Recent Posts

1051

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Prefix/Suffix Filename/Foldername with Clipboard content

« Last post by rjbull on December 21, 2011, 04:17 PM »

Oscar's does work on a one-by-one basis.  That's what makes it different from the great majority of file renamers, which work on groups of files.  For that, I agree BRU is excellent.

Honesty compels me to admit that I often tended to use a Total Commander plug-in to generate file lists, work on them with a text editor (often TED Notepad), save the result as a batch file, and run the batch file when done.

I used Oscar's or the batch file method when I had to rename bunches of automatically-generated PDFs with sensible names from the text they contained.  You can't rename a  file while it's open, so I put the required text into Oscar's or into the batch file, and committed the changes later in one go.

1052

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Prefix/Suffix Filename with Clipboard content

« Last post by rjbull on December 20, 2011, 04:08 PM »

You might like to have a look at Oscar's File Renamer, which acts a bit like an editor.  I think I originally found it by reading MarkTAW's My Favorite Smallware.

1053

General Software Discussion / Re: Does it exist? Sys tray app to generate text string from hierarchical listing

« Last post by rjbull on December 19, 2011, 02:52 PM »

What J-Mac said.  If the OP wants the entries automatically incremented, wouldn't that be a use for CHS's newly-implemented external script support?

1054

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Listary Pro for $9.95 on 17 December

« Last post by rjbull on December 18, 2011, 02:22 PM »

I sort of enjoy running up and downhill through the paths in Total Commander, so I hope I do not lose too much path jogging.

-Steven Avery (December 18, 2011, 01:49 AM)

You gain the benefits of all that jogging in your File Open dialogs!  Take a look at the Listary site's page Total Commander Integration.

1055

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: 3 Feature Ideas

« Last post by rjbull on December 17, 2011, 03:25 PM »

1) Text aliases i.e. shortcuts with a trigger that are then replaced by e.g. a much longer block of text.

I currently use Lifehacker's free Texter

-jshare (December 17, 2011, 02:38 PM)

Text expanders have been thrashed around on DC quite a lot.  The obvious suggestion is Phrase Express, because the basic version is free-for-personal-use, or AutoText Typing Assistant by the same company, which is completely free.  I currently use Typing Assistant, which is payware.  It's easy to add shortcut blocks of text via the clipboard.

2) Full-on key logging

-jshare (December 17, 2011, 02:38 PM)

This would almost certainly cause CHS to be flagged as malware.  If you'd like recommendations for free-standing ones, review this DC thread: pls recommend a good benign keylogger.  Keylogging is built into PowerPro.

1056

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Listary Pro for $9.95 on 17 December

« Last post by rjbull on December 17, 2011, 02:40 PM »

Run to get it, folks!  Take a look at the enthusiastic comments on Bits du Jour.  Also mentioned in several threads on DC.

1057

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Stickies review

« Last post by rjbull on December 14, 2011, 02:30 PM »

the ability to"attach" a sticky to a particular window or window class. This allows you to have stickies that only appear when a particular web page

-dragonmage (December 14, 2011, 11:05 AM)

Does it accept a wildcard, so that the sticky will appear on all child Web pages under a given one?

1058

General Software Discussion / Re: rename pdf, word, etc files based on their text content

« Last post by rjbull on December 11, 2011, 01:44 PM »

a commandline utility that could take a pdf file, grab its title, author, and date and rename it to some combination of those, would be EXTREMELY useful.

-mouser (December 10, 2011, 09:37 AM)

@mouser: closest I know of to that would be pdfinfo from the XPDF package.

pdfinfo Help:

pdfinfo version 3.02
  Copyright 1996-2007 Glyph & Cog, LLC
  Usage: pdfinfo [options] <PDF-file>
    -f <int>       : first page to convert
    -l <int>       : last page to convert
    -box           : print the page bounding boxes
    -meta          : print the document metadata (XML)
    -enc <string>  : output text encoding name
    -opw <string>  : owner password (for encrypted files)
    -upw <string>  : user password (for encrypted files)
    -cfg <string>  : configuration file to use in place of .xpdfrc
    -v             : print copyright and version info
    -h             : print usage information
    -help          : print usage information
    --help         : print usage information
    -?             : print usage information

The command line

pdfinfo 2011_velbon_catalog.pdf > info.txt

on the Velbon (tripod) catalogue gives:

Title:          2011_catalog.indd
Creator:        Adobe InDesign CS3_J (5.0.4)
Producer:       Adobe PDF Library 8.0
CreationDate:   03/17/11 17:31:25
ModDate:        03/24/11 11:30:11
Tagged:         no
Pages:          16
Encrypted:      yes (print:yes copy:yes change:no addNotes:no)
Page size:      1274.43 x 273.584 pts
File size:      9668147 bytes
Optimized:      yes
PDF version:    1.6

I used to use this for re-naming PDFs of patents at work, with something like an AWK script to extract the relevant information and write a temporary batch file that did the work.  The trouble is you can't rely on all those fields being filled in for any particular PDF.

1059

General Software Discussion / Re: software/script/code/macro repositories

« Last post by rjbull on December 04, 2011, 11:16 AM »

Rob van der Woude's Scripting Pages

On this site you will find all kinds of (administrative) scripting related information:

    * several scripting languages: batch files, JScript, KiXtart, Perl, PowerShell, Rexx, VBScript ... even some C# code ...
    * some language reference material
    * regular expressions
    * lots of sample scripts
    * scripting techniques and best practices
    * undocumented features, tricks and work-arounds
    * links to more scripting info
    * commands for unattended (silent) installations
    * downloadable tools and utilities
    * titles of relevant books on scripting
    * and more...

Plus WMI, ADSI, WSH, books, scripting tools.

1060

General Software Discussion / Re: SoftMaker Office 2012 BETA testing

« Last post by rjbull on December 03, 2011, 02:53 PM »

I think what Jibz is waiting for is the price to upgrade from 2010 Standard to 2012 Standard.  I know that's what I'm waiting for.

-cyberdiva (November 30, 2011, 09:49 AM)

Me too.  I see the point of Pro for businesses brave enough to dump Microsoft (as long as they don't need a full database), but for home users happy with existing e-mail clients, an update of the Standard edition is a more interesting event.

I've seen "Softmaker" in the Guests/Users list at the bottom of the Forum page, so hope they're listening...

1061

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by rjbull on December 03, 2011, 02:34 PM »

I'll make my 1000th a special one

-Ath (October 06, 2011, 02:25 PM)

Only a programmer would think of making a recursive post 

1062

Found Deals and Discounts / Chameleon Task Manager on offer at Bits du Jour 2011-12-01

« Last post by rjbull on December 01, 2011, 05:54 AM »

Chameleon Task Manager is on on offer at Bits du Jour today, 2011-12-01.  50% off: $14.97 instead of $29.95.  Here's the BdJ blurb:

Chameleon Task Manager
A Better Alternative to Windows Task Manager

Windows Task Manager - you know it, you don't love it, but you use it because you have no other alternative. Or do you? How would you like an app that replaces Windows Task Manager, enabling you to do everything that you're used to doing with Windows Task Manager, but even better, faster, and with a bunch of additional features? If you are nodding your head enthusiastically and clapping wildly, read on for more details on Chameleon Task Manager.

Chameleon Task Manager gives you complete control over the processes that are running on your computer, giving you much more detailed information about your programs than Windows Task Manager can even dream about. With Chameleon Task Manager, you'll have a way to automatically manage background processes that hog CPU or disk usage, reducing their priority to allow current programs to fly like the wind. An optimizer determines exactly how much memory a program needs, so you're sure that every bit of RAM that's in use is by design.

Have you ever taken a peek at your process list and been aghast at the number of programs that are running in the background? Chameleon Task Manager gives you control over when programs are allowed to run, either after other programs have finished or started, or on certain days - so you can set annoying, but necessary, system scans to run on weekends when you're out partying, instead of when you're trying to work during the week! You can even set Chameleon Task Manager to automatically kill processes, preventing unnecessary programs from running at all.

Lastly, you'll get an added layer of protection and peace of mind with Chameleon Task Manager. Newly launched programs result in instant notifications, and Chameleon Task Manager is smart enough to check the files of all programs to quickly identify modified files. And with the handy resource usage statistics, you'll be able to instantly see which of your programs use the most resources!
Promotion Written by Derek Lee

It's been mentioned on DC in these threads, amongst others:

• Chameleon Task Manager
• Chameleon Task Manager Pro 40% Discount
• Win Patrol Plus (Bits Du Jour- Fri) Chameleon Startup Manager, Startup Organizer

1063

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2011, 04:28 PM »

King Henry VIII gets on the London Underground.  "Tower Hill, return, please.  And a single for the wife..."

1064

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: P-FANCI: Petition For A New Cody Image! POST HERE!!

« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2011, 04:26 PM »

Don't know where the Mayan stuff came from.  My thought was the Greek myth of the birth of Minerva - one day Zeus has a splitting headache, and sits down to nurse it, when the top of his head opens on hinges and out pops Minerva.  Zeus = mouser, Minerva = Cody?

Hmmm...  maybe Cody isn't quite suited to the Goddess of Wisdom...

1065

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: MyInfo 6 - free form organizer [+ limited time discount]

« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2011, 04:20 PM »

Thanks - MyInfo Pro is too expensive for me even with the discount, but it's nice to have clarification of the policy, especially on portability, as so many companies won't allow end-users to install things.  I take it that the portable version is only available with the Pro license, there isn't a basic portable edition?

1066

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CHS: New Formatting Dialog

« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2011, 04:14 PM »

rj, i could use a little more help in understanding a test i can do to fix this.

your commandline arguements to spellcheck files make it hard for me to figure out.

-mouser (November 28, 2011, 08:28 PM)

Figuring out command lines is hard work!

can you give me a sample text, and a sample mtrw invocation that reads from stdin, writes to stdout, and tell me what i should see.  and that doesnt use any additional files like some spellcheck?

-mouser (November 28, 2011, 08:28 PM)

For anyone wishing to quarry more information out of the Help files, here are some Ministry of Truth resources:

• Andrew B. Pipkin, home page of original author
• Jason Hood's updated version.  Note, I'm using his Win32 port.
• Eric Pement's MiniTrue page, useful supplementary information, though it refers to the original version, not Jason Hood's updated one.

The basic use of MT is:

mtr <OPTIONS> <FILES> - <STRINGS>

i.e., it expects to operate on files in situ.  <STRINGS> is the search-and-replace pairs.  These options are modified by the arguments.

Now for the way I've used it.  I don't claim to fully understand things, but - E&OE - these are the command line arguments I use:

• -q
  Quiet mode; don't write to screen unless a match is found
• -n
  No prompting; make all replacements automatically.  (MT can be used as a file viewer, and replacements can be made interactively)
• -w
  Whole words only
• -o+
  Matches and their surrounding context will be written to standard output instead of being displayed in the textviewer.  The "+" causes MT to print both matching and non-matching lines, otherwise it would behave like a grep.
• -b-
  Don't make numbered backup files.  May not be relevant if using STDIN/STDOUT.
• -c-
  Case sensitive
• -i:SPELC_MT.MT
  As stated above, by default MT expects to find its search/replace strings on the command line.  -i says to take them from a file, in this case, SPELC_MT.MT

When giving MT its search/replace strings from a file, the format is simple, one line per pair,  SEARCH = REPLACE
My file is as follows, though perhaps I should explain how this came about.  When I was writing current awareness bulletins, I preferred not to use a spell checker as it slowed me down and upset the flow.  Instead, I waited until "going to press time" and tidied everything up at that stage.  I found I frequently made the same typos, so used MT to replace them before using an interactive spelling checker to catch everything else.  SPELC_MT.MT was my typo-repair file:

[Select]

abd = and
abouot = about
accomodate = accommodate
accoring = according
acrulic = acrylic
additon = addition
additoinal = additional
adequaate = adequate
afecting = affecting
alos = also
alterntaive = alternative
amd = and
amke = make
angluar = angular
anounced = announced
annnounced = announced
aplication = application
applicatin = application
applicaton = application
applicatons = applications
applicaiton = application
asurance = assurance
Australina = Australian
availabilty = availability
avaiable = available
avaialable = available
avaialble = available
blck = black
caoted = coated
caoting = coatings
cardinla = cardinal
cartrdige = cartridge
carridge = cartridge
carteridge = cartridge
carrtridge = cartridge
carttridge = cartridge
cartride = cartridge
cartrige = cartridge
catridge = cartridge
chemcial = chemical
chemsitry = chemistry
cleaing = cleaning
cleimed = claimed
coier = copier
coor = colour
coour = colour
coours = colours
cooor = colour
cooour = colour
coolour = colour
coloor = colour
coloour = colour
colouor = colour
colouir = colour
colur = colour
Colur = Colour
comapny = company
comaptible = compatible
compatbile = compatible
compatilbe = compatible
commerical = commercial
Commerical = Commercial
communicaton = communication
communicaton = communication
completly = completely
compnay = company
compsition = composition
consders = considers
consumpton = consumption
containign = containing
continous = continuous
continuos = continuous
containint = containing
converson = conversion
corect = correct
corection = correction
cotaings = coatings
coyright = copyright
curently = currently
deistribution = distribution
demostrated = demonstrated
deisgned = designed
deisnged = designed
desribe = describes
detectin = detecting
detectin = detection
develped = developed
differnet = different
ditigal = digital
divison = division
Divison = Division
dramataically = dramatically
electrophotograpy = electrophotography
emphsaize = emphasize
emulson = emulsions
engien = engine
enginering = engineering
Enginering = Engineering
epxoy = epoxy
equaton = equation
estimaed = estimated
euroepan = european
Europena = European
examinaton = examination
excpet = except
exhbiton = exhibition
Exhbiton = Exhibition
exhibiton = exhibition
feaure = feature
foramt = format
fomrs = forms
formaulation = formulation
functinal = funtional
functon = function
grnding = grinding
grphics = graphics
gropu = group
Helath = Health
helath = health
hihglight = highlight
http:////www = http://www
ilustrated = illustrated
iks = inks
iks. = inks.
imporved = improved
impproved = improved
inaging = imaging
Inaging = Imaging
indistiguishable = indistinguishable
informatin = information
inlcuding = including
inlcude = include
inlcuded = included
inproved = improved
instruciton = instruction
instrucitons = instructions
inteface = interface
Internatonal = International
intorduced = introduced
introduciton = introduction
Japense = Japanese
litle = little
machie = machine
machne = machine
magentic = magnetic
managemtn = managment
Managemtn = Managment
managment = management
Managment = Management
managmetn = managment
Managmetn = Managment
manufactuirng = manufacturing
manufctured = manufactured
marekt = market
materil = material
measurment = measurement
mentoned = mentioned
mesurement = measurement
Milikan = Millikan
modifiaction = modification
modifed = modified
mrket = market
multifuncion = multifunction
natinal = national
newtork = network
novle = novel
Oc‚ = Oce
opprtunity = opportunity
Opprtunity = Opportunity
otical = optical
palstic = plastic
particulalry = particularly
peformed = performed
performacne = performance
pigmetned = pigmented
Pigmetned = Pigmented
pigmetn = pigment
Pigmetn = Pigment
photorecptor = photoreceptor
poolymer = polymer
poymer = polymer
porces = proces
priners = printers
priner = printer
printint = printing
priter = printer
priters = printers
priting = printing
pritn = print
printng = printing
pritning = printing
pritnr = printer
pritns = prints
prniter = printer
pritners = printers
printrs = printers
prnits = prints
produciton = production
proudction = production
prodcut = product
pront = print
ptiner = printer
qulaity = quality
questin = question
ractialc = ractical
radiaton = radiation
raidation = radiation
Raidation = Radiation
reactons = reactions
realted = related
reamnufacturing = remanufacturing
recahrger = recharger
Recahrger = Recharger
recyling = recycling
reistance = resistances
repalce = replace
repalces = replaces
reporducible = reproducible
requre = require
reserach = research
Reserach = Research
resistane = resistance
resoultion = resolution
resoution = resolution
respetively = respectively
rodcution = roduction
rpelace = replace
rpinter = printer
rreleased = released
rpinting = printing
safty = safety
Safty = Safety
saveing = saving
searhc = search
serice = service
Shapr = Sharp
slected = selected
Smasung = Samsung
solvnet = solvent
sophisiticated = sophisticated
soulbe = soluble
soulble = soluble
soultion = solution
snnounced = announced
Statci = Static
suplies = supplies
supllier = supplier
sympton = symptom
sythesis = synthesis
technoogy = technology
tensin = tension
theree = three
thermodyamic = thermodynamic
thje = the
thjere = there
threee = three
tjat = that
tje = the
uisng = using
unchaged = unchanged
unusualy = unusually
upgraes = upgrades
upgrde = upgrade
utiities = utilities
variaton = variation
varnsihe = varnishes
vesion = version
wateer = water
whcih = which
wher = where
whihc = which
wiht = with
wnat = want
wolrdwide = worldwide
xperimetn = xperiment

In order to test it, I tried a few words from that file.  Hence test.txt:

tje wolrdwide catridge

If you open a CMD.EXE console and run this line:
c:\DOS\Utils\mtrw.exe -q -n -w -o+ -b- -c- -i:SPELC_MT.MT test.txt > mod.txt
you don't see anything on screen - you aren't supposed to - but you find a new file mod.txt that contains

the worldwide cartridge

which is the correct transformation.
type test.txt | c:\DOS\Utils\mtrw.exe -q -n -w -o+ -b- -c- -i:SPELC_MT.MT > mod.txt
also works, as does
c:\DOS\Utils\mtrw.exe -q -n -w -o+ -b- -c- -i:SPELC_MT.MT < test.txt > mod.txt

Is that enough explanation?  I can't immediately think of anything else to add.

1067

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: MyInfo 6 - free form organizer [+ limited time discount]

« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2011, 03:14 PM »

What license model are you using, please?  Per person, per PC, or what?  I notice you say that a portable version is included with Pro, but is that an either/or license, or both?

1068

General Software Discussion / Re: command line tool for pdf

« Last post by rjbull on November 26, 2011, 01:37 PM »

2) extract all the text of pdf pages (and save it in a variable or a file)

-kalos (November 26, 2011, 08:02 AM)

XPDF.  Freeware.

3) search and replace specific text in pdf pages (optimally using regex)

-kalos (November 26, 2011, 08:02 AM)

PDF Text Replace Tool.  It isn't command-line, but it's the only one I know that can do that.  Freeware and more advanced payware editions.

1069

Finished Programs / Re: Finished Coding Snack: Separate .txt file at any specified punctuation mark

« Last post by rjbull on November 25, 2011, 04:33 PM »

@Quidnunc: If you don't know it already, you might like to check out TextSTAT - Simple Text Analysis Tool (freeware):

Concordance software for Windows, GNU/Linux and MacOS

TextSTAT is a simple programme for the analysis of texts. It reads plain text files (in different encodings) and HTML files (directly from the internet) and it produces word frequency lists and concordances from these files. This version includes a web-spider which reads as many pages as you want from a particular website and puts them in a TextSTAT-corpus. The new news-reader, too, puts news messages in a TextSTAT-readable corpus file.
TextSTAT reads MS Word and OpenOffice files. No conversion needed, just add the files to your corpus...
In TextSTAT you can use regular expression which provides you with powerful search possibilities. The programme is multilingual. Because it uses Unicode internally, TextSTAT can cope with many different languages and file encodings.

@timns: are you thinking of making checkboxes for each punctuation mark, so Quidnunc can build regular expressions without having to understand them?

1070

Finished Programs / Re: Finished Coding Snack: Separate .txt file at any specified punctuation mark

« Last post by rjbull on November 24, 2011, 04:35 PM »

Could you give a before-and-after example of what you mean, with dummy text if necessary?

1071

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary updated to Version:3.50 (Build 689)

« Last post by rjbull on November 24, 2011, 03:55 PM »

I wouldn't like to lose the the free Pro features by getting this upgrade

-Ath (November 24, 2011, 03:35 PM)

Up to you, but it's not very expensive.  Speaking of which, I just missed Amazon UK's Black Friday deal on Photoshop Elements 10   

[Edit at UK time 2011-11-25, 22:38:-]  Well, I caught the Elements deal today, on the rebound    But that doesn't clear up the puzzle about Listary apparently failing to show its updates    [/Edit]

1072

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary updated to Version:3.50 (Build 689)

« Last post by rjbull on November 24, 2011, 03:21 PM »

And no, I haven't reported the Listary problem.  I assumed that the update checker was broken for everyone.  Oh well....  Do you have the free or the Pro version?

-cyberdiva (November 23, 2011, 04:04 PM)

Mine's Pro.  Is yours free?  Even if it is, I'd have expected the updates checker to work.  Could your firewall be blocking it from calling home?

1073

General Software Discussion / Re: lightweight software for organizing notes offline? [Stickies, StickySorter]

« Last post by rjbull on November 23, 2011, 03:37 PM »

One nice feature of Notezilla that I should mention is that you can apply a sticky note to a window and have it associated with that window or web page.

-J-Mac (November 23, 2011, 12:05 PM)

I ran into a "problem" with it (same thing with Magic Notes) because the editor, WSedit, doesn't always put its own name in the file, so the sticky notes applications can't tell which window it really is!  I'd need one that "knows" what the .EXE name is by itself.

1074

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary updated to Version:3.50 (Build 689)

« Last post by rjbull on November 23, 2011, 03:30 PM »

I used to use Website Watcher--indeed, I really liked it for a while.

-cyberdiva (November 23, 2011, 12:08 PM)

There are alternatives, e.g. Check&Get, which has had a few mentions on DC.

Listary has a "check for updates" feature.  Alas, it seems not to be working.

-cyberdiva (November 23, 2011, 12:08 PM)

It seems to work OK for me.  Have you reported it to the author?

1075

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Action Outline on offer at Bits du Jour, 2011-11-21

« Last post by rjbull on November 23, 2011, 10:14 AM »

Thx for the link to Noteliner. I'll definitely check that one out.

-40hz (November 22, 2011, 04:03 PM)

I reported that Noteliner 3.3 Build2b wouldn't open for me on Vista Home Premium.  The author e-mailed back to say there did seem some compatibility issues with Vista/7 that he hopes to iron out in the next release.  Version 2.7.08, the last one I had, does work.

re: Outline 4D - actually not much like Ecco which I also used to use. It's primarily designed to be a writing/plot outlining tool for movie scripts and novels

-40hz (November 22, 2011, 04:03 PM)

Yes, that would be different; I always thought ECCO was heavily slanted towards business.