Messages

1176

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed

« on: July 02, 2008, 03:01 AM »

The idea being that they would be merged into the 'My Recent Documents' result list? Yes, that would be an idea.

right, which would also let people who always wanted their office files shown in main mru list do that, and add any such entries to the main mru list.

I was also thinking about a modifier that would list all of the configured applications mru files. I think that would serve the FARR filtering idea better.

that would also be a good idea; you can do that by deteced when user types mrua
and return a result list like
mru office | restartsearch mru +office
mru foxit pdf reader| restartsearch mru +foxit
that essentially lets you make a menu of choices for the user that farr will present

-mouser (July 01, 2008, 02:52 PM)

To follow up on mouser's idea. What do you guys think about the following (the aliases being examples)?

mrum - list only 'My Recent Documents' (what mru with no program modifiers does now)
mrup - list MRU items of all configured programs (what mru with all program modifers added would do now)
mrua - list everything (mrum and mrup combined)
mru - list a combination of mrum and user selected modifiers (definable in the options dialog)

1177

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed

« on: July 02, 2008, 02:50 AM »

nitrix: doesn't look like there's any path to a file.. If there was one in any of those folders, it might be possible to get them..

there are paths... but not in the same way as other applications
and it is the same for all adobe softwares...

paths are stored inside "folders" in the registry
so i guess FARR MostRecentlyUsed plugin does not see them, since it may only check for "direct" keys

I have Photoshop Elements. I'll check it out.

great, hope future releases of this plugin will work with adobe software

-nitrix-ud (July 02, 2008, 01:58 AM)

Photoshop Elements stores its MRU files in the registry, I found out. Will be added for the next release. Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the problem for other Adobe products.

1178

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed

« on: July 02, 2008, 02:48 AM »

Btw I use the SoftMaker Office suite, which stores all settings, including recent files in .ini files like this:

[Select]

[tmw History]
HistoryFile0=15,D:\firstfile.doc
HistoryFile1=15,D:\afile.doc
HistoryFile2=15,D:\thefile.doc
HistoryFile3=15,D:\someotherfile.doc

I realize that's quite a difference from the way recent files are read now, but would it be possible for FARRMRU to read settings from ini files as well? I've got a couple of other apps (portable) that also stores recent file list in ini format. The user would still have to provide the format that FARRMRU should read, of course. Maybe too much to ask for, but it would certainly be useful (to me, at least ).

-TucknDar (July 02, 2008, 02:04 AM)

I'll consider adding this. I could well imagine that their are quite a number of applications storing their MRU files in a ini file instead of in the registry.

1179

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed

« on: July 02, 2008, 02:43 AM »

I think I found a way to improve directory checking for UNC paths, probably making the simplified directory checking obsolete. Unfortunately (well, depending on how you look at it), this also made me find out that file existence checking only works by coincidence now. Actually, there's no file existence checking built in to FARR MRU yet, but currently checking if a file is directory will remove the file from the mru list if it doesn't exist (or is not currently available, because it's on a removable drive or unconnected network drive, etc.). So the simplified directory checking option will probably go away in favour of a 'check file existence for UNC paths' if performance demands it (local files will always be checked for existence). I'll fix that this evening after work and make a new release.

1180

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed

« on: July 01, 2008, 02:42 PM »

First: Thanks for all the compliments!

Second a clarification:
FARR MRU currently shows either the contents of the 'My Recent Documents' (XP) resp. 'Recent Items' (Vista, but see remark in readme.txt) folder or the most recently used files of one or more applications specified by modifiers. I.e. if you just type mru, you'll get only 'My Recent Documents', if you add something like +msvc9, you'll get only the most recently used Visual Studio 9 files. You could then add +office and would get all MSVC9 files plus all Office files, but you currently can't get them in the same list as your 'My Recent Documents' files.

To the suggestions:

Could you implement a way to add any of installed programs like PSPAD, Netbeans etc. ?

They can be added already if they store their mru files in the registry in the format as described in the readme.txt.

An idea:
maybe the first entry in the config file could be like:
Code:

+|DefaultMRU
list of reg keys to check and show by default

that way a user who wanted to could modify the list of reg keys that got checked for the default mru display, and could even add reg keys from certain programs they wanted to show by default.

The idea being that they would be merged into the 'My Recent Documents' result list? Yes, that would be an idea. I was also thinking about a modifier that would list all of the configured applications mru files. I think that would serve the FARR filtering idea better.

The mru for acrobat is a bit different

I'll maybe look into it. Uh, that means I need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader, nooooo.

For your MRUing pleasure, here are some I got from my system

I'll add the ones you say they work and check out the others if I can.

I had to change the office MRUs to Office2003

Would you mind posting the Office 2003 registry paths here. I don't have Office 2003 installed but would like to add those.

btw many of the file extensions in the ComdDlg32\OpenSaveMRU key are very useful to me

These would actually already work in 0.1.0, provided your running Windows XP. Apart from mru registry entries of the form 'File 1', 'File 2', etc. I have also implemented the ones which use a MRUList value with a, b, c, etc. I haven't seen anything other than explorer use it though. And in Windows Vista Microsoft changed these to MRUListEx with no clear-text paths, but some binary data. Additionally, you would currently need to specify each registry key individually, i.e. something like:

[Select]

+explorer|Windows Explorer
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSavelMRU\*
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSavelMRU\doc
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSavelMRU\xls
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSavelMRU\zip

just as some examples, you would need to add all which are relevant to you. Obviously, it would be better if FARR MRU would scan everything underneath HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSavelMRU\.

i did not manage to make it work for photoshop MRU

I have Photoshop Elements. I'll check it out.


Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions! I'm always open to more suggestions to make this plugin more useful.

1181

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed

« on: July 01, 2008, 07:25 AM »

Concerning showing most recently used files for selected applications:
These are configured in a config file (see readme.txt). I've added the ones I found in my registry. As you can see, the amount of applications I'm using seems to be fairly limited . It's easy to add you own applications though and I encourage everyone to post registry paths to the MRU lists of their favourite applications here so I can add them to the config file.

How to find MRU lists the FARR MRU plugin can handle:
Start regedit.exe and search for MRU or recent. If you find a key that contains values named File1, File2, File3, etc. (or something similar, like Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, etc.) select the respective key and then Copy Key Name in the context menu. Then paste that into to the FarrMostRecentlyUsed.config file.

1182

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR plugin: FARR Most Recently Used 1.0.0

« on: July 01, 2008, 07:15 AM »

Description
The FARR MostRecentlyUsed plugin shows the contents of the 'My Recent Documents' folder or a list of most recently used files of applications storing their most recently used files in the registry.



Download
You can get it from here: http://farrplugins.o...MostRecentlyUsed.zip

Usage
Use the following aliases to give you a list of your most recently used files:
- mru  : Shows a simple menu with the below aliases
- mrum : Shows files in your 'My Recent Documents' (XP) or 'Recent Items' (Vista, but see known issues) folder
- mrup : Shows files of configured programs, storing their MRU files in the registry
- mrua : Show a combined list of files out of mrum and mrup
- mruu : Show files from selected groups only (selectable in the options dialog)
- mrul : Show a list of installed and supported applications for further selection

Use the following modifier keywords to change the search:
+byname   : Force sorting by name
+bydate   : Force sorting by date last accessed
+bymod    : Force sorting by date last modified
+bycreate : Force sorting by date created
+.[ext]   : Filter results by file extension [ext]. More than one can be used, e.g. +.h +.cpp

To show a list of most recently used files for selected applications, use the following modifiers:
+acrobat : Adobe Acrobat Reader (only 9 currently)
+akelpad  : Akelpad
+audacity : Audacity
+dwcs3   : Dreamweaver CS3
+foxit   : Foxit Reader
+icofx   : IcoFX (only 1.6 currently)
+km      : KMPlayer
+msvc8   : MS Visual Studio 2005
+msvc9   : MS Visual Studio 2008
+npp     : Notepad++
+office3 : Microsoft Office 2003
+office7 : Microsoft Office 2007
+oo2     : OpenOffice 2.0
+paint   : Paint
+photoe  : Photoshop Elements (only 5.0 currently)
+snag    : SnagIt
+sql     : SQL Server
+ted     : TED Notepad
+winrar  : WinRAR
+winuae  : WinUAE
+wmp     : Windows Media Player
+wordpad : Wordpad

(built-in group for My Recent Documents)
+recent : My Recent Documents

See readme.txt for options and details.

Version history
1.0.0
- Added / Changed the following applications:
  - Added Visio 2007 to Office 2007 (+office7)

0.5.1
- Modifier entries in FarrMostRecentlyUsed.user now override identical ones in FarrMostRecentlyUsed.config.
- Added / Changed the following applications:
  - Added Akelpad (+akelpad) *
  - Added Audacity (+audacity) *
  - Added icon path for TED Notepad *
  - Added icon path for WinRAR *
  - Added icon path for WinUAE *

0.5.0
- Added support for mru items specified in .ini files
- Added new alias mrul which gives a list of supported and installed applications
- User defined result list option now only shows installed applications
- Added / Changed the following applications:
  - Added Dreamweaver CS3 (+dwcs3) *
  - Added IcoFX 1.6 (+icofx)
  - Changed +oo to +oo2 (in expectance of OpenOffice 3)

0.4.0
- Added icons to the simple menu (thanks hamradio!)
- Added support for the following applications:
  - Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 (+acrobat)
  - Notepad++ (+npp)
  - OpenOffice 2 (+oo)

0.3.0
- Added simple menu (type mru)
- Added special aliases:
  - mrum (My Recent Documents)
  - mrup (Recent Application documents)
  - mrua (All recent documents)
  - mruu (User selected groups of applications / My Recent Documents)
- Much improved filtering and sorting
- Show icons for UNC files
- Added FarrMostRecentlyUsed.user config file. Like FarrMostRecentlyUsed.config, but will never be overwritten.

0.2.0
- Added check for file existence for local files. UNC paths are currently never checked for existence.
- Added MRU specifications for:
  - Microsoft Office 2003 (+office3) *
  - Photoshop Elements (+photoe) *
  - KMPlayer (+km) *
  - SnagIt (+snag) *
  - SQL Server (+sql) *
  - Paint (+paint)
  - TED Notepad (+ted) *
  - WinRAR (+winrar) *
  - WinUAE (+winuae) *
  - Wordpad (+wordpad) *
- Renamed modifier for Microsoft Office 2007 to '+office7'

* Note that I did not test these myself, please report if they don't work.

0.1.0
- initial release

1183

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug] very unfriendly handling of missing drive

« on: July 01, 2008, 12:28 AM »

anyone know if there is a nice windows api call to check if a drive is removable?

-mouser (June 30, 2008, 02:14 PM)

GetDriveType will tell you if a disk drive is a removable, fixed, CD-ROM, RAM disk, or network drive.

1184

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Updated plugin: FARR MultiMonitor (and center)

« on: June 29, 2008, 07:27 AM »

I've also added a .dcupdate file now by the way.

1185

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Updated plugin: FARR MultiMonitor (and center)

« on: June 29, 2008, 07:25 AM »

populate the initial contents BEFORE the initial display.

-mouser (June 20, 2008, 07:14 AM)

Please don't do that. On my system it takes about 1.5-2 seconds for that list to pop up. I would hate to have to wait for that extra every time I open FARR, especially when the item I need isn't going to be on the list.

-CWuestefeld (June 20, 2008, 12:07 PM)

No need to do that now, mouser. I found a way around the problem. Centering now works as follows:
- When the FARR window appears for the first time, it is being centered
- When the FARR window changes its size for the first time (with the default items added), it is being centered once again
- And then it is centered no more (unless the option to always center it is enabled)

1186

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MultiMonitor

« on: June 24, 2008, 03:16 AM »

Don't worry mouser. The plugin is useful enough for myself which is why I made it in the first place. Anyway, for anyone else using it: you are welcome

I'll look into creating a .dcupdate file. I guess that means I'll have to install the dc updater

I have the OpenWith plugin working by the way, in a way that it solves my own problem (i.e. open xml files in a text editor instead of in a web browser). This works, because I don't have spaces in the respective file path (in fact, I have one, between Program and Files, but I handled that with a 'variable'). I think the spaces problem is serious enough to withhold the plugin from the public. I thought about having the user substitute the spaces by something else (e.g. _), but that would be cumbersome and not very intuitive (and _ can be in files paths as well).

I'm also experimenting with the Remember the Milk API, thinking about making a FARR plugin for that.

1187

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MultiMonitor

« on: June 20, 2008, 07:27 AM »

Yes, that would indeed solve my problem and make the ugly threshold option unnecessary.

1188

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New plugin: FARR MultiMonitor

« on: June 20, 2008, 07:09 AM »

it works 

damn that is cool.

-mouser (June 20, 2008, 05:47 AM)

Thanks mouser 

something to think of for future:
option to shown on desktop where mouse is (and maybe default to this if no active window?)

and perhaps a sub-option for centering:
[] only center when initially appearing (current method keeps re-centering as the window changes sizes)

-mouser (June 20, 2008, 05:48 AM)

The problem with centering when initial appearing is that when FARR pops up, the result list is empty at first, before the launch history is added. This means that the final window (with launch history added) would be below the center, because centering would take place with an empty results list. I solved this problem for me by introducing the Threshold feature.

The Threshold feature works as follows:
I have my FARR set to show me a max. of 7 entries in the normal results list. On my installation, this makes the results list appr. 290 pixels high (to find out, make a screen shot with Alt + PrintScreen and paste into Paint for example). Setting the threshold now to something like 275 pixels causes the centering to only take place, if the FARR window expands or shrinks by more than 275 pixels. This is the case when switching from large to small icon results list or vice versa (which is the reason I actually implemented the centering, i.e. to not have FARR stuck to the top of the screen every time it switched to small icon view), as well as on initial appearing.

I could still add the option to center on initial appearing only (resulting in the described effect) or maybe an option to have it 'center' in the upper 1/3 of the screen.

1189

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR plugin: FARR Multi Monitor (and center and resize) 1.1.0

« on: June 20, 2008, 05:41 AM »

Description
The FARR MultiMonitor plugin extends FARR to work better with multiple monitors. FARR's main window currently always shows up on the monitor you moved it to. With the FARR MultiMonitor plugin enabled, FARR's main window will show up on the monitor that contains the currently active window (usually the window of the application you're working in, and also where you're currently looking at) or on the monitor where the mouse currently is.

Additionally, the FARR MultiMonitor plugin can center FARR's main window on the screen.

Download & Install
Download the FarrMultiMonitor installer linked at the bottom of this post, then double-click FarrMultiMonitorSetup.exe to start the installation. I've tested the installer on both Windows XP and Windows 7 32-bit. If you'd rather install the plugin manually, you can also download it from the bottom of this post, then unzip it into the FARR plugins directory (usually C:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins) and restart FARR.

Options
Note that the plugin offers a couple of options which can be set in the FARR advanced plugin options dialog. There's a brief description of these options in the readme file. Also note that the center option is off by default.

Hotkeys
Win + Left : move FARR window to monitor on the left
Win + Right : move FARR window to monitor on the right
Win + Home : center FARR window
Win + Ctrl + 1 .. 0 : resize FARR window to 10% .. 100% of current screen's width

Version history
1.1.0 - 10. May 2009
- added option to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's height when it's activated (make sure to disable FARR auto-shrink option)
- added hotkeys Win + Ctrl + Shift + 1 .. 0 to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's height

1.0.0 - 28. April 2009
- added option to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's width when it's activated
- added hotkeys Win + Ctrl + 1 .. 0 to resize FARR to a certain percentage of the screen's width

0.3.0 - 13. October 2008
- fixes 'displaying FARR on monitor with active window doesn't work anymore'

0.2.0
- added support for moving to next/last monitor and centering with hotkeys

0.1.0
- added option to display FARR on monitor where mouse is, instead of on monitor with active window
- added option to center FARR window only when it appears
- fixed DLL unload problem
- added .dcupdate file

0.0.0.1
- initial release

1190

Find And Run Robot / Re: Open With

« on: June 11, 2008, 03:32 AM »

Ok, thanks mouser, I'll try this.

Philipp

1191

Find And Run Robot / Re: File extension filter

« on: June 11, 2008, 03:31 AM »

yes this is coming.

-mouser (June 11, 2008, 03:23 AM)

excellent!

1192

Find And Run Robot / File extension filter

« on: June 11, 2008, 03:14 AM »

Hi

Is it still planned to add a file extension filter to the search directory list (as mentioned in this post https://www.donation...05.msg91321#msg91321). I think that might help improve performance in certain cases a lot. I for example have a directory in the search list that contains a bunch of tools we use internally for our projects. These tools are all there in source code and are compiled on my machine generating loads of intermediate files. All I want FARR to find are the resulting .exe files though. While the score gives me the possibility to give me the .exe files, the problem is really that all the other files could be excluded from the search already by their file extension, which I expect would speed up the search.

Philipp

1193

Find And Run Robot / Open With

« on: June 11, 2008, 03:02 AM »

Hi

Is there already a way to launch a found file with an application other than the default application for that file type? What I want to do is the following:

I have an alias like this:

Regular Expression Pattern: ^blah (.*)
Results: dosearch c:\blah\config files\$$1*.xml

This works nicely for giving me a list of files, but launching one of the found files will launch with the file type's default application (in this case on my system a web browser), while I want it to be opened in an editor.

I tried to solve this with a custom plugin. The idea was to have something like this:

Results: dosearch c:\blah\config files\$$1*.xml /OPENWITH=notepad.exe

i.e. using something similar to FARR's file window options. But that obviously doesn't work. While I think it would be good to have the possibility to choose the application to launch as a core feature of FARR (and maybe it's already there, but I don't know), I think it would still be worth considering to add something like /OPTIONS="bli blah bloh" where the options string would be passed to the EFuncName_Allow_ProcessTrigger function somehow to be used by the plugin.

Philipp