add new option: "Use only associated types in 'Save as...' dialog"

[Mij]

Neat idea. What happens if you don't use the Load Custom Files option? Would there need to be another control? How would the user or the program make the separation between formats you could open and those you could save? It might get confusing.

It might well get confusing if you tried to offer too much. I see Load Custom Files as the advanced option. If you use the Associated files option then you are stuck with what you have now.
I was not proposing to differentiate between Open and Save. For most people I assume the favorite formats for opening will usually be the same as for saving. They are for me. The purpose of leaving other formats listed below them is to cater for those formats that I might occasionally want to Open or Save. I would only remove those formats where I did not envisage ever doing either.

[Skippybox]

No, I meant you can't save all the formats you can open. How would that be clear to users in your method, with all the formats mixed together?

[Frank]

improve the save dialog - last used formats at the top of the list

... but it would be nice if the few I do use frequently were at the head of the list.

That is also a good suggestion!
But this could be also extra option! (Should this be an extra option?)

[Mij]

No, I meant you can't save all the formats you can open. How would that be clear to users in your method, with all the formats mixed together?

You have me confused now, Skippybox. Do you mean you can't save some formats because they are not supported for saving by IV? In that case they would not appear on the Save list, just as at present. Otherwise the Save list would be identical to the Load list, whether it was Custom or Associated images that you chose.

[Skippybox]

Do you mean you can't save some formats because they are not supported for saving by IV? In that case they would not appear on the Save list, just as at present. Otherwise the Save list would be identical to the Load list, whether it was Custom or Associated images that you chose.

That is what I mean. So the program would filter out the invalid entries a user makes. Sounds acceptable. So when will we see this implemented? Obviously, it will be a while until another version of IrfanView is out. Have you finished working on MijView yet? We haven't heard any updates.

I still like the two editable boxes because it doesn't exclude users like Frank, who came up with this idea of customizable save types. He should be able to have a save list even if he uses associations. Maybe it's still possible with your idea, Mij? A dimmed list would still function for save, just not loading?

[SCS]

I just stumbled on this thread, and I think it is a great idea to make this easier.
I like Irfan very much for many years, but choosing the format when saving is always annoyed me a bit.

I think 99,9% of all users would use 3 formats for 99,9% of the time
JPG, BMP, GIF
Now we always have to scroll down in the list with the change to click the wrong one.

Why not 4 "radio buttons" with these three formats and one "other" with the rest of the list.
Advantage is also that the selected "other" format can be remembered for the next time.

I think that is far easier then customizing it in the settings.

Just my 5 cents.
SCS

[Sjef]

Hey SCS,
I have all filetypes that IrfanView supports associated to IrfanView. So the 'Use only associated...' by Frank wouldn't work on my configuration.
But when I -for instance- want to save the file EASY.PCD to -for example- a BMP-format, I simply type a point and BMP behind the filename (and an Enter of course). So like this: EASY.BMP
Most of the time I like IrfanView to save a file to the same format and that's already what IrfanView does. So I don't see any problem here.

[Lunique]

I would really really appreciate this option or at least a way to change it in the ini file. There are only like 5 filetypes I use and it would be so much easier to just choose between them. Typing the .bmp is annoying if I want to keep the name and just save say a jpg as a png (and only 1 so batchmode wouldn't help much either) with the same name because then I would have to click into the text field which will highlight all (if I type now it is empty and I have to choose or type again), and click again to get to the part behind the dot. It also matters if I have my windows set to show common file extensions or not.
I hope you can take this back into consideration.

[Sjef]

Hi Lunique,
Maybe the F2 key will diminish some of your annoying about saving to another extension...

[Mij]

I gave up on this topic several years back because it was clear that everyone had different needs. Although I would prefer not to have a list of 20 different save formats to choose from it really does not bother me too much to have to do so. It really does not take long to select a different file type.

With the mouse it takes a couple of clicks to open the Save As dialog. A click on the down arrow of the Save as Type box then forward or back with the mouse to run up or down the list and a left click on the one you want. Another left click on the save button and you are done.

If I wanted to rename the file I would use the keyboard, which is also quite fast. For example to change the file name and Save As "mypic", selecting JPG as file type, I would type from the Viewer window
s m y p i c <Tab> <Down arrow> j j j <Tab> <Enter>

[Lunique]

@Sjef your solution wouldn't help, if I change the extension in this dialog it simply doesn't work and if I just want to rename a file I don't need irfanview for it at all (I'd just use explorer).

@Mij you are right it is not much to do but my problem is that every now and then I click on the wrong extension because it looks similar like png & pgm; jpg, jng & jp2 and that is the reason I would really appreciate it to shorten this list. I could get rid of Jpg2000 by deleting the plugin for it and it would be great if that would work for other filetypes too or if there was a way to change it in the ini-file.

I think the fact that everbody has different needs is even more a reason to make a customization possible.
Greetings and thanks for trying to help, Lunique

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I have sent a reminder to Irfan Skiljan that this is still a hot topic.