NWE Help: Graphics: XV: Visual Schnauzer

NWE Home :: Help :: Graphics :: XV

The visual schnauzer has a funny name but is pretty cool. It provides a view of a directory with thumbnails (small previews) of the images in that directory, like this:

XV visual schnauzer

The Schnauzer lets you create directories, rename files, move and copy files to different directories, delete files, view image files, view text files, and just generally nose around.

Generating Image Icons

The first time you open an image directory with the schnauzer, you'll find that your image files are not displayed as thumbnail icons, but instead are shown as generic icons showing the file format used. This is because the icons need to be generated from the image files. To avoid doing this every single time you open a schnauzer window, XV lets you do this operation once, and it maintains the results in a hidden subdirectory (' .xvpics ') for each directory. This subdirectory contains one small (2k) file for each file in the parent directory.

To generate icons for all the images in the current directory, issue the select All files command from the Misc. Commands menu. All the icons in the current directory should 'light up' in some way to signify that they are selected, with the possible exception of the <parent> directory.

Next, issue the Generate icons command from the Misc. Commands menu. XV will begin the process of generating icon files for the selected files. This process can be quite time-consuming, particularly if you have a large number of files in the directory, or the image files are in the JPEG format.

Changing Directories

The name of the current directory is displayed in a menu at the top-center of the schnauzer window. You can change to any higher-level directory in the current path by pulling down this menu. The names of the parent directories will be shown in the pull down menu.

You can also go up one level by double-clicking on the directory icon.

You can go down to any subdirectory by double-clicking on the appropriate subdirectory icon.

The Change Directory command gives you a more direct route: you just type the pathname of the directory you'd like to go to.

Selecting Files

Double-click on an image file's icon. The image should be loaded, and the full path name of the image should be added to the bottom of the XV controls window's name list.

It is possible to select more than one file at a time. The easiest way to do so is to hold down the Shift key and click on icons. You can also select files by drawing a rectangle around icons that you want selected. To do so, simply click in the space in between the icons, and drag. A rectangle will be drawn, and all icons that are inside (or partially inside) the rectangle will be selected.

File Management (move, rename, or delete files)

The buttons at the bottom of the XV window provide options for file management. Many of these windows will open a dialog box and ask for input.

Change dir

Change to a different directory.

Delete

Delete the selected file(s) and/or directory(ies).

New dir

Make a new directory.

Rename

Rename the selected file or directory.

Rescan

Rescan the current directory. Useful if files are moved, added, or deleted.

Update

Updates any icon(s) (if file(s) have changed).

Open Win

Open another Schnauzer window. This is useful for doing extensive file management.

Gen Icon

Generate icon(s) for any selected file(s).

Close

Close the Schnauzer.

Moving more than one file: Once you have some files selected, you can move them to other directories by clicking on a lit icon and dragging it into one of the subdirectories. When you press the mouse button, the cursor will change to a 'files' cursor to indicate that you are potentially moving files around.