Product Reviews

Script software's iView Multimedia 3.3 database catalogues image, animation, or sound files and now has a number of new features and bug-fixes. iView doesn't store files within the application itself. Instead, it imports thumbnails along with information on the file. The package has three tabbed windows for displaying information: media; thumbnail; and info. The media view displays the file if it's an image file, or the first frame if it's a QuickTime movie, provided the volume on which the file is stored is mounted. If not, it displays a thumbnail.

The thumbnail view displays, not surprisingly, thumbnails of files. From here files can be imported, exported, deleted, re-named or have captions added. The info view lists files in the catalogue, along with useful information, such as the location of the original file, its file size and type.

Files can be imported by dropping them

ADVERTISEMENT

on the thumbnail or info windows, or by using the Import command. The latter allows you to set filters for importing files, so only files that meet certain criteria will be imported. Files can be dragged and dropped from a folder or from within an open application, such as Photoshop. Files can even be dragged from an open Web browser window, and iView will store details of the URL. iView supports a vast range of file types, expanded in version 3.3 to include PageMaker, Painter, Live Picture and 3DMF file formats.

The Find feature will locate any file from an open catalogue, provided the volume on which it's stored is mounted. If it isn't, iView simply returns an error message, rather than prompting you to mount a named volume, which would be more useful.

A slideshow feature lets you play files in the catalogue as a slideshow. The speed of the slideshow and the size of the images can be controlled, and it has start, stop and pause buttons. Slideshows can also be looped, but once a slideshow has finished, the only way to return to one of the three views is to hit the escape key - a button to return you to the main view would have been a good idea.

Each catalogue will support up to 8000 files in dozens of formats. iView is very easy to use and takes up very little hard disk space - the application on its own is a little over 1Mb. iView 3.3 is invaluable for anyone looking for a simple tool to catalogue files, especially as it's shareware and only costs $25.