■ All about image thumbnail preview capabilities

When browsing your photo or other image collection, xplorer² can show little thumbnail previews (use View > Pane style menu to choose the view mode). There are 2 fixed sizes to choose from, thumbnails and mini-thumbs — the latter for when you want to squeeze more pictures in the view. The size of these thumbnails is adjustable from program options.

xplorer² also supports dynamic zooming (see the picture to the right), where you can increase the size of the thumbnails with the mouse wheel while simultaneously holding down <CTRL> key. If you have a laptop without a mouse, you can simulate the mouse wheel scrolling gesture using 2 fingers on your touchpad.

Another way to see image previews is the preview pane (press <CTRL+Q> keys to turn it on/off). You can resize the preview panel using its splitter bar to see larger image previews. Alternatively use the little zoom and rotate toolbar (as in the picture) to zoom in and out and scroll around the preview window.

The disadvantage of the preview pane is that it occupies a big chunk of the window, limiting the space available for browsing files and folders. Instead of the permanent preview pane you can use peek preview mode, which just shows a large preview of the selected file when you press both mouse buttons simultaneously (or <ALT+Q> keys). When you let go of the mouse buttons the preview disappears! Very handy and space efficient.

The end.