Digital Resources by CYBIA
Copyright  2004 S.W.Upham

Visit the website for latest updates : http://www.cybia.co.uk
For more information please e-mail : steve@cybia.co.uk

ABOUT THE SOFTWARE

Title :  Plug-In Switch
Version : 1.0
Date : August 2004

With hundreds of plug-in filters now available for expanding your host applications, it becomes essential to have a quick and easy way of organising the all the installed files. Plug-In Switch was developed in order to help users disable filters on a temporary basis and re-enable them again when needed, without having to completely uninstall the plug-ins each time. Another handy time-saving tool.

This version currently supports 3 different types of plug-ins ...

Photoshop (*.8bf) : The most common image-editing filter format
Premiere (*.prm) : Add-on filters for video-editing
After Effects (*.aex) : More common video-editing filters

Future versions of Plug-In Switch will support more host applications and filter formats.

Using the utility is easy ... Just run the program, click on the folder icon to browse your hard drive for a plug-in directory, select the type of plug-ins you wish to view from the drop-down combo box, then the currently installed filters will display in the left-hand filelist panel. Select a filter that you wish to disable and click on the "Switch OFF" button. The file will then move to the right-hand panel and won't be available the next time you start your host application. To re-enable the filter just select it from the right panel and click the "Switch ON" button. It will then be available the next time you start your host.

Remember, you must use Plug-In Switch BEFORE running your host application for the settings to take effect. Do NOT try to enable or disable filters while your host program is running!

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

1. The filelist only displays a single folder at a time, so if you have lots of "nested" directories for your plug-ins then it will require lots of clicking to call the browser dialog to switch between them. It is advisable to install most of your 3rd-party filters within a single plug-in folder on your hard drive and configure your host's settings to use the additional directory. This will make using Plug-In Switch much easier as you will only need to set it to look in that one folder to display all your installed filters at once.

2. You can only enable/disable a single file at a time. Sorry, there is no option to select multiple files and batch convert them at the moment.

3. The filelist only displays the actual "filename" itself and NOT the full plug-in name that appears in your filter menu. So if you have files with obscure names then you may find it difficult to know exactly what they are.

4. Only three different plug-in types are currently supported in this version, but more host applications and file formats will be added in later editions of the utility.

5. The icons displayed in both filelist panels will vary according to whatever Windows has associated with the various file formats on your system. I could not find a way to override this setting and specify exact icons to make a consistant display.

6. No user-guide has been included with this version but I will create one for the next release.

ZIP FILE CONTENTS

Readme.txt - This text file
PSwitch.exe - Plug-In Switch application

LICENSE AGREEMENT

This program is FREEWARE. You may install it on as many computers as you want! You may use it without any charge for both personal and commercial work. While every effort has been made to ensure the compatibility and stability of this application, no warranty is given on it's use. Cybia is NOT liable for any damage or loss of data resulting from the use of this software.

All resources are Copyright  S.W.Upham 2004. This agreement does NOT grant you any intellectual property rights in the software.

DISTRIBUTION

If you wish to host this utility on a website or include it on a CD compilation (i.e. magazine cover CD), then please contact me first for permission. All zip file contents MUST remain intact and unmodified for distribution purposes. E-mail : steve@cybia.co.uk with your requests, thank you.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (PC)

Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
Compatible plug-in host application
Plug-in filters (*.8bf, *.prm, *.aex)

INSTALLATION

1. Unzip all the files to a suitable folder on your hard drive
    for example ... C:\Cybia\PSwitch

2. Create a shortcut to the PSwitch.exe file and run it

To uninstall just delete the folder where you installed the program files to. Also delete the PSwitch.ini file that has been automatically created in your Windows folder (this is where your settings are stored, so keep a backup if you want to reuse it at a later time). Finally, remove any shortcuts that you have created manually for the program.

You may also want to re-enable (switch back "on") any filters that you have disabled using Plug-In Switch BEFORE uninstalling!

ADDITIONAL CREDITS

Plug-In Switch was programmed using Borland Delphi with additional LsFileExplorer component by Leo D. Shih. Zip file created using Enzip. Many thanks also to all my beta testers who helped along the way!

