PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Chitchat about x² / 2X products

Moderators: fgagnon, nikos, Site Mods

Post Reply
fado19
New Member
Posts: 2
Joined: 2014 Dec 07, 17:10

PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by fado19 »

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.
User avatar
nikos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 15760
Joined: 2002 Feb 07, 15:57
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by nikos »

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
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by Kilmatead »

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).
fado19
New Member
Posts: 2
Joined: 2014 Dec 07, 17:10

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by fado19 »

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.
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by Kilmatead »

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. :shrug:

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).
RightPaddock
Gold Member
Gold Member
Posts: 428
Joined: 2011 Jan 23, 18:58
Location: Sydney AU

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by RightPaddock »

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
Last edited by RightPaddock on 2014 Dec 08, 21:45, edited 1 time in total.
Windows 10 Pro (64 bit) version 1809 - Xplorer2 version: Pro 2.5.0.4 [Unicode] x64 2014-06-21
User avatar
nikos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 15760
Joined: 2002 Feb 07, 15:57
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by nikos »

press ctrl+L on any link to find the real target
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by Kilmatead »

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. :?
RightPaddock
Gold Member
Gold Member
Posts: 428
Joined: 2011 Jan 23, 18:58
Location: Sydney AU

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by RightPaddock »

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
Last edited by RightPaddock on 2014 Dec 08, 23:12, edited 1 time in total.
Windows 10 Pro (64 bit) version 1809 - Xplorer2 version: Pro 2.5.0.4 [Unicode] x64 2014-06-21
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Re: PDF Thumbnail Preview for PDF Shortcuts

Post by Kilmatead »

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. :roll: :D
Post Reply