Visual Server
                Copyright © 1997 By Douglas Michael Hess
                        eMail: dmhess@t-online.de

What?

 'Visual Server' works with the thumbnail program 'Visual' 1.13 © 1996 by
 Christophe Vallee and allows the user to have thumbnails in one place
 (harddisk) and the pictures in another (CD).

Why?

 I created '.icn' files for a CD full of pictures by copying the pictures to
 my harddisk, creating the thumbnails, and then deleting the pics.  I could
 display the thumbnails, but to display the pics:
          1. I had to have a shell running
          2. remember the name of the thumbnail
          3. swap screens
          4. and at the prompt type in the name of the display program and
             the path and name of the picture...blah!

How?

 So I wrote 'Visual Server'.  For each '.icn' file in a directory, a fake
 picture file is created.  This forces 'Visual' to supply path and name when
 a thumbnail is double-clicked.  Also in each directory a file called
 VisualServerPath is created with the path to the real pics. 'Visual' is set
 to create an environment variable each time a thumbnail is double-clicked.
 The environment variable contains the name of the picture and the path to
 the VisualServerPath file which contains the true picture path...Whew!
 'Visual Server' just waits until the environment variable is created,
 finds the file containing the true path, adds the name of the picture,
 and then shows it.

Getting it up and running...

 Copy your pictures to your harddisk.  Use 'Visual' and 'ImageFX' to create
 the thumbnails.

 Important: Don't mix pictures or thumbnails from different paths in the
 same directory!  Each directory only has one 'true path' file.

 Install 'Visual Server' anywhere you like by dragging the whole drawer
 anywhere you like. :-)  Drag the file called 'VisualPrefs' to the 'Visual'
 drawer. We'll need it later...

 Start 'Visual Server' and select 'Create Pseudo files...' from the menu.
 Use the file requester to move to a directory where '#?.icn' files are
 kept. After you click on 'OK', a file 1 byte long will be created for each
 '.icn' file.

 Important: This overwrites all pictures in the directory! Hopefully the
 pictures are also located on a CD somewhere!

 Then another file requester will appear.  Use it to inform the program
 of the path to the PICTURES.  After you click on 'OK' a file will be
 created in the directory with the thumbnails called VisualServerPath.  This
 file contains the true path to the pictures.

 You must select 'Create Pseudo files...' once for each directory containing
 thumbnails ('.icn' files).

 Then select 'Change Command...' from the menu.  A window with a string
 gadget will open.  Type in the name of the program that should display the
 pics. 'C:VT' for example. You may also have spaces in the command.  For
 example 'C:Execute S:DisplayScript'.  The quotes are not necessary. DO NOT
 USE THE '%s' PLACEHOLDER REQUIRED BY 'Visual'.  It is not used by 'Visual
 Server'. The path and name will be appended to the end of your command
 automatically. When you click on 'OK' a file called 'VisualServer.prefs' is
 created in the directory with 'Visual Server'. Your command will be loaded
 each time you start the program.

 Start 'Visual'and select 'Load...' from the 'Settings' menu.  Click on the
 'VisualPrefs' file in the requester.  This causes 'SetEnv VisualServer %s'
 to be used as the command and also ensures that files with the 'h' bit set
 are not shown. All 'VisualServerPath' files have the 'h' bit set.

 You should now be able to display a picture by clicking on its thumbnail.

 In the future, you just need to start 'Visual Server' and 'Visual'. Then in
 'Visual', load the 'VisualPrefs' file.

 To save yourself the trouble of loadind the VisualPrefs file each time, just
 select Save from the Settings menu.