FastPictureViewer Professional

FastPictureViewer Professional is a folder viewer - not a file viewer. What this means is that you can open a folder of images and the application will automatically list the folder's complete content and let you browse it.

If you open an individual file, FastPicureViewer will display that file first, but it will also load the other files in the same folder so that you can browse them, too.

After you open a folder, FastPictureViewer Professional quickly builds a list of all images it contains and lets you display an image immediately. By default, the application also lists the content of all subfolders of the opened image folder. The result is a flattened view of the subfolder hierarchy - all images found in the subfolder tree appear in a single, sorted list. When opening a file, the same process occurs. The only difference is that the program will display the file in question first.

Image scanning flows seamlessly from subfolder to subfolder until all images have been viewed. At that point, the program takes you to the first image. Note that you can disable the subfolder scanning behavior in program options if you prefer to list only the files in the folder that was opened and none of the files in any if its subfolders. You can also tell the application to stop at the last image if you prefer that it not go back to the first image in a circle.

If FastPictureViewer Professional was associated with a file type (JPEG, for instance) via Windows Explorer (using, for example, the "Open With..." Explorer feature), double-clicking an image in Windows Explorer will display that particular image in FastPictureViewer as expected, but the application will still list all the other images in the same folder so that you can browse them.

As you will soon learn, there are always multiple ways to do anything in FastPictureViewer. To open a folder, the most direct route is to enter Ctrl+Q, which opens the operating system's folder picker. Note that for some reason, Microsoft elected not to display any content in this dialog window in folder-picking mode. In other words, the files are not visible and only the folders are listed.

Enter Ctrl+O to display a standard File Open window where you can pick the first image to open. FastPictureViewer also quickly scans the containing folder and loads all other images within it. The File Open dialog only lists the file types that FastPictureViewer can open depending on the image decoders (codecs) installed on the computer. While FastPictureViewer Professional ships with image codecs for more than 400 types of digital camera RAW formats, you can add support for Adobe Photoshop PSD, HDR formats such as OpenEXR and Radiance HDR, and many others by purchasing our FastPictureViewer Codec Pack companion software.

Another way to open a folder is to locate the application's taskbar at the bottom of the FastPictureViewer Window and click the "Menu" button to the left. As expected, clicking the "Menu" button will deliver a menu, onto which you will find an "Images Folder" button. When clicked, the "Images Folder" button opens the same folder picker as the Ctrl+Q keyboard shortcut. Likewise, clicking the "Open Image" button on that folder will have the same effect as the Ctrl+O keyboard shortcut.

As a side note, the "Open Image" and "Images Folder" buttons are the last ones in the menu. This means your mouse cursor travel distance from the "Menu" button to those buttons is minimal, so it's easier to access functions via a mouse. In the long run, details like these are what make certain applications a joy to use.

You will find, too, that the bottom placement of the taskbar makes it easier to use FastPictureViewer on a touch-centric device - your hand and wrist are not lying right across your image in an effort to reach a menu or tiny toolbar icon at the top of the screen.

An added advantage is the ability to use the mouse to open folders via the application's main menu. Right-clicking the "Images Folder" or "Open Image" buttons delivers a contextual menu displaying the last few recently used folders or files. This functionality makes it easy to re-open something you recently viewed.

If you pin FastPictureViewer to your Windows Explorer taskbar in Windows 7 or Windows 8.x as we recommend, you'll find that the recently used folders are also listed on the taskbar icon's contextual menu. Right-clicking the pinned FastPictureViewer taskbar icon (or clicking the taskbar button and dragging it upward while holding the mouse button down - a secret Explorer gesture) will display what Microsoft calls a "taskbar jump list." Here you will find an up-to-date list of recent folders, so you can display a folder immediately upon launching the application.

When FastPictureViewer is running, open a file or folder by dragging it from Windows Explorer and dropping it directly into the application's window. If you drag and drop a single image, the application will open and display that image first and at the same time list all other image(s) in the folder containing the image you dragged and dropped.

Last but not least, right-clicking a folder in Windows Explorer will display a "Browse with FastPictureViewer..." contextual menu option, which does exactly what it says.

As a final note, upon launch, FastPictureViewer automatically re-opens the last folder viewed and automatically jumps to the last viewed image within said folder. If you would like to disable this behavior, you can do so in program options.

• Ctrl+Q opens the standard folder picker dialog.
• Ctrl+O opens the standard file open dialog.
• Ctrl+E opens a Windows Explorer window on the current image folder.
• O opens the program's preference dialog.

A full keyboard shortcut summary is available in the included "Cheat Sheet".

• Right-click the "Images Folder" button on the Menu to display a list of recent folders.
• Right-click a folder in Windows Explorer and click "Browse with FastPictureViewer".

If you pinned down the program to your Windows Taskbar (Windows 7 or later)

• Right-click the program's icon on Windows Explorer taskbar's for recent folders.
• Click and drag the program's icon upwards on Windows Explorer taskbar's for recent folders.