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Topics - Laura Shook

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1
In ThumbsPlus 11 .heic files and .webp files will be supported and v11 will be able to convert any of the many formats we support to the .webp type as well.

Images attached.

Thanks for supporting ThumbsPlus!

ThumbsPlus.com

2
ThumbsPlus.com thanks all of your for your patience and continued support.

As a very small shop we have been negatively affected by Covid - 19 and all it entails. We have been working from home since mid March and the current plan is to continue to do so. There are distractions and difficulties that this causes which have played a part in slowing down the release of the first public BETA.

However, ThumbsPlus v11 is getting closer!!  I have been anxiously waiting for a new build so that I could announce some of the new features and illustrate some of them.

A few of the new ThumbsPlus v11 features are listed below and I have attached several preview images. (I was hoping to add a few more today but they need to be edited a bit, so I will post more images on Monday or Tuesday.)

ThumbsPlus v11 is a 64-bit program. This allows for support of HUGE file sizes as well as fixing an issue some have had with hundreds of thousands of sub folders with v10. ThumbsPlus v11 will also run spectacularly on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. (It is currently also working beautifully with Vista but we aren't certain how long that will be the case.)

New formats supported:

Thumbnail, view and convert to .webp files
Thumbnail and view .heic/.heif files

New Features:

GPS options
Date/Time Find options
Database - Import From
New ThumbsPlus Movie Player
Larger database thumbnail size options

Misc:

There are new "Skins" that can be used to alter the interface
There will be many preset batch processes, finds and metadata batches

Thanks again ThumbsPlus users!

ThumbsPlus.com


3
The problem you are having is most likely the result of old, bad, incompatible or incorrect codec(s) on your system. There are a wide variety of codecs that are available everywhere. We can't control what user has what codec etc.. there are simply TOO many.

1. The following information has helped many ThumbsPlus users and it is not a difficult process at all. With the correct codecs on the system ThumbsPlus v10 works very well!  It does not matter what version of Windows you are on or whether or not these files play in other movie players. (Please note that installing the codecs I suggest will not cause other movie players any trouble.)

I have never had anyone not be helped by the following information.

In fact, here are some replies still sitting in my inbox, as I haven't had time to close them yet:

K-Lite Codec Mega Pack
.... everything is ok again!! Playing, making a thumbnail, no problem.

.....Thanks.  That got my MP4 files working again.

.....Thanks very much. It worked perfectly and your video player is very smooth on my machine.

The solution:

ThumbsPlus is designed to work with animation files with the default codecs that are installed on your system. Codecs can be overwritten by other applications or become corrupted. Please try installing these specific codecs:

I have had great success in the past with K-Lite Codec Mega Pack as it installs some alternate movie codecs that may help.

I have many customers who have used this codec pack and I have never had a complaint about its use. It is free and you can download it here:
http://www.free-codecs.com/K_Lite_Codec_Pack_download.htm

2. If you don't want to install the codecs that WILL work with the ThumbsPlus v10 Movie Player, you have several other options.

*Right click the thumbnail box and go to "Edit" to open the movie in the associated movie player on your computer.

*Right click a thumbnail box of a movie format and go to "configure type". Change file loading to "None" and then when double clicking a thumbnail the movie will open in the associated player on your computer.

*You can put a toolbar icon for any movie player (any program in fact) on the ThumbsPlus toolbar.  If you have several players you like, you can put icons on the toolbar for all of them.

I have attached images that illustrate:
*Configuring ThumbsPlus to play movies in another movie player
*Putting toolbar icons for other movie players on the ThumbsPlus toolbar
*Configuring new movie file types like .mts files

3. Orientation:

I have recently been informed that animated files on some phones or pads now use a bit of Metadata. The problem is that the that metadata tells the video player what side is up and the Thumbs player doesn't use the metadata in animated files - yet.

Since movie files are starting to support metadata, ThumbsPlus will eventually be able to use the metadata field to orient the movie just as it should be doing correctly every time with your still images that contain this type of metadata.

There is probably an option in your phone settings that will helpful for future movies.

Another ThumbsPlus user told me:

"On the iphone, it is a known fact that if one wants correctly oriented play back then one must hold the home button on the right when taking the video."

Since your thumbnails are probably oriented correctly, the 2 options that may be helpful in this situation are mentioned above. (Either configure the mp4 files to load using "None" or put a toolbar icon on the ThumbsPlus toolbar for another movie player.) Or, if your movies are associated with another program on your computer, like Media Player, simply right click the thumbnail and go to "Edit" and it will open in the associated movie player on your system.

For additional help please e-mail support@thumbsplus.com

Laura
ThumbsPlus.com

4
This error message was reported by several ThumbsPlus users so I downloaded the newest Ghostscript (v2.7) and duplicated the problem. Something has changed in the new Ghostscript code, causing these errors when attempting to thumbnail and view .pdf files. (This also pertains to ps, eps and ai files set up to load using the Ghostscript plug-in.)

The solution is use the dll from any earlier version of the Ghostscript app. I am successfully using ThumbsPlus and the Ghostscript Plug-in with all previous 32 bit versions of the gsdll32.dll

You may already have this on your system, but if not, you can download any earlier version than Ghostscript 9.27 (by scrolling past 2.7) here:
https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl-downloads/releases

You don't even have to remove the newer version, just choose the gsdl32.dll from the 9.20 - 9.26 install (in the Ghostscript plug-in options) as shown in the attached image.

We will, of course, be testing and solving the problem between the ThumbsPlus Ghostscript plug-in and Ghostscript v9.27 for the next release.

ThumbsPlus.com

5
Locate your Preferences folder. You can usually do this using Start Menu - All Programs - ThumbsPlus 10 - Utilities - View preferences folder. If this isn't available, use Help - System Information from within ThumbsPlus, and navigate to the Preferences Path (near the bottom) in Windows Explorer.

Change the Windows permissions for the folder using the instructions "Setting permissions on a folder for ThumbsPlus" found here:
http://www.thumbsplus.com/faq_thumbs10.html#folderpermission

Background information:

Whenever the ThumbsPlus installer creates a new folder for the database or preferences intended for sharing between users, it sets the folder's Windows permissions to allow all access to that folder (and any subsequently-created folders or files) by Authenticated users. However, if the folder already exists, the installer skips this step because it can be take a very long time (minutes or hours) if there is a database within the folder that uses the Thumbnails in Files option, and the folder should have had its permissions set properly before. Sometimes, because of a faulty installer or subsequent changes in the file system, you need to do this step manually.

If the folder already exists, ThumbsPlus skips this step in case it contains a database with "Thumbnails in Files" in the folder.

6
To fix this issue: reinstall the Microsoft VS2012 Update 4 redistributables.

You may download directly from the ThumbsPlus web site:
http://www2.thumbsplus.com/binaries/microsoft/vcredist_x86.exe

Or you may download from Microsoft here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679
(click Download, check the box next to VSU_4\vcredist_x86.exe, then click Next).

Once the download is complete, just run vcredist_x86.exe to install the components and ThumbsPlus should run normally.

Background information:

During ThumbsPlus installation, we run vcredist_x86.exe to distribute the Visual C++ components. Under some conditions, Windows does not install them correctly when embedded in another installer. Additionally, the uninstall of other programs sometimes improperly removes them. From whatever cause, downloading and installing the redistributables should take care of the problem.

ThumbsPlus.com

7
ThumbsPlus v10 FAQ / Do you support.....
« on: 2019-05-17 13:27:36 »
While ThumbsPlus does support over 100 different file types, there are some that can't be internally supported due to availability of libraries, how difficult the libraries are to understand and work with, and a few because they are proprietary - which means that we have no way to offer support.

However, there are options included in ThumbsPlus v10 that allow for the creation of thumbnails even if the format isn't internally supported. After the list below I have included more information.

The most common formats that I am currently asked about are:

webp - Support for .webp will be included in ThumbsPlus v11

heic/heif - Support for .heic and .heif will be included in ThumbsPlus v11

svg - While we plan to add support for .svg files,, this support will not make it into the initial v11 release, but in a maintenance build sometime after

cdr - Old .cdr files that contained a thumbnail preview are supported. The newer .cdr files are not written in the same manner and are not internally supported

cr3 - This is a new Canon raw file type that will be supported as soon as the libraries we use for the Digital Camera Plug-in are updated.

.mts and other movies with extensions other than .mov, avi and .mpg - You can add any movies with other extensions. Please see FAQ: http://forum.thumbsplus.com/forum/index.php?topic=5929.0

Other options for file types not internally supported:

1. If Windows Explorer shows thumbnails for a file format that is not internally supported by ThumbsPlus, if you set up the file type configuration for that type and use NONE for the file loading option, ThumbsPlus will pick up the thumbnail from Windows itself.

2. The ThumbsPlus "Make from Clipboard"  feature with .heic and .heif as the example can be found in this FAQ: http://forum.thumbsplus.com/forum/index.php?topic=5928.0

This process can be used for any unsupported file types but if you have questions about a certain format or about any of the information in these FAQ's, please e-mail support@thumbsplus.com

ThumbsPlus.com

8
ThumbsPlus v10 can write (convert to) the following formats:
 .jpg, .jp2, .png, .gif, .tif, .tga, .bmp, .pcx, .ico, .wmf, .raw and .cmp.

9
The default size of the thumbnails in ThumbsPlus v10 SP2 is 160 x 160.

You have control of how large to create your thumbnails. There are 2 different options to increase (or reduce) the thumbnail size.

1. There is a % option at the top of the menu that will increase the thumbnail area. (NOTE that this only stretches the thumbnails, which doesn't give you as nice of a view than actually increasing the thumbnails size in OPTIONS>PREFERENCES>THUMBNAILS.)

If you wish to stretch the thumbnails and not regenerate them at a larger size, change the % size at the top of the ThumbsPlus interface then go to OPTIONS>PREFERENCES THUMBNAIL VIEW> and turn on the "stretched" option in order for the thumbnails to stretch to fit the new thumbnail area.

2. To create larger, prettier thumbnails go to OPTIONS>PREFERENCES>THUMBNAILS to change the thumbnail size.

After changing the actual thumbnail size in an established database, you will have to rescan for the thumbnails to increase in size.

An image is attached that illustrates changing your thumbnail size.

Note that the larger the thumbnails are in the database, the more space they occupy. Please see the FAQ about your database choices for more information.

10
Each and every e-mail sent to any of our addresses is answered!

Different e-mail programs handle how they determine if something is SPAM in different ways.

1. Lately even when I respond to an e-mail sent directly to me, my replies can end up in a SPAM folder. I know that gmail does this and I am sure that there are others.

Please whitelist thumbsplus.com in your e-mail options!

2. Very recently I have been getting bounce messages when sending replies or registration codes because the content of my message indicates that I am sending SPAM. I have tried every variation of registration information to no avail. When I don't have a phone number for the customer I have had to resort to sending registration codes or answers to other inquires in a .pdf file. This has happened at least 20 times in the past month. (However, that doesn't work if thumbsplus.com is being flagged and our e-mail is being placed in the SPAM folder of the person asking for assistance. In this case, we must be whitelisted.)

If you do not receive a reply to an e-mail within 2 business days, (usually you will receive a reply the same day you ask for assistance if it is sent during business hours), please check your SPAM folder!

3. I have been receiving e-mail from weird outlook addresses similar to "outlook_70BBXXXXCBB7  @outlook.com" I don't know if these messages are being sent via some web page or through an actual e-mail program but my replies will NOT arrive as every single time I respond my reply bounces. If the person sending the message in this manner uses their name I look them up in my customer database and attempt to send my answer to the e-mail address I have, but if you don't use your name there is no way for me to successfully reply to messages sent in this manner. (And if you haven't whitelisted thumbsplus.com, my answers are sitting in a SPAM folder.) This happens often!!  AFTER whitelisting us, please re-send your message if you don't find my reply in your SPAM folder.

4. In rare cases our support system software will tag something as SPAM. There is no rhyme or reason and when I do my bi-monthly checks of the auto SPAM folders I find one or two real messages in the hundreds of thousands of actual SPAM. To avoid this, please use "ThumbsPlus" in the subject line of your e-mail.

Kind regards,
Laura
support@thumbsplus.com
sales@thumbsplus.com


11
1. MOST likely your registration information is sitting in a SPAM folder. PLEASE whitelist thumbsplus.com in your e-mail options so that you can receive our e-mail!

2. ThumbsPlus orders are processed manually during business hours. If your order is placed after hours your registration information will be e-mailed the next business day.

3. Sometimes old e-mail addresses are used by PayPal when your orders are sent to us. If you haven't received your registration information within 2 business days please e-mail support@thumbsplus.com requesting your code. We will change your e-mail address in our customer database if we have the incorrect address.

Our hours are 9am - 4pm EST, Monday through Friday.

E-mail us at either of these addresses:

support@thumbsplus.com
sales@thumbsplus.com

ThumbsPlus.com




12
If your ThumbsPlus default database has hit the 2 Gb file size limit you have several choices.

To check your current database size go to Database>Statistics "file size in bytes".

A.) You can start over with a brand new database (with or without this 2 Gb size limit).
(Please see FAQ "ThumbsPlus Database choices")

B.) If you have important thumbnail data such as keywords, annotations, udf's, offline thumbnails or galleries that you do not wish to lose you can use a newer option that allows you to GREATLY increase the thumbnail count capacity on an existing database.

Instructions:

BEFORE BEGINNING, make sure that you have a backup of this current important database.

Database>Advanced>Backup

This way you will have it if anything goes amiss with this process. The ThumbsPlus database holds important data that you should always have a copy of. Databases can be damaged in several ways including a crash or a power outage while the ThumbsPlus database is open.

1. Before beginning this process the database needs to be smaller than the 2 Gb size limit. To increase your current database size you will first need to release some space that will allow this option room to do its job.

If there are thumbnails that are old that you do not need any longer, you can remove some of that data from the database.  For example you may have some folders with test images that you do not need thumbnails of.  Right click any folder of this type and go to "remove from folder". This will remove any thumbnails and the associated data for files you do NOT need thumbnails of. (You can always remove some thumbnails that don't have data attached to them and remake the thumbnails after this process has finished as well.)

2.  Run a repair and compact of the database to remove space that has not been recycled. Database>Compact and Repair.

3.  After the compact, run a JPEG compress on the database as well. DATABASE>JPEG COMPRESS (I suggest the quality to be set between 65 and 75.)

**Note that if  you have removed a ton of thumbnails you may decrease the database size enough to continue to use your current database. In this case you can ignore the rest of these instructions.**

Increasing your current database size capacity:

Please note:

1.  You can NOT stop this process once it has been started or the database will be hopelessly confused and you will have to restore the database from backup.

2.  This database size increase process may take a VERY long time even if you have a fast system. You can start the process when you will be away for your computer for a few hours, or before you go to bed.

3.  If ThumbsPlus is already open, close it and relaunch. If you have more than one database make sure that the database that holds all of your data is the database that is open.

Now to increase your current database size capacity, go to DATABASE>ADVANCED>Move Thumbnails to Files. (Image attached.)

4.  Now you just sit back and wait. Again, the process may take a LONG time.

5. When the process is finished, do a another repair and compact of the database and then close ThumbsPlus and relaunch. Your database will now have the increased capacity of 6 to 7 million thumbnails and their associated data.

13
ThumbsPlus v10 FAQ / ThumbsPlus Database choices
« on: 2019-02-22 14:18:44 »
There is a lot of information about your ThumbsPlus database choices below but it is easy to understand and implement!

The default ThumbsPlus v10 database:

When you first install ThumbsPlus, the default ThumbsPlus v10 database that is used has a 2Gb size limit. (However, for quite some time there have been several ways to configure and/or use other databases or other database options that will allow for either a larger thumbnail count capacity - even when using the default database, or a database without a size limit. More information about this is copied below.)

The current ThumbsPlus default database is an MS Access database with a .tpdb8 extension. In ThumbsPlus v10 build 4015, the following (default) database settings allow for approximately 400,000 thumbnails (if you do NOT use the database option to "store thumbnails in files" that is described further down.)

160 x 160 sized thumbnails
True color (24-bit)
JPEG quality 80%

The amount of thumbnail data that is assigned, (keywords, annotations, udf's, etc..) does have an impact on your database size as well. We have found that when there is a HUGE number of keyword references, this will increase the space used significantly.

ThumbsPlus PRO and Home Network licensed users with non-networked databases, (and those evaluating ThumbsPlus) can begin again with a new database that will store millions of thumbnails using either of the options below.

Creating a new database:

Note that either of these new database choices give you the option to create larger, prettier thumbnails as well without "filling" the database too quickly. (Examples of thumbnail sizes are shown in the first attached image.


To create a new database go to Database>New.

1. Creating the NEW database using the "Thumbnails in files option".

Configuring a new database using the option to "store thumbnails in files" increases the  thumbnail count capacity giving you the room to store between 6 and 7 million thumbnails and their associated data!

The option to store the thumbnails in files, instead of storing the thumbnails in the database itself, stores the thumbnails in a file that resides in the same folder that houses the database. This does increase the amount of space needed for the thumbnail/data storage, but gives you the ability to manage much larger quantities of thumbnails in a single database.
 
2. In ThumbsPlus v10 SP2 the option to create an SQLite3 database has been improved greatly. To create a new SQLite3 database, choose this option when creating a new database. This type of database has NO SIZE limit except for your amount of disk space. The database extension of a SQLite3 database is .tpdb8s.

There are many ThumbsPlus users that are choosing this SQLite3 database option - and using it very successfully - with the latest v10 build due to the many changes we have recently made. (Note that running multiple thumbnail creation threads at the same time may give errors that will not have an impact on the stability of your database but may be annoying.)

I have attached 2 images that illustrate the steps to take to create one of these new database types.

3.  For corporations with ThumbsPlus Network licenses that have huge archives of images, there are database options other than the ThumbsPlus default databases of .tpdb8 (MS JET) or .tpdb8s (SQLite3). Advanced knowledge of client server database applications such as SQL Server, MYSQL, MariaDB, etc... is recommended for those that wish to use another client server database.

There is more information about using other Client/Server databases with ThumbsPlus here:
http://www.thumbsplus.com/databases.html

ThumbsPlus.com
support@thumbsplus.com

14
ThumbsPlus v10 FAQ / About this FAQ forum
« on: 2019-02-22 12:49:19 »
I hope that these FAQ's are helpful!

Please note that the FAQ forum is read only and there are multiple pages of these FAQ's.

If you have support questions about any of the FAQ's here, please e-mail support@thumbsplus.com. If you wish to discuss any of these FAQ's, please do so in another (appropriate) forum, ie; ThumbsPlus v10 Questions:
http://forum.thumbsplus.com/forum/index.php?board=2.0

Please join the forums if you wish to see the attached images that illustrate certain options and features. If you do NOT want to be a member of the forums, just e-mail support@thumbsplus.com with your request for a certain image or images and I will be glad to send them your way.

If you have a suggestion for a FAQ topic please send your request to support@thumbsplus.com or lshook@thumbsplus.com

When you join you will receive an e-mail that you must reply to in order to activate your membership. If you don't receive this confirmation e-mail message it is probably in a SPAM folder. (This e-mail confirmation will come from godaddy and not thumbsplus.com.)

If you can't find this e-mail, please let me know and I will manually activate your membership.

Enjoy ThumbsPlus!
Laura
ThumbsPlus.com

15
To search for images with multiple keywords:

Go to Edit>Find

1. In the "Filename" tab, choose whether you want to search the entire database or the current folder or tree.

2. You can name your searches individually for future reference if you wish.

Go to the "Keyword" tab.

1. Build the list

2. Scroll the list and choose your first keyword and "Add" it.

3. Scroll the list and choose your second keyword and "Add" it.

4. Choose whether  you want to find all of the thumbnails with ALL of the keywords or whether to find all of the thumbnails with ANY of the selected keywords.

5. Click "OK"

The attached image illustrates this entire process.

ThumbsPlus.com
support@thumbsplus.com

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