What's new in Cascading Slides 2.10.0
Mar 11, 2013
- Support for drag-and-drop of files/folders from OS into an album folder
- New navigation bar feedback shows the current selection index vs. the # of files in its folder
- Improved "Select random" searches deeper to reduce redundancy
- "Random in folder" action now available via centered viewport icon
- "First in folder" action now available via popup menus, not just the keyboard
- Full screen mode now has its own state for thumbnails/navigation bar auto-hiding
- Fixed the export/decrypting of files so it doesn't leave a remnant Java process running
- Fixed the initial playing of encrypted videos with extensions only recently supported
- Fixed restoring of the main menu after changing the theme
New in Cascading Slides 2.9.1 (Jan 29, 2013)
- New "Jump to file" action when a leaf folder is selected
- Overhaul in detection/loading of JavaFX fixes a bug in native file/folder dialog display, as well as the broken launching of encrypted videos
- New warning on install if user has more than one JRE version installed (can cause graphics flakiness and broken file/folder chooser dialogs)
- A few minor UI improvements/enhancements
New in Cascading Slides 2.9 (Jan 21, 2013)
- New "Jump to folder" action expands to and selects the leaf folder of the current file
- "Assign video thumbnail" updated to use native Windows file chooser dialog (JavaFX only)
- Escaping from full screen mode can now be done by clicking in the upper corner of the screen
- Fixed an issue with random slideshow mode causing flicker during image fade transition
- Fixed an issue with caption creation/editing causing the "album has changed" alert to appear upon re-opening
New in Cascading Slides 2.8.4 (Jan 14, 2013)
- Improved file hiding now allows for hidden folders by way of hiding all of their files
- Ctrl+Delete on a leaf node now invokes hide/unhide
New in Cascading Slides 2.8.1 (Jan 7, 2013)
- Restored the albums menu icon for locked albums
- Fixed/restored the automatic detection of changes within the folders of an album
- New Tip of the Day explaining the new VLC snapshot auto-detection feature
New in Cascading Slides 2.8 (Jan 3, 2013)
- Rewrote the album list main menu (simpler, more intuitive)
- Better auto-detection of potential album root folders within /Pictures and /Videos
- Added demo sample album ("Universe")
- Added the ability to select multiple album thumbnails for easier batch deleting of files
- New option for customizing the thumbnail font
- Added automatic detection of VLC snapshot files (when saved to "My Pictures" folder) for use as the video thumbnail
- New theme-based look and feel selection
- Added support for JavaFX when available, updating the folder/file choosers to the standard Windows UI
- New choice for double-click behavior ("Picture fit to window")
- Fixed album flicker during window resize
New in Cascading Slides 2.7 (Jul 2, 2012)
- Added pre-loading of images for faster display of large photos
- Several other rendering optimizations
- Refactored the layout of navigation buttons so that they show properly in all screen resolutions
- Added navigation icons to the viewport (optional)
- Mouse wheel click now toggles the slideshow
- Default double-click behavior is now full screen toggle
- Thumbnail icon frame color properly synchronized with pic "actual size" state
- Minor improvements/tweaks to the main menu UI and folder selection dialog
- Minor improvements/tweaks to the Globalisk Look and Feel
- Improved responsiveness of the window translucency slider and added disabling of it when minimalist border is turned off
- New option allows suppressing hiding of the navigation bar altogether
- Captions are now stored in the same folder as their pic, so they won't be lost when the folder is moved or renamed
- Fixed a bug that caused photos over 4Mb in size to be only partially password encrypted
- Fixed a bug in thumbnail creation that sometimes caused them to appear blank and/or lead to an out of memory error
- Fixed an issue with the RIGHT key when used immediately following the expansion of a folder
- Fixed an issue with window sizing to full screen mode when screen was flipped from landscape to/from portrait
- Fixed the rendering of the navigation bar background when screen was flipped from landscape to/from portrait
- Fixed a glitch in slideshow mode when toggling from NumLk
- Fixed zoom/resizing rendering glitch when initiated from full size image state, and added pic size % feedback
New in Cascading Slides 2.6 (Mar 12, 2012)
- Added customizable window translucency
New in Cascading Slides 2.5.2 (Feb 23, 2012)
- Added an opt-in dialog asking the user if they want the app to check the internet for a newer version, and noting the potential need to give permission to firewall software that might try to block any attempts
- Added support for Japanese and Hindi
New in Cascading Slides 2.5.1 (Feb 11, 2012)
- Fixed the use of the - key to collapse from a leaf node so the tree properly scrolls to the new selection
- Fixed an issue with the file change detector deleting unecessary thumbnails (which then had to be refreshed)
- Added "Refresh thumbnail" option for leaf node selections (Shift-T)
New in Cascading Slides 2.5 (Jan 17, 2012)
- Loosened restrictions on use when trial period has expired ("Cascading Slides Free")
- Folder views are now called "Albums"
- Overhauled the main menu, adding standard menu bar on the main menu window
- Multiple albums can now be opened at the same time with one action
- Main menu window state is now saved and restored when the app is re-started
- Main menu window now minimizes upon close into the system tray (optional)
- Clicking the mouse wheel now advances the selection
- Added the ability to create new folders (with password encrypted names when folders are encrypted)
- Added "Recently played videos" menu list
- Added window snapping to halves/quarters of the screen via mouse for all eight edges/corners of the screen
- Added an option for Mac style window buttons, and the ability to specify the side of the window on which they are displayed
- Added new option for controlling double-click action (window maximizing, full screen toggle, or do nothing)
- Added seperate window size/location state based on current orientation of the screen (landscape vs. portrait)
- "Soft deleted" is now "Hidden" and the file's hidden attribute on the file system is updated accordingly
- Double left-click or typing RETURN on a leaf node video thumbnail now plays the video
- Navigation bar auto-hide now works when mouse is moved within the thumbnail tree pane
- "Assign video thumbnail" dialog now returns to the same folder when invoked again
- Tapping ALT now does the same as tapping CTRL (toggles display of the navigation bar)
- Exporting a file/folder now only opens the EXPORT folder once when used repeatedly
- Opening the caption editor now sets "View caption" to true if it was false
- Fixed an issue with displaying filenames with non-standard characters
- Fixed the resizing of thumbnails to ensure that the popup menus disappear
- Fixed a flaw in the initial thumbnail loading of animated GIFs that caused most to appear blank
- Fixed a bug that caused the default empty video thumbnail to be created even when the user supplied one via the filesystem
- Fixed a bug that made the cursor stay invisible when a popup menu was opened
- Fixed the alphabetizing of files/folders w/regard to upper vs. lowercase
- Fixed a glitch in the focusing of album windows when first opened
- Enhanced rendering of the File menu and Thumbnail toggle button
- Added appropriate disabling of Options "defaults" buttons, and main menu "Select/Clear all"
- Added a few more missing label translations
- Added a few more Tips of the Day
- Several other minor UI tweaks
- Added language support for Russian and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified)
New in Cascading Slides 2.4 (Nov 2, 2011)
- Added a link to the new online Help
- Fixed a flaw in the initial detection of pics/vids that required a pic/vid to exist in the root folder
- Added missing language translations for several labels
- A couple other minor UI tweaks
New in Cascading Slides 2.3 (Sep 14, 2011)
- Added the ability to open videos for editing (with default awareness of Windows Movie Maker)
- Updated to the finalized (v1.0) version of the Globalisk Look and Feel for Swing
- Enhanced the parent folder icon to make use of the current window border color
- Fixed a glitch in the caption rendering that made it impossible to completely remove a password-encrypted caption
New in Cascading Slides 2.2.4 (Jul 13, 2011)
- Removed a remnant of V1 authentication that caused the app to erroneously report that it was corrupted
New in Cascading Slides 2.2.3 (Jul 13, 2011)
- Added feedback to the toggling of the display of soft deleted files
- Fixed a couple issues with the tagging of folder favorites
- More UI refinement
New in Cascading Slides 2.2.2 (Jul 13, 2011)
- Fixed a glitch in the rendering of folder thumbs when expanded and then cycled through
- Changed default detection of "Paint Shop Pro" (way outdated) to "Paint.NET"
New in Cascading Slides 2.2.1 (Jul 13, 2011)
- Improved password creation so it doesn't allow characters outside the English alphabet (which don't work) and added password strength feedback
- Fixed the file change listener so it doesn't pop up a dialog too often or at the wrong time
- Fixed a couple kinks in how the display of files was handled upon deletion
- Some minor UI polishing
New in Cascading Slides 2.2 (Jul 13, 2011)
- Added multi-lingual support with five new languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish
- Added pic/vid captions (with customizable font and transparency)
- Restored (and improved) SHIFT+F12 window centering
- Improved random selection within a folder so it never picks the same (or current) pic twice in a row
- Improved highlighting of nav buttons when user selects white as the foreground color (added drop shadows)
- Improved conditions under which clicking and dragging moves the window (vs. moving the pic)
- Fixed encryption exporting of folders with videos (no longer also exports the default video thumbnail(s))
- Fixed a bug that caused certain encrypted videos not to launch after being decrypted
- Fixed a hack in the Globalisk Look & Feel that caused tabs (like those in Options) to constantly re-render and eat up way too much CPU
- Further refinement of pic transition fading, including new options for controlling speed
- Lots of other UI refinement/enhancement/polishing
New in Cascading Slides 2.1.2 (Jun 17, 2011)
- Improved the Options grouping (added new "Viewport" tab)
New in Cascading Slides 2.1.1 (Jun 17, 2011)
- Fixed the sluggish/inconsistent fade transition timing
- Made some edits and additions to the "Tips of the Day"
New in Cascading Slides 2.1 (Jun 17, 2011)
- Added a secondary registration key for users who don't need the password encryption
- Added suppressible dialog alert to let the user know the app couldn't connect to the Web to check for a newer version
- Added suppressible dialog alert to warn the user about the consequences of encrypting their files
- New option for suppressing the folder(s) feedback icon in the viewport (when thumbnail tree isn't showing)
- Fixed the rendering of the navigation bar (it was still glitchy sometimes)
- Improved the main menu blurb to suggest grouping files into folders/sub-folders
New in Cascading Slides 2.0 (May 25, 2011)
- Added full support for launching (and encrypting) videos:
- Video icon and launching feedback
- Recognition of video extensions other than .avi
- Video exporting queue to allow for rapid multiple export requests
- Support for launching multiple videos in the same player (played back-to-back)
- Default awareness of VLC Media Player
- "Assign video thumbnail" action
- Ability to delete videos
- Improved:
- Filename obfuscation for encrypted files (user password creates unique character mapping)
- Navigation bar: added UP/DOWN (< ^ * v >) with LEFT/RIGHT re-assigned to cycling within folders (as keyboard LEFT and RIGHT already did)
- Deleting of password export directory (now happens only when last window is closed)
- Exporting of folder contents (now exports into a sub-folder of the export directory with the same name as the source folder)
- Detection, handling and feedback for new files (entirely re-written)
- Tree keyboard navigation
- Random cycling while slideshow is running (folders update with random selections)
- File/video export time (removed file copying step)
- Grouping of popup menu items
- Performance/response time (significant code refactoring)
- Window maximizing/restoring (double-click now applies to the navigation bar as well as the viewport)
- Added proper "Exit" (had to close windows individually in v.1)
- Added "Delete folder" option
- Added optional picture fade transitioning
- Added option for disabling the random seletion of pics for folder thumbnails
- Bug fixes:
- Left double-click didn't work when "mouse click actions" option was unchecked
- Rendering of folders that contain folders (the double plus icon was flaky)
- The app occasionally froze upon startup
- The app froze when the right/left key was held down
- Sometimes popup menus had duplicated items
- XML parsing would choke when filenames contained unusual characters (added entity mapping)
- Photoshop didn't open the selected photo when invoked
- Viewing of data on an external drive would fail
- A glitch occasionally occured in the rendering of the Tip of the Day text
- Sometimes the rendering of the navigation bar was incomplete/glitchy