diff --git a/README b/README
index 183651e75..179948cb0 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -4,45 +4,37 @@ If building from source, also read the INSTALL file (at least through the
 
 Requirements
 --------------------------------
-Python 1.5.2 or greater
-Gnome 1.2 or greater
-PyGnome 1.0.53 or greater
+The following packages *MUST* be installed in order for Gramps to work:
+   Python 2.2 or greater
+   Gnome 2.0 or greater
+   PyGTK2 1.99.14 or greater
+   PyXML 0.7.1 or greater
 
-If you are using python 1.5.2, you may also need PyXML 0.6.2 or
-greater. Many distributions already provide this, but if your
+Many distributions already provide PyXML, but if your
 installation does not have it, you can get it from
 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=6473
 
+The following packages are *STRONGLY RECOMMENDED* to be installed:
+   Reportlab         Enable creation of PDF documents 
+                     http://www.reportlab.com
+
+   Python Imaging Library (PIL)
+                    Enable generation of thumbnails for images
+                    http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil
+
 Documentation
 ---------------------------------
-Gramps documentation is supplied in the form of SGML files, which will be
-installed in the GNOME help path(*).  Recent versions of Nautilus and Galeon
-can generate HTML on-the-fly documents from these.  For more information on
-building HTML files (including info about packages that do and do not work
-with the documentation) see the INSTALL file.  To generate HTML
-documentation the following packages *MUST* installed:
-* db2html >= 0.6.9  (jw >= 1.1)  to convert the SGML -> HTML
-* gnome-doc-tools-2-1            for the GNOME documentation style sheets
-The former is part of the docbook-utils package, the latter can be found
-from the developer section at gnome.org. (note that docbook-utils 0.6.10 is
-buggy)
-
-One also needs png support for sgml, which should be a part of the
-gnome-doc-tools package. The /etc/sgml/catalog file should
-contain an entry pointing to PNG support. If configured properly, your
-db2html should automatically look up and use the /etc/sgml/catalog file.
+Gramps documentation is supplied in the form of XML files, which will be
+installed in the GNOME help path(*).  Gnome help browser (Yelp) uses these 
+(properly installed) XML files to display the documentation.
 
 Of course, current HTML documentation can also be found on the gramps website,
 http://gramps.sourceforge.net/help.html
 
-(*) More precisely, they are installed in ${prefix}/share/gnome/help, where
-${prefix} is given by the --prefix= option to configure.  If this is
-different from where your standard GNOME installation looks for help files
-and documentation, then set your GNOMEDIR environment variable to the
-${prefix} path before starting gramps. For example, if you are installing
-gramps in /usr/local/, then type the following:
-in tcsh: setenv GNOMEDIR /usr/local/
-in bash: GNOMEDIR=/usr/local/ ; export GNOMEDIR
+(*) More precisely, they are installed 
+in ${prefix}/share/gramps/gnome/help/gramps, 
+where ${prefix} is given by the --prefix= option 
+to configure (defaults to /usr).  
 
 
 Building on non-Linux systems: i18n support and GNU make
diff --git a/src/MediaView.py b/src/MediaView.py
index 2624bc4fa..f67555a69 100644
--- a/src/MediaView.py
+++ b/src/MediaView.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ import const
 import ImageSelect
 import RelImage
 
-from QuestionDialog import QuestionDialog, ErrorDialog
+from QuestionDialog import QuestionDialog, ErrorDialog, WarningDialog
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
@@ -119,6 +119,12 @@ class MediaView:
         self.update = update
         self.list.connect('button-press-event',self.on_button_press_event)
         self.selection.connect('changed',self.on_select_row)
+        if not (RelImage.is_pil() or RelImage.is_cnv() ):
+	    WarningDialog(_("Thumbnails not available")
+                ,_("There is no suitable tool to generate thumbnails for the images. "
+                "If you would like to enable this feature, "
+                "install Python Imaging Library (PIL), available at http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/ "
+                "or ImageMagick, available http://www.imagemagick.org/"))
 
     def goto(self,id):
         self.selection.unselect_all()
diff --git a/src/RelImage.py b/src/RelImage.py
index 2636f52ef..b5f1b1ed1 100644
--- a/src/RelImage.py
+++ b/src/RelImage.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #
 # Gramps - a GTK+/GNOME based genealogy program
 #
-# Copyright (C) 2000  Donald N. Allingham
+# Copyright (C) 2000-2003  Donald N. Allingham
 #
 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -178,3 +178,23 @@ def check_thumb(source,dest,size):
     return 1
 
 
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# Test if there's PIL available
+#
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+def is_pil():
+    try:
+        from PIL import __name__ as pilname
+        return 1
+    except:
+        return 0
+
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# Test if there's convert available
+#
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+def is_cnv():
+    return not os.system('which convert>/dev/null')
+