DjVu Web Browser Plug-in 3.5.3 Upgrade Released by LizardTech A review by James Rile, PlanetDjVu, March 5, 2002 On March 5, 2002, LizardTech released the 3.53 upgrade to the the Version 3.5 DjVu Browser Plug-in for Windows 98, NT, 2000, ME, and XP.   Click here for the LizardTech DjVu Browser Plug-in Installation page. The Version 3.5.3 update is available in English, German and French.  The French and German versions of the plugin are a little hard to find - click the "Download" link on the menu on the left of the LizardTech page (under "System Requirements" to find them.  The Japanese version released initially on 9/5/2001 is no longer available from the LizardTech site.   As before, you have an option to auto-install the Viewer plugin, or to download and do a manual installation. Updating my Windows 2000 system, I found that after upgrading from version 3.5.2 to 3.5.3, the old version of the plugn-in continued to load until I removed 3.5.2 completely and then reinstalled 3.5.3 completely .  This did not happen on another PC however. To verify that the update is in effect after installing, open a DjVu file, right-click to display the menu, and select "About DjVu".  If it does not say "Version 3.5.300", you need to uninstall the old version and then install the new version get the upgraded plug-in to load. Version 3.5.3 is a maintenance upgrade. The size of the plugin increased by 200K, so it is now just over 2 Mb in size.  The rotation problem still exists (from the URL string it rotates counterclockwise, not clockwise as stated in the help file).  The background color display problem still exists with Indirect DjVu on the web, but may have been improved for Bundled DjVu files. One new feature that has been added is a new set of Toolbar document attributes. Document attributes are applied using either <embed> or <object> tags, or CGI-style arguments. These new attributes are documented in the Plugin Help under "Specifying Document Attributes". You can now set the Toolbar to autohide, and you can specify which toolbar buttons to display and which not to display.  For example, you can specify that the Print button does not display.  Print will still be available from the right-click menu, however. Although documented, the Zoom and Rotate buttons do not disable. There is a workaround to this, which is the "enable" approach. On the other hand, the Search and Textsel buttons DO disable, although this is not documented (see the examples in the companion article). Perhaps these quirks can be worked out in the next upgrade. I find it odd that you can set the toolbar to "autohide" as a preference, but you cannot set "top" and "bottom" display as a preference.  You can change the toolbar to display at the bottom or top by right-clicking on the toolbar and selecting from a menu or by dragging the toolbar, but this change is lost the next time you open a DjVu file.  Users favoring the display of the toolbar at the bottom by default would appreciate having it as a permanent preference. There may be other new features that I did not discover.  The readme file does not state the upgrade features and Lizardtech has not published them.  If you find any interesting new features, let us all know in the Forum! One final note: If you are a user of the Opera web-browser or any other web browser that supports Netscape plugins, you can install to Netscape and then manually copy the plug-in files to the Plug-ins folder of Opera. - end of review Readme File for the DjVu 3.5.3 Browser Plug-in For Windows (note that you will not see this during installation, but will find it in the plug-ins folder of your browser)              DjVu Browser Plug-in 3.5.300                       Copyright (c) 2002 LizardTech, Inc.                         All rights reserved ------------------------------------------------------------------- README File Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------     I System Requirements    II Installation Instructions   III Release Notes    IV Known Issues     V Reporting Problems    VI Licenses and Trademarks -------------------------------------------------------------------   I System Requirements -------------------------------------------------------------------   Minimum system requirements for the DjVu Web Browser Plug-in          -Windows 98, NT, 2000, ME, XP     -1.5 MB of available hard-disk space for installed product      for each browser running on the user's machine     -64 MB of RAM     -Netscape Navigator 4.x or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x     -Internet Connection for installation     -Mouse or other pointing device -------------------------------------------------------------------   II Install DjVu Browser Plug-in -------------------------------------------------------------------         1. Close all DjVu documents and applications before installing.         2. Double click on the DjVuWebBrowserPlug-in.exe.         3. Review the license agreement and select Yes if you agree            with its terms.         4. Select Finish to complete the installation. -------------------------------------------------------------------   III Release Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------     -Feature update: Improved caching support for Internet Explorer.     -Feature update: The installer sets your default HTML browser to be the     default DjVu application without prompting you for a choice.     -Feature update: Stability improvements have been made to the ActiveX     control for DjVu.     -Feature update: Copy Image is supported for NT and Win2000.     -Feature update: The plug-in no longer displays error messages related to     "Stop" messages for child threads.     -Documentation update: To customize the default placement of the toolbar     use the <embed> or <object> tags in the HTML text of the web page     as follows, TOOLBAR=top/bottom.     -Documentation Update: To set the default alignment of the DjVu file in     the viewing window type the <embed> or <object> tags in the HTML text of the     web page using DOC_ALIGN="one of nine options".     -Documentation update: To set the default rotation of a DjVu file in the     viewing window type the <embed> or <object> tag in the HTML text of the     document using ROTATE=180 degrees (90 for 90 degree, 270 for 270 degree).     The document rotates clockwise.     -Documentation correction: Zoom in increases from 5% to 25%, then     follows the settings from the Select Zoom drop down menu to 300%.     Then the increases occur by 100% to a maximum of 1200%. The reverse     occurs for Zoom Out.     -Documentation correction - Zoom selected area only pertains to     the Zoom in feature.         -Document correction - The "passive" attribute, used with the <embed> or         <object> tags, has been changed to properly reflect that it is not a binary         attribute. To use the "passive" attribute, use "&passive" without the         "=yes/no" qualifiers.     - Documentation correction - The <object> tag may not good for  Win98/ME           in combination with IE5.x, as in the following example.         <object type="image/x.djvu" data="foo.djvu" width=400 height=300>         <param name="src" value="foo.djvu"   >         </object>       A better way to use object tag is:         <object classid="clsid:0e8d0700-75df-11d3-8b4a-0008c7450c4a" width=400 height=300>         <param name="src" value="foo.djvu">       However, both examples work properly on WinNT/Win2000/XP and IE6.x      -------------------------------------------------------------------   IV Known Issues -------------------------------------------------------------------   The following known issues exist for the DjVu Web Browser Plug-in:     -Using Frames with DjVu: When building a web page with frames, if you include         links to pages of an indirect or bundled DjVu document in one frame and         want to display the page of the document in the second frame, you may see         the plug-in reloading the new DjVu page. To avoid this behavior         use the thumbnails feature for navigation within the DjVu document.         -Using slow internet connections: When using a slow internet connection,         such as a 28.8 modem, if you repeatedly click a thumbnail or a new page         before the download is complete, Internet Explorer may appear to freeze.         This problem is due to the messaging system in Windows not immediately         communicating with the plug-in. The plug-in is occupied with downloading         the DjVu file, and does not receive the message from Internet Explorer         until  the download is complete.         -Caching with DjVu: If you experience slow performance with the DjVu plug-in,         increase your cache size under Internet Explorer. -------------------------------------------------------------------    V Reporting Problems -------------------------------------------------------------------     Report any comments, problems, or suggestions to:             djvusupport@lizardtech.com     See http://www.djvu.com/ for more information. -------------------------------------------------------------------   VI Licenses and Trademarks. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 2002 LizardTech, Inc. All rights reserved. DjVu is a registered trademark of LizardTech, Inc. This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.