Author Topic: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool (Read 264688 times)

Outertech Support · « **Reply #50 on:** May 01, 2008, 04:07 PM »

BTW, Outertech Guy, which one are you on your "About Us" page?
-J-Mac (May 01, 2008, 01:41 PM)

I'm the cool one!

Outertech Support · « **Reply #51 on:** May 04, 2008, 03:10 AM »

Due to many user requests Linkman Donationcoder discount has been extended.

May 3rd - May 8th: 30%
May 9th - May 31st: 20%

Steven Avery · « **Reply #52 on:** May 04, 2008, 07:39 AM »

Hi Folks,

Great thread. I will download Linkman and give it a spin. Here are my pre-download thoughts.

I am a little unusual because I use my Powermarks bookmarks as a PIM and research grouping assistant, and I have no interest in folders, since my whole system is carefully designed on keywords. (I place the link-group keyword in the visible part of the text so I can always find the brother and sister links, I don't even use the Powermarks group category capabilities.) And I have 10's of thousands of links. I kicked up the priority (Process Tamer) to try to avoid any swapping out of memory and it works virtually instantly.

So therefore I will have to see if there is Powermarks import (perhaps two-step) and how well it works.

I will have to see if the keyword functionality in Linkman (or any other program) is truly up to snuff.

And I am surprised that there was a lack of a Firefox toolbar, Powermarks actually did that by necessity (they never got one for Opera) because of Firefox interface lacks, and it turned out to be fantastic. The Linkman situation is almost the reverse.

MagicSpeller - Synchronization with Powermarks does not really require NetSync either (which may not take real huge files, not sure) since there is a built-in merge that works fine. I haven't checked how it handles two different versions of the same bookmark (e.g. last modify date) but that is almost irrelevant anyway, it is the new adds that count. If Linkman doesn't have good merging that it is a concern, albeit not insurmountable. You can always carry the latest version on a USB, or auto-FTP to here or there. However I would like to know the status of that on Linkman, I have grown fond of the Powermarks merge.

I agree with the Linkman idea that their own browser would be superfluous (maybe the only part of the excellent review that left me puzzled) and I personally do not want my bookmark program checking for website 'changes' at the expense of overhead. The whole world changes, ads change, minor text changes, this and that happens, it just is not a factor for me, although I can understand in some cases of monitoring it could be helpful.

Powermarks has no internal encryption capabilities, so that could be a plus. It has some features I never tried out, like URL Macro, and I barely use some of the fields. And it is very nicely configurable and well-behaved. Linkman sounds a little bit more untamed, at least at first, but that will take time to try and see.

(Oh, I am not concerned about the end-of-life of Powermarks for some years at least. I encouraged the developer but it does not seem like the code or design is going elsewhere, at least for now.)

Hmm. I could not even find the forum that you have to register to read. Hidden support forum ?

The pic on the website (url at top post on this page) meant to be humorous, I see as tacky and unprofessional, and I actually hesitate now on the download. (As might 100 other people who won't tell you .. who may think that animal house humor might be the video choice of some but out-of-place in their fav shareware recommendations.)

Shalom,
Steven

J-Mac · « **Reply #53 on:** May 06, 2008, 03:21 PM »

I seem to have run into a problem with Linkman -- it apparently has taken over the bottom of my display. there has to be a way around this.

Whenever Linkman is running the deskbar runs across the entire bottom of the screen, which I am not especially fond of because with a widescreen monitor the vertical dimension is already reduced, compared to a standard display. I was just working in 3D Home Architect and I grew tired of having to switch to the "hand" icon to drag the view up and down because the screen is so narrow with Linkman running. So I exited from Linkman. After all, I didn't even have a browser open so it was just there doing nothing.

However even after closing Linkman, 3D Home Architect - which was maximized - still did not fill in the space across the entire length of the bottom of the monitor. In other words, it acted as if Linkman was still there. I thought, "This can't be right", so I restored 3DHA to a regular window and then maximized it again. Nope - still left the space that had been taken up by Linkman.

Then I thought that perhaps this was a unique flaw in how 3D Home Architect renders and that it would not find the correct screen size unless it was closed and then restarted without Linkman open in the first place. I closed 3DHA and reopened it - still has the space for Linkman at the bottom! Next I opened several other programs to their maximized view but all cannot fill the bottom of the screen at all, the place where the Linkman deskbar had been.

This is not good. When I need my entire screen, I need the entire screen! Including the bottom where the Linkman deskbar sits. Why on earth does Linkman reserve that area even when it is not open?

More importantly, how do I reclaim that space for other applications? I can see it taking that space while my browser is open, but not at other times. Especially when Linkman is not even open. Other applications that use an added taskbar or a sidebar automatically grab the screen space they need when opened and then yield it when they are closed, so it can definitely be done that way.

Is this done via a registry key? Whatever the case I need to be able to use that portion of my screen when I need it, so how can I get Linkman to give it up when requested or when closed?

Jim

KenR · « **Reply #54 on:** May 06, 2008, 07:51 PM »

I seem to have run into a problem with Linkman -- it apparently has taken over the bottom of my display. there has to be a way around this.

Whenever Linkman is running the deskbar runs across the entire bottom of the screen, which I am not especially fond of because with a widescreen monitor the vertical dimension is already reduced, compared to a standard display. I was just working in 3D Home Architect and I grew tired of having to switch to the "hand" icon to drag the view up and down because the screen is so narrow with Linkman running. So I exited from Linkman. After all, I didn't even have a browser open so it was just there doing nothing.

However even after closing Linkman, 3D Home Architect - which was maximized - still did not fill in the space across the entire length of the bottom of the monitor. In other words, it acted as if Linkman was still there. I thought, "This can't be right", so I restored 3DHA to a regular window and then maximized it again. Nope - still left the space that had been taken up by Linkman.

Then I thought that perhaps this was a unique flaw in how 3D Home Architect renders and that it would not find the correct screen size unless it was closed and then restarted without Linkman open in the first place. I closed 3DHA and reopened it - still has the space for Linkman at the bottom! Next I opened several other programs to their maximized view but all cannot fill the bottom of the screen at all, the place where the Linkman deskbar had been.

This is not good. When I need my entire screen, I need the entire screen! Including the bottom where the Linkman deskbar sits. Why on earth does Linkman reserve that area even when it is not open?

More importantly, how do I reclaim that space for other applications? I can see it taking that space while my browser is open, but not at other times. Especially when Linkman is not even open. Other applications that use an added taskbar or a sidebar automatically grab the screen space they need when opened and then yield it when they are closed, so it can definitely be done that way.

Is this done via a registry key? Whatever the case I need to be able to use that portion of my screen when I need it, so how can I get Linkman to give it up when requested or when closed?

Jim
-J-Mac (May 06, 2008, 03:21 PM)

Hi Jim

If I understand you correctly, it is the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. If you drag it off, you can resize it to any size you want. Otherwise, you can just tell the program to hide the toolbar.

Ken

Outertech Support · « **Reply #55 on:** May 07, 2008, 03:44 AM »

J-Mac, please make this test. Disable the Desktop Toolbar and reboot. Is the problem happening now? (with Linkman running, but the Toolbar disabled).

I made these quick tests on my WinXP SP2 development system:

1. Started Linkman with the Toolbar running from the start. Disabled the Toolbar. The whole Desktop is available.

2. Started Linkman with the Toolbar disabled on start. Enabled the Toolbar, disabled the Toolbar. The whole Desktop is available.

KenR, would you please confirm this behavior.

J-Mac · « **Reply #56 on:** May 07, 2008, 03:30 PM »

Try it without disabling anything - just close Linkman and tell me what happens then.

Jim

J-Mac · « **Reply #57 on:** May 07, 2008, 03:31 PM »

BTW, I don't see a quick or easy way to disable the toolbar. Can it be done through the toolbar itself? Or do you have to open the program?

Jim

KenR · « **Reply #58 on:** May 07, 2008, 05:33 PM »

BTW, I don't see a quick or easy way to disable the toolbar. Can it be done through the toolbar itself? Or do you have to open the program?

Jim
-J-Mac (May 07, 2008, 03:31 PM)

Hey Jim,
Actually, I find it easier to close than open, unless you use a hotkey. Click options button on toolbar (3rd from left), then click "Hide Desktop Toolbar". Hide is equivalent to close here.

Ken

KenR · « **Reply #59 on:** May 07, 2008, 05:57 PM »

KenR, would you please confirm this behavior.
-Outertech Support (May 07, 2008, 03:44 AM)

Will do as soon as I can, hopefully wiithin a couple of hours. I have to do some other things first.

Ken

KenR · « **Reply #60 on:** May 07, 2008, 06:44 PM »

Ok, I was able to duplicate J-Mac's problem. When running Linkman with the toolbar visible, if I exit Linkman and then try to maximize programs, the area where the toolbar was will not be used (as J-Mac described).

On the other hand, if I hide the toolbar instead of exiting Linkman, then things are normal.

Ken

J-Mac · « **Reply #61 on:** May 07, 2008, 10:36 PM »

Thanks Ken. I did find the "hide deskbar" link finally. That's good - and it works for me. That I can live with.

However I am still a little confused as to why it holds tight to that screen space at the bottom even when it is closed.

But it does sound like Outertech Guy has a handle on it and is researching it. Cool!

Thanks all!

Jim

KenR · « **Reply #62 on:** May 08, 2008, 07:37 AM »

Thanks Ken. I did find the "hide deskbar" link finally. That's good - and it works for me. That I can live with.

However I am still a little confused as to why it holds tight to that screen space at the bottom even when it is closed.

But it does sound like Outertech Guy has a handle on it and is researching it. Cool!

Thanks all!

Jim
-J-Mac (May 07, 2008, 10:36 PM)

No problem Jim. I have found them to be incredibly responsive, as I think I've said before. I'm glad you have the kinks worked out or at least workable solutions to the issues you've found. I think it's a great program and use it pretty much every day. That's why I wanted to share it with DC, contacted the company about DC, and wrote the review. Enjoy it!

Ken

Outertech Support · « **Reply #63 on:** May 08, 2008, 02:21 PM »

I'll look into the problem, but I will take 1-2 weeks (a lot todo because of recent release of 3 new version and Cacheman for Vista beta).

Among the method KenR described there are 2 other ways to disable the toolbar. Rightclick -> Settings -> Hide. Alternatively use a global hotkey to quickly show and hide it (Tools -> Settings -> Global Hotkeys).

You can also detach it (see tutorial), it will behave like a normal window then (can be set to stay on top).

J-Mac · « **Reply #64 on:** May 08, 2008, 06:11 PM »

The alternate methods are fine; no need to hurry with this. I just thought it was odd behavior for an application. Hadn't seen that before.

Thanks again!

Jim

mitzevo · « **Reply #65 on:** May 08, 2008, 09:50 PM »

Very nice review Ken! I just installed and tried Linkman last night, looks solid, will play with it more the coming days.. once again nice write up.. and a good piece of software here.

Question:

I some how disabled/removed the button from the browsers (in the title bar, right side next to the 3 regular ones), how can I get it back?

J-Mac · « **Reply #66 on:** May 17, 2008, 12:37 AM »

KenR,

I was wondering if you could help me with a few Linkman issues that have been giving me some difficulty. I have written two email messages to Outertech Support but have not received any replies at all from them, which is more than a little disappointing. The first was submitted on May 11 and the second on May 13. Not even an autoresponder confirmation. I hope that is not normal for Outertech. Anyway, here are my questions:

I am having more difficulty with Linkman's UI than any other I have used. I have read everything I can find in the Help file and in the PDF manual but still find getting what I want to see on the screen is not very easy. Most of the time I end up closing Linkman altogether and then reopening it later, hoping that it will return to the original view that I started with. (Ken, this is partly resolved once I discovered that the last drop-down in the right-hand pane determines what you see in that pane, though there are still some anomalies that I have not figured out yet). There are times when I cannot figure out what is showing in the right pane, and why. At times the right pane seems to be showing the contents of the highlighted folder on the left. Other times, however, it is showing something completely unrelated. I sometimes hate to do anything that might lose that view because it is so difficult to get it back. Any particular tips you may have found since you have been playing with this application a bit longer than I have?

Searching for a link, or running a query actually, is very different from what I have seen in other applications. No actual search dialog shows up, or at least anything that looks like a search dialog. The UI doesn't really change at all when I click on the Search button. Is there any way that I can open a search dialog? Or even make one of the panes look like a search dialog? The present search capability, while it may be powerful, as claimed, is kind of difficult to look at, at least for me. It's different than most other programs' search functions. The deskbar's "query" function, while being very fast, has been pretty limited so far IMO. If there are more than one links with the keyword I'm searching for, only one shows up. I then have to open the full UI to perform the search over again. (The word or words used in the deskbar search do not carry over into the full UI).

Also I have had a few instances where the Linkman query simply will not find certain words. Actually, it DOES find the word in one or two links, but is missing a few where it also appears in the title. Have you noticed this? E.g., I have two different links for Citizen Bank. Running a query on "citizen" finds two other links that also have that word in them, but does not return either of the Bank-related links.

Ever since installing Linkman Version 7.3.0.1 the window view has been a little tough to get right. Whenever I click on the deskbar link to show and hide Linkman it opens in a "Normal" window, even though I have always viewed it maximized in the previous version. As a matter of fact, Linkman always opened fully maximized in the previous version. Not any more, though. Now, after it opens in the smaller Normal window, I click on the Maximize button and the window is maximized, but the contents of the window stay the same as they were in the Normal window. IOW, the window maximizes but the contents of the window do not! If I then restore it to a Normal window and immediately maximize it again the contents then become maximized. Sometimes I have to do this a few times before the contents become maximized. Is this a known issue with Version 7.3.0.1?

That's about it in a nutshell. A few other little annoyances, but the above are the ones that are really giving me some problems. Navigation can be a little wonky, but hopefully I will get used to that.

Most distressing, though, is not getting any response to my support requests. Outertech seemed to be extremely accommodating here in the forum when your review was first posted.

Thanks Ken!

Jim

J-Mac · « **Reply #67 on:** August 04, 2008, 11:19 PM »

I know that the above post is three months old, and at the time no one replied at all. Even Outertech.

The following day, May 18, I wrote to Outertech Support with basically the same information. Never received a reply or any acknowledgment at all.

I wrote again late last week because those issues are still happening, along with a few new ones, but again there is no acknowledgment reply, no actual reply from Outertech Support - nothing.

So as responsive as the developer tried to appear when this review was first written, I believe that was purely for PR reasons, with the review and the DC discount. Three months without any replies at all from their support belies the praise that was heaped on this developer by the review. I dumped Linkman. Picked up LinkStash at Bits du Jor a little while ago. You never know, but I really don't see how the developer could be any worse.

Jim

iphigenie · « **Reply #68 on:** September 18, 2008, 03:57 AM »

A quick note since I am looking at bookmark managers yet again now that I have too many browsers to handle.

Linkman has added support for Chrome, although there seems to be nothing for Safari.
I am not aware of any BM that supports all of ie, mozilla (inc flock), safari, opera, chrome and I would love to be enlightened

rjbull · « **Reply #69 on:** September 18, 2008, 10:45 AM »

A quick note since I am looking at bookmark managers yet again now that I have too many browsers to handle.

Linkman has added support for Chrome, although there seems to be nothing for Safari.
I am not aware of any BM that supports all of ie, mozilla (inc flock), safari, opera, chrome and I would love to be enlightened
-iphigenie (September 18, 2008, 03:57 AM)

LinkStash 1.7.3 (that I'm still using for compatibility with Win98: current version with more features, but not I think more browsers, is 2.0.11) gives you seven named browsers plus <Windows Default>, viz., IE, Netscape 8, Netscape 7, Opera, NetCaptor, Mozilla, and Mozilla Firefox. It doesn't specify the program locations for any of these, so as I don't have Mozilla, I've changed its entry to K-Meleon which I do sometimes use. Go to Linkstash Tools -> Options and select the browser tab to see what I mean. LinkStash has hotkeys for each of these 8 slots, go Tools -> Open With to get a menu of them. So it won't support an infinite variety of browsers, but 7 plus IE should be enough to be going on with, especially as you can redefine them as your tastes change.

SKA · « **Reply #70 on:** September 21, 2008, 12:39 AM »

A new Linkman Version 7.50 (major update) released with :
* Google Chrome support
* Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 support
* K-Meleon support
* Maxthon support
* Firefox 3 Bookmarks Import
* Powermarks Import
* User Interface Improvements (for example URL ratings can be changed for multiple URLs at once)
* Separated automatic retrieval of URL Keywords and Description (Settings | Receive URLs)
* Query History
* Query "and search" improvements: When searching for multiple terms, name & keywords of a folder will be considered for every URL inside. eg. a folder "music" with several URLs inside,some with keyword "software" -If you search for "music and software" all of these URLs will be found, even if they don't possess the "music" keyword.

SKA

superboyac · « **Reply #71 on:** September 25, 2008, 01:26 AM »

I posted this in the other thread here, but it warrants repeating. I like how Linkman is super fast, reminds of the lightweight speed of Powermarks. But it really is necessary to be able to create the three buttons that will work in Firefox (open main window, add bookmark, silently add bookmark). With the exceptional gui configurability of the program, I think I'd be able to use it very well as a Powermarks replacement.

I forgot where I read it, but the Linkman author claimed that adding a Firefox plugin was impossible or something due to some technicality? I just don't believe that. Everyone else is making a plugin. Please Linkman! Don't make me beg...

Darwin · « **Reply #72 on:** September 25, 2008, 08:36 AM »

Please Linkman! Don't make me beg...
-superboyac (September 25, 2008, 01:26 AM)

Oh, go on! You know you want to... Seriously, why not contact the author directly and ask?

http://www.outertech.com/

One of the authors is also active here on DC (Outertech Support)

Outertech Support · « **Reply #73 on:** September 26, 2008, 10:25 AM »

I know that the above post is three months old, and at the time no one replied at all. Even Outertech.

The following day, May 18, I wrote to Outertech Support with basically the same information. Never received a reply or any acknowledgment at all.

I wrote again late last week because those issues are still happening, along with a few new ones, but again there is no acknowledgment reply, no actual reply from Outertech Support - nothing.

So as responsive as the developer tried to appear when this review was first written, I believe that was purely for PR reasons, with the review and the DC discount. Three months without any replies at all from their support belies the praise that was heaped on this developer by the review. I dumped Linkman. Picked up LinkStash at Bits du Jor a little while ago. You never know, but I really don't see how the developer could be any worse.

Jim
-J-Mac (August 04, 2008, 11:19 PM)

Our support usually responds within 48 hours. Which was the email address you have used? was it [email protected]? [email protected] is heavily filtered because of the 1000 spam emails we are receiving a day.

The issues you have had with Linkman are very strange, almost hard to believe.

I give you an example:

"are times when I cannot figure out what is showing in the right pane, and why. At times the right pane seems to be showing the contents of the highlighted folder on the left. Other times, however, it is showing something completely unrelated"

The right pane (in query mode) has this combobox:

So when the right pane is showing the content of the selected folder, the very combobox, that is in the middle of your Linkman window says "Selected Folder Content". So how in the world could you have missed this?

Another example:

"Is there any way that I can open a search dialog? "

How about Edit | Search (or pressing Ctrl + F).

This looks almost like a conspiracy.

Outertech Support · « **Reply #74 on:** September 26, 2008, 10:33 AM »

I posted this in the other thread here, but it warrants repeating. I like how Linkman is super fast, reminds of the lightweight speed of Powermarks. But it really is necessary to be able to create the three buttons that will work in Firefox (open main window, add bookmark, silently add bookmark). With the exceptional gui configurability of the program, I think I'd be able to use it very well as a Powermarks replacement.

I forgot where I read it, but the Linkman author claimed that adding a Firefox plugin was impossible or something due to some technicality? I just don't believe that. Everyone else is making a plugin. Please Linkman! Don't make me beg...
-superboyac (September 25, 2008, 01:26 AM)

No, I have not claimed that it's not possible to add a toolbar to Firefox. I've just said that is very complicated to offer the same functionality that the IE toolbar has. The reason for this is the Linux compatibility of Firefox. AFAIK it does not allow any DCOM servers (which the Linkman IE Toolbar is). 7.x will offer a Firefox toolbar in the future. It's not like we are not doing anything, Linkman has received 3 major updates in this year alone.

p.s.

As to Safari support, most probably there will be none. The Windows port of Safari avoids the Windows API at all costs. It's basically a Windows Emulation of a MacOS app. There is no way to communicate with it.