Recent Posts

2051

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to monitor computer start-up?

« Last post by rjbull on March 29, 2009, 02:56 PM »

cyberdiva,

Would any of these other DC threads help?

Win Patrol Plus (Bits Du Jour- Fri) Chameleon Startup Manager, Startup Organizer

Boot optimisation software

Chameleon Startup Manager (and other soft) 30% discount (verified June 16, 2007)

startup/tasks manager?

Good programs for helping you manage what programs start with windows?

2052

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Macro Express - MiniReview

« Last post by rjbull on March 23, 2009, 04:54 PM »

they do have upgrade price via the buy page (?)

-tomos (March 23, 2009, 03:39 AM)

Didn't spot that, thanks.  I think I'll probably pass, though.  The upgrade price is rather high, and I don't really understand the extras anyway...

[edit]
Hmm.  DC discount looks same as upgrade price, but, maybe I'll use the DC discount to grab a copy of PRO (which would be a new license), install that where I work, and install the "amateur" version at home...
[/edit]

2053

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Macro Express - MiniReview

« Last post by rjbull on March 22, 2009, 04:49 PM »

I'm a registered user of Macro Express pre-Pro.  Aren't they offering an upgrade at reduced price?  I'd find it hard to justify buying at full price all over again, and I notice the current rather steep $59.95 is only for "a limited time."

2054

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by rjbull on March 20, 2009, 04:34 AM »

Mark Wieczorek has a fairly short but interesting Comparison of Outliners that includes several I don't remember as having been mentioned in this thread so far.

2055

Developer's Corner / Re: Frustration with User Feedback

« Last post by rjbull on March 19, 2009, 11:38 AM »

what we need here is a database there's so many small apps all over the place here
showing them by what's new isnt a great way for finding apps if looking for something in partcular - of course forum search can be used then I guess ..

-tomos (March 19, 2009, 09:39 AM)

If you're looking for something in particular then some kind of database would be a good idea, but a blog for new and updated apps could still be useful, especially for updates.

2056

Developer's Corner / Re: Frustration with User Feedback

« Last post by rjbull on March 19, 2009, 09:23 AM »

One thing that might be good idea is maybe we can find some dc member or two who would be interested in committing to doing mini-reviews of all dc member created software.. or making a blog about them -- so that when someone writes a coding snack or other small utility, there is at least one person who checks it out seriously and summarizes it for others.

-mouser (March 18, 2009, 01:09 PM)

Mouser, I don't think that would work.  I only look at software that may be of interest to me, and presume that everyone else is likewise.  I sometimes see "solutions" to things that to me are non-problems.  It would be hard for anyone to fairly review a software just because it's there.  For example, I've been a big fan of Horst Schaeffer's (Hoshi's) software for over fifteen years, but while I use some of his software all the time, other programs, for one reason or another, don't fit into my world.

The idea of offering a good alerting service so that people can find what, potentially, genuinely interests them, is a good one, though.  Perhaps a separate "new software releases/updates" blog with terse descriptions?

2057

General Software Discussion / Re: Bookmarks, I am frustrated

« Last post by rjbull on March 18, 2009, 05:07 AM »

- integrates with wsa which can work as a bookmark manager of sorts

-iphigenie (March 17, 2009, 03:23 PM)

I think you mean wsw there?  When I try WSW as a bookmark manager it tends to report "too many bookmarks!"  I use LinkStash for that.

I just wish there was a way to get multiple pages as it can get quite repetitive if you want to save, say, 7 pages

Some download managers have features for grabbing whole sites, or presumably parts of sites starting from where you tell them - IDM certainly does, and I think FDM does, though I haven't tried it.

2058

General Software Discussion / Re: External Drive Content Lister?

« Last post by rjbull on March 17, 2009, 10:22 AM »

Maybe Cathy?

-rjbull (March 17, 2009, 05:34 AM)

updated in the last couple of weeks I see!

-tomos (March 17, 2009, 05:45 AM)

WebSite-Watcher is very useful for checking updates 

2059

General Software Discussion / Re: Bookmarks, I am frustrated

« Last post by rjbull on March 17, 2009, 05:38 AM »

The obvious program for saving Web pages is Local Website Archive. 

2060

General Software Discussion / Re: External Drive Content Lister?

« Last post by rjbull on March 17, 2009, 05:34 AM »

Maybe Cathy?

An extremly small, very fast and easy to use media cataloging tool. You can use it to index files stored on removable media (CD's, DVD's or even diskettes), hard disks or net drives, and create searchable catalogs that can be used without having access to original media. Searching capabilities are based on file name, date and size. Additional features include filtering options, search duplicates or singles, customizable date format, etc. Found files can be opened (executed) or deleted directly, if they are present. Drag&drop support. Directory trees, MP3 album/song lists can be printed, disk space usage can be investigated. Single file executable, no install needed.

2061

General Software Discussion / Re: delete all the lines that do NOT start with a specific string in multiple files

« Last post by rjbull on March 15, 2009, 03:26 PM »

Converting the shell script to batch was a huuuge pain in the ass because (again) the Windows console sucks, and doesn't honor piping symbols in a for loop in the same way it would as a standalone command

-Ehtyar (March 14, 2009, 05:44 PM)

Ehtyar,

Take a look at Horst Schaeffer's List MODifier LMOD, which is a great workaround for making batch files to get round these kind of problems.

2062

General Software Discussion / Re: The Bat: Great program, terrible documentation and support

« Last post by rjbull on March 13, 2009, 07:14 AM »

Do you mean you see TB!'s forum online, as per DC?  I take it as a mailing list.  My main problem with it is the sheer volume: not surprising, I suppose, for a program of TB!'s power and complexity.

2063

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Find filenames/folders above certain length and offer to rename them

« Last post by rjbull on March 10, 2009, 11:10 AM »

1-4A Rename has built-in features for shortening names for burning CDs:

Shorten filenames for CD-Rs

If you write CDs they can only can contain filenames with 64 chars or less. Thus 1-4a rename can try to

   1. Shorten the filename: deleting unnecessary spaces (additional to the above mentioned function)
   2. Destruct the filename "Remix" => "Rmx" etc.
   3. Delete space between letters and make letters uppercase: "Michael Jackson-Beat it.mp3" => "MichaelJackson-BeatIt.mp3"
   4. Delete Vowels "Stevie Wonder - Happy birthday" => "Stv Wndr - Hppy brthdy"
   5. Delete double letters: "Madonna" =>"Madona"

You will see the changes immediately plus the number of letters above 64.

Additionally you can choose to not accept changes, if the filename is still too long.

2064

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by rjbull on March 10, 2009, 10:41 AM »

File Managers

  Perhaps a few of those are fast and strong, I mentioned Total Commander is slow, Xyplorer might be fast.  One of the reasons for this summary was that for most of us the file managers will be chosen on other criteria.  However if a few are truly top-notch on "find files" it would be worth a note. Personally I would be more likely to switch to that file manager. 

-Steven Avery (March 10, 2009, 10:03 AM)

Total Commander is an excellent file manager and my most-used one, but it's true I prefer XYPlorer (registered) for unindexed file searching on the company network.   XY has a nice free version too.  But don't forget that you can have (more or less) the best of both worlds with TC by using the FSE plug-in, which integrates Locate32 into TC.

2065

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by rjbull on March 09, 2009, 08:44 AM »

What can I use to do realtime index-less NTFS searches in Vista?

-tinjaw (March 04, 2009, 10:25 AM)

Does Nir Sofer's SearchMyFiles work on Vista?

2066

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Batchmulticlipboard

« Last post by rjbull on March 09, 2009, 08:29 AM »

It might be worth the OP looking at PSPad's Clipboard Monitor Window (Alt-M), but I think it's all mouse-clicks, not hotkeys.

2067

General Software Discussion / Re: Making my life difficult - Windows 98 - advice needed

« Last post by rjbull on March 08, 2009, 05:35 PM »

Opera 9.20 certainly works on mine, as does F-Prot antivirus (but you need an older version).  TheBat! 3.99 works for e-mail, if you're prepared to spend money; or nPOPuk for a client that leaves mail on the server (by default).

2068

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Search and Replace tool for MS Word Files

« Last post by rjbull on March 08, 2009, 05:29 PM »

HandyFile Find and Replace, Office and WorkBench editions.

2069

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Finally perfected my download commenter after only 8 years

« Last post by rjbull on February 27, 2009, 03:51 AM »

Also, good idea for info on files (Really_Long_Setup_Program_Filenames_Can_Get_Annoying.exe), but does it preserve the data when moved to another directory? What about from NTFS -> FAT32 (or any other conversion)? Also, out of sheer curiosity, would the info be readable under any standard Linux file browser (eg: Nautilus)?

-wreckedcarzz (February 26, 2009, 09:17 PM)

DESCRIPT.ION files are preserved when you move files, provided you either use 4DOS, or a file manager aware of DESCRIPT.ION files.  Several are; Total Commander, for instance.  Most of the FILE_ID.DIZ compilers also understand DESCRIPT.ION files.  If you move a file, you may have to re-run your file information compiler / allfiles lister, but it all works.  It's a long time since I did things that way, though, especially with the move to .EXE installers.

2070

General Software Discussion / Re: Any freeware to change the case (capitalization) of clipboard text on the fl

« Last post by rjbull on February 26, 2009, 08:26 AM »

I also tried TextMorph. What a mess! The installer wouldn't work, so I unpacked it, and threw an .exe extension on the biggest file in there. The app worked fine, but with no hotkey support, it's really not hlepful.

-garbanzo (February 26, 2009, 08:01 AM)

I think I had to use the alternative TextMorph23big.exe download.  Don't forget it has command line options, so you could probably write a batch file and invoke the .BAT with a system hotkey (<erm> blue sky idea).

I have actually been using notepad2 today and it's working pretty well. It's speedy and it does a good job. It's a bit of extra work alt-tabbing around, but once I get a rhythm down, it goes pretty quick

I'd have suggested TED Notepad as a swiss army knife text editor, but you'd still have the Alt-Tabbing.  Had you considered either (a) automating that with, say, AutoHotkey (AHK), or (b) even making a custom AHK script to do the entire task, i.e. a custom sentence-case utility?  AHK is very popular (to say the least) on DonationCoder and you'd have plenty of help.

2071

General Software Discussion / SearchMyFiles - Nir Sofer releases file finder

« Last post by rjbull on February 26, 2009, 03:56 AM »

Nir Sofer, one of the most remarkable free utility programmers on the Net, has released a new program, SearchMyFiles v1.00:

Description
SearchMyFiles is an alternative to the standard "Search For Files And Folders" module of Windows. It allows you to easily search files in your system by wildcard, by last modified/created/last accessed time, by file attributes, by file content (text or binary search), and by the file size. SearchMyFiles allows you to make a very accurate search that cannot be done with Windows search. For Example: You can search all files created in the last 10 minutes with size between 500 and 700 bytes.
After you made a search, you can select one or more files, and save the list into text/html/csv/xml file, or copy the list to the clipboard.

SearchMyFiles is portable, and you can use it from a USB flash drive without leaving traces in the Registry of the scanned computer.

2072

General Software Discussion / Re: Any freeware to change the case (capitalization) of clipboard text on the fl

« Last post by rjbull on February 25, 2009, 04:30 AM »

Text Monkey looks great [...] but it would wipe out my software budget for the year

-garbanzo (February 24, 2009, 01:13 PM)

I can't remember the full feature set of the Lite version, but suggest you check it out, as it's free.  Also, the Pro version has been featured as a discount offer on Bits du Jour.  They sometimes repeat offers, so it would bear watching.

[Edit]
You might try freeware TextMorph.  Warning - I have not tried this one myself!

Capitalize 1st Letter of Sentences
This tool will capitalize the 1st letter of each sentence it finds.  Sentences are found by periods, exclamation points, and question marks.

You might want to look at its command-line options and make a short cut to a batch file, activated by a hotkey, to make operation as smooth as possible.
[/Edit]

2073

General Software Discussion / Re: Tagging Files (Tag Everything)

« Last post by rjbull on February 24, 2009, 09:37 AM »

2rjbull
I was testing it for a week and forgot about it very quickly. As far as it might be great for notes, it is not usable for folders.

-fenixproductions (February 23, 2009, 08:01 AM)

Well, that sounds pretty damning!  Thanks, I'll steer clear of it...

2074

General Software Discussion / Mouse gestures program looking for beta testers

« Last post by rjbull on February 24, 2009, 08:04 AM »

JoeJoe, author of freewares such as the excellent ArsClip, Rename Master, OkayKeeBees etc., has made available beta versions of new program MouseWrangler:

JoeJoe's freeware utilities

 MouseWrangler, a new program

I've created a new program called MouseWrangler - for mouse gestures. While holding the right mouse button, mouse motions are detected and a series of motions will trigger an action. Currently, a keystroke or a series of keystrokes will be simulated for each gesture.

See the Public Betas page for more information and to download. This program is still in the Beta stage, but it's currently stable and functioning well.

2075

General Software Discussion / Re: Any freeware to change the case (capitalization) of clipboard text on the fl

« Last post by rjbull on February 24, 2009, 07:54 AM »

A program that reads existing text in Windows clipboard, converts the case of the text to one several different options (UPPERCASE, lowercase, Sentence case, Initial Capitals, tOGGLE cASE) then pastes the text back to Windows clipboard.

Any ideas? I have to change the case of a few hundred little bits of text, so I need to make the process as simple as possible.

-garbanzo (February 24, 2009, 05:41 AM)

Clippy.  You can set it up with one particular action as the default, and assign a hotkey to that action.  Then in your app, mark text, press Ctrl-C, press Clippy hotkey, press Ctrl-V, and your old text is instantly replaced by your new text.  It's the most streamlined app of this type I've seen.  I think Boxer Software's TextMonkey Lite can do it too (I have the Pro version, which certainly can), but you have to Alt-Tab back and forth.  And, as observed above, mouser's CHS can do it, but again needs several keystrokes in its present form.