I Spy Technical Support
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Product Registration
Q: I entered the Registration Key into I
Spy 2.0 and it took it, but WebImage
is still acting like the demo version.
A: Whether you intended to or not, you've probably bought a key only for I Spy.
This will only unlock I Spy and not WebImage. If this was not your intention,
please call us and explain the problem. We will give you a new key that should
work for both and amend your credit card statement if necessary.
Q: Why has I Spy suddenly slowed down, even
though I sped
it up previously by
building a bunch of catalogs?
A: If you are still using the Demo version, it times out after ten days. Then
it ignores catalogs and caches until you register your copy.
Working with Thumbnail
Images
Q: Why does
I Spy keep overlooking an image file in one of my directories?
A: Just because a file extension indicates an image does not mean that it is.
A different file may have been improperly named, the image may be corrupt, or
the file is hidden. Either way, if I Spy cannot create a thumbnail for it, then
it’s probably not a valid image.
Q: Why does I Spy sometimes show a gray box
for a file that is not an image?
A: Due to the file structure of TARGA images, I Spy cannot validate a TGA file
until it is completely loaded. If it encounters an invalid TGA file, it will display
the gray box. You can safely ignore it.
Q: Why do some images in a directory appear
very quickly and others seem to take
much longer?
A: I Spy uses an image caching system. When it builds a thumbnail for an image
in a directory, it puts a copy of that thumbnail in the cache directory. This
way, the next time you enter that directory, it can pull up the thumbnail quickly
from the cache instead of building it from scratch. The only problem is that
the thumbnails take up space on the disk drive, so, rather than fill your drive
with small copies of pictures you already have, I Spy purges the oldest images
to make room for new ones. Occasionally it will purge out part of a directory
but not the whole thing. If this happens often, you need to do one of two things.
Either build catalogs in your frequently visited directories, which circumvents
the cache system altogether, or increase the size of your cache so that the images
don't continue bumping each other out.
Q: How can I make the thumbnails bigger/smaller?
A: You can change the size of the thumbnails in the view window by selecting Large,
Medium or Small Icons under the View menu. Additionally, you can select File
Details which displays the file information for each image next to a small thumbnail.
Q: How can I get more thumbnails on the screen
at once?
A: You can change the size of the thumbnails by selecting Large, Medium or Small
Icons under the View menu. Also, you can resize the view window, which will fit
as many thumbnails as possible into that area.
Q: Why do I sometimes get only black boxes
when running I Spy on a directory?
A: I Spy has run out of disk space. This can happen when thumbnailing a large
number of images. The only solution is to create more disk space by removing
things from your hard drive. Temp directories and cache sizes are two places
to start. In the meantime, I Spy now thinks that the thumbnails for those images
are correct and even a refresh won't fix them. The only way to restore the thumbnails
is to either rebuild the catalog by moving and replacing the image or, if it's
in the cache, you must purge the cache. You can also open and resave the image
to fool I Spy into thinking it's changed, in which case, it will update the thumbnail.
Caches & Catalogs
Q: What's the difference between a catalog
and a cache?
A: A catalog is a single file containing the thumbnails for each image in a directory.
The catalog file is located within that directory and must be created by the user.
Catalog are updated as images are added or removed from the directory.
A cache is a group of files located in the cache directory. Each
file contains a single thumbnail. The cache system has a maximum size limit. Once
the limit is met, the oldest thumbnails in the cache will be purged for the newly
visited thumbnails. The cache system runs automatically.
Q: Why should/shouldn't I build catalogs?
A: Catalogs are useful for directories that are used often or that have a large
number of images. Even though the cache will pull up images for frequently visited
directories quickly, the storage of these images may keep other images from being
cached. Also, you run the risk of purging items from the cache depending on the
cache size. On the flip side, numerous catalogs can take up a large amount of
disk space which can accumulate quickly if you catalog every image directory.
We suggest utilizing a catalog for your frequently used image archives and let
the cache handle any temporary or infrequently used image directories.
Q: What is the Stop Sign for?
A: This allows you to interrupt the thumbnail building process. For example,
if you know what the images are already and want to view them, you can stop the
thumbnail builder from taking CPU time by using the Stop Sign. To start building
thumbnails again, you can select Refresh under the View menu (F5) or you can select
a different directory.
Q: What does the little floating ball do?
A: It doesn't perform any action except to notify you when thumbnails are building.
When the ball stops, thumbnail building is done.
Q: What is the Delay in the Cache Dialog
for?
A: Sometimes when browsing through directories you might open a directory by accident
that has images that you do not want cached. The delay allows you to click on
through these directories without disturbing your cache.
Q: What if I don't want to use a cache at
all?
A: Simply select the No Cache Usage button in the Thumbnail Cache dialog. If
you would like to completely remove your cache, you can select Purge Cache which
will remove all the cache files from your cache directory.
Q: Can I have more than one cache?
Q: Can I move my cache?
Q: Can I make a new cache?
A: You can choose a new cache folder in the Thumbnail Cache dialog by either typing
it into the Location field or by using the Browse button to select one. When
you close the dialog box, a new dialog comes up asking what you wish to do with
the old cache. Selecting Move will move all of the cache files to the new location.
Selecting Copy will copy all the cache files to the new location and also leave
them in the old location. Selecting Keep or Delete will start a new cache in
the new location, with Delete deleting the old cache and Keep leaving it there.
You can later use an old cache you've kept by changing the location back.
Q: How can I get rid of all these catalogs?
A: You can enter the directory via I Spy and select Delete catalog. Alternatively,
you can go into the directories using Explorer and drag the file ISPY.CAT into
the Recycle Bin.
Q: Why can't I build any catalogs on my floppies
without I Spy crashing?
Q: Why can't I build any catalogs in a root directory without I Spy crashing?
A: There is a bug in I Spy v2.00 and v2.01 that causes the program to crash when
building catalogs at the root directory. This bug has been fixed in release v2.11.
In the meantime, you can avoid this bug by moving any images out of the root and
into a directory (even on floppies). I Spy should then build the catalogs just
fine. You can download the upgrade for free.
Working with Images
Q: How can I view one of the thumbnail images?
A: You can double click to open the image or select the image and select Open
from the File menu. This will open the image into the viewer registered for that
image under the Windows 95 registry. You can override this by using the Launch
Pad dialog under the Options menu to link a file type to a particular application.
You can also drag the image or images into any application that supports drag
and drop for that file type.
Q: How do I delete images?
A: You can drag them into the Recycle Bin or select the images you want to delete
and select Delete from the File menu or press the Delete button on the toolbar.
Q: I have problems dragging and dropping
under WinNT?
Q: Why can't I remove or rename folders under WinNT?
A: If you are running WinNT 4.0, make sure you are running I Spy v2.11. The previous
versions did not support NT 4.0. We still have a few isolated reports about about
file drag & drop under NT that we are investigating. In the meantime, if there
is any folder operation you can't complete using I Spy, they can still be accomplished
via the File Manager or Explorer.
Q: Why can't I double click to load images
from I Spy?
A: Microsoft Explorer has a setting that allows a user to "hide" the
extensions of files from view if they have been registered. This is a problem
for I Spy v2.00 or v2.01. A quick way around this is to turn the option off in
Explorer. You can do this by opening Explorer and selecting Options from the
View menu. This brings up a dialog with three checkboxes at the bottom. The
middle one reads, "Hide MS-DOS file extensions for file types that are registered."
Make sure this is diabled (unchecked). This will solve your problem. This bug
has been fixed in I Spy v2.11. You can download the upgrade for free.
Printing
Q: Why won't the directory name print out
when I have the Print Directory option
selected?
A: There is a bug in I Spy v2.00 where the directory name won't print. This bug
has been fixed in I Spy v2.11. You can download the upgrade for free.
Q: Why can't I print only a small selection
of images?
A: There is a bug in I Spy v2.00 that does not allow printing of selected images.
This has been fixed in I Spy v2.11. You can download the upgrade for free.
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