topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Friday March 29, 2024, 12:41 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Dormouse [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: prev1 ... 61 62 63 64 65 [66] 67 68 69 70 71 ... 78next
1626
Circle Dock / Re: Help
« on: September 13, 2008, 12:01 PM »
If you have a desktop icon it is only a shortcut to the prog (or file).
If you drag it to CD, you have created a shortcut (CD) to the shortcut (Desktop).
Taking out the shortcut (Desktop) leaves the shortcut (CD) pointing to nothing.

What you should do is to take the icon from the program folder (usually in Programs on the C drive) and put that in CD.
You could then remove the desktop icon and just use CD.

1627
General Software Discussion / Re: Image organizer recommendations
« on: September 12, 2008, 10:01 AM »
I see you have already asked the question at dpreview and it is worth doing a search there for the many relevant threads.

When I was looking a few years ago, I narrowed it down to 3 - IdImager, iMatch and Picasa. I'd already had a copy of Photoshop Elements, but, while it was pretty good as a photo editor, I found it very limited as a DAM prog and never used it as such.

Lightroom is a new arrival since I was looking, but you couldn't accuse it of being inexpensive; and Adobe's policies tend to make the expense fairly continuous.

Microsoft took over iView, which I thought was too expensive anyway.

There are others, such as ThumbsPlus, which some people like but I've never looked in detail atthem for one reason or another and would not like to comment.

IdI does everything you asked for including a slideshow with music, but it does cost $69.
Picasa has the advantage of being free, but you have already dismissed it.
iMatch is a very competent and fast database, but I've never heard anyone describe it as simple.

1628
General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?
« on: September 12, 2008, 08:15 AM »
- and pretty expensive! No matter the price you have made idImager very interesting to me. I think I will want it for Christma$...   8)

Can't argue about its being expensive, though I think IdImager, with its wide range of functions, must be better value than IdFramer alone. And all the other quality DAM (digital asset management) tools are expensive, so IdI is not out of line - probably still rather cheap compared to many. There was a free version (IdI Lite), but unfortunately Hert discontinued it after the paid versions had moved on to v4; can't remember whether that did framing (I assume not since he continued marketing IdF).

1629
General Software Discussion / Re: How do you manage your email?
« on: September 11, 2008, 08:52 AM »
I admit to being hypersensitive to the possibility of email loss. That means multiple email clients (and databases), each containing everything, and multiple backups in multiple locations. But I don't do paper.

1630
General Software Discussion / Re: Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate
« on: September 10, 2008, 07:31 PM »
Amongst many photo/image editing programs, I have PSP8; reviews of new versions have never tempted me towards an upgrade. And I can't see that position changing.

I think WP was only really an industry leader in the last days of DOS (having taken over that position from WordStar). Like the other 'leaders' of that time, it did not transition quickly enough to Windows and was never good enough to catch up with Word when it did. I don't think its demise can be attributed to Corel who paid good money to take over what was already deadware (in the mistaken view that they would do better with a Suite).

1631
General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?
« on: September 10, 2008, 03:36 PM »
Of course I would also like to test idImager in order to see if there are any noticeable differences, concerning frames. As you said, they use the same engine, but  regarding frames  I would like to know if idImager is offering some valuable extras, having an in-built editor, other than idFramer does.
Belated congratulations  :Thmbsup:

Now I have IdImager, but haven't tried IdFramer separately. IdI does have many more functions than IdF, but I doubt whether they extend to framing. IdI is fundamentally an Image Database Manager, but also has raw conversion and some photoediting and comparison tools.

However, a lot of frame editing is possible. You can have as many frame layers as you want (you simply add layers as you choose). The layers can be of any pattern/texture you choose (you can select the image you want to use as the base from any image on your computer) and you can choose whether to tile or stretch it. You can set the shape of the frame by using masks (you can see examples by looking in the masks folder, and it would be very easy then to design your own). And, of course, each layer can be of any width etc etc. And having designed a custom frame, you can save it and use it as often as you want, tweaking it as much as you want as you go. And all the frames can easily be duplicated and/or edited.

Pretty simple and pretty effective and flexible.

1632
Circle Dock / Re: Can you think of a way to add tabs to the circle?
« on: September 10, 2008, 11:30 AM »
You could just see tabs as different looking folders; or as buttons that trigger a menu with contents varying according to the tab.

1633
General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?
« on: September 09, 2008, 01:59 PM »
I don't yet have any idea about how to add new frames to idFramer, using the same procedures as shown in the picture, but I am really hoping it will be possible in a easy way. Then this would be my next step. The next exciting part of the race... My problem right here and now is that I have not yet collected any frames, so I am in the dark when it comes to understanding what frames really are! What ARE we talking about?
I assume you are asking questions etc on the IdImager/IdFramer forums. (IdImager apparently has the same framer engine as IdFramer, so posts about framing there are relevant and there seem to be far more users for IdImager). Alternatively, Hert (the developer) is generally extremely helpful and responsive.

1634
General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?
« on: September 08, 2008, 04:46 PM »
The problem with design-your-own solutions is that they either have to be designed for each photo in turn or that you have a relatively small number of frames to choose from.

The frame making programs have a choice of options (many or few depending on the program), where there can be settings for width, colour, gradient, opacity etc and where there can be an outside and inner frame and another frame to simulate the card on which the photo can be mounted inside the frame. There are a lot of easily made choices so that each photo can have a frame designed to suit it without spending a lot of time doing the framing. When you have a lot of photos you want to frame, and you are fussy about the quality, the time that this approach saves can be huge.

1635
General Software Discussion / Re: How do you manage your email?
« on: September 08, 2008, 06:05 AM »
At one stage, I did a lot of sorting, filtering, creating and refining rules for everything including spam.
Like a few others, I've largely given that up. Took a lot of time for little real gain.

I do have a folder for 'Needs Action (but I'm not doing it now)'.
For everything else I just use the Search - either within the prog or using Mailstore.

I do use a lot of email clients having my fingers burnt in the past when one crashed with some emails lost. Problem could usually be resolved in the end, but there was at least temporary lack of access to some emails. These include Opera, Do-Organiser, Spicebird, Thunderbird, Courier and TheBat!. I occasionally download into Outlook; I just use Do-organizer when it is open to see if there is anything new. I store old emails in Courier, TheBat!, Thunderbird and Spicebird. Main client atm is TheBat!.

The one thing I do intend to change in the near future is too filter all my email through my Gmail accounts as its spam filtering seems to be better than anything else I have running. And without any work from me. The one bit of sorting I have to do now is to take stuff out of my ISP's Junk folder because it isn't spam. I don't have this problem with gmail, so I'll be able to turn off the spam filter at the ISP.

1636
Circle Dock / Re: Help? Circle Dock not launching properly
« on: September 07, 2008, 04:43 PM »
The left click works fine for me.

1637
I've never thought of Helicon Filter as a photo editor or an alternative to Photoshop.
The lack of layers kills that stone dead anyway.

I see it as a relatively simple/straightforward production tool from in-camera image (raw or jpeg) to final photo with an emphasis on correcting camera/lens problems and distortions. Certainly fast. Some retouching tools, but not really an editor. Agree pretty much with Brett. Certainly enough for many people and better than any version of Photoshop for those who just want to tweak their photos and publish/print.

1638
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ShellLess file manager
« on: September 06, 2008, 09:37 AM »
 So, the questions that go through my mind ...

How much of this does Dopus do?  :tellme: Can I be bothered to find out to check?  :-\
I already switched to using Q-Dir most of the time because I'm usually doing very simple things but use the 4 listers.
The features here do sound like things that I might use. Another download on its way ..


1639
Thanks. Yes, it does.

I picked up a copy of Pocket Informant a while ago on a free deal, but have never really got around to trying it much (I use Agenda Fusion), so I'll have another look at that. A better way of dealing with notes would be good and I do want to try out Calligrapher to see if it works faster than the keyboard at all (though I do have a real (tiny) keyboard on my PPC, as well as the virtual one).

1640
I could not work out the real life difference between
Phatnotes "Award-winning advanced notes organizer for mobile and desktop computers" and
Phatpad "an advanced notes organizer for Microsoft Windows Powered Tablet, Desktop and Pocket PCs"

1641
General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?
« on: September 05, 2008, 07:19 AM »
Today the Giveaway of the Day is Wondershare Photo Collage Studio, which apparently includes photo frames.

The framer that I would go for is IDFramer - but it is $39  :(, which is why I haven't bought it (so far anyway).

1642
For novel writing etc., it is worth looking at Liquid Story Binder and its Forum. Has been on both BitsduJour and GAOTD recently.

1643
Living Room / Re: Can you live with *just* opera?
« on: September 03, 2008, 01:44 PM »
Opera + gmail is pure shit. I love Opera and keep trying to use it, but every time I check my e-mail I want to scream and find myself scrambling for file -> exit.

Earlier in this thread, it was mentioned that Opera and gmail play well together... what am I missing? Because for me, it hangs for everything. Changing folders is 50/50, reading a message is 50/50. Sending messages? I have about a 5% chance of actually getting it sent. Useless.

I don't have these problems. Mostly it works just fine. Sometimes it feels as if the gmail server is down - but it's no better if I try touse FF to access it. Never descended as far as ie for this.

Just as I have no problems using my bank account with Opera.

1644
Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock 0.9.2 Alpha 7.5 is Released
« on: September 03, 2008, 10:01 AM »
Send me an e-mail to [email protected] and I can try e-mailing it to you. Are you on dial-up?

Thanks for the offer. I tried to post a reply twice last night, but neither actually got through and I gave up.

The download eventually made it, so everything is OK now  :)
I'm not on dial-up, though it does sometimes feel like it. Certainly my old ISDN connection felt more reliable than my broadband does now. I have only a .5MB connection because of my distance from the exchange. And the line goes down completely a few times a year. As it had over a few days over the weekend; the phone line seems to be working now but the internet connection has been slow and very intermittent. Hopefully that also has been repaired by now, though I haven't checked.

1645
Circle Dock / Re: Portability
« on: September 02, 2008, 05:11 PM »
A number of the corporate-type computers I use are never updated. Policy seems to be to rely on draconian firewalls and only reimage when the system breaks. And obviously, being corporate, none of them are on Vista - and one or two are still on 2k. But the ones I use most myself should work fine being pretty new.

So real portability will be welcome,but the portability already there is very useful.  :)

1646
Circle Dock / Portability
« on: September 02, 2008, 03:46 PM »
Because everything is kept in its folder, I assumed Circle Dock might be somewhat portable (despite needing .Net).
So I tried it with my USB and it was  :). Haven't tested it at different drive letters, but assume it will always need to be at the same letter to work; or is it self-referential?

1647
Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock 0.9.2 Alpha 7.5 is Released
« on: September 02, 2008, 03:30 PM »
The download doesn't seem to support resume (I've tried Opera & FF Down Them All).

After some time without internet connection, I now have one that is very intermittent. Managed to get as far as 93% once, but that is no different to 0% without the ability to resume.

1648
Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock 0.9.2 Alpha 7 Discussion
« on: August 29, 2008, 05:31 AM »
I have RocketDock and ObjectDock open (+ other progs), but not Elegant Clock and I have never had any problems with the mouse or 100% CPU (or anything like it) when opening or closing windows.

I am using WinXP SP2 with 512RAM.
Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz
128MB RAM

But there is a big difference in system specs.  - I have a Core2Duo with 2GB memory and a relatively new (though inexpensive) graphics card with 512MB memory of its own. TBH, I don't think I'd like to try to run WinXP Pro in the RAM levels you quote at all.

1649
Circle Dock / Re: Windows Start Menu Shadow Residue Bug
« on: August 28, 2008, 11:47 AM »
XP Pro

1650
Circle Dock / Re: Windows Start Menu Shadow Residue Bug
« on: August 28, 2008, 03:43 AM »
I'll be improving the speed of loading the dock folders in Alpha 8 so there will be less lag. And yes, I will be adding more shape options.
-VideoInPicture (August 27, 2008, 06:30 PM)

Faster would definitely be better. Also a set of included icons/folders in the right click menu might be quite fast (there's no point in putting a lot of icons in a virtual folder).

To some extent, I'm testing out the reasonable usability limits. Can certainly go higher than I have atm, but no more than another ring or two. I could benefit from geting the icons more densely packed if there were the same density for each ring, buthaving the icons going out in spokes is also a good way of organising them - at least if there were an easy way to decide which spoke and which ring each icon was on. [I can rearrange icons by moving them one over the other, but haven't yet worked out the rules that decide where the outgoing icon moves too; I probably just need to look at this a bit more].

The Start Menu is disappearing in your case because the dock is grabbing focus when you hover over part of it. Have you tried setting the option to hide the dock after it executes something in Settings Panel -> Dock Items -> Hide Dock? This will prevent the dock from grabbing focus because it will fade away.

Circle Dock won't be able to open your special start menu because it is hardcoded to show the default Windows start menu, which has a class name of "DV2Host" and I don't think other start menus use this. I'll be adding an option for the middle button to execute other things beside opening up the default start menu, but I don't think I could move any of the other add-on start menus to where Circle Dock is located.
-VideoInPicture (August 27, 2008, 06:30 PM)

I don't expect Circle Dock to open VSM and don't really need it to open the Start Menu - I was just looking at what it did really. With Circle Dock, I wouldn't be using the start menu (any type) much anyway. Quite happy with it opening the default Start Menu, if only I could see it all and use it - but if it weren't there I probably wouldn't be mentioning it as a desired feature.

Pages: prev1 ... 61 62 63 64 65 [66] 67 68 69 70 71 ... 78next