Getting .psd files to show outside Photoshop.

LA
Posted By
Lana_Anderson
Apr 21, 2008
Views
709
Replies
11
Status
Closed
I understand that in order to be able to view PSD files in other programs, Maximize Compatibility needs to be selected in Edit>Preferences>File Handling. BUT, how can I maximize compatibility for PSD files that were initially created without this feature being selected? Is there a way to "batch" maximize compatibility for those files? I really don’t want to open every single PSD file and resave again with Max. Comp. selected.

Your comments and help on this will be very muc appreciated.
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RO
Richard_Ogima
May 14, 2008
Hey Guys,

I am just discovering this lovely problem. I have thousands of PSD files from 6 years of graphic work, just updated to CS3 and now I can’t view any of my images through explore. When I use the CS3 browser, my advanced dual-core computer seems to have trouble displaying the images and it actually takes me hours to find my images. From this blog, I am now aware that Adobe or Windows removed some kind of(.dll) file. Now others suggest hunting down this missing file and reinserting it, even though windows disagrees with this, not that I am Windows-Lover, lol. So now that I am spending hours hunting down solutions, if anyone finds one, please let me know. The batch file is idle, too bad I am not a programmer.

Richard:
JJ
John Joslin
May 14, 2008
The removal of the psicon.dll file (ostensibly the only way to prevent data loss) only disabled preview thumbnails of PSD files in Windows.

You can see previews in file management utilities like the free Picasa and of course in Adobe Bridge. If the thumbnails are not showing in Bridge, you probably need to purge the cache and let it rebuild.
LA
Lana_Anderson
May 14, 2008
Richard,I found this little "plug-in" you can download for free to enable you to view PSD thumbnails in Explore. It’s called Thumbview.

< http://www.seriema.net/thumbview/index.php?page=download_lit e>

If you read my post above (#20), I still have not solved the problem of maximizing compatibility of previously saved PSD files for which I did not have "Maximize Compatibility" selected in Preferences>File Handling. I have even tried re-opening these files, making some minor change, then resaving with Max. Comp. checked. Doesn’t work for me.

Good luck! It’s frustrating. I’m still using CS2.
RO
Richard_Ogima
May 14, 2008
Hi Lana and others,

I tried that "plug-in" and it works wonderfully, thanks for sharing it and I hope others will reap the benefits of this lovely tool, until, Microsoft eats it up, lol.

Richard
LA
Lana_Anderson
May 14, 2008
You are very welcome. Someone told me about it, and I’m just "Paying it Forward"!!
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
May 15, 2008
Lana, to add the composite and save with maximum compatibility you don’t have to do any modifications to the file. You need to (1) have maximize compatibility turned on in preferences; (2) open an affected file; and (3) File > Save As — give it the same filename and confirm you want to save over itself. Just plain File > Save doesn’t add the composite; Save As does.

It’s easy to create an action to do this and then automate it a directory at a time.
LA
Lana_Anderson
May 15, 2008
Thank you so much, Michael. I’ll give this a try. You are the only one so far who has been able to tell me this. I’ve raised this same concern on a number of forums.
LA
Lana_Anderson
May 15, 2008
Michael, one other question. How do you create a batch action that will Save As the same name of each individual file in a directory? Do you do this in Bridge? Is there an option that saves to individual file names?
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
May 16, 2008
You have to create the action in Photoshop. Open a PSD image. Create a new action, called "Save As Max Compat" or something. Now do File > Save As — the existing filename will show up by default. Click OK. Confirm it’s OK to overwrite the existing file. Stop the action.
Now close your image.

Open Bridge. Go to a folder and highlight the PSD files that you want to resave with maximum compatibility. Click Tools > Photoshop > Batch. You’ll see Photoshop on screen, with nothing open, and the Batch dialog will come up. Leave Bridge as the Source. Under Destination, pick Folder, check the box marked Override Action "Save As" Commands, then click on Choose and navigate to the folder the files are in and click OK. The default for the filename should be Document Name + extension, if not change it to that. Now click OK in the batch dialog. Repeat for other folders.
JL
Josh_Lang
Jul 20, 2008
For XP and VISTA users, there is a new (free) app called ThumbView which displays PSD thumbnails in Explorer. I found it here: < http://www.seriema.net/thumbview/index.php?page=download_lit e>

Seems to work just fine with no side-effects, but as some have commented around here use care with CS2 and CS3 3rd pty applications.
DM
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Jul 21, 2008
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