Hello there,
            I was wondering if its possible to preview a picture before i can insert into a picture box. My idea is very similar as to when you try to insert a picture in microsoft word, i.e. you can have a preview of the picture you want to insert before actually picking that picture.
I have already set up an open file dialog that allows me to pick the picture I want to by simply looking at the name. HOwever, I am not sure how to preview the picture in the open file dialog

Thanks,
Dinesh

I do not know of a way to do this with the default file dialog box, but, you could create your own, file open dialog box, that displays images (thumbnails) for the files. This may be slow, especially if the files are large.

Depending on how important this is, and how often a user uses the image open functionality, you may want to look into 3rd party tools, that can load thumbnails quickly.

Some graphics programs (like ACDSee) create a file that stores the thumbnails once they have been created. If images are relatively static, this saves time on the loading of the thumbnails, because the resize only has to be performed once per image. It still uses the files in a directory to determine what to display, and if the thumbnail exists and (I would guess) the modify dates match, then the existing thumbnail is used. If the modify dates don't match or there is a new image, then a new thumbnail is created. ACDSee, uses one file per directory for this (and I assume tracks the modify date for each in this file, as well as the image).

I believe that some file formats also have thumbnail data in them, but I could be wrong on this.

In short, this is a complex feature/function, that may need some decisions on your part based on the usage of your application.


John R Lick
[email protected]