What's New in Album Express
===========================
Version 4.0 (released: March 05, 2008)
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* Made compatible with Windows Vista.
* Full support for multi-user and network environments.
* Can be run reliably from a user "Limited Account".
* Changed method on Windows XP and Vista to determine default
location of folder for user settings. Fixes issues on some
systems that have corrupted registry keys.
* Fixed misplaced warning and information dialog boxes when
running Album Express under multiple monitors.
* Thumbnail Generator: Added an option to change background color
for image viewing. Right-click on image panel to open the popup
menu and select "Background Color".
* Thumbnail Generator: Fixed an issue that could cause the file
list panel to disappear from view when the folder tree panel is
to long.
* Thumbnail Generator: Added support for GIF and LZW TIFF files.
* Setup no longer requires administrative or "power user"
privileges under Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.
* Many other minor improvements and bug fixes.
* Updated documentation.
Version 3.5b (released: February 05, 2008)
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* Updated documentation and license agreement.
Version 3.5 (released: April 22, 2004)
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* Added two new resampling filters in the Thumbnail Generator
dialog box: Bilinear and Bicubic. The Bilinear interpolation
method produces relatively smooth edges with few jaggies. This
algorithm is often recommended for shrinking images. Bicubic
interpolation is more sophisticated than Bilinear. It produces
very smooth edges with hardly any jaggies (even better than
Bilinear). This algorithm is often used for enlarging images.
* In the Thumbnail Generator dialog box, added support for new
rename tokens in the Prefix/suffix field. Use the special tokens
{FolderName} and {FileName} to control the name character case of
your image filenames. Prefix the field name with an underscore
character "_" to produce a name in lowercase, or use an
exclamation mark "!" To produce an uppercase name. Example:
supposing the processed file is called "sample04.jpg" and the
rename field has the following criteria: "tn_{!FileName}"; the
resulting file will be assigned the following name:
"tn_SAMPLE04.JPG".
* The news feature now does its polling in a separate program
thread to improve program loading speed.
* Updated image processing code, which includes many improvements
in file handling.
* Updated Help file.
* Several minor glitches fixed and other improvements.
Version 3.2 (released: May 09, 2003)
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* Added support for JPEG 2000 files (*.jpc;*.j2k;*.jp2).
* Added Passive Mode option to Upload Album panel. Use Passive
Mode to allow FTP access through firewalls.
* Added optional News feature to inform you of Album Express
updates and other Fookes Software news.
* Updated image processing code.
* Updated Help file.
* Several minor glitches fixed and other improvements.
Version 3.05 (released: November 15, 2002)
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* The Album grid now accepts TIFF files and other non-Web image
formats. In earlier versions, it was necessary to first convert
them to JPEGs with the integrated thumbnail tool.
* Filenames and folder names that contains spaces are now
automatically changed to underscore characters when uploaded to a
remote server.
* Fixed a bug that could cause original images to be overwritten
under certain conditions.
* Fixed a glitch in the FTP component, which under certain
circumstances caused a failure to upload files after a first
attempt.
Version 3.04 (released: October 31, 2002)
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* Fixed a glitch in the FTP component, which under certain
circumstances caused a failure to upload files.
* The templates distributed with the commercial version no longer
display the "Created with Album Express". This feature is kept in
the trial version.
Version 3.03 (released: October 24, 2002)
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* Thumbnails dialog: added the Lossless option to the Algorithm
list. Use it to produce lossless JPEG rotations.
* Thumbnails dialog: When overwriting original files with images
transformed by the dialog, the modified picture is now updated in
the image panels. Images selections are kept when the file list is
updated.
* Thumbnails dialog: Fixed an error that occurred when saving a
lossless JPEG image over its original file.
* Fixed a missing double quote character in the templates
Default.html and Photo Page.html.
Version 3.02 (released: October 16, 2002)
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* Added the following two template fields:
{_IsLandscape}
Conditional field. Returns the field name if the image width is
greater than its height, and an empty value if it is not. This field
is useful to determine the arrangement of page elements based on the
image layout. Should be used in a comment tag; i.e. . Should only be used in the body section.
{_IsPortrait}
Conditional field. Returns the field name if the image height is
greater than its width, and an empty value if it is not. This field
is useful to determine the arrangement of page elements based on the
image layout. Should be used in a comment tag; i.e. . Should only be used in the body section.
* Several minor glitches fixed and other improvements.
Version 3.0 (released: September 30, 2002)
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* Image processing speed is now significantly faster.
* Updated all the templates and demo settings. The templates use
several new features that enable the creation of much nicer photo
arrangements. All the templates have been tested for compatibility
with Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera.
* With regards to the templates, the Default template used in
previous versions has been renamed Basic. The new Default template
is similar to the Photo Page template but adds a more modern look.
In our opinion, the Default template is the one that produces the
nicest looking photo albums.
* Each picture can now have its own title or short caption. This
is useful to label each picture in an index thumbnails page as
well as to give a more meaningful title on the individual pages
showing the full-size pictures.
* To see an example of the new capabilities, make an album by
using the new "Demo Default.alb" settings. Use the File/Open menu
command to load the settings and then click on the Quick Build
button.
* In earlier versions, the setting for number of thumbnails per
row was prompted in a popup dialog box. This is no longer the
case. You can now set this value on tab #3 in the re-labelled
"Max pics" field.
* The thumbnails dialog now allows increasing the size of
pictures. New controls have been added to make it even easier to
use.
* While in the image description editor, you can navigate up and
down through the picture list by pressing the Ctrl+Up and
Ctrl+Down keys respectively.
* The "descript.ion" file is now updated each time you modify an
image description. This lowers the risk of losing data from a
system crash.
* Text in the "descript.ion" file now takes precedence over
descriptions in the "Albums.ids" file.
* Added a new method for launching browsers.
* Updated the code used for the FTP component.
* The Search template will no longer fail if your descriptions
contain a single or double quote.
* Fixed "GetDIB failed" error messages sometimes popping up when
processing large .bmp files.
* Fixed a minor rounding error when calculating the new size of
thumbnails.
* JPE files (Jpeg) are now correctly processed.
* Several minor glitches fixed and other improvements.
* Updated the Help file and added HTML Help.
New Template Field
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{ThumbDefHeight}
Inserts the maximum height in pixels defined for the creation of
thumbnails. This field is useful to define frames of a fixed size
for all thumbnails or to control layout on a page. Can be used in
any part of the template.
{ThumbDefWidth}
Inserts the maximum width in pixels defined for the creation of
thumbnails. This field is useful to define frames of a fixed size
for all thumbnails or to control layout on a page. Can be used in
any part of the template.
{ImageTitle}
Inserts the short caption assigned to the image currently being
processed (i.e. Description column in grid). The text is taken
from the beginning of the {ItemInfo} field up to the delimiter
formed by two consecutive colons (::); if no delimiter is found,
the caption is empty. Should only be used in the body or contents
section. Example:
{ItemInfo} = Geneva Sunset::Summer sunset over the city of Geneva
{ItemTitle} = Geneva Sunset
{ImageInfo} = Summer sunset over the city of Geneva
{ImageInfo}
Same as {ItemInfo}, but if there is a short caption (see
{ImageTitle}) it only inserts the text following the delimiter
formed by two consecutive colons (::). Should only be used in the
body or contents section.
{DefaultExt}
Inserts the default extension used for creating the Web pages. Can
be used in any part of the template.
{Calc:Expression}
This special field is replaced by the result of the mathematical
expression, which is denoted here by Expression. The expression
can contain other fields that produce numerical values. Only whole
numbers (integers) are produced through this feature. See the
topic "Mathematical Operators" in Help for more information.
Example; supposing {ImageTagWidth} is equal to 150, the following
field will insert the value 165:
{Calc:{ImageTagWidth}+15}
{ClearTags:SomeText}
If SomeText contains tags, this function will remove them from the
text. The result is then inserted in the place of the field.
{UseBest:"Text1";"Text2"}
If Text1 is empty, the UseBest function will insert the text
contained in Text2, otherwise it inserts the contents of Text1.
Use quotes around each text and separate the two with a semicolon.
This function is typically used in conjunction with other fields.
Example:
{UseBest:"{ClearTags:{_ImageTitle}}";"{_ImageName}"}
{UseGreater:Value1;Value2}
This function works with whole numerical values (integers) only.
If Value2 is bigger than Value1, it is inserted in the place of
the field. Value1 is inserted if it is the bigger value.
{UseSmaller:Value1;Value2}
This function works with whole numerical values (integers) only.
If Value2 is smaller than Value1, it is inserted in the place of
the field. Value1 is inserted if it is the smaller value.
New Template Options
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* You can now define default values for colors and background
images for each main template (the one that gets displayed in the
pull down list). The values are set each time the user picks a new
template from the list. Colors should be entered as hexadecimal
values. Example:
BackImage=EtchedBorder.gif
BackColor=#A0A0A0
TextColor=#FFFFFF
LinkColor=#FFFF00
VLinkColor=#FFFFE0
* The Include and Exclude options now support the new field
{ThumbSpecs}. This field inserts a wildcard generated from the
value assigned to the ThumbPrefix option. Example: if "tn_" is the
value of ThumbPrefix, then the following code will return
"tn_*.*":
Exclude={ThumbSpecs}
Version 2.6c (released: December 21, 2001)
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* Supports Windows XP themes.
* To speed up image selection in the Thumbnails dialog, you can
hold down the Alt key to stop each image you select from being
displayed in the Preview panel. This can be useful if you want to
select several large images for processing.
* Earlier versions were not able to open TIFF files unless they
contained "preview information". This has been fixed.
* The setting "Copy images to specified folder" did not work
correctly if the "Save images in" field was left empty. This has
been fixed.
* The setting "Save descriptions with images" was not remembered
across sessions. This has been fixed.
* Image descriptions failed to get saved in the Descript.ion file
under Windows 2000 and XP. This has been fixed.
* Other minor improvements.
Version 2.6 (released: September 05, 2001)
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* New command-line parameter "/DDE=True or False" to switch off or
re-enable DDE communication with Internet Explorer, Netscape, and
Opera browsers. This is useful on some faulty Windows ME systems
that hang when DDE is used.
* Fixed a glitch in creating page names when image names contain
the period (.) character.
* When searching through subdirectories, directories with the
hidden, read-only, or system attributes were skipped. This is now
fixed.
* Fixed a glitch that caused a black pixel to appear at the top +
bottom left side of images with a non-zero Sharpness setting.
* Includes updates of third-party controls.
Version 2.5 (released: April 04, 2001)
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* Added Thumbnail Generator for creating thumbnails and resizing
pictures. This feature is available from the File/Thumbnails menu
command. Note that GIF files and the TIFF format using LZW
compression are not supported.
The LZW compression algorithm used in Compuserve's GIF file format
and in some TIFF files requires licensing from UniSys, as they
have a patent on the algorithm. Unfortunately, the licensing fee
and required distribution conditions currently make it impossible
to support these file formats in Album Express. The LZW patent
expires on 20 June 2003, so we plan to add support for those file
formats after that date.
* Added internal image viewer, which is used with compatible file
formats. Other file formats are displayed through the Windows
Quick View utility. Use the Quick View shortcut command from the
Picture grid to open the Preview window.
* Added support for the description files created by ACDSee32. Set
the option "Save descriptions with images" to enable this feature
(see the second Options page). Album Express will save picture
descriptions in the same folder as the corresponding image files
when this option is set.
* Added "Exclusion filters" field on the first page. Use a semi-
colon to separate multiple criteria. Example: tn_*.*;zz_*.*
* Added "Charset" field on page #3. Use it to define the character
set needed to correctly represent the text contained in the Web
album. You can either pick a value from the drop-down list or type
a valid character set name. The value is used in the {CharSet}
template field.
* Added a Preview button (with the magnifying glass icon) next to
the "Background image" field. Click on it to preview the current
background in your browser.
* Updated the FTP component used in Album Express for uploading
album files to a remote host.
* Several new options added to the Options-2 page:
+ Save descriptions with images:
Album Express will save picture descriptions in the same folder as
the corresponding image files when this option is set. The "local"
descriptions are saved in a format that is compatible with those
created by the popular ACDSee32 image-viewing program. As a
result,
image descriptions can be shared between both programs. Uncheck
this option if you want to keep all your image descriptions
centralized in a single file, Albums.ids, stored in the Settings
subfolder.
+ Also number first album page:
Check this option to insert an index number in the file name of
the first album page. Note that this option is ignored if only one
page is generated. Example using the name "index.html":
- option checked
index01.html, index02.html, index03.html, ...
- option unchecked
index.html, index02.html, index03.html, ...
+ Use HTML entities:
Check this option to have special characters converted to HTML
entities. Example: © -> ©. Uncheck this option to leave
special characters unchanged. You should only uncheck this option
if you are using special character sets in your album (using the
"Charset" field on tab #3).
+ Process images:
Check this option to let Album Express automatically convert your
images to JPG and shrink them if they exceed the size defined in
the Max. image width/height fields. Image conversion occurs during
the building of album files. Note that images are only overwritten
if the "Overwrite images" option is set.
+ Overwrite images:
Check this option to allow Album Express to overwrite images when
the "Process images" and/or "Copy images" options are active.
Uncheck this option to avoid potentially overwriting your original
pictures.
+ Copy images to specified folder:
Check this option to copy original and/or processed images to the
folder specified in the "Save images in" field when you build your
albums. Note that images are only overwritten if the "Overwrite
images" option is set.
+ Save images in:
This field is used when the "Copy images to specified folder"
option is set. Album Express will copy original and/or processed
images to the specified folder. The folder can be either a fully
qualified location or relative to the location of the generated
album files. Leave it blank to save the images in the same folder
as the album pages. If the folder does not exist, Album Express
will try to create it before saving files in it.
+ Default extension:
When the standard HTML extension is used, define whether your
album files should use .htm or .html. Either extension type works
fine with all browsers. The difference is only "cosmetic".
* You can resize-to-fit columns by double-clicking on the column
separator in the grid header.
* Updated the templates and sample files distributed in the Album
Express package.
* Fixed crash that could occur under Windows ME when Web browser
was launched from Album Express.
* Updated the Help file and other documentation.
* Several other minor glitches fixed.
Templates
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* You can tell Album Express to automatically make thumbnails
while it is building an album. The following template options are
supported:
ThumbPrefix=tn_
ThumbMaxSize=150x150 (width x height)
ThumbSharpness=20
ThumbQuality=70
ThumbOverwrite=Yes/No
ThumbPrefix specifies the prefix/suffix that should be added to
the thumbnail file. The default prefix is "tn_" (without the
quotes) and is used if you don't specify this option. If the value
starts with an underscore character, it will be used as a suffix
to the file name.
ThumbMaxSize is used to specify the maximum dimensions in pixels
of the thumbnail picture. Pictures that are larger than the
specified values are shrunk to fit within the imposed dimensions.
Use the x character to separate the width value (on the left side)
from the height value (on the right side). If you specify a single
value, it is used for both the image width and height. The default
value is 150 pixels for both the width and height. For example, to
specify a width of 150 pixels and a height of 300 pixels, you
would use the following expression:
ThumbMaxSize=150x300
To specify a maximum width and height of 300 pixels, you can use
either of the following expressions:
ThumbMaxSize=300
ThumbMaxSize=300x300
ThumbSharpness can be any value between -100 and +100. It is only
used when the image is resized. A value greater than 0 sharpens
the image, and a smaller value softens it. The default value is
20.
ThumbQuality can be a value between 1 and 100. It defines the
quality and influences the file size of the thumbnail. The higher
the value, the better the image quality and the larger the file
size. The default value is 70.
ThumbOverwrite defines whether existing thumbnails are overwritten
by Album Express during the building process. If the value is Yes,
thumbnails are rebuilt for all files. If the value is No, only
images that do not have a matching thumbnail will have a new
thumbnail file created. The default value for this option depends
on the usage of the other thumbnail options. If ThumbMaxSize,
ThumbSharpness, or ThumbQuality, are specified, then the default
is Yes. Otherwise the value is No.
The thumbnail is automatically created when Album Express
encounters the {ThumbUrl} field in the active template; this field
is equivalent to the {FileUrl} field. Use the {ThumbWidth} and
{ThumbHeight} fields to determine the width and height
respectively of the thumbnail image; these are equivalent to the
{ImageWidth} and {ImageHeight} fields. Example:
* You can tell Album Express to automatically resize/convert
images to JPG while it is building an album. The following
template options are supported:
ImagePrefix=web_
ImageMaxSize=640x480 (width x height)
ImageSharpness=10
ImageQuality=70
ImageOverwrite=Yes/No
ImagePrefix specifies the prefix/suffix that should be added to
the image file. The default is no prefix. If the value starts with
an underscore character, it will be used as a suffix to the file
name.
ImageMaxSize is used to specify the maximum dimensions in pixels
of the image. Pictures that are larger than the specified values
are shrunk to fit within the imposed dimensions. Use the x
character to separate the width value (on the left side) from the
height value (on the right side). If you specify a single value,
it is used for both the image width and height. The default values
are those defined by the user in Album Express. If possible, you
should avoid overriding the users settings.
ImageSharpness can be any value between -100 and +100. It is only
used when the image is resized. A value great than 0 sharpens the
image, and a smaller value softens it. The default value is 10.
ImageQuality can be a value between 1 and 100. It defines the
quality and influences the file size of the created JPG file. The
higher the value, the better the image quality and the larger the
file size. The default value is 70.
ImageOverwrite defines whether existing images are overwritten by
Album Express during the building process. The default value is
that defined by the user in Album Express. If possible, you should
avoid overriding this setting.
* You can now stop Album Express from overriding the path/filename
of files in tags like ![]()
used in a template. Just add an
asterisk after the opening of the tag. Example: <*IMG SRC= >
* Added the template option "Merge". Syntax:
Merge=VariableName
Use this option to send the generated pages to memory instead of
disk files. Each page created this way is appended to the previous
one and stored in the specified variable (represented by
VariableName). Variable names should not contain spaces or special
characters. The contents of variables created this way can be
inserted into other pages by using the special field
{Merge:VariableName}. See the "Photo Page.htm" and "_Photo
Thumbs.htm" templates for a demonstration of their usage.
* Added the template option "Variables". Syntax:
Variables=VariableName:Value
Variables={VariableName1:Value1} {VariableName2:Value2}
{VariableName3:Value3}
Use this option to define variables and assign values to them.
Variable names should not contain spaces or special characters.
Use a colon to separate the variable name from the value being
assigned to it. If you define more than one variable, you must
enclose each assignment in curly braces. The contents of variables
created this way can be inserted into other pages by using the
special field {Merge:VariableName}. Be careful to generate the
pages in the appropriate order so that the variables contain the
appropriate contents before you use them. See the "Photo Page.htm"
template for a demonstration of its usage.
* Added the new template field {Merge:VariableName}. The field is
replaced by the contents of the specified variable, denoted here
by VariableName. If the variable does not exist, the field is
removed and nothing is inserted in its place. You can use this
field to insert values set in the Album OptionsAlbum_Options
section through the use of the Merge and Variables settings.
* Added the new template field {AlbumName}. It is designed for
assigned to OutputName in the Options section of a template. The
value corresponds to the album file name specified by the user on
page #3. This field is useful when the contents page is not the
first one created by Album Express. You can see it used in the
"_Photo Thumbs.htm" template. Example:
OutputName={AlbumName}
* Added the new template field {PageContents}. Use it to insert
the file name of the contents page (the first page of the album).
Useful to create a link for a "Home" or "Index" button. Can be
used in any part of the template, but normally not used in the
Contents section.
* Added the new template field {CharSet}. Use it to define the
character set needed to correctly represent the text contained in
the Web album. This field should be used in the Header section of
the Web page. Typically, it is used in the following Meta tag:
* Added the new template field {_IsMultiItem}. It is a conditional
field. Returns an empty value if the current page only contains a
single item (usually an image), and the field name if the page
contains several items. This field is useful to determine whether
a line containing it should be added to the album page or not.
Should be used in a comment tag; i.e. . Can
be used in any part of the template.
Version 2.0 (released: November 12, 1999)
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Album Express is the new name and a major upgrade of a popular
program called "HTML Imager", which was last updated in 1997.
_________________________________________________________________
Album Express™ is a trademark of Fookes Software, Switzerland
Copyright © 1999-2008, Fookes Software, Switzerland
- All Rights Reserved-