Recent Posts

6201

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Allow commenting of files in directory listing

« Last post by IainB on August 24, 2011, 12:38 PM »

@bob99:
I use xplorer² file manager (Windows Explorer replacement). That has 2 comments fields - one (A) seems to be peculiar to xplorer², and the other (B) is a system one. For a JPG file, if you write/edit a comment in (A), it appears in (B), but it does not appear in either the EXIF or IPTC info of the file.

xplorer² has this note about using Comments:

File comments rely on an advanced NTFS feature called “Alternate Data Streams” (ADS). Imagine a file as a kind of "folder" that has a stream for the regular contents and secondary streams for other information, including comments. When you move the file around, all these alternate streams are silently carried along.

What that means is that if you run a file backup to a non-NTFS disk, then you will strip off the ADS (Comment) data.
There is no manager for the Comments, so you have to display them in the file manager, though xplorer² says you can export the comments and file names to a spreadsheet for analysis.

One of the things I liked about Rubenking's Explorer Notes was that it incorporated quite a sophisticated file manager, so you could browse through all your Comments in the file manager.

6202

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature request: Web clipping, permanent note keeping

« Last post by IainB on August 23, 2011, 07:51 PM »

@mouser:

IainB's points are the ones that haunt me.. You see for a while I actually planned CHS to be both a clipboard tool and a note taking tool.. that's why there are some features in CHS that might otherwise seem a bit odd like the ability to customize panel layouts on the main window, and hide/show columns for item modification date, etc.

But CHS never really blossomed into a full note taking application, for a variety of reasons..

-mouser (August 22, 2011, 09:44 AM)

Well, I have read your separate posts where you mention that you had originally considered that CHS could be a note-taking utility. But now - in the light of your comment above - I understand that I was wrong to say (above)that:

For example, rather than try to morph CHS into something it was never intended to be (e.g., a PIM)

- that is, it was always intended to be a note-taking tool.

Confession: I have been playing around with and trialling CHS as a PIM for a while now. I started doing this after I began to become interested in the implementation (though it was disabled at the time) of virtual folders in CHS, and your frustratingly terse notes about it. Once you enabled them, I was able to appreciate the potential of using virtual folders and SQL (which latter, in the context of using it in CHS, I am slowly learning about).

Now I begin to understand some of the CHS peculiarities - i.e., why it is the the way it is. This is after watching your 15-minute video (which is a very useful intro., I think), and after taking part in some discussions on CHS, and after reading and re-reading various posts across the DC forum relating to CHS, OCR, and note-taking software.

FWIW, my impression is that what you might have originally intended for CHS could be as much as 6 to 8-tenths complete (estimated) as it stands. I would like to be involved in helping the thing get to a finish.

I always thought CHS to be a strange beast for a "clipboard" proggy - it does quite a lot more than just clipboard. For example, it does "Help & Spell", "virtual folders" - which latter you can set with SQL too, if you want - and it has all those nifty settings under "Options".

The Virtual Folders are very interesting.
I have used them:
As virtul folders - in the way intended. e.g., as "auto-tags".
This enables me to, for example, list all clips from Firefox, or all clips to and from OneNote, or all images clipped via OneNote, or anything with the referece "frog" in the text.

Some examples of features that I would like to see added to CHS:

• Perform OCR on any text in images as they are clipped (similar to ABBY Screenshot Reader, JOCR, r-OCR). (For comparison, images clipped into OneNote are not given an OCR translation, but OneNote does make those images text-searchable.)
• Condition-Action on SQL-operable fields in Virtual Folders - e.g., IF Thing1="X" THEN set Thing2="Y". (Where Thing2 could be a date field, or a text field, an alpha/numeric variable field, or a logical variable, for example.
• View displays (adjustable) of, for example, variable folder names in the RH page, with options for the clips to be arranged below each variable folder name, and clip Notes arranged below each clip.
• Make sticky notes by pinning clips to the desktop.
• Make different types of "Favourite" e.g., one type to flag clips as being "Permanent"; one type to be used to set a "group to be displayed in quick clips display" (you can then choose which group to use/display depending on the work you are doing at the time); one type set as a group to be used as a stack, so that once the stack has been created just how you want it for the specific steps in a particuar operation, you can always instantly restore it from that group.
• Tags - use variable folders as tags.

This implies that your tree view is your categorisation tree. You will need to consider a toggle for showing/hiding inherited clips for parent nodes in the tree. I don't think you really need to add add the Tags feature to CHS as the functionality is probably already there in virtual folders. You might need to dress it up a bit is all.

I would like to go on, but I shall spare you.

6203

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Allow commenting of files in directory listing

« Last post by IainB on August 23, 2011, 04:34 PM »

@aurelius: You could do this (still can) using the old PCMagazine's free (giveaway) EN (Explorer Notes) v2.  
A brilliant little tool, it was yet another example of Neil J. Rubenking's ingenuity.  
I have put a copy of the file you need to run it all here, to download: Explorer Notes v2 - en2 (Ziff Davis).zip
Just copy the files into a directory.

The file contains:

• the necessary proggies/DLL to run.
• an extensive Help file (Neil J. Rubenking, again).
• the install log file from my 1998 install (may be of use/interest).
• a link to the PCMagazine website (you have to pay to download EN2 now, it seems).  

Once you run EN2, "Use the Connect to Explorer" function for it to integrate into the Explorer shell. This shell integration worked fine in XP but does not yet work in my Win7 (64-bit). I intend to figure out how to fix this, but it's not top of my to do list yet - the install log file from my 1998 install may give a clue for me when I start fixing.
It worked fine when I originally used the EN v1, then v2. I had it running on Windows 95, then Windows 98, then Windows XP - it didn't need an installer, just the files per the above download.

EN uses the Registry as its database - which some people thought was a bit naughty. Mind you, xplorer² uses the Registry for similar reasons - for its "bookmarks" data.

EN is/was well-integrated with the Windows Explorer shell and with the OS, providing a comprehensive note manager. I gather it was compatible with all the 32-bit Windows platforms, but I'm not sure exactly what ts limitations are for 64-bit Windows platforms (as above).

6204

General Software Discussion / Re: Jello Dashboard + OneNote as PIM/GTD tools - user experience/feedback/advice?

« Last post by IainB on August 23, 2011, 02:25 PM »

@Jimdoria:

OK, well strictly speaking OneNote does NOT require Outlook or any of the other Office programs in any way.

If you already have them it will work with them and there are some nice features that take advantage of Outlook/Office, but the CORE functionality of OneNote (really about 95% of the app) is unconnected with either Office or Outlook. The integration piece is just icing, not cake.

You can buy OneNote stand-alone. You don't have to get it as part of Office.

-Jimdoria (August 22, 2011, 06:14 PM)

Thanks, yes, I was aware that OneNote did not necessitate the use of Outlook - I just said that "Onenote is definitely more useful if used in conjunction with Outlook". I suspect that this is deliberate - Microsoft tend to integrate everything as much as possible, to increase lock-in.
I had not known that you could get OneNote as standalone though - i.e., not as part of MS Office - though I did know that it was originally standalone and had thought it was no longer so.

6205

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature request: Web clipping, permanent note keeping

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2011, 11:39 PM »

+1 from me for at least considering this idea from @rjbull.

I am likely to spend a good deal of my time just copying stuff and then just pasting stuff into different data/info storage containers - including PIMs - typically from sources such as, for example, web pages, into OneNote, or InfoSelect, or Gmail. This is almost always done using the medium of CHS. Why not leave it in CHS for that to become the de facto free-format PIM database? I can search CHS pretty fast, I can run some SQL commands on it (if I knew the SQL), and it holds plain text, formatted text (in the last copied slot anyway!), and image data...now the full reference from where the clip was copied!

The trouble is, if mouser did that, then I'd be all over him like a bad rash wanting CHS changed to have all sorts of features/functionality that I would need for it to be my PIM. If CHS is going to be further modified, then I'd suggest that maybe we need to sit down and scratch our heads a bit to help mouser uderstand our multiifold needs better.
But this could be reinventing the wheel
For example, rather than try to morph CHS into something it was never intended to be (e.g., a PIM), do we need to consider the idea of developing CHS as (say) a plugin to (say) OneNote, or infoQube, etc. - so that when you copy something with CHS, it automagically pastes it ino the object of our choice, complete with source references? No more copy/paste. - just copy. That really could be a timesaver.

6206

Living Room / Re: Kick procrastination's ass: Run a dash [2005]

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2011, 10:14 PM »

Oh, no you don't... I've got my procrastinating on a very tight schedule:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=3850.0

-Edvard (August 03, 2011, 01:07 AM)

Yes, that article on Structured Procrastination was one of the most ingenious blog posts I had read in a long time.
It was serendipitous - saved me from doing some work. Just before I read it, I had been intending to write a blog post on the important matter of "Inherited Leg Cramp", but I gave up, outclassed in the face of such ingenuity.

6207

General Software Discussion / Re: Jello Dashboard + OneNote as PIM/GTD tools - user experience/feedback/advice?

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2011, 10:03 PM »

Found this post in another thread.
Thought I'd put it here for interest/relevance to this discussion and the proprietary naure of OneNote.
The proprietary naure of OneNote is something that worries me too.

From: InfoQube & TreeSheets: Information managers of the future
« on: 2011-07-15, 05:50:09 »

Meanwhile, I've found a notetaker that I really like. Rightnote, I posted about it before long ago. This tool is a labor of love. If you like oneNote, but fear being locked in its proprietary format, rightnote is the best replacement. Portable. Live search is excellent. It can have different note types, spreadsheets and code. The author is very responsive and releases new versions fast. Probably the best notetaker I know. Its treatment of tags is fantastic. And it can link external files and treat them as notes, that is, index them. It's called virtual notes. This is good for collaborating with people who don't use rightnote. Oh, and it clips snippets with their url. It has displaced cintanotes for me.

-urlwolf (August 21, 2011, 06:27 PM)

6208

General Software Discussion / Jello Dashboard + OneNote as PIM/GTD tools - user experience/feedback/advice?

« Last post by IainB on August 18, 2011, 07:44 PM »

I would be very interested in any user experience/feedback/advice from members of the DC forum, relating to the use of Jello Dasboard and MS OneNote.     

Because it seemed to offer some significant potential benefits as a combined PIM (Personal Information Manager) and GTD (Getting Things Done) tool, I have recently downloaded Jello Dasboard and commenced trialling it, with a view to using it to replace a large part of my current dependency on the PIM Info Select  - which latter I have been a long-term user of. (Info Select is discussed elsewhere in the DC forum.)

I have also been trialling OneNote for some time, again with a view to using it to replace a large part of my current dependency on Info Select.

The thing is that Jello Dashboard necessitates the use of Outlook (because it is an add-on to - and integrates with Outlook), and Onenote is definitely more useful if used in conjunction with Outlook.

Though I have had MS Outlook installed on my PCs and laptops for years (it comes with MS Office), I detest using it because of the proprietary and constipated way of working that it forces on the user - though I appreciate that it has many excellent features.   
So, I have avoided using Outlook except when I have been obliged to use it when working on client-owned PCs/workstations.   
However, to trial Jello Dashboard, I have to use Outlook. I must overcome my distaste for the latter because the potential benefits offered by Jello would seem to be too great to ignore.

I feel sure that others will have "been there, done that" before me, and I am hoping that the user experience/feedback/advice from members of DC forum on this subject might save me some time, error and frustration and help me to avoid re-inventing the wheel in evaluating Jello and OneNote.

Thanks in advance for any help you might feel able to offer.   

By the way, the only useful reference I could find in a search on "Jello" in the DC forum was a brief one in a discussion Managing projects with OUTLOOK on 2007-10-08.

6209

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by IainB on August 15, 2011, 10:14 PM »

I dont know. I find the idea dubious that without "civilisation", we'd be a bunch of savages. [...]

-tomos (August 14, 2011, 02:18 PM)

Good point. I'd suggest that it all depends on what we mean by "civilisation" or "civilised".
However, it can be shown that even with "civilisation" we are arguably a bunch of savages, though - understandably - we may not be proud to admit to this truth.
For example, what would be your working definitions of these terms - "civilisation" or "civilised"?

rjbull's reference (above) to "The Lord of the Flies" was apt, but that was a fictional work and proves nothing.

Recorded modern and ancient history, on the other hand, can provide us with hard facts to look for proof.
For example, and at random:

• According to your definitions (from above), was the London rioting and looting and associated criminal activity the action of a civilized people, or was it just "criminal"?
• Was  "The peasants' revolt of 1381" (referred to above) the action of a civilized people, or was it just "criminal"?
• Was the "rape of Nanking" by the Japanese the action of a civilized people?
• How about the use of "comfort women" (sex slaves) by the Japanese during the war?
• How about the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, with a deliberate act of war being the raping of the Kuwaiti women by Iraqi soldiers, so as to destabilise the Islamic society there? Was that civilised ("everything's fair in love and war") or "criminal"?
• And the looting of property in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the earthquakes there - was that civilised or just "criminal"? (The law in NZ judged it to be criminal, by the way.)
• Was it a civilized act by the US to drop those atom bobs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
• Was it a civilised thing for the Nazi Germans to practice eugenics and experiment on humans?
• Was it a civilised thing for the Nazi Germans to round up 6 million Jews and murder them in highly efficient death factories, confiscating property and valuables (including gold tooth fillings), incinerate them and even use their body products (ash from the bones to make roading material, rendered body fats to make soap)? (The Nuremberg trials deemed these to be "crimes against humanity", by the way.)
• Was Winston Churchill's suggestion (in Admiralty) that women in poverty be sterilised a civilised suggestion?
• Is the directive to exterminate Jews (as mandated in the Koran) a barbaric and uncivilised directive? (Muslim leaders justify it as being the infallible word of Allah, so it is acceptable religious dogma, by the way.)
• Was the torture and murder of hundreds (or was it thousands?) of people that was conducted by the Spanish Inquisition and carried out in the name of God the action of a civilised people? (It was done under the direction of the Pope/RC church, by the way.)

I would suggest that the majority of the above could be considered as barbaric and uncivilised in the eyes of an alien observing earth. We however, are observing our fellow humans, and may wish to ameliorate such labels to something less offensive - e.g., "legitimate acts of war" for war events, or "the acts of members of society who feel disenfranchised" for the London chav riots, or as many of the Nazis justified their actions by saying "I vas chust followink orders".

For "we" are civilised, are we not? It is always "they" who are uncivilised.

6210

Living Room / Re: The Foreclosure Scam

« Last post by IainB on August 15, 2011, 08:18 PM »

@Deozaan: Thankyou for opening my eyes as to what is going on in the US. This is amazing.
The FDIC & One West Bank scam video clip shows that it looks like legalised and blatant corruption is rife in the US banking scene - the victim being the taxpayer.

In the video clip Fraud Factories: Rep. Alan Grayson Explains the Foreclosure Fraud Crisis, we are told how blatant illegal fraud is operating by bogus foreclosures, perpetrated by the banks and financial institutions and supported by an administratively corrupt and overburdened legal system. The victim here is the houseowner (some of whom don't even have a mortgage, but they get to lose their property anyway, by false foreclosure).

I am confuzzled by this. Surely I am missing something. I thought the US government's job included the responsibility to protect the public and their property rights, not to incentivise, administrate and facilitate theft of their property. Is the US now like in Italy, where Big Money and criminals/the Mafia are reputedly running the show?

What is being done about it - to stop it and to enable restitution for the crime? Why does Rep. Alan Grayson have to even produce such a vid clip? Are the lawmakers powerless to stop the law being used for criminal gain and victimising the people? The comments on this forum all seem to say feebly "Yes, I know - it's awful isn't it? That's why I rent, etc.", but how is such a passive response going to achieve anything to rectify matters?

6211

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 40% off on Notezilla Sticky Notes Program only on 17th August

« Last post by IainB on August 15, 2011, 01:46 AM »

Looks like the Bdj page has been hurriedly modified to remove the clever (NOT) email address "block" popup.    
"Why are we all so stupid?" (quote W Edwards Deming).

By the way, I could be wrong, of course, but the version of Notezilla for sale is v7 and it appears to be the same  (v7.0.0.85 date 2008-11-11) as I recently trialled and which I also trialled in 2008/9.
Looks like development may have stopped. (?)

If that is the case, then the next version might be interesting and worth waiting for, but I would not recommend that anyone spend their cognitive surplus on this v7.

Mind you elsewhere on DC forum, Notezilla seems to enjoy a good rep., and there's this:

Old 3M Post-it notes was much lighter, compatible with older OS's, had ability to send notes over lan to another pc. New one is .NET, uses more resources, less features, most "improvements" that I could see were simply eye candy.

Notezilla, in comparison to 3M Post-it Notes is the superior product with a lot more useful features, less limitations, more flexibility and a much better layout overall.

There are a few things that 3M did better, like the alarm manager, but the benefits of Notezilla outweigh anything I would have got with the best of both versions of 3M's application, combined.

-app103 (November 01, 2009, 12:07 PM)

6212

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 40% off on Notezilla Sticky Notes Program only on 17th August

« Last post by IainB on August 14, 2011, 04:44 PM »

wow, you cant look at BitsDuJour offers unless you give your email...

-tomos (August 14, 2011, 01:44 PM)

Wow. So it does! That's interesting.
However, you might be interested to note that each day's post on Bdj it shows up nice and clear in Google reader, and you can go straight from the reader view for a post to the download page, bypassing the email nag screen

I had already become seriously irritated by the nagging pop-up of Giveawayoftheday.com every time I went to read about a new post from it via my Google reader and had deleted the site from my subscriptions, but this moronic stupidity of BitsDuJour literally just takes my breath away. It's a definite marketing fail or "own goal" to deliberately block customers from accessing the special deal unless they allow their email address to be collected for spamming.

Well, never mind, that's one more website I shall probably never bother to look at again. It's so easy to delete a subscription from Google reader.
I already filter my reading list using Google reader, but when a website filters itself out from your reading list like that, it merely expedites things by saving you the trouble of thinking about doing it.
It also prejudices me mightily against the software that employs strong-arm tactics in its promotion.
Which, in this case, is a pity. I had just been systematically retrialling and reviewing a bunch of Sticky-Note type tools and PIMs - including Notezilla in particular - and was thinking that I might wait until the next discounted release of Notezilla and then buy it.

Not now though!
I shall stick with my trusty Stickies, which I find hard to beat.

6213

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v2.23.01 - Nov 22, 2013

« Last post by IainB on August 13, 2011, 07:09 AM »

@mouser: I said above:

3. Would it be useful to add the option in CHS to periodically re-establish the clipboard chain?
This is currently done by manual selection as and when the chain breaks.
Since the chain breaking could happen at any time and is outside of the control of CHS, it might be worth considering an option setting to re-establish the chain at variable intervals (e.g., 10mins. or 30mins.)

However I just noticed that, as well as the manual "Re-establish Clipboard Chain", the Options include Clipboard | Clipboard tricks | Re-establish clipboard periodically. Is that the same things as what I was asking for - "periodically re-establish the clipboard chain"?
If so, then I apologise for not having spotted it before.     
CHS is in a state of dynamic change, so there's sometimes lots  of new stuff for me to discover about it.

6214

N.A.N.Y. 2008 / Re: KeyCounter

« Last post by IainB on August 13, 2011, 02:56 AM »

I saw this thread in my Google reader, and recalled it just today when I happened across KeyCounter from Zhorn Software.
I'm not too interested in key counters for myself, but I thought I'd just drop the link here in case it might be of use to someone else reading this thread in the DC forum.

6215

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Hall of Fame

« Last post by IainB on August 12, 2011, 11:21 PM »

Hmm, well now...my votes - off the top of my head and from experience - would include:

• ICL 1900 PERT.
• Pong - the 1972 video game from Atari Inc.
• VisiCalc on the Apple II (the invention of computerised cross-tabulation and "spreadsheets").
• Logica's RAPPORT - which included FORTRAN-callable subroutines to access relational databases.
• Sciconix from Scicon (a tool used in operations research - for linear programming and optimisation modelling).
• TEM - The UK Treasury Economic Model. An econometric modelling tool (ran on a Univac 1108) that was put into the public domain in the mid-'70s.
• PLATO from CDC (Control Data Corp.).
• Lotus Agenda.
• Lotus Magellan.
• Framework III-V, from Ashton-Tate.
• Microsoft Office products - Word, Excel, Access (because they are now ubiquitous and so useful).
• Adobe Pagemaker on the Mac. (the first desktop publishing tool.)
• MacProject on the Mac.
• Microsoft Project.
• CA Allfusion Process Modeller (formerly Platinum BPwin).
• InfoSelect from Micro Logic.
• Microsoft OneNote.

6216

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by IainB on August 12, 2011, 04:30 PM »

@rjbull: Thanks for the link to Dan Jones' comment on the historical relevance of "The peasants' revolt of 1381".
Very interesting, and a timely reminder that nothing changes and history repeats. We apparently cannot suppress or control our susceptibility to our basic natures. Despite all the technological trimmings we surround ourselves with, the thin veneer of civilisation is still just that - a thin veneer. Tear it off, and it's not a very pretty sight. The police must see the stark reality of that in their work on a daily basis, and they are susceptible to it too - and yet we somehow expect them to be saints and not revert to type - we are so shocked when the police beat someone up.
The London politicians, on the other hand, appear to be able to revert to type at the drop of a hat, without a qualm.

6217

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by IainB on August 09, 2011, 06:27 PM »

As an ex-Londoner, I haven't been affected - I emigrated from the UK years ago - but a few of my friends in S.E. London area (where I used to live) have told me they have been doing a lot of shopping over the last few days. Apparently there are some bargain-basement prices and even stuff being had for free in what they call "fire sales".

6218

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlining software recommendations?

« Last post by IainB on August 09, 2011, 06:09 PM »

Thanks all for the pointer to Watership Planner. I downloaded it yesterday and tried it out, but it's just a planning tool isn't it? I couldn't figure out how to use it as an outliner anyway.
However, it looked like it could be a pretty useful planning tool, though I didn't really spend much time evaluating it.

Incidentally, I also yesterday downloaded and installed Scholar's Aid (the for Vista version - "SA4V"), which looked like a really great PIM+, but sadly it doesn't run under Windows 7 (64-bit).    
It might be moribund - the program files indicate that it's latest development/modification was in 2008.

By the way, in case this is of use to someone: I had a read of this rather extensive  List of Outliners in EditPad, which you might be interested in. I found it referred to in this discussion thread at OutlinerSoftware.com

6219

Living Room / Re: I Find This HILARIOUS~! =D

« Last post by IainB on August 07, 2011, 03:36 AM »

Wow.
This looks very bad.

The Renton police/prosecutor's response to those satirical cartoons was bad enough, I thought.
I mean - it looked like they would try to trash the 1st Amendment rights of the cartoons' creator.

I had previously always thought that the US was the last bastion of democracy and freedom.

6220

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v2.23.01 - Nov 22, 2013

« Last post by IainB on August 07, 2011, 01:15 AM »

@mouser: Sorry I posted this here:
Re: V2 Beta of Clipboard Help+Spell With Support for Images
I think it should have been in this thread.

@mouser:
CHS seems to be working really nicely for me now, and the image support is sometimes exceedingly useful. THANKYOU!    

Feedback and suggestions/notes:

See if you can identify what triggers these remaining problems. [sporadic DBISAM errors]

-mouser (May 06, 2011, 09:46 PM)

Belated feedback on this: These errors seem to have "gone away".

Plus, some interesting notes:
1. Taken from the ReadMe.txt file of LeeLu Soft's Clipboard Rules 1.0:

Spoiler

Clipboard Rules 1.0 - a freeware by LeeLu Soft 2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clipboard Rules is a unique and simple to use clipboard monitoring tool that can trigger different actions based on the text loaded to the clipboard.
The rules applied only to text strings loaded to the clipboard.
It is a small and portable utility.

How to use Clipboard Rules
--------------------------------------------
Clipboard Rules is a portable application, there is no install process, just unzip the file to any folder and run it.

Using Clipboard Rules, like all other LeeLu Soft programs, is very simple.

The application starts minimized in the system tray, a click on the Clipboard Rules tray icon will open the main form, a right click on the Clipboard Rules tray icon will open a popup options menu.

To add a rule, click on the "Add Rule..." button, this will open the rules editor.
Here you define the rules, some of the properties are mandatory properties:

- Rule name - this is the rule identifier and it is mandatory.
- Text to trigger rule - this is the text that when loaded to the clipboard will trigger the action rule, this is case sensitive and mandatory.

- Execute a program or batch file - check this checkbox to enable execution when rule is triggered and enter or browse the full path and file name to execute, red text means the file doesn't exists, blue text means files exists.

- Write to a log file - check this checkbox to write a log entry for every time the rule is triggered, enter or browse the full path and file name (will be created if not exists) for a text log file, red text means path doesn't exists, blue text means path exists.

- Open windows explorer in - check this checkbox to open a specific folder when rule is triggered, enter or browse the full path to the selected folder, red text means path doesn't exists, blue text means path exists.

- Replace clipboard text - check this checkbox and enter a new text to replace the clipboard text when a rule is triggered, check the "Append text to clipboard text" checkbox to append the new text to the existing clipboard text.

- Popup a message - check this checkbox to popup a message when a rule is triggered.

- Show desktop alert - check this checkbox to show a desktop alert (same as new mail in outlook) when a rule was triggered.

- Save - rule will add the new rule to the rules list and will clear the edit fields.
- Clear - click to clear the edit fields.
- Exit - to exit the rules editor back to the main form.

Now you can see your new rule on the rules list and it is active.
To edit a rule, double click on it and the Rules editor will open with the rule loaded.
To delete a rule, select it and click "Delete Rule"
To pause a rule, select it and click "Pause rule"
To activate a paused rule, select it and click "Activate rule"
Selecting a rule, will display his status on the status bar.

You can minimize it to tray again by clicking on the "Tray" button.

Clipboard Rules must run (better minimized to tray) in order to trigger actions based on rules.

2. Yankee Clipper - YCX <--> YC3 comparison.
CHS would seem to surpass most of the features of these two.

3. Would it be useful to add the option in CHS to periodically re-establish the clipboard chain?
This is currently done by manual selection as and when the chain breaks.
Since the chain breaking could happen at any time and is outside of the control of CHS, it might be worth considering an option setting to re-establish the chain at variable intervals (e.g., 10mins. or 30mins.)

-IainB (August 04, 2011, 06:24 PM)

6221

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: V2 Beta of Clipboard Help+Spell With Support for Images

« Last post by IainB on August 04, 2011, 06:24 PM »

@mouser:
CHS seems to be working really nicely for me now, and the image support is sometimes exceedingly useful. THANKYOU!   

Feedback and suggestions/notes:

See if you can identify what triggers these remaining problems. [sporadic DBISAM errors]

-mouser (May 06, 2011, 09:46 PM)

Belated feedback on this: These errors seem to have "gone away".

Plus, some interesting notes:
1. Taken from the ReadMe.txt file of LeeLu Soft's Clipboard Rules 1.0:

Spoiler

Clipboard Rules 1.0 - a freeware by LeeLu Soft 2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clipboard Rules is a unique and simple to use clipboard monitoring tool that can trigger different actions based on the text loaded to the clipboard.
The rules applied only to text strings loaded to the clipboard.
It is a small and portable utility.

How to use Clipboard Rules
--------------------------------------------
Clipboard Rules is a portable application, there is no install process, just unzip the file to any folder and run it.

Using Clipboard Rules, like all other LeeLu Soft programs, is very simple.

The application starts minimized in the system tray, a click on the Clipboard Rules tray icon will open the main form, a right click on the Clipboard Rules tray icon will open a popup options menu.

To add a rule, click on the "Add Rule..." button, this will open the rules editor.
Here you define the rules, some of the properties are mandatory properties:

- Rule name - this is the rule identifier and it is mandatory.
- Text to trigger rule - this is the text that when loaded to the clipboard will trigger the action rule, this is case sensitive and mandatory.

- Execute a program or batch file - check this checkbox to enable execution when rule is triggered and enter or browse the full path and file name to execute, red text means the file doesn't exists, blue text means files exists.

- Write to a log file - check this checkbox to write a log entry for every time the rule is triggered, enter or browse the full path and file name (will be created if not exists) for a text log file, red text means path doesn't exists, blue text means path exists.

- Open windows explorer in - check this checkbox to open a specific folder when rule is triggered, enter or browse the full path to the selected folder, red text means path doesn't exists, blue text means path exists.

- Replace clipboard text - check this checkbox and enter a new text to replace the clipboard text when a rule is triggered, check the "Append text to clipboard text" checkbox to append the new text to the existing clipboard text.

- Popup a message - check this checkbox to popup a message when a rule is triggered.

- Show desktop alert - check this checkbox to show a desktop alert (same as new mail in outlook) when a rule was triggered.

- Save - rule will add the new rule to the rules list and will clear the edit fields.
- Clear - click to clear the edit fields.
- Exit - to exit the rules editor back to the main form.

Now you can see your new rule on the rules list and it is active.
To edit a rule, double click on it and the Rules editor will open with the rule loaded.
To delete a rule, select it and click "Delete Rule"
To pause a rule, select it and click "Pause rule"
To activate a paused rule, select it and click "Activate rule"
Selecting a rule, will display his status on the status bar.

You can minimize it to tray again by clicking on the "Tray" button.

Clipboard Rules must run (better minimized to tray) in order to trigger actions based on rules.

2. Yankee Clipper - YCX <--> YC3 comparison.
CHS would seem to surpass most of the features of these two.

3. Would it be useful to add the option in CHS to periodically re-establish the clipboard chain?
This is currently done by manual selection as and when the chain breaks.
Since the chain breaking could happen at any time and is outside of the control of CHS, it might be worth considering an option setting to re-establish the chain at variable intervals (e.g., 10mins. or 30mins.)

6222

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« Last post by IainB on July 31, 2011, 06:08 AM »

I'll probably get made fun of for being a stupid ethnocentric American who doesn't know his geology () very well, but where exactly is Australasia?

-Deozaan (July 31, 2011, 03:43 AM)

I'm buggered if I can answer that. I am having enough problems finding a decent public toilet here, never mind a map. Twenty years ago I was flying to Thailand from the UK but fell asleep on the aircraft and instead of changing at Singapore like I should have I went to the end of the line and got thrown off the plane in somewhere called Godzone. Anyway, what the heck is an "American"?

6223

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« Last post by IainB on July 30, 2011, 11:40 PM »

@Deozaan: OIC. Well then, I live in Australasia, so I guess that's why I never saw it on the install.

6224

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« Last post by IainB on July 30, 2011, 05:38 AM »

I must have missed this punishment, as I do not recall it ever being a problem, and I have used Unlocker for ages.
There had been a longstanding and recurring problem with a Yabector "eBay trojan/worm" in the install file though - as MS Security Essentials used to call it.
But it all seems to have been cleaned up for my last version: Unlocker1.9.1-x64.exe
A very useful proggy, IMHO.

6225

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR and Indexing Option - Feedback Requested

« Last post by IainB on July 27, 2011, 02:19 AM »

@mouser: You might like to include the idea of having a FARR interface to GDS (Google Desktop Search).

I have been interested in using FARR to integrate my desktop search for some time.
For example, at the risk of repetition:       

If a FARR search plugin could usefully include Google Desktop Search that could be v-e-r-y interesting - I use GDS quite a lot. It is brilliant.

-IainB (May 06, 2009, 01:29 AM)

I had been looking at the FARR plugin "GoogleSuggest", and someone suggested (no pun intended) that I try GooglePlus out.
So I installed it just now, and it runs fine and I think it's a great plugin.

However, I would like the option to be able to feed my search parameters through to Google Desktop and so search my local hard drive.
Is there some way I could do this?

-IainB (January 08, 2010, 06:40 AM)

I should explain that I use GDS because it is the most efficient and effective desktop search tool that I have come across (including the short-lived AltaVista desktop product) and:
(a) it indexes all my desktop documents (a mandatory requirement);
(b) it indexes my Outlook email - when I am obliged to use Outlook (a mandatory requirement);
(c) it integrates its search with Gmail (a mandatory requirement);
(d) it integrates its index across all my disparate computer desktops (a mandatory requirement).

For these and other reasons it is leagues ahead of other search tools, including Windows Search and the constipated Microsoft Windows indexing that is necessitated by that.

-IainB (January 08, 2010, 07:23 PM)

Now that searches in Gmail automatically include searches of your documents in Google docs, we are getting closer to search Nirvana for this user at any rate.     

By the way, nowadays, I use GDS and the Windows 7 indexing/search - I have reluctantly enabled the latter overhead because it seemed it could be quite useful (and it is) in the START windows search, and, as I have a fast i7 processor and fast (7,200rpm) hard drive, I thought it might not seem slow. However, compared to GDS it is still a noticeably constipated resource hog - this is because I require indexing of file names, file content and any associated meta-data. I think the indexing algorithm for GDS must be much more effective than the Windows one. In any event, and for that reason I have recently considered throttling or disabling the Windows 7 indexing/search and just sticking with the reliable and effective GDS.