Regarding thumbnails

[JulieM]

Hello! I use PSE 4 on two different computers. On one, every time I select "open" from the file dropdown, I get thumbnails of my stored photos. On the other computer, it defaults to the list view. So, each time I close the dialog box and reopen it later to load another image, I have to select thumbnails again. I don't know if this is a setting in Windows or in PSE, but I'd like to be able to default to thumbnails. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. :confused: Many thanks!

[msbrad]

Welcome to the forum,
I too am interested in your question. Mine does the same thing on 4.
Think I will check to see if there is a setting I can change once I get home.

m

[Juergen D]

I don't know if this is a setting in Windows or in PSE, but I'd like to be able to default to thumbnails.
It is Windows. If the images are in MyPictures, the default is Thumbnails. Everywhere else it is List.
You would have to move the images into MyPictures, or sub-folders under it, to get the Thumbnail default view in the Open dialog box.

Juergen

[JulieM]

Thank you Juergen! It is "my pictures" but the folder is resident on another computer on my network. So, I guess that explains it. Thanks for solving a nagging question :)

[Rusty]

My experience (Windows XP) is that the view style will maintain whatever was selected when that folder was last closed. For example, suppose "My Pictures" has only 3 sub-folders: 1, 2 and 3.

My Pictures is set to "Details" (the list showing filesize, dates, etc) and
sub-1, 2 and 3 are all set to "Filmstrip". If I am in sub-3 and, for some reason want to look at details, click "View" and select "Details", and then navigate to some other part of Windows Explorer, sub-3 will be in the "Details view" the next time I use WE to look at that folder.

If, however, I look at the details and then change the "View" to Thumbnails of Filmstrip, or whatever, BEFORE I navigate away. then that view mode will be in effect the next time I open that folder.

Whatever Windows may have as a default should not override whatever you had selected when you last closed that folder.

Rusty

[Juergen D]

Rusty,
We were not talking about the Windows folder display. We were referring to the Open dialog box in Elements. You can set your Windows display any which way you want, Elements is still displaying thumbnails when looking at the Open dialog in MyPictures or below.
I said that this is caused by Windows since it only defaults to that when the pictures are in MyPictures. If you move them, you'll have the List default. The same is true in another viewer (IrfanView), in MyPictures it's thumbnails, in all others it will actually preserve the previous setting.

Juergen

[JulieM]

Juergen:

I checked to see if things worked as you described. Indeed, if I access (from PSE) images in "my pictures" on this computer's hard drive, they appear as thumbnails. If I access pictures that are in "my pictures" on the hard drive on the other computer on my network, they appear in list view even if previously set to thumbnails. From your response, I gather this is functioning properly. Correct?

Thanks much.

Julie

[Juergen D]

Right, Julie, that's the way I see it.

The next time this comes up, I'll refer to MyPictures on the local drive.... ;)

Juergen