Recent Posts

1376

General Software Discussion / Re: Excel formula help?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on July 01, 2007, 04:46 AM »

Query options in the mail merge!  Query options in the mail merge!  Great!  Now I have a pristine Word doc with correct text...  Next step: a Word macro to make email messages of this doc...  Still after any suggestions if others can help...

-m_s (June 29, 2007, 06:58 AM)

There are also NextRecord functions in Word that you can use to skip records.

From memory, you should be able to MailMerge to email output from Word. Isn't there a Wizard to set that up for you??? So, in stead of chosing New Document as the output, it's email (I hope my  memory is serving me correctly).

But I still think it'd be a better solution to leave your original spreadsheets in tact and create a new one to mail merge from...

1377

General Software Discussion / Re: Excel formula help?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 29, 2007, 01:57 AM »

As KatyKaty says Excel wont cope well with your record spanning more than one row.

What you should do is VBA it into a single Cell.

Alternatively, you could
1. Write a formula (a LookUp probably) to concatenate the other cells into a single cell, then
2. Copy and paste the concatenated cells as values
3. Delete the duplicate lines

If you want to send me the file I don't mind having a look at it for you.

Perry

1378

Living Room / Re: Tip: Don't Just Keep a backup of your latest files

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 29, 2007, 01:51 AM »

It's great advice: for my project base files I generally slowly migrate them off my PC as it becomes obvious that I really don't need them on my hard drive. For example:

Step 1: Move the files to a single Folder in a dedicated location ( e.g.: "old work/Project One/")
Step 2: Archive the Folder into a single File (e.g.: old work/Project One.zip)
Step 3: Move the Archive File to a CD/DVD

Generally I hate throwing anything away (even rubbish: as Murphy would say, "as soon as I call something rubbish and chuck it, I'll need it")

1379

General Software Discussion / Re: Ultra Explorer; I am impressed!

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 28, 2007, 11:28 PM »

Okay Curt, maybe I just didn't figure it out yet, but do you know of any way to make UltraExplorer a multipane environment.

-steeladept (June 28, 2007, 07:01 PM)

Do you mean Open New Tab? From memory, I could open as many Tabs as I wanted? Or have I missed something?

1380

General Software Discussion / Re: What do you use to keep track of your installed software?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 26, 2007, 06:15 PM »

What happens? Well, the relation between Program B and C gets messed up due to Total Uninstall action. That's a side effect of using the program, and it's mentioned in its help file. But don't worry, most of the times this is something related to a program stealing the file extensions of another one, and this is easily fixed in the "Preferences" panel of most programs.

-Lashiec (June 26, 2007, 12:38 PM)

Thanks for clearing that up... I couldn't quite make sense of it after reading the site.

Not to bash Access, but I thought it was a bit massive to take care of this issue. Totally agree in the quick environment.

-Lashiec (June 26, 2007, 12:38 PM)

Oh, you're right there about being a bit massive

Well, it seems that the rest of the members use the computer as a dumping ground

-Lashiec (June 26, 2007, 12:38 PM)

  I guess it's easy to?

1381

General Software Discussion / Re: Ultra Explorer; I am impressed!

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 24, 2007, 11:57 PM »

I just need a keyboard shortcut that takes me to the address bar, and I might be set wit UE!

-urlwolf (June 24, 2007, 09:31 PM)

Have you asked the author?

You could do one in AutoIT/AHK pretty easily too.

I think I had two grumbles:

• Copy FileName+Path functionality wasn't what I needed. I'll keep using my AutoIT script...
• I also had issues with multiple tabs open, sometimes the wrong tab [read: not the one I was expecting] would change when I clicked on the shortcut (folder/etc)

1382

General Software Discussion / Re: Ultra Explorer; I am impressed!

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 24, 2007, 07:06 PM »

I'm sure that UltraExplorer was mentioned here (although I can't find it now), as I installed it some months ago... and like you I'm impressed as well.

Where ever I originally found it had some criticisms about the programming method ("gluing different modules together opposed to coding it from scratch" from memory), but it works and I like the way it works...

...and the author is active and answers emails...

1383

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Secondary monitor support

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 23, 2007, 01:28 AM »

it's something i need to add.

-mouser (June 22, 2007, 07:09 AM)

It's something I could use too!

1384

Icon Tools / Re: Icon Tool Shooutout Review is now open to the public!

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 21, 2007, 10:57 PM »

Very interesting and rather disturbing!

-Darwin (March 17, 2007, 08:55 AM)

I'd say scary!

It's a shame the developer didn't respond: I know of a few times they have here, and it's always good.

1385

General Software Discussion / Re: What do you use to keep track of your installed software?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 21, 2007, 06:56 AM »

So with Total Uninstall, if I install and track Programmes A, B and C, and then I want to uninstall Programme B, what happens if Programme C was sort of intertwined with B (maybe directory wise)? I guess I'm wondering how it handles changes to directory structures in between times.

... I find Access to be a really quick environment to build something quickly.

1386

General Software Discussion / What do you use to keep track of your installed software?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 21, 2007, 03:25 AM »

Ever since I purchased FirstDefense-ISR from Raxco, which was a little after reading cthorpe's great review, and a little before they decided to stop selling the product, my desire to keep track of my software installations become more important.

Please Note Carl's Update:

UPDATE

Horizon DataSys Inc. has licensed the ISR technology from the original developer and is now selling the program.  From what I can tell, it is identical in every way to the Raxco offering (which was also licensed from the developer) other than it is re-branded.

FirstDefense is a great programme (goodness only knows why they decided to pull the plug on sales), and it's saved my bacon a couple of times in my short ownership, but it also gives me the ability to save snapshots of my C Drive at various points in time; presumably with the thought of "re-installing" them at some stage if necessary. But I quickly realised that all those snapshots would be close to useless unless I knew what was in them.

So I put a small Database together (using Access), which keeps track of software installations, version updates, etc, etc. But most importantly, it can show the difference between two snapshots, or the current state and a snapshot. This gives me the ability to automate the "rolling back" to a previous snapshot and re-installing any of the missing software.

But it made me wonder what other people do? I know on my previous computer things got pretty messy.

Just by-the-by: in doing this I discovered a great use for PAD files... It was pretty simple to load in the URL of an Application's PAD file (LaunchBar commander for example) and provide a method from the Database to query the PAD file to see if an update has been released and download it if it has! Essentially that provides an update check not provided in the programme 

Perry

1387

General Software Discussion / Re: The GIMP/PhotoFiltre/Paint.net/etc., thoughts...

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 14, 2007, 11:22 PM »

Sevaral years ago, I used micrografx picture publisher (iirc) - it was pretty nice in the sense that you could turn your selections into "objects", instead of having to muck around with layers, and you could "paint" your selections (easier than dealing with alpha channels). And it was very very lightweight.

-f0dder (June 14, 2007, 06:01 PM)

Ulead PhotoImpact uses this graphics model as well, and I find in many cases it's much easier to use.

I also use GIMP, but still feel that I'm on the learning curve (I think it keeps throwing me off  )

1388

General Software Discussion / Re: What do you think of PCTools' Spyware Doctor?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 14, 2007, 08:38 AM »

I'm another Spyware Terminator user  Pretty simple usage, and it's real-time protection is enough to give confidence without annoying me too much.

1389

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: PAD Database

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on June 14, 2007, 01:06 AM »

Hey Chris: that's so cool!

Do you keep superceded PAD files as well? That is, can you see the release history of an application?

Another thought: will you expose this data through WebServices? There was some discussion here about the benefits of having a centralised database of Software Applications, etc, and this looks like it pretty much fits the bill.

Having the ability to Submit through a WebService would be a nice idea as well.

Thanks!!

1390

Post New Requests Here / Re: Software AutoUpdater -- Experimental Software Autoupdating

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 22, 2007, 09:11 AM »

That actually sounds like a microformat in the making perry. Very interesting comment.

-justice (May 22, 2007, 01:25 AM)

What a great read: thanks for posting it. I've done some reading on the Semantic Web before, but this was a surprise (as it wasn't just theoretical)

What a great way to host, scrape and package... Is it possible here??

1391

Post New Requests Here / Re: Software AutoUpdater -- Experimental Software Autoupdating

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 21, 2007, 10:17 PM »

After finding Wakoopa I've been thinking about this too...

The problem with Wakoopa is that the "newest" version is based on what users are currently running. So if everyone is using an old version, that's what's going to display as newest, but it's not: it's just the most popular.

Another good thing should be create a collaborative website like http://osx.iusethis.com/ for Mac apps, where the user (or developer) can add the latest version and download link, and using something to validate the information (a voting system Digg like?, or maybe a wiki correction system?) then the system will output all results (query based) in one file that can be accesed with your program and the download links directly (or page to go and download).
p in the website if you want.

-Dr-Leech (May 16, 2007, 10:56 AM)

That crossed my mind too (and even wondered if it might not fit within the DonationCoder framework somehow: we've done lots of reviews, had lots of discussion and made some recommendation... it didn't seem that much more to formalise that into something that could be updated with links to latest files etc). We don't want to reinvent the software download wheel.

I didn't know if there was too much competition between the different software download sites to organise some sort of standardised format?

I wondered if each software record could then have links to reviews, discussions and even justice's ini files?

1392

General Software Discussion / Re: Converting Spreadsheet to Table in forum

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 14, 2007, 02:10 AM »

thanks Perry!

I'm afraid I don't have Excel myself,
but sure that will be of use to others

-tomos (May 14, 2007, 01:53 AM)

Ah, sorry: I just assumed

EDIT or could it work in Open Office too ??

I've not done an OO macro, but it doesn't use VBA does it? The principles would be the same, just a different language would be my guess.

- Perry

1393

General Software Discussion / Re: Converting Spreadsheet to Table in forum

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 14, 2007, 01:44 AM »

If you wanted to do it straight from Excel then the following code should work without too many issues. To use it you just have to copy and paste it into your Excel Code Editor in a new Module. The Procedure formats a string and puts it onto the Clipboard:

VBA Code

Code: Visual Basic [Select]

1. Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) _
2.    As Long
3. Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) _
4.    As Long
5. Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32" (ByVal wFlags As Long, _
6.    ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
7. Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "User32" () As Long
8. Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "User32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) _
9.    As Long
10. Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "User32" () As Long
11. Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString1 As Any, _
12.    ByVal lpString2 As Any) As Long
13. Declare Function SetClipboardData Lib "User32" (ByVal wFormat _
14.    As Long, ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
15.  
16. Public Const GHND = &H42
17. Public Const CF_TEXT = 1
18. Public Const MAXSIZE = 4096
19.  
20. Function ClipBoard_SetData(MyString As String)
21.     Dim hGlobalMemory As Long, lpGlobalMemory As Long
22.     Dim hClipMemory As Long, X As Long
23.    
24.     ' Allocate movable global memory.
25.    '-------------------------------------------
26.    hGlobalMemory = GlobalAlloc(GHND, Len(MyString) + 1)
27.    
28.     ' Lock the block to get a far pointer
29.    ' to this memory.
30.    lpGlobalMemory = GlobalLock(hGlobalMemory)
31.    
32.     ' Copy the string to this global memory.
33.    lpGlobalMemory = lstrcpy(lpGlobalMemory, MyString)
34.    
35.     ' Unlock the memory.
36.    If GlobalUnlock(hGlobalMemory) <> 0 Then
37.        MsgBox "Could not unlock memory location. Copy aborted."
38.        GoTo ExitHere
39.     End If
40.    
41.     ' Open the Clipboard to copy data to.
42.    If OpenClipboard(0&) = 0 Then
43.        MsgBox "Could not open the Clipboard. Copy aborted."
44.        Exit Function
45.     End If
46.    
47.     ' Clear the Clipboard.
48.    X = EmptyClipboard()
49.    
50.     ' Copy the data to the Clipboard.
51.    hClipMemory = SetClipboardData(CF_TEXT, hGlobalMemory)
52.    
53. ExitHere:
54.  
55.     If CloseClipboard() = 0 Then
56.        MsgBox "Could not close Clipboard."
57.     End If
58. End Function
59. Sub ExportBB()
60.     Dim rSelected As Range
61.     Set rSelected = Selection
62.    
63.     Dim rRow As Range, rCell As Range
64.    
65.     Dim strBBText As String
66.    
67.     strBBText = "[table]"
68.    
69.     For Each rRow In rSelected.Rows
70.         strBBText = strBBText & "[tr]"
71.         For Each rCell In rRow.Cells
72.             'Debug.Print rCell.Address
73.            strBBText = strBBText & "[td]" & rCell.Value & "[/td]"
74.        
75.         Next
76.         strBBText = strBBText & "[/tr]"
77.    
78.     Next
79.     strBBText = strBBText & "[/table]"
80.     ClipBoard_SetData strBBText
81. End Sub

When I worked at in University we ran a Java based Wiki, and I did many other similar macros to convert from other Office documents to its markup.

1394

Living Room / Re: Volunteer to help me with some (blog-related) posting on daily basis?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 12, 2007, 12:08 AM »

It's nice to see some interest 

I'm certainly interested enough to discuss different options of sharing the work, so I can put my hand up for that.

I guess I'm in a similar position to most other people: I often check DC most days though the amount of time I have available varies quite a bit (and is pretty unpredictable).

I'd think if we had a target of 4-5 posts per day per team and it was pretty flexible to pick the ones that "suited" then that could end up 1-2 each per day (on average)?

If the workflow worked out so that there could be some sort of ToDo area that the generation of prospects could be quite separate to the generation of posts as well? I'd think that if there was a good supply of prospects that that would help the generation of posts as well (that is always having a site that suited your interests).

Anyway: I'd be interested to know what technical options would be possible?

1395

Living Room / Re: Volunteer to help me with some (blog-related) posting on daily basis?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 09, 2007, 07:45 AM »

Really none???

Are people scared off by the 4-5 times per day?? I know it made me hesitant.

It's not something that a group of people could do? Have somewhere on DC that'd act as a ToDo list which can be accessed by the "group". That way too, if more than one is doing it, more freedom to chose the sites you know something about/more interested in??

just a thought 

1396

General Software Discussion / Re: Software gone social? Wakoopa is quite clever

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 06, 2007, 10:33 PM »

I sent them a quick email the other day about a few quick questions:

A couple of thoughts, but first a big thanks!

1. Team software would be better to show stats for the team, not overall, or maybe both?
2. Last version is not correct on some of my software: EG ScreenShot Captor
3. Can you add graphic for Team?
4. Edit Team Name???
5. Can't see what version I'm using?

1. A kind of summary for the whole team would be cool indeed. The whole team section (icon, edit, etc.) is something we are going to improve on in the future.
2. This is correct: it shows latest version of your software popping up at the moment, not a version newer then yours. This will be fixed soon.
5. Good one! We'll have to add this information to your usage panel.

Keep checking our blog for further updates: http://blog.wakoopa.com

Regards,

Robert Gaal
Wakoopa

• Team Pages are getting an overhaul shortly: I though it'd be neat to see what DonationCoder team's stats are (not for the whole of Wakoopa)
  
• I'm guessing from this that Wakoopa only knows new versions when one of it's members stats gets updated with the new version.

1397

General Software Discussion / Re: Software gone social?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 03, 2007, 07:34 PM »

Do you think a DC Team would be interesting?

-Perry Mowbray (May 03, 2007, 05:47 PM)

Good idea! http://www.wakoopa.c.../teams/donationcoder

-Renegade (May 03, 2007, 07:21 PM)

  Just you and me at the moment...

1398

General Software Discussion / Re: Software gone social?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 03, 2007, 05:47 PM »

Do you think a DC Team would be interesting?

Hey, this was interesting:

1399

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use 7-Zip files?

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 02, 2007, 04:48 AM »

... why isn't Powder Blue in the Font Colours?? Mouser????

-Perry Mowbray (May 01, 2007, 07:01 AM)

- can it have to do with mouser being an American,
and as such are to use colors but not colours?

-Curt (May 01, 2007, 08:49 AM)

Good point... and one that constantly amazes me: that even non-alphabetic language people still code their programmes and web pages in American English.

Maybe I will just leave that humor thing for others to handle... 

-Curt (May 01, 2007, 08:49 AM)

No, it was a good and an amusing point 

1400

General Software Discussion / Re: BugMeNot

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on May 02, 2007, 04:43 AM »

i used the report page a couple of times -- it says its blocked, then it unblocks. weird.
it's not a big deal at all, there's no point expending energy trying to stop people from bypassing the need to register on the forum -- if they really don't want to, they will find a way and it's no skin off our back.

-mouser (May 01, 2007, 09:45 AM)

Yep, that's real wierd...

But that was what I thought was weirdest: was why would anyone want to hide here???