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February, 2002 Diablo Blue Page 9 |
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Quick View is a file viewer that is bundled with Windows. In some installations, Quick View is not natively installed and you must add it from the control panel utilizing the ADD/REMOVE Windows component utility. The program allows you to access files created by programs which you don’t have on your computer. In other words, if someone sends you a file created by a program that you don’t have, Quick View may allow you to view that file. The version of Quick View that is bundled with Windows is not the full version of the program. Quick View Plus (version 6) by Jasc Software, www.jasc.com, (publishers of Paint Shop Pro) is the full version of this necessary utility. With Quick View Plus you have access to view more than 225 Windows, DOS, Macintosh and Internet formats including text, spreadsheet, graphic, database , presentation, compressed , embedded objects, HTML and UUE files. With the program you can view and print any portion of the file. You can also cut and paste any portion of the viewed file into another application. Quick View Plus also integrates well with Zip files, browser and e-mail plug-ins. Quick View Plus uses a two pane navigation system. A Folder Tree shows volumes and folders and a Folders Content View shows the actual contents. The orientation is customizable through the View=> Options tool bar. Unlike the version contained in Windows, there are several additional commands available including: Opening for editing (if the program used to create the file is on your computer); quick compress; print; make wallpaper; send (as an attachment). I like the ease of navigation between several quick view windows and the ability to pin the current view to the desktop. Normally, Quick View Plus is accessed by utilizing a right click in Windows Explorer, however, the full version of the program can also be started directly from a command line or within a web browser by running the executable: qvp32.exe. (Several switches are available and described in the manual but I find the tool bars easier to use and don’t require my failing memory to remember!) This is truly a wonderful utility, which I have relied upon for years. This latest version adds several new features and has a very intuitive interface. In fact, the manual is almost superfluous! |
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At a recent meeting of the Pasadena IBM Users Group, Ed Bott and Carl Siechert, co-authors of Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out, explained why Windows XP is such an important upgrade for most users. Carl did a follow up which included the key parts of the presentation, and graciously allowed the user group community to reprint it in their newsletters. Why upgrade? At the meeting, several people commented that we didn't show the killer feature or the clear benefits of upgrading, especially from Windows 2000. That's because, IMO, there isn't a distinct knock-your-socks-off feature/benefit. Instead, there are a number of minor enhancements that, collectively, make Windows XP a compelling upgrade for me. We tried to dash through them but perhaps didn't adequately demonstrate the benefit. Here's a brief summary of my favorites: * Stability. Windows XP has the ability to run a large number of apps without running out of resources, without crashing. (If you're running Windows 2000, you already have this, so there's no |
