News and Reviews > Mini-Reviews by Members
NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review
IainB:
Originally posted:2011-12-28Last updated2015-04-18
Basic Info
App NameNoteFrog PRO Information Assistant("NFP")Thumbs-Up Rating :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:App URLhttp://notefrog.com/indexgo.htmlApp Version Reviewedv2.7.0 (using now)
v2.7.3 (skipped this minor release as it did not affect me)
v3.x (awaiting this - was announced 2015-03-26 as "Pre release version 3")
Test System SpecsOS=Windows 7-64 Home PremiumSupported OSesAll current versions of Windows.Support MethodsI have used email. Very responsive.
The user forum is excellent: http://notefrog.com/forum/index.phpUpgrade PolicySee pricing scheme below. Periodic releases, and ß releases.Trial Version Available?Yes.Pricing SchemePRO licence with one year of updates for $19.95.
Lifetime/lifecycle licence for$49.95. There are occasional special offers discounts on these.
Price to bona fide students - $5.00Screencast Video URLThere is a sort of online trial version to give some idea of some of the features.Screenshots for GUI and then each menu item:
NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review
NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review
NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review
Alternative ways of accessing the Stacks:
NoteFrog Pro (clipboard information manager) - Mini-Review
Note: The user interface can be customised to a fair extent - see under "Options". This includes default settings, colours and hotkeys. So, if you want something different to the standard settings, then that is easily done.
Intro:
NoteFrog Pro is a clipboard data capture/management tool that has the potential to become a PIM (Personal Information Manager).
It is apparently written in PureBasic and may use the hypertext/hypercard approach (it uses "stacks" instead of "files" for databases).
It is quite feature-rich - e.g., includes RTF (Rich Text Format) editing capability, and spell-checker.
The search functionality is very simple, fast and powerful. (See FAQ for more on this and other aspects.)
The latest version has some interesting and rather nifty features (taken from the Stack menu item):
* Select and open a different Stack...
* Create a new empty Stack...
* Rename the Active Stack...
* Edit stack password...
* Reload/refresh the Active Stack list from NoteFrog Library.
* Export/Save a copy of the Active Stack...
* Import/Load contents of an external Stack into the Active Stack...
* Save Active Stack contents as a plain text file...
* Save Active Stack contents as individual items...
* Save Active Stack contents in a publishable browser-search able format...
* Save Active Stack contents as a self-decrypting HTML archive...
* Import all text items from a directory...
* Import text items from a delimited file...
* Delete all items in the Active Stack...
* Delete an entire Stack and its contents...
Notes from the User Forum at the start of the ß test for v2.4.0:
* NoteFrog version 2.4 is available for testing. Notable changes include a new method to select the active stack and the inclusion of a "FrogTea" self-decrypting stack output option. (See the forum). There are also some improved window management features. Additionally, the "maxStackItems" variable which controls the maximum number of items permitted in a stack has been reinstated after having been inadvertently removed while removing items associated with the HTML support test. :oops:
* We originally planned on including an improved stack search capability in this release, however, the associated changes are extensive and will require additional time to finish, so we decided to release this update. This update was also developed on an extensively updated development platform, which is an additional reason to limit the scope of our program changes until we've had an opportunity for external beta testing.
Who this app is designed for, or likely to appeal to:
* People who want a fast, flexible, reliable and easily searchable clipboard information management tool.
* People who want to capture text and/or image data.
* Users who might want something similar to Clipboard Help & Spell in several ways, but simpler to use and not as fully-featured.
* Users looking for a potential PIM with automatic clipboard capture/management built-in.
The Good:
* Fast, simple and stable.
* Seems to do what it is designed for, and rather well too.
* Scrolling down viewing the items in a stack gives a relatively very fast response, with negligible delay.
* Changing stacks and transferring items between stacks has been made easy.
* Update 2013-12-16 - check out the xTea en/de-cryption:
Go to the Menu | Stack | Save Active Stack contents as a self-decrypting HTML archive.
I had not previously trialled this. It looks like a very handy encryption feature, unique to NF. It employs built-in encryption of clip text into self-decrypting HTML files. You need to try it out to understand what it is doing. It is a very nifty feature, and could be an excellent way of communicating notes in highly secure form.
This feature uses the xTea encryption method - available also from HT Consulting in a FREE standalone program, refer FrogTea.
If you have already downloaded that program from there, download it again as the file has been updated 2013-01-30 (now a smaller size of 133Kb), though it bears the same version number.
The needs improvement section:
Nothing particularly annoying about it as it stands.
ß testing by myself and others (e.g., @rjbull in the DC Forum has probably helped the software to get more exposure and developed up to to a very satisfactory state. All issues are generally addressed in newer releases.
Why I think you should use this product
It is an excellent clipboard manager.
Could be worth trying out for comparison as a simpler and less sophisticated clipboard information management tool than (say) Clipboard Help & Spell - the latter being, in may ways, almost a PIM.
How does it compare to similar apps.:
I would say very well indeed.
Its user interface when scrolling the database is very fast/responsive, without the slightly "laggy" response I have generally seen in other clipboard managers.
I think it is the fastest clipboard manager in that regard that I have come across.
In general, I would say it could be a close 2nd to CHS - which latter I regard having been the most useful that I have come across so far.
I prefer the ergonomics of the two-pane view of NFP, probably because I got used to that in InfoSelect, but NF does not offer a hierarchical view like IS. NF is different to CHS.
Conclusions:
An excellent clipboard manager.
Probably well worth your time for a suck-it-and-see trial. I suspect that most people who trial it will probably end up buying a licence.
Links to other reviews of this application:
You can find other reviews if you google "Review NoteFrog".
There are references to NoteFrog in the DC forum, but I could not find a past review.
Historical note:
I originally came across NFP quite by chance whilst doing some sleuthing to find out who developed the ClipGuru clipbard manager, and why that was taken off the air. In the html page source for ClipGuru, I found reference to HT consulting, and when I did a search on that, I eventually found NFP (authors are HT Consulting). I would guess that ClipGuru was incorporated into NFS, and then discontinued in stand-alone form.
rjbull:
I bought a licence when it was on Bits du Jour, but have never really used it. I find the "stacks" model a bit odd, not being used to it, but the main reason is that it doesn't have a way of importing files in bulk. I asked about this. "Oh, you can drag and drop." That's no use at all if you want to import lots of text from lots of files. That stops it being a way of importing some of the many plain text files I have and turning them into a simple and easy to search "database." Notice how tranglos included this very import in his Ethervane Echo, if only as a way to get you started. Having said that, NoteFrog might be the most sensible alternative to the good but apparently abandoned AZZ Cardfile.
IainB:
Attention! Lifetime licence now $14.95 to people who buy before 10 Jan. 2012 and mention this mini-review.
Please see update at end of the Opening Post - re special offer! :)
rjbull:
I know you're on a mission to make CHS the über-PIM, but I wonder if it's correct to see NoteFrog as primarily a clipboard-based program. That's because I came at it from another direction, it looks to me superficially like AZZ Cardfile, so I was thinking of it similarly as a flat, single-dimensional notekeeper. I know NoteFrog has two panes, but the left pane is titles only, no tree structure.
daddydave:
I took this as a BBCode editor from the screenshot, but that is just what you happened to be editing, right?
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