From BlenderWiki
User Documentation
The new image browser works similar to the filebrowser and uses the same hotkeys. Not all hotkeys are implemented yet, especially the functions that work on two filebrowsers don't work yet.
Examples:
Browsing for a texture:
Selecting a Material:
Linking from a material library:
New Settings
In the Info Window, where the user preferences are set, there's a new button 'Save Preview Images', which causes the created previews to be stored in the .blend file. It is currently disabled by default. Saving preview images of course increases the size of the .blend file. Currently each Preview image needs 96*96*4 bytes.
Note that you will only see the previews when linking/appending if they have been previously created and been saved in the .blend file. This is of course only relevant for the internal datablocks, external images and movie files are handled differently.
What should work:
- opening the imagebrowser and browsing your file system
- browsing for an image with CTRL+LMB on the 'Load' button for a texture image
- CTRL+F1 opens the image browser for appending/linking. If a .blend file is saved with previews you should see the images under material, textures etc. there. Linking and Appending should work.
- CTRL+click on DATABROWSE in the popups for material, texture, images etc. Selection if the datablock should work.
Thumbnail Caching
The thumbnails of external images follow the same rules as 'The Gimp', gtk, Gnome/Nautilus and KDE. The spec can be found here:
http://jens.triq.net/thumbnail-spec/
This means that they are shared among those applications and don't create any extra overhead on Linux. On Windows they are shared with The Gimp.
CAVEATS:
Be careful when saving over existing .blend files, the patched version is not 100% compatible to older Blender versions and might corrupt your file.
