Copyright: Copyright© 1999 Symantec Corporation.  All rights reserved.
Citation: Copyright© 1999 Symantec Corporation.  All rights reserved.


Running The GIF Viewer

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You can launch the GIF Viewer by clicking on the GIF Viewer icon in the Procomm Plus Utilities group on the Start menu.

The viewer’s Open GIF File dialog appears. Select the file(s) you want to view, and click on OK; the dialog will close and the viewer will load your selection(s). If the .gif files you want to view aren’t in the current directory, you can use the dialog’s standard file and directory controls to locate them.

While you can select any number of .gif files to view at one time, and Ctrl-click on each of them in any sequence , the viewer’s slide show will display them in alphabetical order.

Slide Show Group

If you’ve selected more than one .gif file to view, two special controls are enabled in the Slide Show options group within the Open GIF File dialog:

Delay

You can specify the number of seconds for each image to be displayed in the Delay edit field, or use the default value of 2 seconds.

Recycle

If you want the viewer to continuously cycle, loading and displaying the images you’ve highlighted, enable the Recycle check box. If you enable this check box, the viewer will display your graphics continuously until you press <Esc>, select Stop from its menu bar or close the viewer's window..

Set Default Button

You can also click on the Set Default button at any time in the viewer's Open GIF File dialog to have the viewer use the current drive and path as its new start-up directory. You can also set the default path for the Gif Viewer by selecting the File | Default Path... menu item and entering the desired path name.

This feature is especially useful if you store your .gif graphics in a directory other than the one specified in Download path in the Data, Data Options, Paths panel in Setup.


Step-by-Step: Saving GIFs as Windows Bitmaps

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If you have a .gif file that you would like to convert to Windows bitmap ".bmp" format, it’s a simple two-step process with the GIF Viewer:

1.	Select File | Save As BMP... from the viewer menu.

The viewer displays a standard file save as dialog, with the file’s extension changed from .gif to .bmp.

2.	Modify the filename and path as desired.

You can either accept the viewer’s default name for the new .bmp file, or modify it. If you want to place the new file in a different directory, select that directory in the dialog.

If you want to use the new .bmp file as a "wallpaper" graphic, you’ll need to place it in your \windows directory.

Click OK to create the .bmp file, or Cancel to close the dialog without saving the file.


The GIF Viewer

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The Procomm Plus GIF Viewer is a compact utility that allows you to view CompuServe graphics images. You can run the viewer from within a Procomm Plus communication window, or as a stand-alone application.

If you have the View *.GIF files during download check box enabled in Data, Data Options, Advanced settings panel in Setup, the viewer will even display your .gif files as they are being transferred to your system!

Running the GIF Viewer

Viewing GIF Files

Viewing Incoming Files with the GIF Viewer

Step-by-Step: Saving GIFs as Windows Bitmaps

The GIF Viewer Menus


The GIF Viewer Menus

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Menu | Item	Description
File | Open File...	Opens the viewer’s Open GIF File dialog, allowing you to specify files to view.  If you select multiple images to view, you can also set the number of seconds to delay between images and whether the slide show should recycle and begin again after the last image.
File |  Save As .BMP...	Saves the current .gif image in .bmp format, as discussed in Saving GIFs as Windows Bitmaps.
File | Default Path...	Opens a standard dialog, where you can specify a new default path for the viewer.
File | Exit	Closes the viewer.
Edit | Copy	Copies the current .gif image to the Windows Clipboard in .bmp format. This allows you to then paste the image into a paint program like Windows Paintbrush for editing. <Ctrl><Insert> is the keyboard shortcut.
View | Full Screen	Displays the current .gif image full screen. This command is only enabled if the current image is larger than the resolution of your video display. <F9> is the keyboard equivalent.
Next!	Displays the next .gif image in the list of selected files. This menu item is disabled if you only selected a single file for viewing, or if the current .gif image is the final image in the selection list.
Stop!	Terminates the display of a list of selected files. If you select this command as an image is being painted in the window, it will complete normally.
	This command is disabled if you only selected a single file for viewing, or if the current .gif image is the final image in the selection list.
Help | Contents	Opens the on-line help system and displays information about the viewer.
Help | Using Help	Opens the on-line help system with a topic explaining how to use the help system.
Help | About	Displays important information about this version of the GIF Viewer.


Viewing GIF Files

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Once you’ve selected one or more files for viewing, the GIF Viewer’s main window opens and displays the first file in its list. If you’ve selected more than one file for viewing, you can select the Next! menu item to display the next .gif image in the file list. Next! is disabled if you only selected a single file for viewing, or if the current .gif image is the final image in the selection list.

If you want to terminate a Slide Show of selected files, click on the Stop! menu item. If an image is being painted as you select Stop!, it will complete normally.

For more information about the viewer’s menus, see The GIF Viewer Menus. For information on viewing incoming .gif images, see Viewing Incoming Files with The GIF Viewer.


Viewing Incoming Files with The GIF Viewer

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If you’ve enabled View *.GIF files on download in Setup, Data, Data Options, Advanced, Procomm Plus will load the viewer to display your .gif images as you receive them.

When displaying images during a transfer, the GIF Viewer window looks much like it does during normal operation. However, the viewer’s menus are altered slightly. Some viewer menu commands are irrelevant to image transfers; they are removed. The Next! and Stop! commands are useful only when you’re viewing multiple .gif images, for example. They do not appear when you’re viewing images as you receive them.

As an image is received, the viewer paints it in the display window, with unpainted areas of the window darkened.

The Skip File! command is added to the viewer menus during a .gif download. If you decide you don’t want a particular .gif after seeing a portion of the image, click on Skip File! to cancel it.

The Skip File! command affects only the current transfer. If you’re receiving multiple files in a batch download from a host system, only the current file in the transfer will be cancelled. The remainder of the batched transfers will continue.

The viewer window opens as soon as a .gif download begins. Depending on the speed of your connection to the host system, you may decide that you don’t want to view the image as it’s transferred to your system. You can safely close the viewer, either by selecting File | Exit or by pressing <Alt><F4>. A moment after the viewer closes, the normal file transfer progress box will appear and the transfer will continue.