zabkat support forum

I know it's possible to see thumbnail previews of the first page of a PDF file when in the Thumbnail view mode. However this does not work for shortcuts of PDF files. I like to keep the source PDF files organized within a file directory hierarchy I have and create shortcuts for PDF files I am currently using. So it'd be very nice to have thumbnail previews for these shortcuts of their source files as well. Is this currently possible? Or is there a workaround? If not, then I'd really like to see this added.

only thing i can recommend is to use ctrl+L on the shortcut to locate the real file. If instead of shortcuts you did symbolic or hard links things would be simpler

Symbolic links will indeed provide proper thumbnails for PDF's. To create these in x2, use Edit -> Copy (on the original PDF), then browse to the destination and use Edit -> Paste Special -> Symbolic Link. If the destination is on the same drive, you could also use hard-links, but SymLinks are universal.

If you need to make many of these on a regular basis, look into using excellent (and free) Link Shell Extension which makes life easier in general, providing back-rubs, coffee, danish, etc. Well, just links really, but it does have multiple advantages, including an extra Properties tab, bespoke overlays, etc, dedicated to reparse-points (links).

Thanks for the advice, strangely enough SymLinks aren't providing thumbnails. Hard links do the job though, I'll just use them. That link shell extension shows me I have a lot to learn about links.

Ah - a quick test shows that the shell extensions from PDF-XChange Viewer will happily cause SymLinks to PDF's to render the thumbnail properly (as well as the usual native rendering for x2's quick-viewer <Ctrl+Q>) - no shell extension, no SymLink rendering. But you're right - hard links work either way.

Just remember that hard-links are constrained by being on the same volume as their targets, while SymLinks can point anywhere (network locations, cross-volume, etc).

Symbolic Links break if you move the target (aka destination).

Junction Link Magic can find broken links (reparse points), it also has the wherewithal to repair them.

LSE also has a repair option, if you use LSE to create them then you'll probably find its repair option easier to use.

Observation: removed

RP

press ctrl+L on any link to find the real target

RightPaddock wrote:Observation: A shortcut to .jpg will display a thumbnail in WE and X2 file browser, and in the WE and X2 details panel, but neither WE or X2 will display a preview for a shortcut to a .jpg.

Could you reword that so it doesn't contradict itself? If by "preview" you mean <Ctrl+Q> quickviewer, x2 does provide previews for .LNK's and SymLinks to .JPG's, as well as thumbnails.

Kilmatead wrote:Could you reword that so it doesn't contradict itself? If by "preview" you mean <Ctrl+Q> quickviewer, x2 does provide previews for .LNK's and SymLinks to .JPG's, as well as thumbnails.

I mean the thing that has draft and native tabs.

Aah, I see, its called Quickview in the menu, never use menus, and my kb short to show and hide is alt/p - same as for show and hide WE preview.

I also just remembered nikos implemented a couple of registry items to specify what file types get shown in Pre/Quickview - I limit it to .jpg & .txt.

Rather than reword my "Observation" I'll remove the content.

RP

From now on we'll just all refer to it as "that menuhack code 32934" thingy, as that way it will be eminently... um... clear.