Drag and drop photos from Irfanview's thumbnail view into an email?

[rick7]

I use Thunderbird as my email client. I would like to be able to drag and drop a photo from Irfanview's thumbnail view into an email. When I try that, the cursor changes into the plus sign but it doesn't drop anything in to the email.

I can drag and drop into an email from Windows Explorer. Is there any way to do this from Irfanview?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I don't use Thunderbird, but it works OK for me with Opera's email client.

[rick7]

Interesting. I see it also doesn't work with the Windows Live Mail client.

Ah, I just figured out the issue. I was dragging from Irfanview Thumbnails -- and it definitely doesn't work from there for me. But if I just load regular Irfanview and then do File -> Open, I can drag from that Open window and it does successfully drop into an email.

Hmm...I almost always work from Thumbnails.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

For me, its working from the Thumbnails view.

[impdf]

Version 4.33 ( - CURRENT VERSION - ) (Release date: 2012-03-28)
Simple Drag&Drop feature from Thumbnails window added
(Load files from Thumbnails in another programs/editors)

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Version 4.33 ( - CURRENT VERSION - ) (Release date: 2012-03-28)
Simple Drag&Drop feature from Thumbnails window added
(Load files from Thumbnails in another programs/editors)

Well spotted — rick7 needs to update his IrfanView version, or at least his forum profile.

[rick7]

Thanks. I have now upgraded to 4.33, both Irfanview and the add-ons. Surprising result: it still doesn't work in either Thunderbird (the latest version: 13.0.1) or Windows Live Mail. One difference: now the plus sign ("+") disappears once my mouse pointer is dragged into the email. Hmm....I'm puzzled.

I'm also confused about what the second line below means:

Simple Drag&Drop feature from Thumbnails window added
(Load files from Thumbnails in another programs/editors)

Thanks for any help.

[Mij]

It does not work for me either using Windows 7. I cannot drag and drop from Thumbnails window into any other program. It's no different to previous versions of Irfanview.

Added: That is not strictly true. With v4.30 when I drag and drop to the desktop (or to Thunderbird) the cursor + signs do remain visible, as the OP says, and a new Irfanview main viewer window opens with the image displayed (but still nothing passed to the other program).

[rick7]

Mij, what is your understanding of "Load files from Thumbnails in another programs/editors"? Maybe that's the key, but I don't understand what it means. I can't imagine that it means you need to open the image with an external editor before the drag-and-drop feature would work, but....?

Or maybe drag-and-drop works in Windows XP but not in Windows 7.

[Mij]

I take it to mean that it should now do the same as most other graphics programs do. If I drag a thumbnail from Faststone Image Viewer for example and drop it onto an Irfanview shortcut icon, then Irfanview opens and displays the image. It has never worked the other way around though and, for me, still doesn't with v4.33. I can also drag the thumbnail from Faststone and drop it onto an email I am composing in Thunderbird and a copy of the image is embedded in the email. Not so with Irfanview.
Perhaps Bhikkhu Pesala could try dragging an icon from Irfanview thumbnails and dropping it onto his Faststone image viewer icon. If that works in XP then I will email Irfan to tell him about the problem.

Before anyone suggests it by the way I have tried Running as administrator, in XP compatibility mode, and with Visual themes and Desktop composition disabled. None of those make any difference.

[impdf]

OK. Irfanview does not support D&D via OLE.

Irfanview just checks if the destination window has the WS_EX_ACCEPTFILES flag set. If this is the case Irfanview changes the mouse cursor and sends on drop a WM_DROPFILES message to the window containig the filename.

That's the reason why an application may accept standard drag and drop of files but not from Irfanview.

Irfan should improve the documentation.

[Mij]

OK. Irfanview does not support D&D via OLE.
Irfanview just checks if the destination window has the WS_EX_ACCEPTFILES flag set. If this is the case Irfanview changes the mouse cursor and sends on drop a WM_DROPFILES message to the window containig the filename.
That's the reason why an application may accept standard drag and drop of files but not from Irfanview.
Irfan should improve the documentation.

Thank you for explaining that. It does seem to be of rather limited use then. I cannot drag and drop a thumbnail to any shortcut or exe file. Does that mean that Windows Explorer does not set the WS_EX_ACCEPTFILES flag?

I have found that some of my graphics programs will accept an Irfanview thumbnail, when open, drag and dropped into their main window. Perhaps we should compile a list of those that do work. So far those I have found are Photoscape, Photofiltre, JPEG enhancer, Fotomix, Riot, SoftOrbits photo retoucher and Wildbit editor and, of course, Irfanview itself.

[impdf]

Thank you for explaining that. It does seem to be of rather limited use then. I cannot drag and drop a thumbnail to any shortcut or exe file. Does that mean that Windows Explorer does not set the WS_EX_ACCEPTFILES flag?

D&D to a control of a window (like the desktop) needs OLE. If there is time I will discuss with Irfan if the OLE access could be encapsulated into a plugin.

MS Paint works.
Paint.NET doesn't work.

[rick7]

Hi everybody, has there been any change in the status of this issue? As far as I can see, Irfanview still cannot drag a photo from Thumbnails into an email in Windows 7. Is there a way to contact the programmer about this?

(I hate to have to load FastStone Image Viewer just to do this!)