SlideShows have been enhanced with a shrink-to-fit feature in this release of SendLink.

The purpose of the shrink-to-fit feature is to make images that are larger than the display area of the remote user's browser window fit so that they can see the entire image without having to scroll either horizontally or vertically. Images are scaled down proportionately so that no image distortion takes place. Images that are small enough to fit within the remote user's browser window are displayed at their native resolution.

Images are sent from your computer to the remote user's at full resolution. This way, it has the maximum information available in order to show the best image possible independent of the display resolution or browser window size. Also, remote users who choose to print a downloaded image will get the best possible result from the native resolution of the image.

The need for shrink-to-fit is driven by the disparity between the high resolution of today's multi-megapixel digital cameras and the comparitively lower resolution of the typical computer display. For instance, a typical 3-megapixel digital camera produces images that are 2048x1536 pixels (WxH), whereas a typical display resolution is 1024x768 pixels. With shrink-to-fit enabled, remote users will be able to view your digital pictures conveniently no matter what display resolution they are using or how they have their browser sized.

The shrink-to-fit feature requires JavaScript to be enabled in the remote user's browser in order to work its magic. Because a very large and growing number of websites require that JavaScript be enabled in order to be viewed properly, most remote users will already have it enabled. So this is not going to be an issue for most remote users. But if shrink-to-fit does not appear to be working, have them check that JavaScript (aka Active Scripting for IE users) is enabled.

If a remote user somehow gets by surfing the Web with JavaScript disabled, the slideshows you send them will simply revert to the SendLink 1.9 level of functionality, which shows images at their native pixel size without the benefit of the shrink-to-fit capability.

All modern graphical browsers support JavaScript, so it is simply a question of whether or not it is enabled.

The shrink-to-fit feature has been tested with Internet Explorer 6.0 and Firefox 1.0. Other versions of IE should work just fine, as should browsers that use the IE engine. Likewise, browsers sharing Firefox's Mozilla heritage should work just fine.

There are some minor differences in the implementations of these two browsers, however. For instance, IE users who resize their browser while viewing a slideshow will see the viewed image size track the changes to the browser window as they are being made, while Firefox users will only get the updated image when they complete the browser resize operation.

Previous versions of SendLink have remembered the size and position of the Main Window between executions, enhancing usability by allowing you to anticipate where it will appear when you first run SendLink or when you restore it from the Windows System Tray.

Starting with this release, SendLink also remembers whether the Main Window was open (visible) or closed (hidden) when you exit the program. If the Main Window was not open, having been dismissed to the Windows System Tray, then it will not be opened automatically when you run SendLink the next time. Likewise, if the Main Window was open when you exit SendLink, then it will be opened in the same size and position the next time you run the program.

In prior versions of SendLink, the Main Window was always opened at startup.

If you launch SendLink via a Windows shortcut, it is possible to set the program to be run Minimized, Maximized or as a Normal Window.

If you choose Minimized or Maximized, that preference will override the saved display state. The last display state is still saved, however, so if you subsequently change the shortcut to run SendLink as a Normal Window, the Main Window will display according to the display state at the time SendLink was last exited.

Note that the Main Window does not ordinarily support either the minimized or maximized display state. So, once you restore the Main Window to the normal state from either the minimized or maximized state, neither of those is available again until the next time you run SendLink via the shortcut.

In prior versions, SendLink did not fully support being run in either Minimized or Maximized display state. While it respected the shortcut setting, minimizing or maximizing as directed, it subsequently got confused about the size and position to restore to. That problem has been corrected with this release.