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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

How to set up ACDSee to make it do what you never thought possible


A look at Windows' Irfan View and ACDSee for the Mac
Enter the Technofile / Stars Magazine photo contest
   
Jan. 14, 2001

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2001 Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   I've raved about ACDSee for years. I consider it the best image viewing program for Windows.
   Many of you already use it. But I'll bet most of the ACDSee users who read this column have no idea how powerful ACDSee really is.
   ACDSee is a perfect example of a Windows iceberg -- a program that hides most of its features below the surface. Sure, it shows images, but did you know it's able to show them in what I call "TV mode," without any windows or icons on the screen? Did you know that pressing the Enter key while you're viewing an image instantly switches ACDSee into browse mode to show you thumbnails of every image in a folder?
   How about pressing a single key combination to move any number of images from one folder to another? What about that great feature that sends the image you are viewing to your favorite image editor?
   If you're wondering if I'm using a different ACDSee than you are, stick with me and let me show you how to get the most out of ACDSee. Your Windows computing will never be the same.
   First, make sure you're using the latest version of ACDSee. Go to http://www.acdsee.com and upgrade if your version isn't current. Upgrades usually are free, but you might have to pay if your version is very old.
   Next, set up ACDSee so that it takes over the display of ALL images. If you don't do this, you're wasting most of the power of ACDSee.
   Run the program and click the "Tools" menu, then click "File associations." Regardless of what other programs you have to display images, click "Select all." This tells ACDSee to rush into action any time you want to view any kind of image. (Make sure you click the "OK" button after you do this.)
   Now click the "Tools" menu and then click "Options." Don't touch the options under "Browser," "File List" and "Thumbnails." Click the fourth tab, "Viewer." Where you see "Auto image size," click so that checkmarks show up beside "Shrink to fit window/screen" and "Zoom to fit window/screen." Under "Window Attrbutes," make sure "Full-screen" is checked. (This is "TV mode." When you're viewing your favorite photos, why settle for using only a portion of your screen?)
   At the bottom of the "Options" window, click "Save settings."
   You're halfway there. Now that you have ACDSee set up properly, you have to change your habits. You have to stop running it.
   Am I crazy? Like a fox. A minute ago you told ACDSee to take over all image types. THAT is the secret. When you do that, you give Windows a break. You instruct Windows to hand over the chore of displaying every kind of image to ACDSee.
   And that's a powerful role. All you have to do to view any image is double click on the file. If you've followed my instructions in setting up ACDSee, what happens next is magic. First, your entire screen is taken over by the picture you're viewing.
   Then one or two possible things happens. If you press the Esc key (the upper-left key on your keyboard), the image will instantly go away. If you press the Enter key, ACDSee will quickly switch to a file-browsing window. Press F8 to see thumbnails (tiny image representations), F9 or F10 to see icons of the images, F11 or F12 for a list. (I use the F12 setting because I use another thumbnail program, but I switch ACDSee's thumbnails on now and then, too.)
   Press Enter when an image file, icon or thumbnail is highlighted in the browser to tell ACDSee to show it full screen.
   There's more: Select one or more images (click with the Ctrl key held down to add to a selection) and press Alt-C to copy the selected images to another location. Press Alt-M to move them. ACDSee remembers where you copy or move images to, so you won't have to type a destination after a while.
   Press Ctrl-E and ACDSee opens the image you are viewing (or the one that is selected in the browser) in the ACDSee Image Enhancer. Want to edit the image in another image editor? Right click, choose "Shell" and then click "Edit." If you don't want to edit the image with your standard image editor, choose "Edit with." (The "shell" of Windows is the program that supervises what's going on. ACDSee is handing the image over to Windows when you choose one of the "Shell" options.)
   ACDSee has even more secrets. I'll get to them another time.