PictureTray

Online Manual

This is very rudimentary help for PictureTray, I hope to improve this soon.

The way PictureTray works is pretty simple- drop pictures into the "In" basket, and drag the resized/rotated ones out of the "Out" basket. This is intended to make "temporary" pictures, for example to make a smaller version to email or upload to the web. When PictureTray exits, the resized versions of the pictures are deleted, so make sure your email has been sent or files uploaded to the web before you exit PictureTray. Your original picture files are never modified, so you don't need to worry about them being overwritten.

You can set the program to rotate, resize, or both rotate and resize the pictures dropped in. If you change the settings, it will affect newly dropped pictures, but the ones already in the Out tray will be unchanged.

You can drop pictures from a Windows Explorer/My Computer window, ThumbsPlus, or any other app that supports file dragging. You can also click on the "Add Files" button to browse your disk and add files, instead of dropping them in. And you can drag the resized results into Eudora, Outlook, or most anything else, including an Explorer/My Computer window if you want a permanent copy.

The Advanced Settings dialog has options that control the output file format and quality, the resampling algorithm used to resize the pictures, the directory used to store the temporary resized pictures, and whether to use the internal viewer or the default system viewer to view the pictures.

The resizing algorithms in PictureTray have different speed/quality tradeoffs. By default, PictureTray uses one which is pretty fast and has decent quality. Depending on how you are resizing, how fast your PC is, or what type of pictures you are resizing, you may want to try different settings.

Things that currently don't work: 

• "Browse" button in the "Advanced Settings" dialog.
• Dropping a directory folder gives an error, instead of offering to convert the whole directory. 
• I don't know what PictureTray would do to an animated GIF, but I suspect it wouldn't be pretty. 
• Help file is lousy :-)

Things that are not immediately obvious: 

• You can double-click on the thumbnails in the "In" or "Out" basket to see a full-size view. By default, a fast and simple internal viewer is used, but you can make it use your regular viewer by unchecking the "Use Internal Viewer" option in the Advanced Settings dialog.
• Hovering over a thumbnail pops up a tooltip with info on the file name and size.

• If you want a permanent copy of the pictures, you can drag them from the Out tray into a "My Computer" or "Windows Explorer" window, and a permanent copy will be made wherever you drag them.