Practical Questions and Answers

Question: How to view a folder of pictures as a slide show?

Is there a simple way to view Nimai Chandra Prabhu's Vrindavan pictures besides opening each individual zip folder, then opening and closing; opening, closing over and over again each individual thumbnail picture? They don't link as a slide show.

Answer:

On a PC (after Windows 98), select all the pictures in a folder (control-a) then right click and select 'Open With' then select 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.' Then it will show the first picture. Beneath is a button to run a slide show (it's the 5th one along on our PC). Click - and join the parikrama.

On a PC running Windows 98, sorry, no info available.

On a Mac running OSX, select all the pictures in a folder (command-a) then right click (or control-click) and select 'Open With' and select 'Preview.' Then it will show the first picture. In the menu bar (at the top) go to View/Slideshow. Click - and join the parikrama.

On a Mac running an earlier OS (8 and 9, and possible 7) you'll need 'iView' or 'GraphicConverter' in order to run a slide show.

Question: How to see the pictures in a zip file?

I was very enthusiastic when I saw that hundreds of pictures are being sent from the Vrindavan Parikrama but I find I am unable to see them. I did 'Save As...' but when I click on the menu to see pictures all I see is a big gray blob. Can you please tell me what I should do? I do not understand what is meant by "expand it." Any help would be greatly appreciated so I can have darshan from my desk.

Answer:

The recent pictures from Vrindavan (see our What's New page, for October 2006) are contained in '.zip' files - that's also how they have been sent to us. 'Zip' files are a very common, standard, file format on computers for compressing files or for compacting several files into one file convenient for downloading over the internet.

On most modern computers, once you download a zip file containing pictures, if you double-click on the downloaded file it will automatically 'expand' or 'extract' from being a single file, into a directory containing several pictures. Those pictures can then be viewed individually by opening them individually, or as a slide show (on a PC using 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer'. On a Mac: 'Preview' or 'iPhoto').

If double-clicking on the 'zip' file doesn't work, then right-click and chose the option 'Extract All....'

If that still doesn't work, then it would appear your computer somehow doesn't have the basic programme installed to expand zip files. In which case please download the free 'Stuffit Expander' (available for PC and for Mac) or one of several other free programmes from the web that readily expand zip files.

Wishing you good luck with opening these files. Once you've opened them, I think you, like us, will be very happy seeing all these pictures.

Intended to be useful for the devotees' service.
Your tips, feedback and suggestions are welcome.