Xequte September Newsletter: Tenth Anniversary Releases of Smart Pix Manager and MegaView

8 September 2008

 

In this Issue:

  • Smart Pix Manager and MegaView V10 Released
  • Tenth Anniversary Specials
  • MailList King and Strange Characters
  • Program Tips
  • Removing yourself from this List

 

 

Dear Xequte Software User,

 

Ten years ago we released our first product, Smart Pix Manager, to address our own desire for a viewer that could handle large image collections.  By today's standards it was pretty ugly and thin on features (view this screenshot if you need reminding), but as we soon discovered many other people had the same requirement and thus Xequte was born.  Since then we have used the formula to bring other popular products to market, Diji Album, DVD PixPlay, MailList King...  But Smart Pix is my first love and I always enjoy working on it and still feel excited when releasing a new version.

 

In ten years since its first release we have received tens of thousands of feature requests and suggestions.  Every one of those has been evaluated and the best ones were implemented.  Many other enhancements have come from about because of technology, such as the proliferation of digital cameras, video files and MP3s.  But despite the numerous changes that have been made, at its core the philosophy has remained the same: simple browsing of photos, compelling slideshows and easy addition and searching of keywords.

 

Please find further details for the v10 releases of Smart Pix and MegaView below.

 

If you have any problems or questions please e-mail us at sales@xequte.com

 

 

Regards

 

Nigel Cross

Xequte Software

nigel@xequte.com

www.xequte.com

 

 

 

* Smart Pix Manager and MegaView V10 Released

 

Smart Pix and MegaView allow you to manage and view your multimedia, documents and digital image collection.  V10 is a feature rich upgrade offering over one hundred changes and improvements.

 

Top Fifteen Enhancements

 

1. Automatically displays digital camera photos with the correct rotation

2. Zip files are now natively supported. Browse Zips like normal folders with thumbnail support

3. New dockable tool window displays all information for the current file, including camera and music fields

4. Now supports a much wider range of digital camera Raw photo formats

5. Dicom Medical Imaging format is now natively supported

6. Automatically plays associated sound files of images

7. Added many digital camera (EXIF) fields, including all GPS fields and Windows embedded data

8. Keywords can now be copied and pasted using right-click menu and keyboard shortcuts

9. Full Vista support: Now offers much more Vista specific improvements

10. Significant improvements to styling throughout the software

11. Now provides full support for multiple monitor usage

12. Images can be automatically scrolled simply by hovering the cursor over the display

13. Numerous changes to layout and wording throughout the application to make it easier to use

14. Faster loading of many image formats

15. Improved algorithm for locating relevant multimedia files for media library inclusion

 

Complete change list: http://www.xequte.com/smartpix/changes.html

 

 

V10 is a free upgrade to all customers who purchased a license or upgrade after 1 March 2008.  If you have not received your new serial number please visit:

 

http://www.xequte.com/support/serial/

 

 

Smart Pix Manager:

 

More info and download:  http://www.xequte.com/smartpix/

 

Upgrades:  http://www.xequte.com/smartpix/upgrade.html

 

For the next seven days we are providing an extra 20% off for seven days. 

 

Upgrade to Smart Pix 10 for only $13.90:

 

http://www.xequte.com/cgi-bin/spm10.asp?v=upg

 

 

MegaView:

 

More info and download:  http://www.xequte.com/megaview/

 

Upgrades:  http://www.xequte.com/megaview/upgrade.html

 

For seven days you can upgrade to MegaView 10 for only $11.90:

 

http://www.xequte.com/cgi-bin/mgv10.asp?v=upg

 

 

Note: These offers are only available using the links above and expire at midnight Sep. 12, 2008.

 

 

 

* Tenth Anniversary Specials

 

We're celebrating our ten years of Smart Pix Manager with $10 back for every customer for five days!  You won't find Smart Pix so cheap again until the twentieth anniversary!

 

Purchase Smart Pix Manager for only $29.50:

 

http://www.xequte.com/cgi-bin/spm10.asp?v=spm

 

Or

 

Purchase the Xequte Photo Bundle for only $49.50 (for $88.50 worth of software):

 

http://www.xequte.com/cgi-bin/spm10.asp?v=bundle

 

 

Note: These offers are only available using the links above and expire at midnight Sep. 12, 2008. 

 

 

 

* MailList King and Strange Characters

 

Apparently some of you have not been reading your advisories because we are still getting a lot of customer reports of "Chinese characters" appearing in your messages.  An issue in a recent update in Microsoft Exchange (on the recipients end) means that you need to specify the character encoding in every message you send.

 

Please read instructions for this in our program tips below...

 

The issue has also been discussed on our forum:

 

http://www.xequte.com/userforum/topic.asp?Topic_id=2752

 

 

 

* Program Tips

 

- Smart Pix Manager: Copying and Pasting Keywords

 

V10 now includes option in the right-click menu to copy and paste keywords.  This is most useful when applying a set of keywords to files as you locate them:

 

  1. Select keywords from the Keywords toolbar
  2. Right-click the keyword selection and choose Copy (or Ctrl+C)
  3. Select the file(s) to add the keywords to and choose Paste from the right-click menu (or Ctrl+V)

 

You can also copy the selection to a text editor, edit the keyword list and paste it back

 

 

- MegaView (also in Smart Pix): File Information Dockable Tool Window

 

Many users report that they frequently need to view the file information, or digital camera fields for a file (File > File Information) so for v10 we've added a tool window that you can dock to the main window.

 

To enable it:

  1. If you are using the Simplified UI mode, disable it under Tools > Options, Interface
  2. Select View > Tool Windows > File Information
  3. Drag the displayed window and dock it in the desired position

 

 

- MailList King: You Need to Specify your Character Encoding

 

As you will have read above if you are sending via SMTP or the SMTP Server you need to specify the character encoding for the message.  If not, recipients on a Microsoft Exchange network may well see gobbledygook.

 

  1. Create your message (List > Send Email to List)
  2. On the message sending toolbar click "Edit"
  3. Under Encoding select your desired Encoding option

 

If you are located in the English speaking world you can choose:

 

"Western European (Windows)"

 

Otherwise you can select:

 

"Automatic"

 

 

- DVD PixPlay: Slideshow Disks with lots of Slideshow

 

Customer reports have been positive about our new Multiple Slideshow disk creation feature.  However one area that seems to be causing some confusion is whether disks can be created with more than six slideshows.  When developing v4 we settled on designing our pre-built menus for a maximum of six slideshows.  This allowed us to lay out the menus that looked best in the majority of cases.

 

So while you are unable to use the pre-built menus for disks of seven or more slideshows, you can still create your own menus:

 

  1. Select one of the pre-built menus that you like the style of
  2. Click the customize button. 

 

Your first six slideshows will be listed.  For each of your remaining slideshows:

 

  1. Click the "Add Button" button
  2. Specify the slideshow name
  3. Choose the slideshow from the drop list
  4. Click OK

 

Once all your slideshow are listed you will probably want to drag them into your desired layout

 


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