Web searches and history suggestions

[CWuestefeld]

I've got a couple of suggestions to offer.

1. History with plugin usage. As far as I can see, the only stuff retained in the history (or at least displayed in the list when the search text is empty) is programs I've launched. It doesn't seem to remember, for example, the search that I just did: "define milliard". When I entered this, I chose AskOxford, so I would have expected that to appear in my history list.

2. Web searches. You've got a bunch of web searches built in, like IMDB, wikipedia, and all the dictionary sites. Is there a way I can define my own? I can think of a bunch I'd like to see (thomas.loc.gov, Microsoft knowledgebase, maybe the MSDN docs or SQL Server books online).

3. Hide on lost focus. As a recent Launchy convert, I keep expecting FARR to go away if I select another window. Could there be an option telling it to hide itself if it loses focus?

3 suggestions? Does 3 count as "a couple"? 

[mouser]

#3 sounds like a good option to add -- it's easy to do so i might as well.

#2 hell yeah -- farr2 was designed specifically to help people create and share alias files and making web searches could not be easier.  you can easily add new searches to your "myaliases.alias" file from the farr options, or create your own new alias file with some searches you can share.  you can create them from within farr in options, or edit your alias file using a text editor (they are xml).

[CWuestefeld]

you can easily add new searches to your "myaliases.alias" file

-mouser (December 13, 2007, 02:41 PM)

Well, not so easily, although I did manage after some fiddling. The sticking point -- and the reason that I didn't see the possibility right away -- is that I don't have a "myaliases.alias" file (so I copied one of the provided ones, and removed the aliases from it).

Is this a bug in the installer?

[mouser]

there are 2 directories where alias files go, one is AliasGroups\Installed and one is AliasGroups\MyCustom
you should definitely have already had myaliases.alias in the MyCustom\ subdirectory.  if you didn't then i need to figure out why.

[CWuestefeld]

you should definitely have already had myaliases.alias in the MyCustom\ subdirectory

-mouser (December 14, 2007, 08:45 AM)

Nope, I had no such file. The directory did exist, but it was empty.

[mouser]

thanks, i'll try to figure out what went wrong.  ps what operating system?

oh and as for:

1. History with plugin usage.

yep, this has been requested before, i'll see what i can do.

[CWuestefeld]

This is on Windows Server 2003 64-bit. I did not check my home machine to see if the same thing happened (it's XP, but installed from the exact same installer).

Don't forget the possibility that I accidentally broke this myself, immediately after setting up, while poking around figuring stuff out. I don't recall doing so, but then I'm getting old...

[CWuestefeld]

I just checked my home machine (which, as I mentioned, was installed from the same installer). This machine running XPsp2 does have the myaliases.alias file.

One concludes that it's either that I broke something and forgot having done it, or there's something amiss in handling the 64-bit OS "Program Files (x86)" directory.