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726
General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
« Last post by rjbull on December 31, 2012, 02:11 PM »
I vaguely recognise the name BHO from the (very) dim and distant past, but I'm note sure if I have ever used it. I might have another look.
-Dormouse (December 31, 2012, 06:44 AM)
I don't think you'd like it in its present form.  It's unusual if not unique in being three-pane, and having a drop target "basket," but it needs considerable updating.  E.g., Web clips and RTF clips both transfer as plain text, despite BHO having RTF editing; entering internal note-to-note links is a pain, and so on.  I've lodged some comments with the new developer, who says his list is growing...

While I have been messing about looking at these programs again, I decided to install the latest version of Zoot (which I don't think I have ever tried before). Seems seriously weird/different and its not obvious exactly how to manage it
-Dormouse (December 31, 2012, 06:44 AM)
If you look hard enough on DC, maybe even in this very thread, you'll find superboyAC saying much the same thing about an older version of Zoot, and taking quite a while to "get" it.

I can understand why the trial period lasts 90 days, and I'm not sure that will be quite enough. No idea if there is any sense in the perception, but it felt as if it might be more like IQ than the other progs I have used - I've never been able to get into IQ, but always had a lot of respect for what it seems capable of doing.
-Dormouse (December 31, 2012, 06:44 AM)
Pierre kindly sent me a free personal license for IQ, but it has a reputation for being hard to get to grips with.
727
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Improve precision of Drag & Drop
« Last post by rjbull on December 30, 2012, 03:30 PM »
Suggest a quick review of DC thread any Numpad mouse / Mousekeys for Vista? which mentions a couple of programs, NeatMouse and Mouse Emulator.  Also, you might try Googling "assistive software."
728
General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
« Last post by rjbull on December 30, 2012, 02:51 PM »
@Dormouse:

Neither Black Hole Organizer nor Aml Pages are in anything like the same class as UR, but they share a feature obligate mouse jockeys might like.  Both have a floating drag-and-drop target.  You mark a block with your mouse and drag it onto the target, when the program automatically creates a new note.  Aml Pages includes the URL, BHO doesn't, but BHO stagnated a long time before the new developer took it over.
729
General Software Discussion / Re: Join Clips
« Last post by rjbull on December 23, 2012, 04:36 PM »
Clipboard Helper looks like the two PasteBoard tools I mentioned, but newer/currently maintained.
730
General Software Discussion / XYplorer ends Lifetime License
« Last post by rjbull on December 23, 2012, 04:07 PM »
With apologies if this has been mentioned before:

XYplorer: The End of the Lifetime License

XYplorer_lifetime_license_is_no_more.png

It looks like this will happen in January 2013, so you have a few days left to run and get it.

XYplorer Buy Now (or forever regret it)
731
General Software Discussion / Re: Join Clips
« Last post by rjbull on December 23, 2012, 03:45 PM »
This has been asked for before: see

IDEA: Auto copy information from clipboard to MS Word

Clipboard type programme to collect together snippets of text

Summarising what I said there, and adding resources:

  • PC Magazine's WinPaste pasteboard, freeware: see attachment below.
  • Dr. Mike Sanders's PasteBoard, freeware: see attachment below.
  • ClipCache 1.41, last free version
  • ClipCache Pro, payware. Tip; Help > Working with ClipCache > Clipboard Routing.
  • NoteTab Light
732
General Software Discussion / Re: Personalize a folder text name or file text name
« Last post by rjbull on December 19, 2012, 10:12 AM »
Take a look at these former Bits du Jour offers?
You'd have to check for Win7, though...
733
Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Recursive Search and Replace in Nested Folders
« Last post by rjbull on December 19, 2012, 09:34 AM »
Esp. with raw substitution this kind of filtering is ideal for sed stream editor. Only hassle is it's a Linux command.  But you may find binary Windows ports.
-MilesAhead (December 18, 2012, 09:06 PM)
Here are two:
734
Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Recursive Search and Replace in Nested Folders
« Last post by rjbull on December 18, 2012, 04:32 PM »
735
General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
« Last post by rjbull on December 12, 2012, 03:32 PM »
lol...InfoSelect. I used it when it was a memory-resident program called Tornado Notes and dropped it when it got to IS 4. Too much feature bloat for too high of a price.
-robinsiebler (December 10, 2012, 06:03 PM)
I don't go back that far, but I had a DOS version of IS.  In the end I preferred the cleaner, simpler interface of Memory Mate.  Someone else on DC - IainB, I think - has the same issues as you with later versions of IS.
736
General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
« Last post by rjbull on December 12, 2012, 03:30 PM »
And the difference in basic functions is one of the things that is most confusing this genre (as identified by Superboyac when he started this thread). There are programs like PageFour which are purely simple writing & outlining programs and others which are primarily large integrated databases of collected content (MyBase, Surfulater).  The discussion in this thread moved very quickly to the database end of things
-Dormouse (December 09, 2012, 07:32 PM)
The nomenclature has become confusingly blurred.  I think of a "outliner" as a single-page outliner like the lamented PC-Outline was for DOS, and Ecco and Noteliner are for Windows.  Likewise "PIM" suggests more in the way of organisation of time and people, while "notekeeper" is more what I'm interested in, your database end of things.  I suppose authors want to make their appeal as broad as possible to attract sales, so it takes knowledgable DC users to point out the real strengths and weaknesses of the different programs  :)

I rather regret missing Bits du Jour's recent free (as in $0) offer on PageFour; the interface looks nice and simple.  They currently have a 45% off special offer, $21.45 instead of $39.00.

I'm not sure what the hierarchical note structure brings to that party once you have the different concept of hierarchical tags but is always important in writing.
-Dormouse (December 09, 2012, 07:32 PM)
tranglos says (somewhere on DC) that he finds it necessary to have the hierarchical tree, that (from memory) he's uncomfortable leaving organisation solely to tags.  I'm not sure.  I don't use tags religiously and wouldn't want a system that enforced them, but I do sometimes add words to a note so it contains the form of words I'm most likely to use myself.
737
General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
« Last post by rjbull on December 09, 2012, 05:19 PM »
in terms of features, nearly all the features that the registered version has that the free version hasn't are not to do with the actual text editing functions.
[...]
Yes, I don't think it does web clipping in the way those other programs do. The clipping it does do, is just the usual sort of screen shots, images, text etc but it does work and is integrated in the program. Web clipping is more of an archive/PIM thing - and as I said, it claims to be a PIM, but I've never seen it as one, and feel it is just a (very good) text editor.
-Dormouse (December 07, 2012, 06:40 PM)
This is where we differ, as I'm primarily concerned with keeping Web clips, plus my own text notes, in one convenient program with good searching.  I've never tried a modern Windows PIM/outliner for content creation.  I'm unlikely to need that now, and would find it hard to adapt, after years of using pencil and paper, and DOS WordStar-style editors.  I see the point when you need to combine self-generated material with outside sources into a coherent whole, of course.

When I used the free version, I never felt the slightest need to upgrade, and only upgraded to the Pro version on a BdJ offer because I felt it would be good to pay something for a program that I used regularly.
-Dormouse (December 07, 2012, 06:40 PM)
I did something like that with the last free version of ClipCache, registering as a thank-you but never bothering to install the registered version until the old one proved no longer reliable on later versions of Windows.

I don't used keyboard shortcuts, so I hadn't noticed that - I also tend not to use Help files. What it does have is a lot of options on the menus (top & right click), so I have always found it very easy to explore the possibilities of the program. Depends how you do things, which is one of the reasons I think these programs are very subject to personal preference.
-Dormouse (December 07, 2012, 06:40 PM)
Indeed so; again we differ, as I really like to have hotkeys, especially for new Web clip and add more content to current note.

I've also been tempted back into using Ultra Recall more since trying Rightnote, and it does do a lot of things pretty well; quite a number of similarities with Rightnote, all in Ultra Recall's favour with exception of the Opera clipping. But Rightnote still seems to be progressing while UR seems not to be.
-Dormouse (December 07, 2012, 06:40 PM)
I've seen the comment that UR's interface is confusing, but suspect that familiarity plays a big part.  I have to say I haven't used click.to myself, but, could you get UR to clip from Opera by using click.to as a helper app?  The author of All My Notes Organizer has used this approach instead of adding web clip hotkeys or actions in his own program.  Details here: Integrate AllMyNotes to work with click.to [web-clipping].  Maybe something similar might work for UR.
738
General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
« Last post by rjbull on December 07, 2012, 03:20 PM »
TreeDBNotes
[...]I don't use it to collect information from elsewhere, although it says it is an information manager. [...]

The clipping is quite good, but I don't see it as a web clipper at all. There are keyboard shortcuts, but I don't use them. Virtually all these features are there in the free version of the program.
-Dormouse (December 01, 2012, 02:51 PM)

Have you checked the Free version lately?  Their TreeDBNotes FREE vs PRO - Feature CompareTreeDBNotes FREE vs PRO - Feature Compare chart left me slightly puzzled.  The headings are Free, Free registered, and Pro.  It lists far more features for Free registered than vanilla Free.  I thought, oh, they're offering a free registration to unlock extra features and get you on their mailing list, an uncommon ploy but not unknown.  But if you look at their Buy Now page and scroll down to TreeDBNotes (Free), it gives different purchase prices for personal and business use.  I don't have any problem with a single .EXE being a basic Free version on its own and more advanced Standard version on being unlocked, but I don't think they should still advertise the Standard version as Free when it's payware.  Maybe they just forgot to change the name?

I don't much care for the e-book Help file, either, especially as the Ctrl+G global search doesn't work, and it seems a bit thin on real information.  I couldn't see anything about Web clipping in the sense that EverNote, RightNote, UR etc. do.
739
General Software Discussion / Re: Batch convert folders from .htm to .pdf ?
« Last post by rjbull on December 05, 2012, 02:13 PM »
I don't really understand what you want.  Am I right in thinking you want to0 convert the HTMs into PDFs because you want to put them into a Google cloud service, which indexes and OCRs PDFs?  But only shows HTMs as raw code?

This doesn't directly answer your query, but I'm wondering; have you ever considered using a Web clipper, of which there are many?  See, e.g., the DC thread web clipping.  If you really need your data in the cloud, you might have to go to EverNote, or RightNote.
740
General Software Discussion / Re: web clipping
« Last post by rjbull on December 04, 2012, 03:31 PM »
I can send you a free personal license if you want.  :Thmbsup:
-PPLandry (December 02, 2012, 10:29 PM)
That's very gracious and generous, please do!  I can't promise to make any genuinely useful comments, though.
741
General Software Discussion / Re: web clipping
« Last post by rjbull on December 02, 2012, 03:30 PM »
I'm using InfoQube [...]
For web content *for me* it's mostly a case of being a dumping ground and then search.
-tomos (November 30, 2012, 05:18 PM)
Me too.  That is, I don't need to compile a selection of web clips into a coherent whole and make a report on them.

Re "The Price" -I'm not sure what that is - it's still in beta. I have donated, that will go towards my license when it is released.
-tomos (November 30, 2012, 05:18 PM)
I didn't realise it was still in beta.  I seem to recall that beta testers were offered a fairly good deal, but would still like a good idea of what it's going to eventually cost.  However, I think my days of major data munging are over, it's just personal interest now.

There are pros and cons to using multiple apps for various uses (maybe they're just segregated by theme/topic even) - or using a single app for multiple uses.
-tomos (November 30, 2012, 05:18 PM)
On that matter, you might be interested in Dormouse's post, here: Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
742
General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software
« Last post by rjbull on December 02, 2012, 03:07 PM »
@Dormouse
Many thanks for taking the trouble to write such a detailed description of why you use which program.  It's a fine example of why I think this thread is rather stalled: there just isn't any One Program to Rule Them All  :(

I too use several programs, never finding one I was happy to commit to exclusively.  My usage is mostly data storage, especially of web clips, for which EverNote 2.2 is very good, especially when you need graphics and live hyperlinks.  I just wish it wasn't orphaned...  and I don't need the cloud.  Yet, you made me realise I tend to use a different program for self-generated text notes and plain-text clips than I do for web clips.

I never really used a word processor, preferring editors for writing and editing text.  Sometimes I had to massage it for printing, but as work moved from paper to e-mail, that became irrelevant.  Windows word processors seem to lean too much towards desktop publishing rather than efficient text creation and editing.  I mostly used my old DOS programs, PC-Write and VDE, both WordStar-style editor/word processors, quick and efficient.  I was interested in your use of TreeDBNotes for writing, and wondered if you'd ideally have preferred a single-pane outliner like Noteliner?  Which seems a more natural way to operate than two-pane?
743
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: new vector based Logo Design Studio Pro: 75% off today (Black Friday) only.
« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2012, 04:24 PM »
I think Serif's DrawPlus series is a vector-based drawing program.  It's expensive if you buy the latest at full price, but they have frequent deals for existing customers, and there's even a free version.


Sanity check - I haven't tried them...
744
General Software Discussion / Re: web clipping
« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2012, 04:13 PM »
a couple of people have commented about knowing where the clipped item goes.
Can you clarify what you mean when saying that:
when adding a new clip you can/cannot see what clip you are adding it to?
-tomos (November 29, 2012, 04:06 PM)
I think it's only me complaining:

RN is a two-pane organiser.  The images show the foot of the node tree.

RN1.png    RN2.png    RN3.png

Image 1 is as-is.  Next I clipped a portion of a Web page (this one), pressed Ctrl+C, sent it to the clipboard. Then press the hotkey I've defined for Clip to New Note in RN (actually, you don't need to press Ctrl+C, just the RN global hotkey will suffice, like CintaNote). Image 2 shows the tree after the new note is added.  Notice that the cursor is still on the same note as before; you can only see there's a new note underneath because there's slightly more space under the scroll bar.  In Image 3 I've scrolled the scroll bar down to show it, cursor staying in the same place.  It looks like that same note is the current one, not the new note.  I've also had some inconsistency using Clip to Current Note, i.e. add more to current note.  Maybe this is me not being familiar enough with RN, but though its Web clips are good, I'm finding it confusing.

I'm using InfoQube
-tomos (November 29, 2012, 04:06 PM)
From what I've heard InfoQube users saying, it's too complicated for me!  Expensive, too, if you have to pay the full price.
745
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: IsoBuster on offer, 2012-11-28: Recover Files From Damaged Media
« Last post by rjbull on November 30, 2012, 03:15 PM »
I read the specs and its range of functionality looked pretty good. I have just bought a licence
-IainB (November 29, 2012, 06:10 PM)
I see an IainB mini-review approaching  :)
746
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Rightnote discount sale 50% off @ BitsDuJour 26-27 November
« Last post by rjbull on November 29, 2012, 03:34 PM »
^ ;D
747
N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013 Pledge: pdfautomv
« Last post by rjbull on November 29, 2012, 03:34 PM »
I used to have to rename health & safety data sheet PDFs.  I had a batch file that used pdftotext from xpdf to convert the PDF to text, with an AWK script to parse the file and find what should be the name, and make a temporary .BAT that actually renamed the file.  That only worked because the files had predictable structure.
748
General Software Discussion / Re: web clipping
« Last post by rjbull on November 29, 2012, 03:29 PM »
With Evernote, remember that you can use the current version without going anywhere near the cloud. It's not the same as 2.2, but for me the advantages now make it more useful than 2.2 ever was.
-Dormouse (November 29, 2012, 03:11 PM)
I keep forgetting the current version can be used "out of the cloud," though I'd be wary of installing it in case it overwrites my current and useful 2.2 setup.  What new features do you like so much?

I'd go along with the comments on Ultra Recall. The old & current versions work perfectly well but development and support is not the same as it used to be. (And it doesn't work with Opera  :( ) Might be worth trying if a really large discount comes up on BdJ, but probably not if you only want a web clipper (it does do a lot of other things).
-Dormouse (November 29, 2012, 03:11 PM)
Authors rarely offer discounts on upgrades, unfortunately.  So it was with UR.  In fact, when BdJ last had a UR discount, the cost of a new v.4 installation was on a par with their normal upgrade price.

I've found myself slightly uncomfortable with RightNote's Web clipping.  You can make a new clip with a RightNote hotkey, and add to the current clip with another, but the tree pane doesn't scroll to keep the current item in view.  That means you can't see whether everything is OK without constantly scrolling the tree. 
-rjbull (November 28, 2012, 02:49 PM)
I don't really want to move away from the browser when I clip, so that is fine by me - and anyway the mere fact that it works with Opera will make up for any number of other deficiencies. Even having to use the keyboard.
-Dormouse (November 29, 2012, 03:11 PM)
Like UR, RightNote will do lots of other things...  My problem wasn't so much clipping an entire new entity, as when I wanted to clip several bits from a page and assemble them into a single note.  I.e., first clip is a new note, several subsequent ones are additions to that same note. Because I couldn't see what note I was adding to, I was nervous about messing things up, and because RN didn't seem to automatically make a new note the current note, I had to go back and forth anyway.

The author of AllMyNotes doesn't seem to like hotkeys.  Instead of adding a clipping hotkey, he suggests using click.to.  I haven't tried it, so don't know if you'd find it more comfortable than a hotkey.
749
General Software Discussion / Re: Alternative to Linkman
« Last post by rjbull on November 29, 2012, 03:13 PM »
I use LinkStash, which works well for me with Opera 12.11 and Firefox 16.0.2 (I think).  I'm on Vista Home Premium with UAC On, but don't have IE9.  As I understand it, LinkStash is a different way of working from LinkMan, using hotkeys and not being so integrated into the browser, but I've been happy with it for a long time now.
750
General Software Discussion / Re: web clipping
« Last post by rjbull on November 29, 2012, 11:38 AM »
Have you tried Surfulater?
-dr_andus (November 28, 2012, 03:10 PM)
No.  Thanks for reminding me.  I probably should have tried Surfulater, especially as the author has been active on DC.  But, it's quite expensive, even with a discount, and I can still use EverNote 2.2, the last desktop edition, which I paid for.  It works well but isn't developed or available since they went cloud.  I'm keeping an eye open for still-developed programs that work as conveniently.  I suppose I should try UltraRecall again, too.

[Edit at UK time 2012-11-29, 20:52:-]
Humph.  Just checked the UltraRecall Web site.  There's been a major-version upgrade, which would be $50, but few users are biting, saying there are too few new features to justify the cost.  Most still think it's a good program as-is, though.
[/Edit]
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