Recent Posts

2626

Mouser's Zone / Re: Multi-browser Bookmark Synchronization Tool and Other Multi-Browser Ideas?

« Last post by rjbull on March 29, 2007, 04:41 PM »

LinkStash (not tried by me) looks good, with a different approach:

 LinkStash is an outstanding new bookmarks/favorites manager which works for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, NetCaptor and Opera. Just 5 minutes with LinkStash and we are betting you will never want to use the IE favorites, Netscape & Opera bookmarks again! Easily store and organize all your favorite links. With fields for comments, ratings, password, date last visited, and much more. Make your bookmarks visible and easy to find by using color highlights.

LinkStash will open and close with your browser, and using LinkStash means you can store and organize all your favorite links in a familiar Explorer-style tree arrangement. With fields for comments, ratings, password, date last visited and so on, links can be easily edited, maintained and kept up to date. You can make your bookmarks visible and easy to find by using color highlights. A customizeable toolbar allows you to arrange all your favorite commands in a sensible, custom arrangement of your choice.

[...]

All bookmarks are kept together in one single file, easily fitted on the average floppy diskette. This means your bookmarks are totally portable and can be taken to and from work, and easily synchronized between computers.

[...]


 *** Linkstash now combines the functionality of a top notch bookmark manager with complete automated password control. Store all your passwords safely and securely encrypted in LinkStash, protected by a master password and enter complete username/password information on any web site login page with a common configurable keystroke!

2627

Post New Requests Here / Re: Ini-File writer

« Last post by rjbull on March 25, 2007, 04:06 PM »

You might find IniFile a useful tool:

IniFile handles Windows type INI files with section names in square brackets, and assignments of the form: item=string.

Syntax:
 
INIFILE filename [section] item=string    change or write
INIFILE filename [section] item=    remove item
INIFILE filename [section] item==    clear item
INIFILE filename [section] /remove    remove entire section
INIFILE filename [section] item > temp.bat    read item
INIFILE filename [section] > temp.bat    read all items of section

Items and sections are generated if not found. The INI file must exist.

Reading an assignment sends a SET statement to STDOUT for redirection to a temporary batch file.

2628

General Software Discussion / Re: Which software can extract pictures out of pdf ?

« Last post by rjbull on March 25, 2007, 10:47 AM »

pdfimages, part of XPDF (freeware, command line), may help you:

NAME
       pdfimages - Portable Document Format (PDF) image extractor
       (version 3.01)

SYNOPSIS
       pdfimages [options] PDF-file image-root

DESCRIPTION
       Pdfimages saves images from  a  Portable  Document  Format
       (PDF)  file  as  Portable  Pixmap  (PPM),  Portable Bitmap
       (PBM), or JPEG files.

       Pdfimages reads the PDF file, scans  one  or  more  pages,
       PDF-file,  and  writes one PPM, PBM, or JPEG file for each
       image, image-root-nnn.xxx, where nnn is the  image  number
       and xxx is the image type (.ppm, .pbm, .jpg).

       NB:  pdfimages  extracts  the  raw image data from the PDF
       file, without performing any additional  transforms.   Any
       rotation,  clipping, color inversion, etc. done by the PDF
       content stream is ignored.

2629

General Software Discussion / Re: Text xpander that can handle RTF

« Last post by rjbull on March 20, 2007, 10:37 AM »

Type Pilot says this:

You can use Type Pilot as a depository for storing thousands of long words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs or even entire messages. You don't even have to define keywords for them - any phrase can be easily "extracted" from Type Pilot using a tree-like structure. The program works in any word processor.

You can also use Type Pilot as your usual pim (personal information manager). The program allows you to keep any text, formatted text, OLE objects (ex. pictures, waves and so on) in a tree-like structure.

Note the word "formatted," but, they don't specify exactly what they mean by that.

2630

General Software Discussion / Re: Text xpander that can handle RTF

« Last post by rjbull on March 20, 2007, 07:01 AM »

What do you mean by "support RTF?"  That is, if you're in an RTF word processor, all you're seeing is the text, so presumably most text expanders would work?

2631

Post New Requests Here / Re: Save web page to directory based on web site in browser title

« Last post by rjbull on March 20, 2007, 06:32 AM »

Try out Local WebSite Archive, which is on DonationCoder discount until the end of March 2007.

2632

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: Directory/File Monitor Change Notification

« Last post by rjbull on March 14, 2007, 12:14 PM »

http://www.snapfiles...lity/dirmonitor.html

-justice (March 14, 2007, 11:15 AM)

The author's site is http://www.gibinsoft.net/
They keep a copy of the old freeware version 1.9.5, plus a 19 euro / US$19 set of utilities containing an updated version 2.9:

GiPo@FileUtilities is a set of utilities for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP that provide many useful services:

    * GiPo@MoveOnBoot - copying/moving/renaming/deleting files and folders on the next system boot.
    * GiPo@DirMonitor - monitoring changes in the file system.
    * GiPo@Mount - local folders substitution and local/remote drives mounting.
    * GiPo@Hardlink - UNIX-like (POSIX) hardlinks for NTFS creation.
    * GiPo@ReadTest - checking files and folders for read errors.

Utilities can be integrated into shell.

2633

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: Directory/File Monitor Change Notification

« Last post by rjbull on March 14, 2007, 11:38 AM »

Back in the 'Old' days when I ran a BBS that received files from a satellite system, I had written a program that did this in order to initiate other actions...

-bscoles (March 13, 2007, 04:25 PM)

I immediately thought of John Souvestre's SLEEP.  Ah, the good old days... 

2634

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

« Last post by rjbull on March 14, 2007, 06:24 AM »

I still keep up with TreePad.  It is a little garish to look at but whiz bang with features.  The Lite version is free.

-JohnFredC (March 13, 2007, 03:16 PM)

I use Treepad Lite a bit.  It's a nice little app, and when you do a Ctrl-F search, it produces a "table" of hits.  For modest data sets, this goes a some way towards offsetting what is for me is a serious (deal-breaking) lack in many these apps, namely, absence of even a modest attempt at Boolean searching.  Last time I looked, even the payware version of Treepad didn't have that.  I want a tool for storing and retrieving large numbers of fairly random notes, most of which have very little to do with each other.  Ability to organise notes or make outlines is (usually) barely relevant to me.

I believe a portable version of Treepad Lite is planned.  Apart from Boolean search, I'd like it to have a better hyperlink system (what it has works, but is clumsy).  I still have and occasionally use Memory Mate for DOS, which does have simple Boolean search and easy insertion of hyperlinks.  All these years later and there still isn't anything as low-drag?

2635

General Software Discussion / Re: nostalgia hour: old software you loved

« Last post by rjbull on March 13, 2007, 06:52 AM »

Hold down the Alt key and your cursor because a hand which could move your document around. Why we're still stuck with stupid always-too-thin scrollbars, I'll never know.

-djkarmad (March 12, 2007, 08:28 AM)

Try the Logitech TrackBall instead of a standard mouse...  press the middle mouse key and the cursor changes to a different shape; flick the ball up or down and the whole page heads that way.

2636

General Software Discussion / Re: nostalgia hour: old software you loved

« Last post by rjbull on March 07, 2007, 04:03 AM »

But there's very little to preserve even basic information about old non game software.

-iphigenie (March 07, 2007, 03:52 AM)

Coming close:

Dan's 20th Century Abandonware

Free Software for DOS

2637

General Software Discussion / Re: roboform2go or sticky password?

« Last post by rjbull on March 06, 2007, 08:59 AM »

$39 for roboform portable is a bit steep.

-urlwolf (March 04, 2007, 05:18 PM)

You must have missed the DC discount (some while ago now).

The KeePass plugins carry the following warning:

You probably wouldn't need them very badly.  The only one I've seen is written in compiled AutoIt to help speed up form-filling. You get source code, but it only works with IE, not with other browsers, because only IE has the API.  With Firefox, you just have to click in the first box, Alt-Tab back to KeePass and press Ctrl-V.

2638

General Software Discussion / Re: roboform2go or sticky password?

« Last post by rjbull on March 05, 2007, 06:32 AM »

keePass doesn't support firefox.

-urlwolf (March 04, 2007, 06:11 PM)

Works with Firefox for me.  Something to note, if you're still using Win98 (the last estimate I saw was that only 77 million people still were), then you have to use KeePass 1.3, as later ones don't work with Win98.  Later KeePass, e.g. 1.06, works fine with Firefox 1.5.04 on Win2K, though.

As an alternative, saw one vote on DC for Pins.  It's portable, too.

ALPass is an ALTools RoboForm-alike which works from a USB stick and is free for personal use, but it only works with IE.

[Belated and probably futile edit]

KeePass 1.07 does work with Win98 - the author changed it; 1.04 to 1.06 didn't.

[/Edit]

2639

General Software Discussion / Re: nostalgia hour: old software you loved

« Last post by rjbull on March 04, 2007, 11:18 AM »

Oldest ones are all DOS:

Newkey - best shareware keyboard macro program for DOS, about 1990.

Early Bird - reminder program for DOS, also about 1990.  Still use it a bit (Y2K-compliant from the start).

QEMM/DESQview - commercial - plus NDOS, best system I ever had.

Blue Wave OLR

GoldED message editor for Fidonet

Visual Display Editor (VDE) - Wordstar-style editor/word processor, still updated, still use it

PC-Write word processor, still use it

XTree Pro, long since abandoned in favour of a succession of Norton Commander clones.

Interesting point.  Newkey, which I registered in 1990, was the first program I registered.  I used it because I wanted to automate things, help certain programs talk to each other, put my own acceptable user interface on the results, and generally put sticking plaster (Band Aids?) over a poor OS that didn't want to be as automated as I wanted, and application programs that didn't work like I wanted either.  Times changed, computers got bigger, programs got more sophisticated.  Multitasking arrived courtesty of DESQview, and Newkey and DV wouldn't play nicely together.  After a bit of searching I found new ways of working, abandoning Newkey with respect and regret.  Later still, Windows arrived and spoiled everything.  The first Windows program I registered, in 2000, was Macro Express.  I used it because I wanted to automate things, help certain programs talk to each other, put my own acceptable user interface on the results, and generally put sticking plaster (Band Aids?) over a poor OS that didn't want to be as automated as I wanted, and application programs that didn't work like I wanted either.  Ten years between registering my first DOS program and my first Windows program, and Microsoft made sooo much progress... 

2640

Post New Requests Here / Re: DONE: simple app to make a window always stay on top

« Last post by rjbull on March 02, 2007, 04:09 AM »

Quoting TinyApps Misc page:

Showin 2.0 [9k] Enable windows that have been disabled, unhide hidden windows and force windows to stay on top or be placed below others. Perhaps one of the most popular uses of this program is to display hidden password editbox fields (text behind the asterisks *****).
http://www.foundston...?filename=showin.zip

PushPin 1.0 [22k] Keep any window on top of all other windows. 
http://rosafamily.org/software/pushpin/

Nail It! v1.10 [25k] + Make windows"sticky" so that they remain above
other windows.
http://www.pier7.net/dojo/Nail-It.htm

PowerMenu 1.5.1 [49k] + Adds "Always On Top", "Minimize To Tray", "Priority" and "Transparency" (W2K/XP only) sub menus to all top level system menus.
http://www.veridicus...ogramming/powermenu/

[Edit to add an afterthought:]
PowerPro can also make windows stay on top, and can be set to watch for a particular windows' appearance and "pin" it automatically (same with AHK I think).  You might find this even more useful than a program that always needs to be set manually.

I should add that the problem I have with "pinning" windows is that doing so usually stops Kleptomania (text scraper) working.  It seems to be unable to "see" the window if it's been pinned.

2641

General Software Discussion / Re: My favorite software! What's yours?

« Last post by rjbull on March 01, 2007, 05:59 AM »

Okay Curt, FlashNote is a great idea, and I like it better than sticky apps by far.

-zridling (February 07, 2007, 03:53 PM)

zridling,

Have you looked at Yadabyte Notes (YBN)?

The main aim of YBN is to give you one place where you can keep all the "stuff" of your life. A place that you can carry with you to use on any PC, and soon PPC and PALM. If you practice GTD and Todoque then this application is ideal for "collection", list management and archiving. If you don't, it's just a great, simple, note pad.

*    Free, Portable and unlike anything before it.

*    Perpetual Open Notes File - Your notes will be kept in a single file (html) that you can keep using and carry for ever.  This file can be opened in any web browser, text editor or word processor.

*    Every note records its history, so you need never loose information, even if your clear the note.

*    Notes can be a single phone number jotted down in a hurry, a chapter of your next book or anything in between.

*    Natural Navigation - Say goodbye to indexes and lists, YBN uses an innovative text based navigation system. You want John's phone number, type "john". You want the email draught for the Seattle trip, type "Seattle".  You might have a million notes, Natural Navigation will allow you to find them in the fastest, most intuitive way.

*    Spell Checker - Check out the new spell checker feature. Now you don't need to open MSWord every time you need to check your spelling.

2642

Word Processor Roundup / Re: 3rd Party Tools like Bibliography Addins

« Last post by rjbull on March 01, 2007, 05:41 AM »

Probably not the kind of industrial-strength GUI you're looking for, but from Eric Pemente's AWK page:

# endnote.txt  - This is a really helpful file for people who write documents in plain ASCII (like Emacs or vim users!), and who want to insert footnotes or endnotes in their documents, but who want to be able to move their footnotes all around without renumbering everything. Basically, you use references like this[##] in your text, putting the actual citation (Dante, Book 3, sect. 2) directly below the paragraph. Rearrange the document to your heart's delight. When you're all finished, use this script  to sequentially number all your references, gather your notes together, and print them at the end of the file with numbers corresponding to the in-text references. Totally cool. Eric Meyer thought of it, and I wrote it for both awk and perl.

The same script is also available in perl if you'd rather.

2643

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

« Last post by rjbull on February 28, 2007, 10:46 AM »

yes, most can import, but one document at a time - and usually the import has more steps than opening the original file and using cut and paste.

-iphigenie (February 28, 2007, 05:16 AM)

Am I misunderstanding you?  I'm thinking of KeyNote, for example, where I remember handing it a wildcard for *.AWK, and it imported the lot in one go, with file name as node name.  Likewise a telephone list, originally one file per entry (owing to conversion from another program), into Treepad Lite.  So also (if I remember correctly) Black Hole Organiser, though that was very slow by comparison.  I.e., didn't have to enter each file/item individually in any of these.

I'm trying Clipboard Help+Spell but I can't see how I would use it for more than to speed up multiple cut and paste - it doesn't have the organising features that clipcache had.

I only use it as a clipboard enhancer, and assumed the "organising" features were more to do with collections of clips for particular tasks, not as an information-gathering and classifying system.

PS: every piece of software I try, I do a "features" page snapshot with LWA, write down price and some extremely terse test notes.

If I hear about something interesting, I usually make a note in JBLab Secure Notes, including the very important pricing details.  Often I massage the text first with a plain-text editor, usually the excellent TED Notepad.  JBLSN doesn't do images (this rarely bothers me), and has minor drawbacks, but it's still a nice little app, and it's portable.  And low-priced

2644

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

« Last post by rjbull on February 28, 2007, 04:23 AM »

Looking back the tool(s) i used the most to capture snippets of information have been local website archive, clipcache (i used the demo a lot, was going to register, then the database got corrupted)

-iphigenie (February 27, 2007, 02:25 PM)

You can find the last free version of ClipCache, 1.41, at http://www.woundedmo.../win32_freeware.html  This served me well for years on several computers.  I registered out of sheer gratitude, but never bothered to install the shareware version as the free one did all I needed, most of the time.  However, I have to add that lately some of the rude software I have to use at work has been crashing it, so I've largely moved over to Mouser's Clipboard Help+Spell, which is relatively sluggish but very robust.

You might like to look at other clipboard extenders, some of which have been mentioned elsewhere in DC.  For example, ClipMagic (not tried by me) says it allows you to set up rules and filters to move clips to categories.  And, DC has several people (e.g. Allen and Carol Haynes) who really like AceText

I think a killer feature would be one that has a "scanning" module which would crawl a bunch of directories you choose, find all the myriad documents in formats it can read (the more the merrier, if possible even word processor or other organiser files), then give you a list where you can tick all the ones you want to import, then import them...

Most can import plain text and RTF, and a few can import files from other simpler PIMs (e.g. KeyNote can import Treepad Lite, Jot+Notes can import lots).  But there are so many formats out there...

2645

General Software Discussion / Re: recommend backup soft?

« Last post by rjbull on February 26, 2007, 09:26 AM »

TinyApps recommends Cobian Backup, which is now open source.

TinyApps blog item > here <

2646

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Can a Modify format/case Preset be set as the default

« Last post by rjbull on February 26, 2007, 05:43 AM »

I though it would be useful if I can set one of the Modify format/case Preset as the automatic Modify Format/case default action to take

-patteo (February 26, 2007, 04:40 AM)

patteo,

Take a look at Clippy (freeware)

Offers the kind of configuration I'd like CH+S to have.


edited by jgpaiva to fix link

2647

General Software Discussion / Re: Paperless Home: Need document management software

« Last post by rjbull on February 14, 2007, 09:41 AM »

That seems to be what Evernote Plus ($39.95) claims to do...

The trouble is, I'll have 100 documents at a time, each with unique handwriting.  I've yet to see the software that can handle it, outside of HUGELY expensive applications (and they're not perfect).

-cranioscopical (February 13, 2007, 10:55 PM)

I should have made it clearer that that's what the beta of EverNote Plus 2.0 claims to do, rather than the existing version.  You have a stiff test regime; maybe you should apply to be a beta tester 

2648

General Software Discussion / Re: Living without AutoHotkey - possible?

« Last post by rjbull on February 14, 2007, 09:30 AM »

I am intrigued by AHK but I am a long time Powerpro user. I saw that a couple of you are familiar with both programs. Does AHK offer any advantage over Powerpro?

-edbro (February 12, 2007, 11:13 AM)

edbro,

Be aware that DC is awash with AHK zealots whose fiery evangelism makes Billy Graham look wishy-washy... 

Both AHK and PowerPro are fine products, but they are very different.  Edvard's approach of using whichever does a particular job best seems the right one to me.  Many other choices exist; I think Mouser, for example, said he uses Macro Express.

Can AHK control the clipboard?

Small part of the AHK help file entry on clipboard:

Clipboard is a built-in variable that reflects the current contents of the Windows clipboard if those contents can be expressed as text. By contrast, ClipboardAll contains everything on the clipboard, such as pictures and formatting.

But if you want the kind of clipboard support you get in PowerPro, maybe you'd be better off staying with PowerPro, or try one of the many other clipboard enhancers such as Mouser's (Donation Coder's) own Clipboard Help + Spell.

Likewise with sticky notes, try e.g. Zhorn software's Stickies or Magic Notes,
and I don't think AHK has anything remotely like PowerPro's excellent scheduler, or its support for virtual desktops.  Again, you can find plenty of alternatives; but PowerPro already has it all built in...

2649

General Software Discussion / Re: Living without AutoHotkey - possible?

« Last post by rjbull on February 12, 2007, 09:36 AM »

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I suggested a DC group donation, not a DC donation. DC would just set up the empty fund, everyone interested would donate into that fund.

Then DC/mouser would transfer the complete amount. Benefits: less PayPal fees, more of the money reaches AHK, etc.

-brotherS (February 12, 2007, 07:49 AM)

You mean sort of an "AHK special interest group" within DC, using DC as the "transport medium" to transfer the cash?  That sounds OK, as long as Mouser (and any other DC administrators) are willing to to the donkeywork.

2650

General Software Discussion / Re: Living without AutoHotkey - possible?

« Last post by rjbull on February 12, 2007, 04:02 AM »

I want to suggest another DC AHK group donation fund. $100?

-brotherS (February 11, 2007, 09:30 AM)

No.  All DC members would be contributing, but I doubt all of them use it.  Those who do, can make personal donations to AHK's author and/or to the AHK-using authors on DC.