. Select "View->Preferences" from the main menu to open the options notebook.
Many of the functions in the File Open window allow you to manipulate more than one file at a time. You can select multiple files by holding down the CTRL key when clicking on files. When you have selected the files you can right click on one of the selected files and select the desired action from the popup menu.
PMView has a built-in drag & drop enabled slideshow function. You can create a new slideshow by selecting "File->New->Slideshow" from the menu bar. Add files to the slideshow by dragging files from the File Open window or from any operating system drive folders. You can also change the order of slides by dragging and dropping.
Double clicking on a slide in the slideshow window will show you the slide configuration dialog that lets you configure individual settings for each slide.
It is possible to use PMView to combine several images into one. Start by selecting "File->New->Image" and create a canvas large enough to hold all your images.
Select "File->New->PMView Window" to open up a new window. Load the first image in the new window. Select "Edit->Copy" to copy the image to the clipboard.
Go back to the first PMView window and do "Edit->Paste->Selection" and place the image on the canvas. Go back to the second PMView and load the next image. Repeat the procedure until you have assembled the final image.
You can get smoother display when zooming by enabling the resampling option on the "Display" page of PMView's options notebook. Select "View->Preferences" from the main menu to open the options notebook.
PMView has a built-in screen capture function. This function is unique in that it is able to completely capture windows even if they are partly outside the desktop. The "Capture" function is available in PMView's "File" menu.
You don't need to specify the extension of the file to open when opening files from the command line. For instance typing "pmview myfile" is sufficient to open the file "myfile.jpg". The settings on the "Extensions" page of PMView's options notebook determine what extensions PMView recognizes at the command line.
You can bring up the PMView printing interface directly from the command line by specifying the /Print command line flag. For instance "pmview /print *.jpg *.gif" will print all JPG and GIF files in the current directory.
The /WPos command line flag gives you control over where the PMView window is placed on screen, what size it is, and how it should appear (topmost, background, minimized, maximized, etc.)
You can use the /ShortFileRetry command line flag to have PMView monitor the output of another program, e.g. your favorite ray-tracer.
In the palette edit dialog you can copy the HTML color code to the clipboard by right clicking on the text.
You can open a file by dragging it from the File Open window or from any operating system drive folder and dropping it on the PMView main window.
You can configure the behavior of the File Open window. You can opt for having it always float on top of the main window. You can opt for keeping the window open when opening a file, and you can disable the status bar. Right-click anywhere on the window background (the gray area) to access the menu that holds these settings.
PMView allows resizing of many of its windows, including this Tip of the Day dialog. Give it a try!
You can prevent PMView from displaying scroll bars by disabling the "View->Show->Scroll Bars" option. When scroll bars are disabled you can still scroll an image by using the keyboard or by using the "Scroll" tool. Clicking the 4th toolbar button from the right enables the "Scroll" tool. You can also assign a shortcut key for this function.
You can enable PMView to automatically count the colors of every image you load. By default PMView only counts the color of color mapped files. The number of distinguished colors used in the image is displayed in the status bar.
This option is located on the "Special" page of PMView's options notebook. Note, however, that the color counting may affect the overall smoothness to some degree (painting may appear more jerky when the color counting is done). We recommend that you don't enable this option unless you find the color count information useful and don't care about painting smoothness.
Side note: this may be very useful when comparing two files. The color count often lets you easily distinguish between an original JPEG file and a GIF file that has been converted to JPEG.
The "Zoom" tool lets you use the mouse to zoom in and out. When the zoom tool is active, pressing the left mouse button zooms in and pressing the right button zooms out.
Pressing both mouse buttons will reset the zoom to 1:1 (100%). Clicking the 5th toolbar button from the right enables the "Zoom" tool. You can also assign a shortcut key for this function.
The PMView team thanks you for using our software. We hope that you enjoy it!
