Next and Previous buttons greyed out

[Mabel Figworthy]

I have just updated to IrfanView 4.10, and at first it would not respond to my use of space bar and backspace to move from file to file, the Next and Previous buttons were greyed out and so were the navigation options in the View menu.

I found that this was put right when I re-checked the "View all files in directory" option, which I had unchecked because I have a lot of folders with mixed filed in and going through them I get "can't display this" sort of messages.

Is there a way in which I can get Irfanview to skip files it can't view, while keeping my navigation shortcuts and buttons?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The latest version is 4.2 — I recommend upgrading as 4.10 was buggy.

Properties, Extensions, View only associated files will skip other files when browsing.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Thanks for the advice -- I've now updated, but it still won't navigate unless I check the "View all files" option, which I want to uncheck. Has anyone else had this problem?

A sudden thought -- would it help if I selected "Load only associated types" in the Extensions tab? Even so, I would like to know why unchecking the "view all files" option (in the Misc 1 tab) has the abovementioned effect!

[Mij]

Thanks for the advice -- I've now updated, but it still won't navigate unless I check the "View all files" option, which I want to uncheck. Has anyone else had this problem?

According to the Help file this is the correct behavior:
"View all files in directory: Click this to have the viewer display in each directory all files with extensions supported by IrfanView. If this is unchecked, you can't open next/previous file with space/backspace or with the toolbar arrows."

Why do you want to uncheck it?

[Skippybox]

It is all quite obvious from the description.

When you check View all files in directory (moving/browsing through directory + thumbnails), you are telling the program that you want to be able to browse your whole folder, based on whatever you specified on the Properties>Extensions tab. If you uncheck it, then it will not browse any more files in that folder, than the one you opened. It is limiting the program to only view the one file and that is it. If you want to view another, then you must open it; it cannot be browsed to.

Since you want to browse, do not check it. But of course, you don't want to view 'everything' in the directory. So, yes, you can select Load only associated types while moving through a directory, if you have associated some file types with IrfanView. If you don't want to associate some or any types with IrfanView, the best option is to select Load custom file types. Here you can add/delete exactly the file types that you want to load.

Look at all the options on the tab. I'm sure you'll find something that will work. If not, reply back, and I can perhaps come up with something else.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Thanks for explaining so clearly -- I obviously got the two things muddled up but I understand now thanks to your comments!

[Skippybox]

Filter Directories

There is another trick you may not be aware of. You can set a custom directory index in the directory count display. Use the mouse or SHIFT+T to jump into the edit field. Change the value and press Enter to cause an action.

For instance, if you want to temporarily browse only JPGs in a directory, then type the pattern *.jpg which filters the folder for only that file type. The index updates to reflect this. Refreshing reverts to the original list. You could also do cat*.jpg for JPGs starting with 'cat', or cat* to get all files starting with 'cat'. Typing in a particular file number or page number works, too.