Messages

51

Living Room / Etch a Sketch

« on: April 04, 2006, 06:44 PM »

Errrr.......this is what I call an artist!  Too bad I never made anything like that, but I did love Etch a Sketch!

Gallery

52

General Software Discussion / Re: what kind of keyboard you use?

« on: April 04, 2006, 05:35 PM »

I use a keyboard I just love!    Serious love!  It's the way the keys are shaped, and the very light touch - quiet, too.  Keyboards are extremely important to me, and I got turned onto this one about a year ago and there's no going back.  It's cheap, too!  It's the A4 Tech AntiRSI keyboard, model KBS-8.  Here's more:  link 

I prefer taking the wrist rest part or whatever, off. 

As I recall, you don't actually buy it from them, but you can find places to buy it by just searching.  I really do think it's a fantastic keyboard.  Actually, I think Kensington keyboards that you sometimes see in computer stores are the exact same thing; if not exact, some very, very minor difference.   

PS:  I didn't mention it allows fast typing.  Trust me!   

53

General Software Discussion / Re: One-hit wonders

« on: April 04, 2006, 05:21 PM »

It's amazing!  I read this the other day and was highly interested.  Then today, at another forum, I saw an old post where someone was saying how utterly fantastic Ecco Pro was.....so I go searching on it and find this write-up - heck, I'm drooling now!  If I could just be sure it would work with Windows 2000, I'd get it right now! 

Well, one wonder I know of, half alive and half dead (because it's now a more advanced version and no longer freeware, is RegCleaner.  I like the old version of it much, much better than the later ones, and I still use it.  You can still get the freeware version, too - here  It's been a long time, but I believe the later was JV16 Power Tools.  As I said, I prefer the older version. 

54

Living Room / Re: browsershots.org - shows you what sites look like in dif browsers

« on: March 26, 2006, 04:52 PM »

Very neat, thanks for that one.

55

Living Room / Food that just isn't "right"

« on: March 23, 2006, 03:56 PM »

Brought to you by... Museum of Food Anomalies   

56

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Browster a free preview checker outer and more..

« on: March 23, 2006, 07:18 AM »

I just read about it elsewhere, and people were going on about it like it was the best thing since sliced bread.  Really, really complimentary remarks.  But a few people raised concerns about prefetching and browser slow-downs.  I'm very tempted to try it, but might wait for more people's opinions first!

57

Living Room / Re: When you are feeling down

« on: March 22, 2006, 08:19 AM »

LOL, these are great! 

58

General Software Discussion / Tame - a program for those running DOS applications

« on: March 14, 2006, 06:43 AM »

I've heard about Tame for years.  I've read good things about it nearly always, though did hear an opinion from someone that it probably doesn't make much of a difference.  But for one thing, it's recommended by Ed Mendelson here ,for running DOS applications in Windows 2000 and XP, although he mainly concentrates on WordPerfect for DOS.  This is one guy I really respect!  Anyway, if you run other DOS apps, maybe you'd like to look into what Tame is about.

59

Site/Forum Features / Re: new forum feature - spoiler tag

« on: March 14, 2006, 06:18 AM »

What a very cool feature!  Speaking of cool, the program of the moment for me is the neato

Spoiler

PopUp Wisdom!

60

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: March 08, 2006, 08:28 AM »

Harrie,

I have to abstract lots of journals, hence I find this kind of tool useful.  Apart from PC-Write's built-in feature, the only one I've tried myself is AHK, apart from a very quick dabble with PowerPro.  That is an impenetrable program, except that text snippets are the easiest part of it.  They're attached to buttons rather than hotstrings (I daresay you can have those too, but I never got that far).

-rjbull (March 06, 2006, 04:26 AM)

You're getting me interested in all sorts of things now!  Speaking of PowerPro, I believe I had tried that.  It's a program I didn't give enough time to.  I found it difficult.  But sometimes when programs are a bit challenging for me, with lots of features to learn, I give up too soon when I know that if I'd only give it a little more time.......Anyway, buttons sound good so long as you definitely could have them in hotstrings for folks who never want to go the clickie route, LOL.  

Abstracting journals - that sounds very interesting.  I don't feel I really know what it involves, but for some reason, it brings to mind a program I just recently learned about, from a member of my board, a translator.  This program is cool!  It's called TextSTAT and it's free.  Here's a link  It can sort words by frequency for you.  What I went crazy over was, if you double click on a word, all the phrases that it's in (in your documents) come up.  Wow!  For MTs, that can be a heavenly gift, to let you add your most frequently used phrases in your expander.  Runs on Mac and Linux, too.  Probably has nothing to do with what you do, but........maybe.

I hadn't realised the quality of Instant Text when I first posted.  I see it costs $189, and if price is anything to go by, it should be good!  The ColorPilot one is only about $25 (from memory).  The author of the KeyNote organizer/outliner recommends IntelliComplete, which is about $50.  IntelliComplete is here http://flashpeak.com/icomp/

Instant Text is high quality.  I did post my review, and in that thread, IntelliComplete came up there, too.  Thanks for the info.  Gotta check out ColorPilot.  Another good expander is Shorthand for Windows.  It's excellent and does have a downloadable demo.  But, there can be no changing for me.  That's how incredible I feel Instant Text is.

In his smallwares list, MarkTAW  http://www.marktaw.c...voriteSmallware.html
says he uses PC Magazine's RoboType for standardized text like signatures and bits of code.  You have to pay an low-cost annual subscription to access PC Magazine utilities, but subsequent use is free (i.e., I think, subscribe for a year, grab what you want, and use if forever without further payment).

I've read about RoboType for years!  I think it is very, very popular!

Of course, the good thing about AHK is that's it's completely free (with donation possible) and hotstring files are simple plain text, which makes them very easy to share, though AHK hotstrings on their own don't have a point-and-shoot interface.  Also they won't work on Win9x, if anyone but me is still a dinosaur   

AHK is awesome!  And to be able to make executables, too, for people who don't have it and maybe only want one or two certain scripts!  Yes, easy to share, plain text, working in any application, working off a USB stick, I'm with you, it's great.  The one thing I will disagree with is that I've seen reviews that say it is "easy."  To me, it isn't easy to learn to program in AHK.  Not that it should be, you understand.  I'm just saying, if you don't know anything about programming languages, a review should not claim that it's simple.  

Maybe one day I'll talk about ActiveWords!  I love that program to death.  Doesn't have the power of AHK, but it has a whole lot of power nevertheless.  And although it does text substitution, I don't use it for that.  Rather, for automating all sorts of other things.  

Dinosaurs interest me!  Some older apps remain the greatest.  Oh, this reminds me about a freeware site, I think it's called Pricelessware, and I think it offers up a lot of older programs, unless I'm mistaking it for another site.

Hi, Brother.  Sure will!  I have a habit of wanting to wait until everything is squared away and then tuck it all into a neat little package with everything together and all instructions, etc. straightened out.  Did post about DC in a general post, too.  Love this place!

61

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: March 08, 2006, 08:02 AM »

ChangeLog:
- added "about/donate" button and dialog.
- search for repeated entries is now integrated in the main script
- there is a progress bar when looking for repeated entries (to avoid comeone thinking that the computer might have crashed )
- trigger function is fixed (it works now, but Harrie reported a bug i still couldn't fix)
- added "esc" key functionality in the main screen
- lowered the keysending time, now hotsrings are replaced faster
- added traytip with "file creation ended" because sometimes it takes time to create the file, and that could be the origin for some problems
- added function that when you write an abbreviation in CAPS, the replacement is in CAPS

When you can test it, i'd be very thankful if you could post your comments here!
(post above updated with new version)

-jgpaiva (March 08, 2006, 05:23 AM)

My comments are that the caps feature seems to be working fantastically well.  That is such a must and it's great to have it in there.  And I'm slapping myself all over the place for not mentioning it in the first place. 

The tooltip letting you know to wait while the file is being created, and the tooltip letting you know it's done, are also a big improvement, I think.  Just in case someone doesn't realize that something is happening in the background, though they can't see it. 

Also, the speed default is much better now.  That will be sure to be everyone's favorite improvement.  Hehe.

Who wouldn't love that repeated entries is now incorporated in the main script?

The only bug I am finding now is that certain words seem to want to expand with an extra character, or otherwise don't come out correctly.  And it's only certain ones.  As I said in an email, this is certainly not unheard of even in commercial, professional expanders.  It's something that sometimes happens.  Sometimes the culprit is that a person has Word AutoCorrect on and perhaps has the same short form in there.  Also, simply Word itself has been called the culprit.  But I'm getting this in other apps, too, like my email app.  I think it has to do with the timing settings (just because of experience with other expanders). 

With all of the other features you have added, if we can squash that one, it will be great!  You've turned an idea into something very real.  I can't tell you how much I love it!  I've already offered the first version on my site and, when done, will definitely post again with the updated version. 

62

Living Room / Re: cool stuff shop with stuff like exploding rose surprise

« on: March 08, 2006, 06:13 AM »

Hahaha!  The puzzle alarm clock cracks me up!  Why, one would eventually probably start waking up early, ready to switch it to off so they didn't have to put the pieces back to shut it up!  LOL!

63

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Instant Text V Pro - more than the usual features of a text expander

« on: March 08, 2006, 06:06 AM »

Imtrobin, thanks for the info.  It's also interesting to see that IntelliComplete has a multi-clipboard manager.  I didn't know that.  It also looks good in that they say it's "efficient in auto-typing non-English alphabets with circumflexes and accents. IntelliComplete reduces your typing labor in both your source language and target language."  That's a really good thing.  I know many text-substituting programs don't have that feature.

I also wish Instant Text had a downloadable demo, just because it makes it so easy to try programs.  But I respect their wish to go with the returnable CD.  Right now, I just do wish you all could try it!  <grin>

About the dictionaries, Imtrobin, I didn't go into this (and a lot of features), because of it being a mini-review and not certain how long I should go on, but Instant Text comes with many glossaries already available.  The nice thing is, they don't make you use them, which I appreciate personally.  (I know a program where that's it, it's default, and you are expected to want to use it.)  NOT!  Give me the choice of using it or not.  I like to put in my own words and phrases.  But many people love being able to instantly have medical-phrase glossaries already built in.  You can "include" all the glossaries you want, so that they are all available with your main one. 

Mouser - maybe at some future time I might want to do that.  I honestly can't picture one I could order up better than what I have now. 

I also didn't mention that the program let's you do "commands."  For instance, if you want a command to go back and put a hyphen in between two words, you just input the keyboard commands for same, then give it a shortcut name.  In fact, this is one of its best features and I should have put it in my mini-review.  It also has a "format" button which is nice.

Allen, you are right.  I think it's steep for those wanting such a program but not necessarily for speed galore.  If I were not a transcriptionist needing speed to make a good paycheck, I would not consider the price.  But at the same token, since I am one, I don't really consider it expensive at all.

One obvious thing to mention is that, I remember the days when my hands ached from typing everything out.  My hands haven't hurt in years now!  <grin>

64

Living Room / Re: Newsvine...worth a look

« on: March 08, 2006, 05:33 AM »

Thanks for posting about this.  Been checking it out the last few days.  Really, really like it.  And the look is fantastic.

65

Living Room / Encrypted mail in UK illegal - is it true?

« on: March 07, 2006, 03:53 AM »

Carol, I read in another topic that you said it is now illegal to send encrypted mail in the UK as part of anti-terror measures.  I don't doubt you but I'm dying for more info.  That just seems so incredible to me!  Not that I can't understand why it would be considered important to do, I can easily understand that and even agree with it, but on the other hand, there are so many legitimate reasons one might want to use encrypted mail.  Wow.

Anyway, I was searching for more information and stumbled upon this article, which was pretty interesting.  Just thought I'd share it:

Innocent in London

66

Living Room / Re: online superfast incremental search dictionary

« on: March 05, 2006, 07:54 AM »

I agree with that, brotherS!  Love Google Suggest! 

Thanks, mouser, that dictionary is a keeper!

67

Developer's Corner / Re: 18 Monospace fonts comparison screenshot

« on: March 05, 2006, 07:25 AM »

Might as well mention two fonts here, Dark Courier and Courier 10 BT.  They are infinitely better to view than Courier New, IMO.

I really do like Dina!

68

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Instant Text V Pro - more than the usual features of a text expander

« on: March 05, 2006, 07:02 AM »

I actually did try IntelliComplete, in its early days.  I felt it had a lot of potential, but it was buggy.  I admit I did not go back later and try it again. 

Ah, but dajo, I have!  See the Coding Snacks forum!  <grin>  Tooltips or some sort of visual reminder is a must for me, and jgpaiva fixed me right up on that one, as well as more. 

But honestly, I can't see a better one than Instant Text.  It has practically no bugs and is stable as a rock, it's got options galore for everything a transcriptionist needs, and the continuations feature spells speed galore.  The price tag it has, for a medical transcriptionist who gets paid by the line, meaning - the faster you can transcribe, the more you will make, really is a pittance, because one will make it right back with this application. 

There are people who prefer other expanders, and I'm not against that.  Isn't that the way with all software.  And especially the top applications in whatever "category," there will be discussions about which is truly the best.  I love that there are different strokes for different folks, and I love reading why one person prefers "this app over that app."  Guess it's a lot of why I decided to join in here at DC!

69

Mini-Reviews by Members / Instant Text V Pro - more than the usual features of a text expander

« on: March 03, 2006, 09:56 AM »

Instant Text Overview

Instant Text is a text expander for anyone who can benefit from it - medical transcriptionists, translators, legal secretaries, technical writers, etc.  It costs 189.00 per user.  It is very worth the price.  One can order it and try it for 30 days; if not for you, the CD can be returned for a full refund.  It works in most Windows programs and now also works in WP5.1 for DOS, although adding words and phrases to your glossary quickly does not work the way it does in Windows.  (In Windows, you select your phrase, hit Alt + =, and it is added.  The short form is filled in for you, first letter of each word, so that you just need to hit Enter.  You can, of course, change that short form if you want to.  At this point, I believe that if using Instant Text in WP5.1 for DOS, because of clipboard differences, you need to actually enter it, or copy it another way.  Since I don't use WP5.1, I'm not certain of the details.  Anyway, if you're an AHK lover or ActiveWords lover, you can also automate selecting the phrase and hitting the Alt + = sign, such speed is delightful!  I have scripts for automatically selecting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 words.

Most expanders work by the spacebar trigger.  Instant Text will allow users to do this, but some of its most powerful features are disabled this way.  It is best used with marker keys, which the user can choose.  For instance, using the semicolon to trigger your phrases and another marker key, perhaps ], for your word expansions.  There is a variety to choose from.

I will not go into every feature it has, only the most remarkable.  You can do a glossary compilation, which means that, if you have a file folder with 50-200, or 50-1000 (any number, actually) documents you have typed for your boss, your lawyer or lawyers, your doctor or doctors, whatever, you can have Instant Text scan those documents and create a glossary for you, in a matter of a minute or so.  To top that off, doing this compilation will now allow what they call continuations.  Continuations are when you start off like this:

tineo=there is no evidence of - okay, you typed your short and expanded that phrase.  Now, in the visual advisory screen, what comes often after that phrase is already there for you to see.  I'm doing it right now, and listed there for me are possibilities.  All I need do is select the proper one (if it isn't already the very first one), and hit my marker key, the semicolon, to expand the phrase.  Below is a screenshot of what I see after expanding tineo.  If you transcribe for a small group of people, the continuations you will get can be absolutely magnificent.  I know, because I've had that situation.  If you transcribe for hundreds, you won't get results that fantastic, but you will still get continuations.  The way in which you do the settings during compilation has a lot to do with it.

Another feature is that I don't even have to type out the whole short form, though.  Let's take one I have.  The short is tieotv, the long is "there is enlargement of the ventricles."  Instant Text has a "jump ahead" feature, and all I have to do is put in, say titv, and I still get the phrase to pop up.  You really don't have to memorize with this program.  You can hit a combination of letters that you think might be it. 

It also has options that many other text expanders don't.  It has an option to capitalize the first letter of sentences, no matter what application you're in.  It has spacing options that you choose, to have it put two spaces after punctuation marks or one, whatever you prefer.  (Or, you can set it not to do so, if you somehow prefer that.)  It "understands" punctuation as you type, in other words.  I expand a phrase and hit a comma, the space after the comma is already there.  Whenever you expand a phrase, if you don't hit a punctuation mark, it has already spaced for you for the next word.  I don't know what it's like to hit spacebar after period or anything else anymore.  There is one defect, that of spacing after a number with a decimal, such as 1.5.  Or, 3:30.  I got the greatest AHK script a few months ago at the AHK forums, and now I actually set my spacing options to 0 in Instant Text and let that script take care of everything.  There also are other ways to get around that number difficulty.  One other thing about numbers, Instant Text will not let you start an abbreviation with a number.  I would like that feature. 

I know this is supposed to be a mini-review, so I will try to wrap it up.  Which means I can't begin to cover all its features.  But, the built-in importer it has is awesome.  This makes it very easy for people using other expanders to almost instantaneously convert their abbreviations files to the Instant Text glossary format.  It will convert Word AutoCorrect, Word AutoText, many other expander formats that are used primarily by transcriptionists, text files, Outlook addresses, certain DBF files.  It also comes with a "Workshop" to let you manipulate your abbreviation files.  You can export words, export words and phrases, remove duplicates, a lot more.

Because it has so many features, it has a bit more of a learning curve than most expanders out there.  It is the best one, for me.  I have tried several.  It simply has the most features.  The developer is constantly listening too, and making additions/improvements/upgrades. 

Here's the continuation screenshot that I mentioned above:




 

70

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: March 03, 2006, 07:34 AM »

Two minutes may be way too long in a programmer's opinion, jgpaiva, but to be able to do that to port to AHK is nothing but heaven for us.  The alternative is, entering them all in manually (yeah, right).........or doing a large-scale find and replace operation, which, in the format the hotstrings come out in the latest version, well, I'm not sure it could be done, or how.  So I have no reason to angst over two minutes.

rjbull, I read your post with great interest, and I'll definitely make a separate post about Instant Text, and ask you some questions I have.  Usually, I find non-MTs have no interest in this, not really, so I'm happily surprised!  Thanks a lot for sharing.

Edit:  Wow, it works off a USB stick just fine, and it works in WPDOS.51 off that stick! 

71

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: an "importer" for abbreviations into AHK

« on: March 02, 2006, 07:41 PM »

Repeated Entries worked like a charm!  On that text file which was 35 pages in MS Word (in small font size, mind you), it found them.  I didn't time it, but I'd say 2 minutes, maybe.  I knew to wait, and then it popped up a message box telling me that the following strings were repeated (and listed them).

It is wonderful to have all those trigger choices!  Tomorrow, I think I'm going to check each one of them out, definitely the most common ones people might choose.  I had it in my mind one couldn't choose space.  I personally wouldn't want to use space, but others might.  These options just make it more cool.   

72

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: an "importer" for abbreviations into AHK

« on: March 02, 2006, 06:57 PM »

Ah!  The final version is a lot better, in fact!  I too had noticed, after my last post, that there was a bit of funny behavior.  Actually, I didn't mind the string being deleted so much (it would also disappear before hitting the trigger, so to speak), but if there was atl=at this level , then, when trying to type something like atlanta, you couldn't actually do it without hitting the end key or something, there was interference.  That's gone now.  I am very happy.  Please consider this the last "fix."  I ended up asking for (and getting!) more than I had originally intended.  This looks really, really good.  I'm deeply grateful for the work put into it, jgpaiva. 

rjbull, thanks for your input.  (Not to claim that I understand the language part, you understand).  Do I actually remember them all?  No way.  That's why I use what to me, is the best expander out there.  It's called Instant Text.  It has incredible abilities, such as coming up with continuations of your phrases, and a whole lot more.  Maybe I'll talk about it in a separate post at some time, since this is a place for software talk.  But I'm not that sure I know all the rules and ins and outs of DC yet.  Anyway, I don't have to remember.  It has visuals.  Different from tooltips, but visuals.  Also, we try to have "systems" for our phrases.  That's a huge help, too.  Might be more than you want to know, though!   

Anyway, I and others I know have had a large interest in AHK for a long time, and the issue of importing so many abbreviations is so big to us, and this script is just so fantastic.  There are features galore transcriptionists like to have, but I personally would never have gotten anywhere near this point, no way.  And it's just very exciting to me.  Having the tooltips thrown in is a joy, pure joy. 

I have not looked at Type Pilot, but of course I will.

Big thanks - again!

73

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: an "importer" for abbreviations into AHK

« on: March 02, 2006, 08:28 AM »

A duplicate checker - great!  jgpaiva, with this one I get an error at line 59, right here:

(Line 59 here) >CreateFile:
  Gui,Submit
  GoSub CreateFile
  return 

Says it is a duplicate label. 

Just tell me what to do and I'll do it.  Edit:  Will probably be checking here again this evening.  The world calls for a few outside errands.

74

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: an "importer" for abbreviations into AHK

« on: March 02, 2006, 06:42 AM »

Thanks, brotherS.  Excellent suggestions!

75

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: an "importer" for abbreviations into AHK

« on: March 02, 2006, 06:31 AM »

Pure fun is right! 

I don't know how to thank you, jgpaiva.  This is so beautiful.  The tooltip works perfectly now, just perfectly.  The GUI is great.  The whole importer action, though, that's so fantastic. 

Have a beer on me.  It's a lot more than I really expected when I first started this thread.  A great script!