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by R. Prasad, Ottawa,
Canada
This brings us to the last step - now that you have scripted all the processes
you want to take place in your batch process, and named that process,  it
will appear in the Batch Process menu. This is the same menu we started from in
Step 1, but now it shows the new process we just set up. This image also shows
another batch process script I set up later on that rotates images -
MagicViewer will display all the batch processes you have scripted in case you
want to use them again. You will also notice that several other buttons now
appear active - you can now copy, edit, rename or delete batch scripts you
created before. This is handy if you want to change something - say you want to
create a script that resizes images to 50% of the original size, or if you want
to change the directory in which you save the image files - you don't have to
rewrite the batch script all over again, you can just edit the steps that need
to be changed. This can save a lot of time later on.
To run the batch process and fix all your images, just click on the name of the
script you want to execute, and click the "Run" button at the bottom. This will
begin the process of modifying your original images and creating new image
files. You will see a process indicator box while MagicViewer runs your batch
process - it shows what image is being worked on.
When MagicViewer is done,  you
will see the end of process summary box, which lets you know that the program
has finished, and whether or not it encountered any problems along the way.
MagicViewer is quite fast too - for the script we created in the example above,
I shrank 37 large .jpg files directly from the CD-ROM drive on an older 400mhz
Pentium laptop running Windows XP, and it took less than 40 seconds. Obviously,
if you set up a script that does a lot of steps, it may take longer, but
overall, that's pretty quick. If you had to do this manually by hand, it would
probably take 40 minutes... if you are fast.
So there you have it - per the example, when I went to my "summer_vacation"
folder on my desktop (the folder I told MagicViewer to put the batch processed
images in), there they were.
These new images have much smaller file sizes, ranging from 9 to 40Kbytes
(depending on the details of each photo, but perfect for web posting and
viewing), but even the thumbnails are all crisp and viewable. Each image is 384
X 256 pixels, and a full color .jpg. All I have to do is rotate some of the
landscaped photos (i.e. the sideways ones) using my other batch script, and I'm
ready to post.
That's it for my quick MagicViewer batch processing primer - now you know the
basics. There are many other functions to explore in the program - try them
out. The software is very intuitive, its quick to master, and it produces great
images ... or groups of images. Good luck!
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