Requested Text-files with different extensions

[Sjinual]

I am fairly new to Irfanview and I like it very much. But I have a long experience with another program and I have a few hundreds of textfiles, exactly like the textfiles used in Irfanview for slideshows or (re)ordering the thumbnail view.
However, these files have a different extension (not .txt) and Irfanview does not accept them from the thumbnail window nor from the slideshow window, since the only Irfan-possibility is "TXT-files". Many other programs have an import possibility "all files *.*", which IMO would do the trick.
My opinion is based on the possibility to use files with a different extension from the command line.
Both statements:
i_view32.exe" /slideshow= .....name.ext /closeslideshow
i_view32.exe" /filelist= .....name.ext /thumbs

perfectly do the job even for non-txt extensions.


I would be very grateful if that possibility could be made available from within the irfan windows as well.


Regards,

Sjinual

[Mij]

An interesting request. I assume that by "the Irfan windows" you mean the Browser window as well as Thumbnails and Slideshow. By the Browser window I mean the normal one that you open by double clicking the Irfanview program shortcut and then choosing a file.

The first point to make about the Browser window is that you can select a file of any type using "Open" from the File menu and try to view it. If it is not supported you will get an error message saying that it cannot read the File header. However the names of all other files in the same folder are submitted to a filter and, if passed, are made available for browsing using the arrow keys or icons. The filter is set up in the Extensions tab of Properties/Settings options. You can select a Custom list that by default includes .txt files and you can also include any other types just by adding them to the text string. The only text files that will not show the File header error message though are .txt and .ini and they are just displayed as an image of the text they contain.

An alternative is to use "Open As > Ascii file" from the File menu. That bypasses the filter so you can select other text file types and now they will also display any text they contain. I suspect this is not what you want though. Am I correct that what you want are to load the actual images listed in the text file so that you can browse them.

You have already discovered that the "/Filelist=..." and "/Slideshow= ..." options bypass the filter so you can achieve what I think you want by using a Script file that calls one of them. That is exactly what I do in the VB Script I wrote to use on a USB stick and put into the Technical section of the forum here.

The shortcut it creates will work just as well on your hard drive as on a USB stick so, if you are interested, I can explain how you might make use of it. I doubt that you will persuade Irfan to include the feature you request within the main program because, without a filter, he would be besieged with users reporting bugs every time a File header error appears.

[Sjinual]

Dear Mij, Thank you for your answer.

The suggestion to use a script was very helpful. Your VB-script was too complicated for me, but I managed to make a very simple name.bat-file with only a few lines. So, I am able to double click in Windows explorer and evoke the line:
i_view32.exe" /filelist= .....name.ext /thumbs

Unfortunately, this statement from the command line does not open the directory tree in the thumbnail window. It is of minor importance, but still: if you would have any suggestion .... I cold not find any option in the list of statements for the command line.



You are pessimistic about the program changes I suggested. Still I hope they will be considered in future versions.
In my opinnion there is something odd with .txt files. If I were an Irfan-developer I would use a special Irfanview extension, so something like .irf. It could be used (together with the existing .txt) for writing and reading and it would make file association with Irfanview more logical. At this moment it is almost impossible to associate the .txt extension with Irfanview since there are too many other programs using the extension .txt.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Mij]

Unfortunately, this statement from the command line does not open the directory tree in the thumbnail window. It is of minor importance, but still: if you would have any suggestion .... I cold not find any option in the list of statements for the command line.

I am afraid that is a limitation of using Thumbnails for displaying image from a list. When you try to use the Directory tree and click on a folder, the thumbnails from there are displayed instead and you lose your list. So using the Directory tree is incompatible with what we are doing.

To make a suggestion I would need to know how you wanted to use the tree. Something I often find useful is to have Windows Explorer set as one of my External editors. (Type C:\windows\explorer.exe "/select,"%1 in the relevant box of the Miscellaneous Options tab.) Then when I have a thumbnail selected I can just press Shift+1 (or whatever) and see where it is in the Explorer window.

What I was pessimistic about was getting your exact proposal implemented, especially the "Import all files" suggestion.
I would be less so about a request for an easier means to import specific types of File list though. You can already associate .txt files with Irfanview but you just display the text as an image. I would think that some easier means of accepting .txt as a File list and not as an image should be possible, especially in Thumbnails where .txt (and .lst) files are already accepted as such through the Options menu.

[Sjinual]

Thank you once more Mij for your suggestions.

I used your option for an external editor and it did the trick.

I did not realize that the thumbnail option does accept .lst-files. That is a very useful possibility, although I stll believe that a more meaningful extension name could be chosen. But .lst is better than .txt.
On the other hand: when writing a reorded list I tried .lst as an extension irfanview automatically adds .txt. It is easy to remove it in the windows ebvironment, but still it is a bit weird. Or am I missing again something?

[Mij]

I do not think you are missing anything, Sjinual. What you say is quite correct.

We discussed this particular issue several years ago and that is why I tried to address it when writing that script file in the Technical Documents section of the forum. Do you realise that a VBS file is just plain text. You can open it with any text editor such as Notepad and edit it to suit your needs. The first two lines are used to determine how different file types are handled.

The first variable, strImages, is a custom list of file types to be opened as images. You can add other file types by just adding them to the list with the "|" character (shift+\) as a separator or remove file types by just deleting them from the list.
The second one, strTextfiles, is a custom list of file types to be treated as lists of images. Again you can add or delete file types by just editing the list and then resaving the script file. I used to use Wildbit viewer at one time so I have a number of lists with a .vfl extension and I can use them by just adding "|VFL" to this list.
You will notice that I have "|TXT" in both lists. If .txt files are found when unpacking files from a folder of from another list they are treated as Images and displayed as an image so that you can read what they say. If found in the files dragged direct from Windows Explorer and dropped onto the shortcut to the script, then they are treated as lists and the images that are listed in them are displayed.

You do not need to understand how the script works to modify and use it. Although it is in the Technical Documents section in a form suitable for using on a USB stick, I am willing to discuss with anyone who posts in that thread how to adapt it for how they want to use it.

[Sjinual]

Thank you for your help Mij. It is a nice suggestion to rewrite your script, but my point is as follows.

I suggested the Irfan developers to add other extension(s) to .txt, both for reading and writing. I wrote a lot of software myself (for instance in C++ for Windows) and I really believe it will cost the Irfan developers not more than 10 or 15 minutes. So, You could make a very useful contribution to this subject, but it might easily cost you many days to adapt your script.

You also suggested to read .lst-files (for reading only). I did not know that trick, so I am very grateful you mentioned it and I am using it often nowadays. So, I will live with these Irfan restrictions, but I keep hoping the Irfan developers will read my feature request and make these improvements.

Regards,

Sjinual

[Mij]

There is only one developer of the main program, the original author Irfan Skiljan. You can contact him by email from the link at the top of the Irfanview home page www.Irfanview.com and ask if he will make the changes you want.
I doubt that telling him he can do the job in 10 to 15 minutes will carry much weight though. It will be a question of whether or not he thinks it is something worth doing.