In a recent email from Elizabeth at VOPT, she informs me that the company is closing down after 35 years of work.  Read:  No more updates to VOPT, I would suspect.

I have THREE Panasonic Lumix  Point 'n Shoots and like all things with "replaceables", each comes with a different SHAPED battery, altho one has 10% more capacity.  I then got a notice from Panasonic to "Upgrade" the internal chip so that I could only use the $39 batteries and never the $9 ones... I didn't upgrade and still use the two extra $9 batteries and I cannot tell the difference when they are in the camera!  Same amount of video, snaps, etc.  So they are "no brand" 3.7v 1400mAh and of course, "Made in China".  If you figure that you can get more than FOUR "No Brand" batteries for the price of ONE OEM battery, then I am pretty sure that even if the No Brand failed... again and again, when you buy your FIFTH No Brand, you will have reached the OEM price.  Its like inkjet cartridges and laser powder... you can pay $139 and get 4000 copies or pay $11.30 and "only" get 3,750 copies!   Worse now, they are even coding inkjet cartridges with DATE Expirations!  What next?  Bottom line... don't be a victim of the marketing ploys out there!

Sort of OT, but valid observations, nevertheless.  And just WHAT has happened in the past to make people reluctant to PAY for software?  Is it because some may feel that that they are being exploited?  Is it because in order to have an OS, the pricing has made someone one of the richest persons in the world?  Is it because a person may want to use an "expensive" proggy just a few times and it works out to be too expensive per use?  Then just WHAT is it that moves a person to NOT want to pay for software?  It will surely be more difficult for the programmer to figure that out.

I, for instance, was always amazed at the asking price for designing/setting up a web site... $1,000?  Get real.  Then I started dabbling in making a site of my own and WOW! what an ordeal and what a lot of time it takes and what a lot of knowledge is required to make it come out right.  I recall in the mid '90's that a guy I knew made $100/hour doing Photoshop as a freelancer and I was impressed... but his investment in study and practice was mind-boggling... he earned every penny and altho "just" a programmer, he prolly had the education investment that an engineer or doctor might require.  So unless you have been down that road, it is difficult for the average person to understand the amount of work involved in "creation" where the results are saleable.  Of course now it has evolved that you pay full retail up front for a proggy, OS's are the most obvious example, and it is like buying a car with lots "missing" parts that you are "allowed" to acquire a few pieces at a time over the ensuing years, even having to replace some of those parts time and time again because the piece you "updated" caused other problems.  And finally, while they are dishing out parts to make your car more complete (when not counting their money), they are working on a new "model" and you are STILL struggling to get your original purchase altogether in one piece... then you must abandon it, buy the NEW model and spend the next few years acquiring parts for it.  That really DOES encourage piracy.  And the more useful and easy to use and productive programs are priced for "corporate consumption" and in many cases beyond the economic reach of Joe Blow.   So the logic is like music piracy... sure, it took a LOT of effort and talent and investment to make that first CD, but jeeeeez, why does the 5th million CD cost the same as the first one when all it did was sit in a CD reproducer for a second or two?  The logic then is sure, the first one may have cost a million, but number 5 million couldn't have cost more than 50-cents with the case.... and then the logic is "I would rather steal it than pay the $18.95 for a 50 cent CD.'

So guys, we KNOW who the heroes are but it may be hard to separate them from the rest. 

Back to topic.  "TipOff" does the job and well enough that I don't mind having to R click Properties and then Comment Tab to make my Notes... true, there could be an easier and faster way to make Comments but while there is no proggy to do it, I am satisfied with TipOff even tho it doesn't work on Folders... yet.  (But I AM put off by recalling the Comments that I have already made and find them highlighted which means that if I don't click first to UNhighlight my previous Comments, they disappear with the first key stroke of additional Comments! as if Comment REPLACEMENT was the idea.)  Thanks again for the help and the discussion.