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sorting units of text

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me_7834539:
Hello,

I usually type all kinds of information into plain text files, categorizing every memo/info/todo with a simple tag like e.g. "car" for car-related stuff, or hou for "house" related stuff etc. I also type current todo items into the same text. the text may look like this:
>>
cat3[tab]blablabla
[tab](..continued blabla

cat2[tab]blabla

cat3[tab]blabla

cat1[tab]blabla....
[tab]continued blabla.....
[tab]continued blabla.......

cat2[tab]blabla
<<

after some time, I have a huge text with unsorted units of text. I would like to sort the entries alphabetically/numerically so that it looks like this:


>>
cat1[tab]blabla

cat2[tab]blabla

cat2...

cat3...

cat3...
<<

After an hour of research, I found the only program capable of doing this was an online service, http://sortmylist.com/
This service has the feature to define blank lines as a separator. (However, they seem to send the info over the
internet, which I object to.)

(even more helpful would be "a new item starts with a linebreak that is directly
followed by up to 7 alphanumeric characters, that are again followed by another tab".
this would not require a blank line between items, or any other manually added separator.)

perhaps the program could simply work as a one-click-program (or one shortcut, like win-Q or so), converting the
current contents of the clipboard. text should not be altered, i.e. special /international characters and tabs etc.
should all be retained.

I think I am problably not the only person who simply types their stuff into a text, with a tag + tab to
at least categorize it a little. I am aware there are programs that will do this, but using plain text and
a lightweitht editor has so many advantages.

-> my question: can anyone please point me to a locally installable program that can do this? I was unable to find one.
Or, does anyone feel this might be a coding idea worth pursuing?

Thanks!

eleman:
Check out Cleanhaven

MilesAhead:
Instead of a plain text file you may consider using TreePadLite

If you are using text only then the free version should do all you need. The paid versions can do things like embed graphics.  In the free version hyperlinks are not underlined, but if you put the caret on one and hit Control-h it will browse to the url.

The "cat1" you use as tags would instead be nodes in the tree and show on the left.  Here's a screen shot




Of course all the work would be transfer of the plain text to the TreePad file. But they do publish their format, at least for the TreePadLite plain text.  They also have links to 3rd party software that works with TreePad. Most of it is paid though.

edit: initially you may have to do a lot of cut & paste.  But there is a button in the toolbar to Sort a subtree.   You can add subtree nodes as you go and paste in the text, then just hit the Sort button to put the nodes in order.

edit2: here's the spec for TreePad file format:
http://www.treepad.com/docs/fileformat.txt

To create a file of nodes with a paragraph of text for each node is not difficult.  In TreePadGen the text for each node was blank. I just got all the filenames in a folder and added a node for each. You could do something similar by detecting "cat1" tags and then adding the associated paragraph.  For a bunch of nodes on the same level it's not hard to add the file markers between each node in a loop.  The tough part would likely be digging out the tags, then determining when the text was finished. Handling dupes might also be an issue.

It's one approach.  Also supposedly other note taking type apps can import TreePad files if you change in the future. (I say "supposedly" because I didn't spend any money to test any of the paid apps that claim to be able to import TreePad. Just standard skepticism if I haven't tried it myself.) :)

rjbull:
Do you really want what you said, and sort the items, or do you just want to find them using the categories as keywords/tags?  If the latter, you might look at NoteFrog.  The current version can import files delimited with markers.

If you really want to keep your text organised, then you might try a single-pane outliner like Noteliner.  It's free, but .NET if that bothers you, and uses its own file format.

Otherwise, I concure with MilesAhead, though I normally reach first for MemPad.  MemPad has particularly nice input/output from/to delimited files.  It shouldn't be too hard to massage your files into forms that NoteFrog or MemPad can import.

FWIW, following MilesAhead's comment, I do know that Ultra Recall Standard or Professional can import Treepad Lite .HJT files.  Some of the other outliners, like RightNote and AllMyNotes, only accept KeyNote .KNT files, but KeyNote is free and can import .HJT files itself, so you can convert in two stages.

me_7834539:
thanks a lot for your input so far.

however, cleanhaven apparently cannot do what I described. Treepad seems like nice idea, even though this could be implemented even better with a tabbed notepad like e.g. notepad++ and a bunch of auto-loaded text-files. problem is, my method has these advantages:
- having just one plain text file and sorting the items at a later point in time enables you to have items written in the last days in one place, and not scattered around lots of tab-textx resp. tree folders.
- it is possible to type some text and only later categorize it.
- having just one plain text file gives you a maximum of options to choose the text editor that you like best.
- you need not use the mouse/need not navigate
- etc.pp.

:)

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