New plugin: RTF Viewer/Editor

Dinkelhopper has released another new plugin for Opus. This one lets you view and edit Rich Text Format files:

• RTF-Viewer (and Editor)

As with Dinkelhopper's other plugins, this one is for 32-bit users only.

(They are 32-bit only because they're written using the Delphi programming language which doesn't yet support 64-bit. Unfortunately, working around the problem with Delphi plugins and 64-bit would be quite complicated. I read that the new owners of Delphi plan to introduce 64-bit support later this year, however.)

Dinkelhopper's other plugins have also had a few updates since they were mentioned on this blog a few days ago. Keep an eye on their respective forum threads if you want to stay up to date with them.

As with when my MayaIFF plugin was new, it's normal for there to be a bunch of small updates for new plugins as people try different files on them and discover issues. I'm assuming people reading this blog prefer the traffic to be minimal (else they'd be reading the forum instead) so I won't post about every update until things settle down.

Windows 7's UAC whitelist is anti-competitive

I'd like to get on my soap box and alert you to what I think is a very bad thing in Windows 7:

• Windows 7's UAC whitelist is anti-competitive

Directory Opus version 9.1.1.7

Directory Opus version 9.1.1.7 - January 20th 2009

A free update for all Directory Opus 9 users is now available for download from GP Software.

Bugs fixed / minor changes:

• Fixed problem with drag & drop from Outlook to Opus.
  
• Fixed problem with drag & drop from ZIP and RAR files in Opus to system namespaces like the desktop.
  
• Fixed problem with file type system that could cause events like double-click to stop working if a file type event was defined with an empty function body.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when decoding thumbnails in ID3v2.2 MP3 files.
  
• Fixed crash in Find that could occur when searching certain UTF-8 encoded files.
  
• Fixed crash that could occur when invoking some context menu handlers from an admin-mode Lister (under Vista only).
  
• The New -> Folder menu item now has a key sequence assigned.
  
• A command that combines Select ALL followed by Clipboard COPYNAMES now works correctly.
  
• Drop-down menus opened via the keyboard now ignore the position of the mouse cursor; previously if the mouse happened to be where the menu opened, the item under the mouse would be selected.
  
• Fixed problem in the Folder Tree with full-row selection when Folder Tree is locked.
  
• In Context Menus, a hidden shell item that ends a sub-menu no longer causes subsequent items to be displayed in the sub-menu incorrectly.
  
• Fixed problem with Rename Test mode that could cause Find & Replace values to be added to the Preview list.
  
• Advanced Selection using a location filter now works in Flat View and Collections.
  
• Fixed problem with Desktop Layouts context menu with layout names containing & characters.
  
• Fixed problem with top-docked toolbars not taking account of other app-bars on the left or right.
  

New Opus plugins: Font, Postscript and CSV viewers

Dinkelhopper has posted three new Opus viewer plugins to the Resource Centre:

• Postscript-Viewer (ps, eps)
  
• Font-Viewer (ttf, otf)
  
• CSV-Viewer (table form layout)

64-bit users should note that these plugins are 32-bit only, at least for now.

If you need alternatives that work with 64-bit:

• CSV can be shown through the ActiveX plugin if you have Excel installed. (May also work with OpenOffice.org instead of Excel.)
  
  Update: Not sure where my head was at when I wrote this... I don't think using ActiveX/Excel for CSV works very well as, from memory, you get an annoying format conversion dialog when you open the files. That would be why I didn't include .CSV in the default config of the ActiveX plugin.
  
  
• Postscript should be visible in the ActiveX plugin if you have Ghostscript installed and add the appropriate file extensions to the plugin:
  
  The Ghostscript installer includes a postscript viewer for Internet Explorer and the ActiveX + Preview + Office + Web plugin for Opus can be configured to take advantage of that. Go to Preferences - Plugins - Viewer Plugins, select the ActiveX + Preview + Office + Web plugin, click Configure, then add the .ps and .eps extensions under the Internet Explorer (32-bit) section. Those file extensions will then be displayed in the Opus viewer pane via IE.
  
  Update: Turns out this is incorrect. Ghostview does not provide a viewer that works in Internet Explorer, despite its webpage suggesting it does.
  
  
• Fonts can be viewed via the Font preview handler which comes installed with Vista. (This is via the ActiveX plugin as well but doesn't require any configuration to enable.)