# The Program Options

The "Options" let you define various basic settings for the Foto XL software.

If you are not an experienced computer user and everything is working the way it should, it is a good idea to leave the settings as they are.

Some options are only available if specific products are available.

If one of the options described here is not listed in your software, the corresponding photo product is not available.

The left side of the option window is subdivided into various sections.

#### "Window"

###### Image selector behaviour

###### Select a home directory for the file browser

This is where you select the home directory which your file browser will display by default.
The default setting here is your "My Images" folder (the path name may look slightly different).
Click the "Browse" button to open a folder browser where you can select another directory.

###### Double click on thumbnail opens image in the Photo Show

A thumbnail is a preview image of your photo in the object browser and in the product editor.
You can set here whether or not double clicking the thumbnail opens the image (for editing) in the Photo Show. You can always launch the Photo Show with the context menu (right click on the thumbnail).

###### Show file names in file browser

You can decide here whether or not the file names for image files are shown in the object selector. The file name display is disabled by default.

#### "Directories"

##### Temporary files

###### Select the directory the program will use to store its temporary files, photo books etc.

This is where you set the working directory in which the program caches the data it needs for the current project.
The default setting here is your "My Files" folder (the path name may look slightly different).
Click the "Browse" button to open a folder browser where you can select another directory.

###### Store Auto-Restore Info

This is an option that prevents loss of data in case of a power outage or if your computer crashes.
If you enable this option, your current order is automatically stored at defined intervals (e.g. every 5 minutes), and can be restored when you restart the program.

You can also specify the directory to use for the backup.

#### "Editor"

##### Behaviour on inserting images

This is where you set the layout frame behaviour for various photo products for cases where the layout frame aspect and the inserted photo aspect do not match.

###### "Maintain frame size and crop edges of image"

This positions the image at the centre of the layout frame without changing the frame aspect (see the figure lower centre). Any parts of the image that jut out beyond the frame are no longer visible. You can move the image inside the layout frame to shift important image content into the visible area. (Or to remove unwanted content out of the visible area.)

###### "Change layout frames so that images fill the frame"

This option modifies the layout frame to match the image aspect (see figure bottom right). The longer side of the image is scaled to fit the frame optimally.
This can have a major impact on the layout, e.g. if you insert a portrait image into a landscape layout frame, however, the inserted image is always shown in full, even if you scale the frame.

Examples:

Empty layout frame | Keep frame size The original image is cropped by the layout frame | Change layout frame The layout frame takes the aspect of the original image

You can set the behaviour for several product editors separately.

##### Grid

This is where you can enable and disable the grid and set the grid size.

##### Spellcheck during text entry

This option enables and disables the automatic spellchecker.

##### Show additional positioning when moving the frame

When this option is active, a tooltip appears when a layout frame is moved or if its size is changed showing information on the position and size of the frame.

Automatically reposition images if they are too near to the edge

This sets the behaviour of an inserted image if it is too close to the edge of the page in a photo book, calendar, canvas or collage poster.

Images that are close to the edge of the page typically snap to the edge of the page or even jut out slightly. This helps to avoid white gap when cutting the pages during production.

#### "Frames and Shadows"

##### Frame properties

This is where you can enable and disable the use of frames around images and set the frame thickness and colour.

##### Shadow properties

Enable this option to display your images with a cast shadow.
Set the shadow gap to define how far the shadow should just out beyond the image.
The intensity refers to the opacity of the shadow. This is where you set whether it should be lighter or darker.
You can use the mouse to shift the sun symbol and set the shadow direction.
The effect of the shadow settings is shown in a preview.

These are global settings for all new images you insert: they do not affect any images you have already inserted!

#### "Assistant"

###### "Start Photo Book Assistant automatically"

Specifies whether to launch the "CEWE PHOTO BOOK Assistant" when creating a photo book. If you prefer to create your photo books manually, you can disable this behaviour permanently here.

###### "Open the Assistant for the help page"

Specifies whether the how-to page appears before launching the CEWE PHOTO BOOK Assistant so that you can decide if you would like to use it. If you are sure that you always want to use the Assistant, deactivate this option and you can always start directly with the Assistant.

###### "Open the Assistant tool when ordering prints"

Specifies whether or not to automatically start the Selection Assistant when you choose to order premium, standard and poster prints. You can choose between the Photo Show, Selection Assistant and Classic image selection options.

#### "Speed"

###### Size of cache for images

Setting the cache size influences the program’s processing speed. The cache is that part of your computer’s RAM that the program reserves for its own use. The bigger the cache, the faster the program as it can keep more data (images) in memory without needing to load them from the slower hard disk. However, this means that other programs running at the same time have less memory and will run more slowly.
The following options

###### "Use the high resolution preview",

###### "Tidy edges by using intermediate colours",

###### "Load higher-resolution thumbnails in the Editor"

######

will make your computer slightly slower, but at the same time achieve a superior display of the program on screen.
If the software does not run smoothly on your computer, you can make the program slightly faster by disabling these options. This does not affect the quality of the finished product.

###### "Use Exif Thumbnails"

Many cameras and image editing programs store thumbnails in the digital photo’s Exif data.
This option tells the photo software to use the preview data from the photograph’s Exif data rather than calculating its own thumbnail.
This makes the image display slightly faster, but the quality of the Exif thumbnails may result in a slightly poorer preview.

The following option

###### "No sub-directory check in the file tree"

means that the directory browser does not show you whether subdirectories exist. There is a "+" character to the right of each directory, even if the directory does not contain subdirectories.
This mainly gives you a speed advantage for drives shared by the computer on a network (network drives) as data transmission over a network connection is much slower than on the computer itself.

#### "Images"

##### "Red-eye removal for images taken with a flash"

Settings for automatic "Red-eye correction".
Options: Ask for each image, Do not automatically correct red eyes, or Always correct red-eyes automatically.
(The EXIF data for an image typically indicates whether the photo was taken with flash; EXIF data is the data stored in the image file itself.)

##### "Automatic image correction (AIC)"

You can enable or disable "Automatic image correction" here.
Specifically for images that have been edited using an image editing program (the EXIF data reveals this), you can set whether to ask for each image, always use AIC, or never use AIC.

#### "Network"

The program’s Internet access is configured here.

You can ignore this item if you only want to order by CD.

##### Proxy settings

If your computer has a reliable Internet connection, the "Use system proxy" setting is perfectly sufficient. This uses your computer’s existing settings for the Internet connection.

Use the setting "Use own proxy" if you work on a large network and use different proxies, or if you have a firewall.
Ask your system administrator for the correct settings.

##### "Network test"

A number of connection attempts are started with the "Start" button.
If there are any problems, you can see the results in "Details".
These details can be saved for support enquiries.

"About"

Shows the program name, the version number, and a copyright notice, along with the e-mail address for support.