Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

<< < (51/192) > >>

mwang:
How does NetNotes compare to Evernote or Scrapbook?
-Paul Keith (March 24, 2009, 09:56 AM)
--- End quote ---
I tried the newest version 5.1 a few days ago. Here's what I noted.

NetNotes stores the captures locally, like Scrapbook, but it also works with IE. The captures are stored as individual pages (with associated elements in a subfoder) in file system directories, and they're named after the title of the page (unlike Scrapbook, with which they are all named index.html). So it's easy to retrieve the captures, even without NetNotes. And you can assign keywords (tags) and ratings to a note, if that's important to you.

It's a bit klunky for my taste, though. Starting up takes longer than most applications on my system. And when you save a page, it pops up. You have to click "Save" to make it go away. Using page titles as file names is good, but it doesn't convert "illegal" characters transparently (as the "File Title" extension does). If the page title contains a colon, e.g., it beeps you when you try to save the page; you have to make the necessary change yourself. I also ran into a minor bug: non-English page titles weren't captured correctly (though the content was).

As to Evernote, well, I don't like to save my notes online. While it can save locally, I hate the new ad "feature" of the newest Windows client. (I don't mind paying for the software, but I don't want to pay monthly fees, especially since I'm not storing any note online.) If that doesn't bother you, Evernote's web capturing facility is more mature and easier to use, IMO. NetNotes is freeware, though, and as said, it keeps web pages as individual html files, which I prefer to Evernote's big database files.

kartal:
Evernote`s html capture is not as good as Scrapbook`s html capture.

Paul Keith:
Hmm...so if I'm not mistaken, Surfulator would have the best html capture and editing options still correct? Or is it Scrapbook? or Scrapbook+? (I actually haven't heard of Scrapbook+ until you posted it mwang but unfortunately it seems like it could be buggy from the notes)

- preview of highlighter in the drop-down choice list does not work in Firefox 3
- shortcut of highlighter and annotation does not wirk in Firefox 3

mwang:
Evernote`s html capture is not as good as Scrapbook`s html capture.
-kartal (March 24, 2009, 12:46 PM)
--- End quote ---

I agree with you, assuming you mean that in terms of faithfulness to the original page display (instead of functionality, ease of use, etc.). That's not really a fair game, though. Scrapbook is a Firefox extension; it uses Firefox to render captured pages. Evernote and other browser-independent tools have to render their own pages. Unless one uses Gecko (which Evernote doesn't), it can't compete with Scrapbook in display fidelity (using the original display in Firefox as the yardstick).

Moreover, I sometimes feel Scrapbook gives me "too much". Some of the excessive parts can be easily removed with its tools, but some can't. E.g., when I save only part of a page, I usually don't care about the background, but it's hard to get rid of it with Scrapbook. With Evernote or others, the background is usually ignored when saving part of a page.

One more thing: with Evernote and the like, you can easily edit the captured stuff. Scrapbook allows you to remove elements/selections, annotate, and add highlights, but you can't otherwise edit the page (add words, correct typos, etc.) directly.

Hmm...so if I'm not mistaken, Surfulator would have the best html capture and editing options still correct? Or is it Scrapbook? or Scrapbook+? (I actually haven't heard of Scrapbook+ until you posted it mwang but unfortunately it seems like it could be buggy from the notes)

- preview of highlighter in the drop-down choice list does not work in Firefox 3
- shortcut of highlighter and annotation does not wirk in Firefox 3
-Paul Keith (March 24, 2009, 06:09 PM)
--- End quote ---

I can't comment on whether Surfulator has the best html capture. It can't search CJK text, so its stay on my system was brief.

As to Scrapbook+, I don't think it's buggy. It's as stable as Scrapbook was on my system. I'm not sure about the two "known issues" listed. With the current build, the highlighters are listed as individual tool buttons, so I just click on whichever I want to use. There's nothing to "preview" this way. You click, and it highlights. If you don't like it, just undo it. (That's the main reason I prefer it over the original Scrapbook.)

There's an option to display the highlighters as a drop-down list, as in Scrapbook, and indeed you can't preview the result when going through the list of highlighters. But you can't do that either in Scrapbook, so it's moot. Same with the highlighter shortcuts. I didn't know they have shortcuts, but Scrapbook doesn't have highlighter shortcuts, either. It would be nice to have them, but not very useful, since you can't "edit" the page as in a editor. There's no cursor point in Scrapbook(+), so you can't mark a selection with the keyboard. Using highlighter shortcuts thus entails going back and forth between the mouse and the keyboard.

Scrapbook+ is based on Scrapbook 1.3.3.7, which was the latest build for a long time, and it appeared to be abandonware. Scrapbook+ came in and claim some performance improvements (with large collections), so I tried it. There's no discernible performance difference on my system, to be honest. I keep it only because I like those highlighter buttons.

Now Scrapbook has a newer build (1.3.3.9), which fixes some bugs. They might eventually diverge and have different capabilities (and bugs). I don't know. As said, I keep Scrapbook+ for now only because I like the highlighter buttons.

Contrary to what's said on the Scrapbook+ page, you don't really have to uninstall Scrapbook to install Scrapbook+. Just remember not to have them both enabled at the same time. So you can switch back and forth to compare if you like. They use the same data folder and preference settings. Before that changes, it's safe to use either one.

Paul Keith:
Contrary to what's said on the Scrapbook+ page, you don't really have to uninstall Scrapbook to install Scrapbook+. Just remember not to have them both enabled at the same time. So you can switch back and forth to compare if you like. They use the same data folder and preference settings. Before that changes, it's safe to use either one.
--- End quote ---

Thanks. This makes me feel much better in installing it. By chance, do you have an idea what would happen if both were installed at the same time? (Assuming you don't activate either one.)

I've also been growing more and more curious in using Wired-Marker since I've been highlighting alot of stuff in Scrapbook. By chance is there a tweak that allows it to be only used for Scrapbook captured pages?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page