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General Software Discussion / Re: In search of an alternative to InfoSelect ...
« on: February 07, 2016, 03:17 AM »
Not sure if anyone ever reads this thread anymore, but I just discovered TreeDBNotes Pro 4 (v3.5, actually), and it is the first software program I've found which I think compares favorably to InfoSelect v9.

(I refer only to v9 because, as the person who started this thread pointed out, v10 deleted just about everything that made InfoSelect unique & useful to many of us. And the only "features" v.10 added were some 3rd-party components which don't even integrate well with InfoSelect's interface, and some of the new "features" are trivial at best. It's the ugliest program interface I've ever seen, actually. The text features are nice, I guess, but the interface is clunky and if I want a word processor, then I'll use a real word processor...)

Anyway, if anyone is still interested, check out TreeNotesDB Pro. And do use the Pro edition -- the Free edition is missing a ton of significant features! Also, check out some of the Demos to see things like variables, etc.

One final note:

In any earlier post, I mentioned that I have multiple installations of IS9 on my C drive. Somebody replied pointing out that this is unnecessary because a single IS installation can contain multiple files, and those files can be opened or closed, etc. Um, I know this already. And used those features and much more (In all honesty, I've used ALL the IS9 features, even those buried in the help file, like email merges which actually send out emails one at a time to different contacts, enabling one to send a newsletter or broadcast email to a relatively small number of contacts w/o the recipients seeing it flagged as a mass mailing. I could truly write the manual on IS9.

Anyway, I needed multiple installations because the enormous amount of information I have in IS made it unwieldy (and yes, I used a couple different methods for hiding what I didn't want to see or work on at any give time).  And I don't mean that it became very sluggish; it just became too much for me, and I found myself not focusing on my present task like I should, etc.  I also came to appreciate the clean appearance of an installation devoted to one purpose -- with many files, and subtopics, of course, but all for one thing, like: contact management; or webpage content development; or email newsletter content development (which are then emailed via the contact mgt IS9, using the mass mail feature).

Of course, I created my own custom IS.INI file, so each new installation reflected my color preferences, custom keyboard shortcuts, etc.

I recommend trying multiple IS9s if anyone is still dependent on IS. With hard drive space nowadays, the duplication of some DLL files and one EXE file doesn't matter at all. And, I recommend trying TreeDBNote Pro too, of course.

Actually, even if I begin switching some work to TreeDBNotes Pro, I don't see myself abandoning IS9 altogether unless it just stops running in an OS I need to use, or unless nothing pastes into IS9 anymore due to its lack of unicode support, or new security formats, which do seem to be emerging now in browsers....

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General Software Discussion / Re: In search of an alternative to InfoSelect ...
« on: March 23, 2015, 10:26 PM »
I know, this is an ancient topic & thread. But I suspect there are people still reading it from time to time, and I do have some helpful information to contribute.

1. I think Scrivener is one of the best alternatives to InfoSelect (or "Info Select" as the developer spelled it) for users who used InfoSelect to draft text documents, manage text information, and/or organize outlines of text documents, quotes, etc. Scrivener has no calendar or email capabilities, or spreadsheet grid capabilities, or database forms. And no doubt there are other InfoSelect features missing from Scrivener too.

But Scrivener does have a very cool "compile" feature which compiles multiple documents into a single doc file, or pdf file, or webpage, etc. It even supports MultiMarkdown for producing webpage content. And it will leave out the top portion of documents, allowing you to add blurbs, comments, or descriptions to documents.

It also supports linked inline notes (via internal links to a sidebar of notes for revision todo's -- or for footnotes/endnotes)

And it can deftly manage 100s of pages of text. After all, it was originally intended for novelists, screenwriters, etc.

Yet I'm now discovering that it can be used for a vast array for purposes by others who work w/ text. And the labels in Scrivener can be changed so you're not stuck in a program that uses lingo like manuscripts and characters and scenes and scripts. The compiling process itself can be changed too -- globally and/or per document or per item. This way you can prevent it from automatically inserting the word "chapter",  among so many other things.

It supports project templates and document templates too.

I encourage former InfoSelect / Info Select users to check out Scrivener. Like Info Select, the more you look into it, the more powerful and flexible you'll find it to be. But it does take some learning. I've read that it's supposed to be "intuitive" but that's bunk.  I recommend the YouTube webinar recording called Boot Camp for Scrivener by a sci-fi novelist whose name escapes me. The video is nearly 90 mins, and it doesn't rely on the default starting points, ou learn lots because he doesn't rely on a template, and he shows how to change some labels, add inline notes, and provides tips for compiling.


2. That said, I continue to use InfoSelect -- but only the last build of InfoSelect 9 (IS9), not v10, which I tried out, and knew, sadly, that it meant the end of InfoSelect's development.

Now, however, I use multiple installations -- each installation has it's own shortcut on my Start menu (and Quick Launch toolbar), and each installation has its own purpose. Sure this means there are some redundant .dlls on my hard drive, but so what? The hard drive space consumed by the program files of my now 10+ installations is minimal, and the memory consumed is truly inconsequential even when multiple installations are running at once.

I publish a newsletter, so one IS9 installation is for drafting the content of the newsletter, and managing most of the research. Another IS9 installation is for drafting the text of my website content. Another IS9 installation is for tracking and managing my bill payments -- and here, the Template feature is really handy, because I just generate a new checklist every month (and the login links, etc, for online account info and online payments are contained within each checklist).

Enough said.




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Screenshot Captor / Re: Scrolling capture is not working
« on: March 24, 2012, 02:55 AM »
As a very long-time registered user of Screenshot Captor, I do remember a time when this feature worked consistently well. But it's been a long, long time since then.

(Btw, as I recall, back when it used to work, it seemed to do more flashing and back-n-forth scrolling than the competing programs like SnagIt. But that was no big deal because it always produced a full image in the end.)

Anyhow, I just tried an auto-scrolling capture of a simple webpage in Firefox 11, and it failed to work on TWO LEVELS:

As I understand it, I'm supposed to press Ctrl+Shift+PrintScreen AND THEN Ctrl+Shift+click.

I definitely remember in the past -- when this feature worked -- the first keyboard command (or tray menu command) resulted in a red-lined frame around the webpage. This appeared with little or no mousing on my part. 

But that red-lined frame no longer appears around the webpage. It appears as just redline toward the bottom of the webpage. And if move my mouse toward the system tray, then partially-obscured red instructions appear.

(I tried to get the frame to surround the webpage, by using my mouse like I would for a custom selection screen capture, but it didn't work. And besides, I shouldn't even have to do that. After all, it's a windows object or scrolling capture, so screen capture should know what needs outlining with the red-lined capture frame or box.)

Nonetheless, I thought I'd try the second step: Ctrl+Shift+click.

Thankfully, I'm not susceptible to seizures from strobe lights, or what ensued might very well have triggered convulsions. The flashing was extremely rapid, and it appeared to be both endless and pointless.  Finally, I clicked the escape key, and here, I'm happy to say, the program worked. It stopped attempting the capture.

I was a bit worried I'd have to restart my PC, because the graphics were only partially displayed. But with a bit of minimizing and maximizing of windows, all returned to normal.

Enough said. PLEASE, Mouser, fix this feature. Otherwise people will certainly move to other program for screen captures. And I don't want to do that myself. But at least for now, for scrolling captures, I must do that.

Steve

PS: I was just trying to capture www.abookapart.com -- there's no flash on the page, and nothing fancy at all.  (It was just for a little collection of webpages with exemplary designs or at least some exemplary design elements.)

CLEARLY, the feature fails right at the beginning.






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Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: New program: ActiveHotkeys (freeware)
« on: November 14, 2010, 04:02 AM »
I seem to have some hotkey conflicts on my system, so I've downloaded and installed a couple programs to identify all the hotkeys/keyboard shortcuts currently assigned by WinXP & my software.

So of course, I downloaded ActiveHotkeys, but I was not able to unzip the latest release, downloaded from the first message in this discussion.<https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=18189.0;attach=40705>

My 7-Zip program states that <activehotkeys-1.10> is "invalid or corrupted."

I then downloaded the 1.0 version, and I was able to unzip & run that one.

Btw, another program I just installed is Hotkey Commander 2.0 (15-days or 15 dollars). If you're looking to improve ActiveHotKeys, I suggest looking at Hotkey Commander for ideas....

Steve

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General Software Discussion / Re: Simple free commandline text search and replace tool?
« on: December 02, 2008, 07:58 AM »
Why not use something like GNU grep? It's strictly command-line, and it can be set for silent mode too. Download and/or read documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/>

But if you want an app that provides an easy-to-use GUI for building & saving sets of search-replace operations -- which you can then call from a command-line -- consider BK ReplaceEm.

This 32-bit Windows freeware application hasn't been supported or distributed by its developer Bill Klein (BK) for a number of years. But it was once considered among the very best search-n-replace apps (free or not). And I think it still deserves such consideration.

For a rather complicated example of the very sort which originally inspired BK to create his application, see: <http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp14admin/bkreplacem/index.html>.

But the download URL on the latter webpage is dead. To download it, you must use an archive website like SnapFiles: <http://files.snapfiles.com/localdl834/bkrep20.exe>.

It's a very safe program to install & try -- it just puts its files in a single folder w/o any changes to the registry, as I recall.

With BK ReplaceEm, you use replace groups and file sets.

A replace group consists of a series of search & replace strings (regular expressions & 'range replacements' are supported, and any series of simple boolean operations can be input & saved via the GUI too).

A file set consists of a single file, multiple files, or a whole directory  -- perhaps filtered by particular file extensions. Whatever.

You can have the program create a backup copy of every file it operates on, in case things don't go as you expected.

You can have the program output to different locations too. And if you want, you can set the application to run additional -- and different -- replacement operations on all files found in that second location. Logs can be generated too.

I hope that's an accurate description. It's a been a while since I've used it. I invested in the very expensive TextPipe Pro a couple years ago, which, I think is the application BK ReplaceEm most resembles.

BTW, anyone interested in search & replacement operations would be well-served by Friedl's book, 'Mastering Regular Expressions', now in its 3rd edition from O'Reilly. I'm not a programmer, but this book has helped me greatly in parsing & editing text, in website development & maintenance, even in finding & managing files on my desktop PC -- all via the numerous applications that now support Perl & other varieties (like grep) of regular expressions.

Steve

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