Tools tab

You may configure what appears on the “Tools” menu here. The tools are external programs that can be started from this menu. The programs can have optional arguments, such as the current image file name to enable image processing by other programs. The results can then be loaded back into HyperSnap.

New HyperSnap image210 Tools tab

Creates a new tool on the “Menu contents” list. Type the tool name, which may be anything related to the tool’s function, and press Enter.

Next you may define the “command” and optional arguments, as shown below.

Delete HyperSnap image211 Tools tab

Deletes the currently highlighted tool from the “Menu contents” list.

Move item up or down HyperSnap image212 Tools tab

Moves the currently highlighted item on the “Menu contents” list up or down.

Menu Contents list

Shows tool descriptions that appear on the “Tools” menu of HyperSnap. Highlight any item here to edit the command, adding arguments and the initial directory of the program that will run for this tool.

Click again, after highlighting it, to edit the description. You may also delete the item or move it up/down on the list with the buttons described above.

Command field and the browse button HyperSnap image213 Tools tab

Enter here the name of the program to run, or a document to open. It can even be a web address starting with http://.

If a program or document, you may need to enter the full directory path name with the file name, if the system does not know where to find it. (Example: The program does not reside in one of the system “path” directories).

You can also click the browse button next to this field to find the program, command or document file by browsing the disk folders.

Arguments field and the macro menu HyperSnap image214 Tools tab

Enter here the optional arguments for the program specified in the “Command” field.

If you specify a document file name or a web address in the “Command” field, the arguments will be ignored. These arguments are usually file names to be opened by a program, and sometimes additional “command line switches” that modify the behavior of the program.

The button to the right of the arguments field displays a macro menu. Macros are special texts that HyperSnap replaces before running the command with pre-defined contents. Example: If the image was previously saved to a file, the %path% macro text will be replaced with the full path and file name of the current image opened in the HyperSnap window

There are 4 special “Temporary file” macro arguments. If you use one of them in the “Arguments” field, HyperSnap will first save the current image to a temporary file in the selected format, and will then run the specified command with the name of this temporary file as an argument. This usually causes the target program to open this image file.

The program can now process the image or you can edit this image in its own window. When the target program terminates, HyperSnap checks to see if the temporary file was modified in any way and, if so, loads it back.

Initial directory and the menu button HyperSnap image214 Tools tab

As an option, use this function to indicate the directory where the program is currently located.

Example: If you want to specify several file names in the “Arguments” field that reside in the same directory (folder), you can simply enter the file names in the “Arguments”, without repeating the full directory path each time.

The button to the right of this field offers a %folder% macro, which is replaced by the full path of the directory where the current image is located. You may also select the “Browse…” item here to open the standard Windows “Browse for Folder” dialog box.

 

Tools tab