DonationCoder.com Forum
News and Reviews => Mini-Reviews by Members => Topic started by: jgpaiva on February 13, 2006, 07:15 AM
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This program had already been mentioned in donationcoder, but i think it didn't quite get the attention it deserves.
I was now using it, and i think it's so usefull that i decided to do a small review for you.
All Snap is a program that runs on the system tray, using about 1.5mb of ram, and 2.4mb of virtual memory.
This program allows every window to have the "snap" feature. This means that when a window gets in some (customizable) distance from another, their borders get attached.
This feature is, in my opinion, very required by those users that tend to not maximize any window, and get the desktop quite cluttered with windows.
Although I'm not one of those users, i like to maximize almost everything, i use allsnap to snap the IM's windows to each other, so as i can see several of them at the same time, without having much work organizing them.
AllSnap is configurable from the right-click menu on the system tray icon:
(http://img479.imageshack.us/img479/7503/screenshot130220061239061xi.jpg)
In this menu, you have access to the about box, the help, the settings dialog and the option to turn window snapping off (which has the same effect as closing allsnap)
By clicking the settings option, you get the following menu:
(http://img479.imageshack.us/img479/5497/screenshot130220061250239vv.jpg)
Under "general", the first two options determine the distance that windows attract each other, and the toggle key is the key that, when pressed, disables the snapping, in case you just want to move a window without completely disabling the snapping in the tray icon's menu.
The "Snap To" section is quite self- explanatory, and the Enable Snapping checkbox does the same that that option on the tray menu does.
On the "sounds" tab, you get:
(http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2092/screenshot130220061255388us.jpg)
Here, you can select the sounds to be played when the snapping is done. The default sound are very good, very discrete, and allow you to know when the snapping is being done. Sometimes, you might not be able to put a window at a certain distance of another because of the snapping, it's good to know it's because of that, before you go crazy trying to do it, that's why i keep the sounds enabled.
Under the "advanced" tab, these are the options you get:
(http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6479/screenshot130220061304018px.jpg)
These are some options that are mostly for compatibility with some themes, strange windows or OSs other than windows xp (there's another option that only appears in systems other than xp, which allows icons on the desktop to be arranged in grid, like xp does).
As for links, here is the home site of allSnap: http://ca.geocities.com/[email protected]/
and here's the link for fileforum's downloads: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/allSnap/1027622040/1 (this link is for the beta version, at the home site of allSnap there is a stable version)
Hope you like it!
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Wow, great review and really neat utility -- am playing with it at this very moment.
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I knew you'd love it, Allen, since you're a non-maximized windows lover ;)
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This seems to be a PERFECT tool to highly confuse women that aren't using the PC often 8)
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This seems to be a PERFECT tool to highly confuse women that aren't using the PC often 8)
-brotherS
Try setting the "snapping distance" to 99! It'll even confuse you :D
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I knew you'd love it, Allen, since you're a non-maximized windows lover ;)
-jgpaiva
Exactly -- I'm always manually placing everything. What's interesting, is it's not just parent windows but also children in MDI's, for example the windows -within- Opera also snap within Opera. Very cool.
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I knew you'd love it, Allen, since you're a non-maximized windows lover ;)
-jgpaiva
Exactly -- I'm always manually placing everything.
-allen
Me too - but I don't miss snapping windows :)
But I'm using an AutoHotkey script to move around windows on the desktop by just using the keyboard (in a very simple way), which I do a lot :)
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But I'm using an AutoHotkey script to move around windows on the desktop by just using the keyboard (in a very simple way), which I do a lot :)-brotherS
Like using the keyboard to nudge windows left/right/up/down?
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great minireview!
and looks like cool program (i wondered if such a program was out there somewhere!). [it's freeware too in case that's not clear]
by the way his page says his new website is: http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~iheckman/allsnap/
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i'm glad i'm amongst people who appreciate snapping - nice review too, jgpaiva. i'm wondering if those of you here also have 'align to grid' enabled for the desktop icons (i know a few of you don't have icons on the desktop). i know it's a trivial question but my work collegues set up all our school pcs (about 1000 machines) so that 'align to grid' is off - it drives me up the wall. talk about not appreciating the aesthetics of icon equidistance. what fools.
anyway, allsnap, great little program - just wish it did a few more tidy things.
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But I'm using an AutoHotkey script to move around windows on the desktop by just using the keyboard (in a very simple way), which I do a lot :)-brotherS
Like using the keyboard to nudge windows left/right/up/down?
-allen
Yes, very helpful! And if I'd be one of the 'chosen few' here with a 24" TFT I wouldn't know how to live without it! ;D
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Thanks for the nice comments :D
[it's freeware too in case that's not clear]-mouser
OoOps.. When i finished the review, i thought i missed something.. That's the "something" i forgot ;) Thanks for noting it! :D
I'm wondering if those of you here also have 'align to grid' enabled for the desktop icons-nudone
I only have one icon on the desktop (recycle bin, so as i don't forget to clean it once in a while), but yes, I've got align to grid on, is just annoys me to not have things somehow organized and symmetrical! (i don't know how someone can have lots of icons with that option disabled)
Yes, very helpful! And if I'd be one of the 'chosen few' here with a 24" TFT I wouldn't know how to live without it! ;D
-brotherS
I know that script, but haven't tried it.. Maybe i should ;)
I wish i had such screen... But that would mean my computer would have to be locked to my desk, and for me that's not an option :(
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Hi jgpaiva,
I'd like to feature this in CNNL on Sunday. Any concerns?
I'll shorten it up a little and I'll include link to this thread and a Cody link.
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Nope, no problem Cliff, please do. Publicity is always good (although it can bring server issues (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2526.0) ;)) and it's good to know people like my mini-review. :D
Just one thing. After you post it, please post the link here! :)
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Nope, no problem Cliff, please do. Publicity is always good (although it can bring server issues (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2526.0) ;)) and it's good to know people like my mini-review. :D
Just one thing. After you post it, please post the link here! :)
-jgpaiva
I posted the newsletter last night. I've got your review in the number one spot. So far, I've had 1500 page views as of 2pm EST and I expect another 3 or 4000 by the end of the week. I put two links to DC in the review and a link to this post.
But ... don't expect too many click though's. In my experience, people don't often investigate the sources.
Here are links to the newsletter:
http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/ClifNotesNewsletter060312 (permalink)
http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/ClifsCurrentNewsletter (link for people outside my mailing list)
I also gave the review it's own page ... (standard procedure for me)
The link would be http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/AllSnap
If you have corrections or changes, I can still make them.
Have fun!
Clif
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great newsletter cliff ! your newsletters get better every week.
btw you mention steganos locknote and not being able to get it to work on your windowsME machine. you might want to check out f0dder's fSekrit on this site which is very similar: https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Other/fSekrit/index.html
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great newsletter cliff ! your newsletters get better every week.
btw you mention steganos locknote and not being able to get it to work on your windowsME machine. you might want to check out f0dder's fSekrit on this site which is very similar: https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Other/fSekrit/index.html
-mouser
That would be a great review for next week. May I publish it verbatim? I'd love to add some screenshots to as well.
Clif
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I didn't read far enough down. I'd only publish the top and point to the rest for details.
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recently i came to know about a version 1.41 and wrote to the author asking about the changes and he replied that this is a one-off version where the program uses an ini file instead of the registry.
so for those who prefer INI files over the registry, here is the link: http://ivanheckman.com/allsnap/allsnap141_XP.zip
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Cool, a friend of mine was looking for an app that does window snapping a couple days ago. Will have to let him know about it :)
The INI is a big plus IMO, makes it portable - good for school usage on a thumb drive.