Scrubby

[c.gingerich]

Scrubby is a utility that sits in your system tray and allows you to remove text formatting (Bold, Italic, Colors, Etc.) and optionally strip HTML tags from text in your Windows clipboard using a hotkey and paste into the current active window. You can also create substitutions and substitute some text for another when pasting. Can come in handy for email templates and such.

I did base it off of a Mac app I saw called TextScrub. I thought that was a great idea so I made a Windows version. :-)

You can download and view more info here -> http://starpunch.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrubby.html

[TaoPhoenix]

Scrubby is a utility that sits in your system tray and allows you to remove text formatting (Bold, Italic, Colors, Etc.) and optionally strip HTML tags from text in your Windows clipboard using a hotkey and paste into the current active window. You can also create substitutions and substitute some text for another when pasting. Can come in handy for email templates and such.

I did base it off of a Mac app I saw called TextScrub. I thought that was a great idea so I made a Windows version. :-)

You can download and view more info here -> http://starpunch.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrubby.html

-c.gingerich (April 28, 2013, 10:13 AM)

Hmm. Theoretically that looks kinda neat. However it is 14 day trial with $5.99+tax via Paypal to continue using it!

Slightly drifting topics here, has anyone considered making "trial ware" a per-use trial rather than time limited? There's lots of stuff that I wouldn't buy right away because I'm not sure it would be a "star performer", only later that it does, but then it's expired. Whereas in a numbered trial, the first 4 uses playing with it sit there, then suddenly you get a project say in June where it becomes important enough to register!

[c.gingerich]

Ok. I hear ya!  I changed the trial from a 14 day to a 60 use trial. Be aware that every time you use the software (i.e. Run or Scrub) it will tick down and alert you how many uses you have left. Hope this helps!

[KynloStephen66515]

Scrubby is a utility that sits in your system tray and allows you to remove text formatting (Bold, Italic, Colors, Etc.) and optionally strip HTML tags from text in your Windows clipboard using a hotkey and paste into the current active window. You can also create substitutions and substitute some text for another when pasting. Can come in handy for email templates and such.

I did base it off of a Mac app I saw called TextScrub. I thought that was a great idea so I made a Windows version. :-)

You can download and view more info here -> http://starpunch.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrubby.html

-c.gingerich (April 28, 2013, 10:13 AM)

Hmm. Theoretically that looks kinda neat. However it is 14 day trial with $5.99+tax via Paypal to continue using it!

Slightly drifting topics here, has anyone considered making "trial ware" a per-use trial rather than time limited? There's lots of stuff that I wouldn't buy right away because I'm not sure it would be a "star performer", only later that it does, but then it's expired. Whereas in a numbered trial, the first 4 uses playing with it sit there, then suddenly you get a project say in June where it becomes important enough to register!

-TaoPhoenix (April 28, 2013, 11:38 AM)

Yeah, I have been stung by time-limits before...download and install something to test, run it once, forget for 2 week, go back to actually test and B00M..."PLZ BUY ME"

[TaoPhoenix]

Hi Chris.

Thanks for listening to my suggestions!

However, I am having trouble using the program effectively. The main key combos that make sense for one handed combos (for me, the left hand) are typically used by other programs to do things too, so for example if I am on a webpage when I try to scrub the text, those ___-V combos seem to bring up the "element blocker" addon for AdBlock, and when I switch over to Open Office Calc, then they seem to pull in "Paste Special".

I'd prefer if there was some kind of "autodetect and scrub" mode, so that let's say I copy a web link with control-c like normal, it "magically" comes out normal text with a control-V paste without extra key strokes (which to me feels a bit like a keyboard version of dance dance revolution!)


Also, the per-scrub box also feels too aggressive, because then it's too annoying to test out! My preferred "limit-ware" method is a *per-session*, and make it quasi generous! For example, just for discussion, 14 sessions (not calendar days!) does one of two things. First the user might accidentally burn a couple sessions per day opening and closing it, or because he (or she or it! hehe) had to reboot, or just turned it back on. Now, if it rockets to become a favorite program, those sessions will go pretty quick. But don't make it like "only five", because at least for me I get turned away when a program feels too aggressive trying to reel in the pay conversion.

In fact, I really like the "Fremium" model best, because I think the modern way to market these little widgets is "mind share". You want that program being used at the free-lower level, because then it's building mindshare. But don't super-cripple it to the point of unusability at the free level! Instead, for me the conceptual perfect middle is simple basics are there at the free level, but then some kind of Oh-Wow feature is in the Paid version that makes your jaw drop.

My signature example I'll quote is that Tree-DB Notes program I use. It works fine all by itself at the free level as an organizer. But the Paid version has a really good exporter (that won the category competition for me when I surveyed 20 of these programs last year!), that takes your entire tree of notes and exports it into a web book.

So for example, it sits there being cute little Scrubby at the free level, but then maybe it can do batch page processing at the Paid level. Take a look at this month's short stories from the SciFi webzine I am involved with:

http://www.aphelion-...sections/shorts.html

One big ongoing project I am into is making author's indexes for that webzine. This involves a lot of copying and pasting (but scrubbing!) those story titles because the web link formatting wants to carry over into Open Office Calc. Far better would be to have Scrubby grab all those links and save out a scrubbed list! (Bonus for grabbing the next line down, and sticking that next to the story title!)

So then instead of copy-paste all day, I just batch process the page. THAT's worth $6.50 for me!
 

[c.gingerich]

Wow, thanks for your input! I think I can do most of what you suggested. I have got slammed with work but I will try to get to working on this ASAP.

One of the reasons I did the per-scrub box is because I have done the per session before and a lot of people just leave the system on all the time and since Scrubby is an "always-on" app. Per session for someone who leaves the system on all the time could last months or longer depending on the limitation amount. I may do that but have to take the limit back down to about 14 again. I think that is fair.

[TaoPhoenix]

Wow, thanks for your input! I think I can do most of what you suggested. I have got slammed with work but I will try to get to working on this ASAP.

One of the reasons I did the per-scrub box is because I have done the per session before and a lot of people just leave the system on all the time and since Scrubby is an "always-on" app. Per session for someone who leaves the system on all the time could last months or longer depending on the limitation amount. I may do that but have to take the limit back down to about 14 again. I think that is fair.

-c.gingerich (April 30, 2013, 03:51 PM)

Oh, I agree, 60 sessions can get long! So yes, good point about Always On, I don't have a clear answer to that per se. That's another point in favor of Free - Pro ; the Pro feature is "Demand Draw", so it could potentially convert someone far quicker.

[c.gingerich]

I have updated Scrubby and added a few more features and removed the per-scrub alert. Went down to only 15 uses (per execution not per scrub). Please see the help file for more info. You can download Scrubby and view the help file here -> http://starpunch.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrubby.html

@TaoPhoenix Does this new version satisfy your post? :-)

[c.gingerich]

I have updated Scrubby and added a few more features and removed the per-scrub alert. Went down to only 15 uses (per execution not per scrub). Please see the help file for more info. You can download Scrubby and view the help file here -> http://starpunch.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrubby.html

[TaoPhoenix]

I have updated Scrubby and added a few more features and removed the per-scrub alert. Went down to only 15 uses (per execution not per scrub). Please see the help file for more info. You can download Scrubby and view the help file here -> http://starpunch.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrubby.html

@TaoPhoenix Does this new version satisfy your post? :-)

-c.gingerich (May 04, 2013, 03:50 PM)

Hi Chris! That's close!

Yes, the basic feel is much better. Especially because I was toggling on and off the Scrubbing, see below, it's WAY better that it didn't force me to burn scrubs! (Heh and I am still burning through sessions but I think that's a bit different, more bugtesting per se.)

I am digging a little into bug fixes and feature tweaks. The most annoying one is that when it creates the unformatted text, LibreOffice doesn't see it as "regular text" to paste, but instead pulls into "Paste Special" which is a big ugly diagram box that in a way defeats the spirit of the utility. Do you know/can you figure out what that's about?

There might be a bit of an elusive bug where if you toggle on and off the app over and over, it was looking like the toggle wasn't working right, but I haven't nailed that down yet.

Some other things that are probably more feature upgrades but feel pretty basic to me, listed in order of "Begg-iness" : )

Bugs:
- Put a (toggable?) check in so that if something starts as regular text, it stays regular text and Scrubby leaves it alone. This matters if for example you're doing alternating copy-paste, one is a web link and one is text, that "converted text" currently keeps pulling in that Paste Special box whereas regular text wouldn't.

- If I have scrubbing on, copying a web link and hitting "control-v" seems to pull up
Ad Block (Element helper?) "Blockable items on the page" here in DC. I have no idea what that means! But I suspect it's not unrelated to LibreOffice's pulling into Paste Special - that some kind of other control characters are getting in there. Any ideas?
With Scrubbing Off the address is:
http://www.aphelion-...sections/shorts.html

Features:
-  Put a "Change Font Formatting Only" option. Because there are at least a couple of places that if you copy a link, the link travels which in that specific case is fine, but then your entire workspace is plain 8 or 10 point and the link "with full formatting" keeps coming in 12 point bold italic!

3. This one is just me wishing a little, but then it's how I think when I see related-apps:
Remember this story page?
http://www.aphelion-...sections/shorts.html
Let's say you copy a story and author like:
Henchmen Academy
By Spencer Carvalho

When it comes through to LibreOffice, it pastes into two cells *down*. I even went to LibreOffice Calc and changed "Upon enter key move right" in the settings. But still pastes down.

It would be REEEELY nice if it pasted *across* into two cells *across*! Is that doable?  


Heh I had another small point or two but I'm starting to forget for now with this long post! : )

[TaoPhoenix]

On a different topic, maybe clarify your intended upgrade policy for the paid versions.

We've seen cases where you pay for your version, only for V2.0 to come out and then it denies you the upgrade! Some places do a "payment good for only one major version upgrade", but this doesn't feel like a long running app that will go to V4.8 or whatever.

[c.gingerich]

Thanks again for the input! I'll take a closer look at these and try to add what I can and fix the bugs. As far as the registration, I usually keep it so that if it is paid for once there are no upgrade fees. Unless there is a big update that would cost me a lot but I don't see that happening on this app.

[TaoPhoenix]

Thanks again for the input! I'll take a closer look at these and try to add what I can and fix the bugs. As far as the registration, I usually keep it so that if it is paid for once there are no upgrade fees. Unless there is a big update that would cost me a lot but I don't see that happening on this app.

-c.gingerich (May 04, 2013, 05:55 PM)

Maybe glance over and put some notes in the help file that a lot of the combos coincide with functions in other apps, and they seem to be fighting a bit with Scrubby.

[c.gingerich]

I think I am going to rethink how I wrote the app. I use an auto hotkey app to make the hotkey. I think I am going to remove that and just leave Ctrl+V as is and do all the scrubbing by watching the clipboard. That may fix some of the clashes as it will just be the native windows hotkey.

[TaoPhoenix]

I think I am going to rethink how I wrote the app. I use an auto hotkey app to make the hotkey. I think I am going to remove that and just leave Ctrl+V as is and do all the scrubbing by watching the clipboard. That may fix some of the clashes as it will just be the native windows hotkey.

-c.gingerich (May 04, 2013, 06:11 PM)

I like that as a concept if you can make it work. The clashes didn't surprise me, because it makes sense for programs to clash over the same shortcuts. I've seen it before other apps like this including I think a couple from here.

[c.gingerich]

Before I make an official release I'll let the members here play with this new version it a bit. I removed the hoykey and it now just uses the default windows clipboard hotkeys and works in the background. It does not hook the hotkey at all anymore. I also removed the double space option under append clipboard option, if you need an extra line then copy it. :-) There were a few small bugs also and the paste special dialog should not show anymore when pasting.

You can download the beta version HERE and view the new help file here -> http://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/191852d2-1ce4-4888-a800-6e910012ac84/568f32e82ed7c16289f485852fddcb01

The help link in the beta still points to the old help file for now.

Please let me know how it goes. :-)  (@TaoPhoenix :-) )

[TaoPhoenix]

Before I make an official release I'll let the members here play with this new version it a bit. I removed the hoykey and it now just uses the default windows clipboard hotkeys and works in the background. It does not hook the hotkey at all anymore. I also removed the double space option under append clipboard option, if you need an extra line then copy it. :-) There were a few small bugs also and the paste special dialog should not show anymore when pasting.

You can download the beta version HERE and view the new help file here -> http://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/191852d2-1ce4-4888-a800-6e910012ac84/568f32e82ed7c16289f485852fddcb01

The help link in the beta still points to the old help file for now.

Please let me know how it goes. :-)  (@TaoPhoenix :-) )

-c.gingerich (May 05, 2013, 03:41 PM)

Here we go! I get to be a pest! 

In general I like the feel of the "work in the background" which I just realized gets even more important because another finesse I use from Skwire's side of the forum is "auto-xmouse" which changes window focus, so if we can get rid of these dialog popups, those won't get trapped out of focus. (I think. I didn't get that far in testing, I just thought of it now as if I were doing this for real.) But yes, with in-background, I didn't get the AdBlock pulls or as much "fighting for hotkeys" as last time.

I did a few tests in Notepad to try to catch LibreOffice-specific errors/bugs.

1. Basically none of the toggles work for me. I burned out of trials (the new Beta starts where the old one left off!) because the program only seemed to notice the changed settings when I closed and re-opened it. So I had to check or uncheck a desired setting, then close and open it again. So I need a kludge to test your next version!

2. In that Short Story page, if I copied the two lines (story title with a link and the author name below) this time LibreOffice wants to pull in the "text import" dialog.

3. "Append to Clipboard" isn't a bad start - I could live with making two rows of data, by first copy-and-scrubbing the story titles into a complete clipboard, then pasting it, then doing the authors on the second row, and if I'm not a blind wombat they would line up in paired columns of data. However, there seems to be a blank line that keeps appearing into the accumulating clipboard. So "Remove Blank Lines" doesn't seem to be working too well.

4. When "Trip Whitespace" is checked, I keep getting a dialog box that says nothing but "here" ??! (So you have to keep clicking okay?!)

Whew! I'm a modular tester, so I'll stop there, because when enough bugs get changed/attempted-fixed, all kinds of stuff pops up as I just noted above! But yes, in general this is starting to look really useful!
 

[TaoPhoenix]

Heh Remember this?

I'm just now getting back to my project, so that just illustrates why I like Per-Use stuff rather than time limited!

Meanwhile, I think I'll be using Kingsoft Office Spreadsheet rather than LibreOffice for a while, so I don't yet know what Scrubby does to that program.

Chris, are you around so we can see which potential features and stuff to hone in on? At one point you were planning a re-write. I re-downloaded the Beta, and by this point my "15 uses expired", so I don't know anymore what was in there!

[c.gingerich]

Sorry. I got busy with work and got off track. I'll get back on this soon and make sure to have the trial start over.