Ann: pdfview lister plugin released!

[fnheiden]

My guess is that the "pdfcreator" you're talking about doesn't install the standard Ghostscript installation but only a few files required by the tool (e.g. gsdll32.dll).

Just install it with the official installer and see if it works for you.

[st]

think it would be helpful if a sample's given either here, in readme, or in the lsplugin.ini.
my lsplugin.ini is added of command=... and resolution=... lines.
i manually added the exepath="c:\...\gswin32.exe" line and add -I"c:\...\gs8.50\lib\" parameter before "%1" to the command line. it works.

[pdfview]
command=-dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=bmp256 -r%3 -sOutputFile=%2 -dFirstPage=%4 -dLastPage=%4 -I"C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.50\lib\" "%1"
resolution=144
exepath="C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.50\bin\gswin32.exe"

[tosbsas]

could you post your completet lsplugin.ini file??

Ruben

[TrexX]

hi all,
im starting TC from my USB stick. Everything is working perfect. Alle my path entries in all .ini files are using %COMMANDER_PATH%. I downloaded GS 8.56 and just extacted it on my USB stick into a TC subfolder. Using this lsplugin.ini file its not working:

[pdfview]
exepath=%COMMANDER_PATH%\GS\gs8.56\bin\gswin32c.exe
command= -I%COMMANDER_PATH%\GS\gs8.56\lib\ -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=bmp256 -r%3 -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 -sOutputFile=%2 -dFirstPage=%4 -dLastPage=%4 "%1"
resolution=144

When the USB stick is using drive letter E: for example and i change the lsplugin.ini file to this

[pdfview]
exepath=e:\totalcmd\GS\gs8.56\bin\gswin32c.exe
command= -Ie:\totalcmd\GS\gs8.56\lib\ -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=bmp256 -r%3 -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 -sOutputFile=%2 -dFirstPage=%4 -dLastPage=%4 "%1"
resolution=144

the pdf viewer works.
What is the problem here, am i doing something wrong ?

thx fpr your support

[ghisler(Author)]

Yes, only variables handled by Total Commander itself are guaranteed to work with environment variables. The system doesn't evaluate them by itself, TC has to do it. TC doesn't see these options, it's the plugin which uses them directly. You can try to ask the plugin author to add support for environment variables.

[buzzlightyear]

I would be lost if I couldn't use TC on every PC. At work, I'm not allowed to install any software so I need to run everything from an USB stick.

The approach I'm currently using with other TC configuration files (like DEFAULT.BAR) which don't support environment variables is to

a) create a file template with env vars instead of absolute paths, and
b) use sed.exe to create the config file from the template file before launching TC, substituting the env vars with the current paths

Sed.exe is part of UnxUtils (http://unxutils.sourceforge.net), a collection of Unix utilities ported to Windows. You may use any other command line tool which replaces strings in text files as well.

The initial substitution is done from a batch file which is automatically run (via autorun.inf) when the USB stick is inserted.

[TWatcher]

Hallo fnheiden, thank you for the plugin.

I just installed pdfview_108 on a newly installed XP system and was wondering why some functions were not working as expected, like "Zoom In", "Zoom Out", "Fit Width", no scroll bars.
Finally I found the reason in this thread some posts ago .

The reason was that one of the viewer options "Fit images to window (F)" or "Fit only larger images to window (L)" was active. Switching them off makes the pdfview plugin working as described.
To avoid same trouble for other plugin users I would like to repeat the request made by strawbeard:

Could you please add something similar like the following to the tips-and-tricks section of the readme file:

Code: Select all

- Make sure, that the Lister options "Fit image to window (F)" and "Fit only larger images to window (L)" are unchecked, otherwise zoom and scroll functions are disabled.

Regards TWatcher

[JoatMan]

I just tried to get pdfview.wlx working again. I had it working some time ago, but didn't use for a while. After the latest computer upgrade it was time to get it going again - but ':evil:' failure came with the error:

"Could not load the GhostScript environment!"

Setting the path to ghostscript bin and lib directories didn't help. Then I came across an early message about the registry keys pdfview looks for.

I look for several gs-keys in the registry to get the location of the gsdll32.dll:

Code: Select all

1. HKLM\Software\AFPL Ghostscript\n.nn\GS_DLL
2. HKLM\Software\Aladdin Ghostscript\n.nn\GS_DLL
3. HKLM\Software\GNU Ghostscript\n.nn\GS_DLL

Where n.nn is the Ghostscript version.

The lates version of Ghostscript, v8.7.1, stores the entries under "GPL Ghostscript" and not any of the other. So I went back to install an older AFPL version (v8.5.4) and - voila it's working again. Thanks fnheiden for this plugin ':D'.

Hope this might be of help to someone stuck with the same problem.

Cheers from Downunder

[Matthias030]

I don't have a solution for your problem. But I can suggest to use SumatraPDF and define it as external viewer in TC to load it by pressing F3 key. http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html
I use SumatraPDF after looking a long time for a good pdf plugin. Sumatra is fast and only a small portable exe file. It's better than all available plugins.

If you still want to use a real TC plugin I can suggest gswlx. http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/gswlx.html It's the best plugin for viewing pdf files but it is not as good as SumatraPDF.

[ehab]

true SumatraPDF is the quickest stable pdf viewer

[dott]

Well, I use muPDF which is the rendered pdf engine behind sumatra, it's even faster.

[Hacker]

Yes but PDF X-Change Viewer is the best concerning options / speed ratio.

Roman

[JoatMan]

Sorry if my last mail came across as asking for a solution to a problem. Instead I wanted to offer a solution to a problem that is caused by changes in the latest ghostscript versions. The newer versions write to a different registry key than expected by pdfview.

I use the plugin (pdfview) to get a quick preview of pdf files that i can easily close by hitting the ESC key (an old habbit from frequent usage of the F3 to preview files). Might give gswlx a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

As a standalone pdf viewer I'm very happy with PDF X-Change Viewer - but for quick previews I still prefer a plugin.

Cheers

[Matthias030]

For SumatraPDF you can use following parameter.
sumatrapdf.exe -esc-to-exit
You need to use it only one time. Now ESC closes program like a TC plugin. Personally I like plugins more than external programs. But Sumatra is faster for opening pdf files and gives a much better visual quality.
At my machine F3 opens SmatraPDF and SHIFT+F3 opens gswlx.

[damjang]

For SumatraPDF you can use following parameter.
sumatrapdf.exe -esc-to-exit
You need to use it only one time. Now ESC closes program like a TC plugin.

Thank you for this tip. I like & use it!