Messages

1

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Right Click any file and create New Folder by its Name

« on: March 22, 2018, 11:23 AM »

Hi Jody, and thanks again for F2F.

Yes, I see what you mean about using the timestamping for the folder creation. That's fine for me, actually, for the "create a distinct-folder" times.

What I'd love is a way to keep around 10-20 well-known (or, secondarily, recent-- but configured is better) directories. Here's one use case of a couple:

The Downloads folder always collects files of a few types: PDFs, MP3s, soundfonts, ZIPs of various sorts, documents from work, etc. There's places for each of these things (even directories where "downloads" accrete, outside of the standard Downloads folder. For example, if I've downloaded some installers that I want to keep around, I might move them to a well-known but different places. Is there a way to do this, that I'm missing? Typing a long path or remembering (and losing) what's in the copy buffer are more dodgy than creating that list once-in-blue-moon.

Also, sometimes I'll explode a ZIP on the desktop or similar and want to re-constitute a different resulting folder in the canonical place (removing .DS_STORE, manuals for languages I don't speak, etc.). I know where I want that new folder to go, but it's somewhat multi-step to get it there.

Lastly, in my particular case, it could theoretically be better if F2F didn't quit between iterations, but that perhaps complicates things horribly, and it's not like F2F is slow or anything. But, could a flag be sent on startup that tells F2F to re-initialize, but stay resident between iterations? (There are hours where I'll go a-cleaning, and this could help one iota). Keeping it stateless has it's charm, so feel free to say so.

2

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Right Click any file and create New Folder by its Name

« on: March 20, 2018, 02:28 PM »

Skwire,

Would you consider a feature request for Files2Folders. Ah, Files2Folders-- the code that saved our world from Armageddon. They teach the children of it, and it provides our people solace in trying times.

Anyway!

Sometimes I want the "target folder" to be created in a different directory than the one I'm in. Can a list of 10 recent directories or so be kept in a pick list and defaulted to the last-used? Also, and I'm not sure how this'll grab ya, sometimes I'd like the target directory to named for me. Can some random string, or perhaps a timestamp, or a combination be generated to offer me that option. These two features are great when weeding a directory (like "Downloads" that may not have been cleaned for a bit...) and wanting to keep the files, but get them out of my face, and put them in the canonical place I keep those files.

Again, loves me the Files2Folders, even without this goosing. If there even IS another computer program, I've never heard of it!

3

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Show us your LaunchBar Commander Screenshots

« on: December 05, 2017, 07:51 AM »

Sorry if this is a too-old thread, but I just used it today... As an alternative behavior when hovering over a selected icon, instead of inverting the icon, could the icon be outlined in a solid color. For example, when hovered-over, the icon edge would turn yellow or red?

Obviously not a huge issue, but I noticed that most of my icons look bad inverted. Sorry if this is already a feature/option I don't see.

Thanks mouser, for a great tool. I've noticed that on Win 10 the Start Menu "goes in and out of working properly," so I'm happy to have a better alternative.

4

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Sort images into folders based on resolution

« on: April 11, 2017, 07:13 AM »

Indeed, this is a powerful tool and a great way to sort. I had an additional request, and was curious if it would be easy and appropriate to add-- I think much of the fore-knowledge to implement it is already inherent to the tool.

I find myself in the position of staging other, unrelated imaging automation (like batch re-sizing), and for it to succeed, I need to separate the "portrait" orientations from the "landscape" orientations. Could a mode be offered that would simply create those two directories in the target, and (as today) copy or move the images appropriately?

Thanks Skwire, for a useful tool, and for entertaining the feature request; of course, if I'm missing how it can do this, forgive the ignorance.

-C

5

Post New Requests Here / Re: Filename randomizer

« on: March 10, 2016, 10:15 AM »

Thanks DCWul62!

I concur about BulkRenameUtility it seems very powerful, but the user interface stands in my way of both proceeding with confidence and ending up with the results I wanted.

I am glad to learn about Advanced Renamer and Flash Renamer-- I didn't know either and they are both good tools it seems. I will check out the free Advanced Renamer next time I have the need.

And I second skwire's curiosity for the true random renaming; it's a bit extreme if humans are meant to consume the names (I'm sure they're not), but admit that unique random names are a useful interim step in processes where you're aggregating lots of directories.

6

Post New Requests Here / Re: Click a Datacard to Open a Directory (or more!)

« on: March 10, 2016, 09:41 AM »

Thanks for your reply. I've tried your advice and indeed it offers some help. These are the drawbacks I've hit-- not sure if there are workarounds:

• Only icons can be used for the folder graphics, not photos. That's kind of a bummer.
• Not sure how to add the annotating text (this would be needed to differentiate among similar images)

To be honest, I don't use the native library features much, but I will see how much I can get out of it. For such a front-line construct, I ought to use them more maybe? They aggregate disparate content without moving it, but there are features I wish were also available, similar to the above.

On the bright side, I've found this discussion of related tools (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/2-tools-and-ways-to-manage-your-windows-libraries/) and will hunt around for more. Are you using libraries much and are there tools you find useful for them?

7

Post New Requests Here / Re: Filename randomizer

« on: March 09, 2016, 03:25 PM »

DCWul62,

Not quite sure if it fits the bill (or if you're already familiar), but it seems very rich in the ideas you seek: http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

I, too, am seemingly always after clever renamers and such, and have found this one intriguing, although I haven't mastered it yet. Section 2.7 of the manual talks about how it works to control duplicates on the fly. I think it would meet your criteria of fixing the file length, as it allows padding of the result (manual page 6).

I use it now and then for simpler renaming tasks.

Worth a click maybe?

A regex-enabled renamer I know of is PCMAG's multiren, but that's not free.

-cci8j

8

Post New Requests Here / Click a Datacard to Open a Directory (or more!)

« on: March 04, 2016, 04:53 PM »

Hello Folks!

I hope you're well. I could make good use of this tool, if you're curious to create it.

I would like a way to use a list of simple graphic/text references to help me remember and navigate to certain directories.

There are perhaps tools that could help here, but I don't know of them, or if you're intrigued, maybe you could create this (or a similar item). Please see the attached image (this is completely vaporware I simply created to explain this request).



The tool I envision is rather simple-- (1) a graphic image (200x200 px) and (2) a short text area form a "datacard" (I'm not stuck on the name of course). These are assembled in a scrollable list (3), although I've only shown one here. Clicking the picture with the mouse (4) opens a specified directory (4). I have shown an example here using a datatype familiar to computer musicians. A soundfont is a file that groups a collection of WAV files, and this one relates to a piano. You can envision having many discrete soundfonts, each relating to a different instrument, and each having a folder of files. If I had 40 instruments I might have 40 "datacards."

However, I would like a generalized tool, as this idea of "clicking an annotated picture takes me to a directory" is one I know I would use in many domains. Consider a collection of datacards referring to vacation snaps. You might scroll through small pictures of cities, then click on the Eiffel Tower annotated with "Paris-- Christmas 1965" and go to that directory. Or any of dozens of other references. The pictures and small notes are the mental triggers for where you really want to go. For this reason, a "bonus" feature would be the ability to apply a "genre" label in the window bar (5), as I have done here.

If you want to generalize the on-click behavior to "do a specified action," that could be quite useful, as I could easily see this as a springboard for, say, using Mouser's MediaBrowser, or even opening a document based on the relevant image.

It's wonderful to be able to bring this to such a thoughtful group, and I hope someone wants to run with it. Or, as I said, let me know what might already exist.

9

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: RegaLink

« on: October 03, 2013, 09:31 PM »

Wow, sorry to be away. I hadn't noticed the activity, and I wouldn't want that to be interpretted as losing interest.

I've prepared this reply to sort out some of the confusion my previous post may have caused, and to help further flesh out the ideas I have in mind-- they'll benefit from your thinking as well.

First, I should say that I've downloaded your beta version and kicked the tires, thanks for compiling and sharing!

I had requested a "programmatic re-labeling," as it were-- not to the window, rather to the "Stay Productive" legend. I certainly value being urged to stay productive, but I think we can put that area of screen real estate to clever use!



If you'll indulge me, let's step back for a moment, and I'll show you the power I already see in Regalink, and what I'm driving at. Hopefully, it's a place you want to go!

I mentioned that "other programs may create URL.txt files," and that's why they need to be named on the command line. I say that because there's LOTS of ways to end up with a collection of URLs you want to visit. You could, for example, save a file from your browser's bookmarks. Or, you could screen scrape a page on the web. Or the results of a query, or... you get the idea. In fact, I see the world like this:



That's OK, Regalink doesn't really care where its input file came from, as long as it's syntactically correct. That's a beautiful thing, and it becomes the underpinning of my other requests...

Consider the commandline execution I requested. Those lines might look something like this:



Those would hopefully execute 3 instances of Regalink, like these:


and




and




This would be VERY powerful in terms of general desktop integration. You might remember my earlier note regarding "not caring if the URL is on the web, or local to the machine (that is, a file execution)..." Given these capabilities (and I think they are very close to your grasp), you could envision a future where while you sleep, some process gathers up or makes decisions on what URLs you should visit, and then pops up a Regalink window, properly named, with links and commands in a nice ordered list.

Personally, I think the date and time stamping may ultimately not be worth too much fuss, but certainly succinct display is warranted. 99.99% of the time, I'm sure that the "year" or "tenths-of-seconds" are not going to be needed. I would suggest that the information might not really be needed in its entirety, but I admit I could be shortsighted on this count.

Lastly then, let's consider the file format for the "URL.txt" file. Consider this file:


; OK, let's pretend that this is the contents of URL.txt
;
; First, some nomenclature. Look at the first character in each of the following lines:
;
; This is a "comment" indicator in URL.txt Simply skip the line when reading in.
# This is a "heading" line. When read, the list on screen has some heading displayed.
% This is a "separator" of some sort in URL.txt. When read, the list on screen has some separator displayed.
;
; These can be quite useful. At a minimum, it allows us to embed comments in URL.txt that might be useful
; to us, especially if we're generating URL.txt programmatically. For example, we might note these facts:
;
; The following URLs were gathered by a perl script munging an RSS feed (myHappyPerlScript.pl)
; The intended use is opening in Regalink.
;
;
https://www.donationcoder.com
http://www.imgur.com
http://www.google.com
;
;
; Since we're still pretending, consider this:
# Political Blogs
http://www.politicalblog1.com
http://www.politicalblog2.com
http://www.politicalblog3.com
%
# Food Blogs
http://www.foodblog1.com
http://www.foodblog2.com
http://www.foodblog3.com
%
# Music Blogs
http://www.musicblog1.com
http://www.musicblog2.com
http://www.musicblog3.com
;
;


Maybe, just maybe, there's a way that such a file could look like this:


Now, I admit, this is all vapor at the moment, but you're really not that far away, and this is much more like the napkin I'd be drawing on if we were seated opposite each other at the pub, and turning over ideas on what this software could be.

Let me come up for air, then, and ask what you think, and which bits might be the next easiest to knock out? Great journeys are taken in small steps, after all.

Cheers, and thanks for your efforts!

-cci8j

10

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: RegaLink

« on: July 10, 2013, 08:04 PM »

While Stephen recuperates, I was curious if anyone else has ideas for RegaLink?

I should mention that the FavIcon note refers to AcqURL's interface-- it's not actually a feature request, so please don't fuss on that account.

It's worth noting to anyone that's familiar with that tool, that I think RegaLink and AcqURL could actually work quite well together, so I plan to integrate them into my "daily use" regimen, and that also yoking RegaLink to processes that can create files of URLs programmatically will also be very cool-- even more powerful if a way emerges to put RegaLink in service of opening files in the local visible filesystems.

So, for example, if you wanted to check diagnostics on your system(s), you might have RegaLink look at the current collection of logfiles, and it would represent something of a checklist of places you wanted to be sure to visit, and a reference to places you'd already gotten.

Anyway, I'm happy to champion and cheerlead the cause, but was curious if anyone else has downloaded the current version and used it?

Cheers!

-cci8j

11

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: RegaLink

« on: May 07, 2013, 10:47 AM »

I'm interested in RegaLink and I have some additional features to request. Perhaps you can accommodate them, but regardless, thanks for your efforts so far.

Before I dive into the requests, I'd like to share with you a similar product I use quite a bit, and one that I intend to use in conjunction with RegaLink: GTTech's freeware AcqURL. AcqURL is a small, now-free product that I've used successfully for a number of years, and actually like quite a bit, although on reflection there's a bunch of parts to the application that I don't particularly make use of.

More about AcqURL, and downloadable here: CNet URL

Originally, I thought that I was searching for an AcqURL replacement, but I think the two tools can co-exist quite well, so I'll try to live that way-- in fact, RegaLink may prolong the mileage I get from AcqURL, a bonus for me.

Things I like about AcqURL:

* Different tabs by topic

* Ability to add separating "headings" for organization

* Supports Windows shortcuts as a launchable item: this is quite useful and I'd encourage you to consider it for RegaLink. It is certainly the case that there are activities that are worth doing and "tracking as done," which is what RegaLink helps with.

* Color control

* Favicon detection for URLs

Problems I have with AcqURL, and ones that I think RegaLink can assist with:

* Fixed number of entries per tab (move many URLs to RegaLink lists)

So, in RegaLink, these are the features I'd like:

1. Specify URL.txt filename on the command-line. Critical-- since the program allows multiple instances to be active (yay!), it would be really great to be able to launch each one with a different URL.txt file.

2. Capitalize (not ALL CAPS) for the word "Add" on the right-mouseclick menu.

3. I believe that URL.txt files may be programmatically generated by processes; as such, these would be nice additions:

3a. Allow for a "heading" of some sort in URL.txt. When read, the list on screen has some heading displayed.

3b. Allow for a "separator" of some sort in URL.txt. When read, the list on screen has some separator displayed.

3c. Allow for a "comment" indicator in URL.txt Simply skip the line when reading in.

4. Header graphic control: if specified on the command-line, RegaLink will use a JPG file above the current multi-panel display. If the specified graphic is not found, isn't the right size, or otherwise strange, it'll use an internal graphic. This would go a long way toward customization and personalization, and even allows for integration with other programs.

5. Color control for font, background, borders, whatever. Either ad hoc via command-line, or from a family of color choices, or even a config file? A config file might be a convenient place to park options.

6. Font size flexibility: you'll be old someday too.

7. Change the time format to (something like) 14 May 10:25 AM: My thinking here is that year values won't really ever be needed, and quite probably seconds. A human-optimized date format

Again, a cool little app, please continue to add fertilizer, I think this can grow quite nicely with some attention. Additionally, we do want to see you in the pilot's seat again, right?