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Last post Author Topic: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool  (Read 247945 times)

KenR

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MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« on: March 17, 2008, 02:04 PM »
Linkman - a Bookmark Management Program from Outer Technologies

Basic Info

App NameLinkman
App URLhttp://www.outertech.com/
App Version Reviewed7.20
Test System SpecsGateway Laptop, 2GB RAM, Pentium M (Dothan) 2.13 GHz processor
Supported OSesWindows 2000, 2003, XP and Vista
Support MethodsAnnouncement List, FAQ, Support E-Mail
Upgrade PolicyAll version 7 updates free. Users of Version 5 and 6 can upgrade for $19.
Trial Version Available?Yes, 30 day
Pricing Scheme$39
Reviewer Donation Link Donate to KenR, the person who wrote this review
Relationship btwn. Reviewer and Product REVIEWER: Standard User. No ownership of product nor profit from it.


Intro:

Linkman is a standalone or browser independent bookmark organizer and search tool. You enter bookmarks into it and organize them in any way you want. You create folders to organize them in, much like you would create folders in which to organize your files. You can import bookmarks from all the popular browsers and some bookmark organizers.

Linkman really begins to shine though once the bookmarks are entered. First off, Linkman will validate the bookmarks, similar to Martin Aignesberger's AM-Deadlink utility. In addition to making sure the links still work, Linkman will download the description and keywords from the website. This makes it easier to find the link when you are searching if you can't remember the bookmark name.

All bookmarks have a name, path (url), keywords and description (both from website), comment (notes you enter about this bookmark), and six user defined fields, giving you more than enough ways to catalog, organize, and describe your bookmarks. Once your links are set up, you type what you are looking for: either the bookmark name or information in any of the other bookmark fields that you specify. All bookmarks are initially listed, but unrelated ones disappear as you type, leaving only the one(s) that meet your criteria. You then tell Linkman to launch the bookmark(s) and it will open whatever browser you specify and load the bookmark(s).

The user interface is extremely configurable. The program has a main interface and a toolbar. You can keep the toolbar on the desktop or hide it altogether. Both the main interface and the toolbar can be changed considerably in their appearance. Additionally, adjustable system-wide hotkeys make program behavior easier to control. There is also a toolbar for internet explorer. Additionally, there is a 90-page manual in pdf format that you can download from the website which thoroughly explains how to use the program.

For example, I use Ctrl-Shift-Bksp to bring up the main program UI rather than using the toolbar, primarily because of screen space limits, then type in the bookmark information I want. When I see the bookmark(s) I want, I double click on it/them and Linkman loads the url(s) in Firefox.

Image Notes: The first image shows the main user interface. The second, third, fourth images show the toolbar: as a floating window, docked on the bottom of the screen, and minimized to a single line above the taskbar, respectively. Images 2, 3, and 4 are shown in relation to the remainder of the display to reveal perspective.



Who is this app designed for:

Linkman is intended for anyone with a large bookmark collection. It allows you to easily organize your bookmarks, quickly find the one your looking for, and launch it/them with your browser of choice. Hence, it can be used by beginners and power-users as well. You can simply enter (import) your bookmarks, adjust the preferences so the program works the way you want it to, search for your bookmarks, and browse them. Alternatively, you can create a complex folder structure and use the 6 user defined fields to organize the bookmarks in a highly sophisticated manner. You can also enter remarks in the comments field that will show up in searches. You can specify which field(s) you want to include in the search.

The Good

Linkman performs an incredible number of tasks, only a small fraction of which are discussed in this review and the reader is referred to the program's website and/or the aforementioned manual. Arguably, Linkman's most impressive feature is the sheer speed at which it searches for information. I had about 1000 bookmarks with the website's keywords and description with which I was working. When searching for information, results were presented immediately after I pressed each character. Linkman will even perform "fuzzy" searches. According to Linkman's homepage, Linkman is compatible with "...Internet Explorer 3.x-7.x, Firefox 1.x-3.x, Netscape 3.x-7.x, Mozilla 1.x, SeaMonkey 1.x, Opera 4.x-9x, Avant Browser, Neoplanet, Netcaptor, MyIE2, [and] SlimBrowser...".

The configurability is remarkable. The main interface and toolbar can be used separately or in combination. The main screen has two treeviews of bookmarks, each of which can be used for examining url properties or queries. You can select which fields you see and make consecutive bookmarks a different color. You can export the links to other programs and even create new export templates that allow you to export the links in a pattern that you define. For example, I created a new template to transfer my bookmarks to Surfulater. This allowed me to perform the transfer without losing the information from the keywords and description fields.

Linkman is still in active development. The last release of the program was on Feb 11, 2008. I exchanged emails with Linkman's developer several times. Each time he responded to me quickly with helpful and personable responses. After several of these exchanges, I told the developer about Donation Coder. I am very excited to announce that in response to these discussions, in April, the developer will donate 10 licences for and list with a 30% discount, Linkman and CachemanXP, a program for optimizing the functioning of Windows XP.

The needs improvement section

To some people, Linkman's biggest problem is the fact that it does not have an internal browser and that you must use it with another program. The fact that Linkman works with every popular browser mitigates this issue to some degree, however.

Before going on, I should say that I found no real problems with the program given it's current function. What I would like to see though is an expansion of its function. Linkman is one of several bookmark organizers. Other similar programs are Link Commander, and Kaylon's PowerMarks (PowerMarks has been marked for "End of Life as of Feb 1). These programs are all desiged for organizing, searching, and launching bookmarks.

A related set of programs is designed to check websites and see if they have changed. Website-Watcher and Check & Get are examples of this type of program. While Linkman also has this ability to see if a website has changed, its feature set in this domain is far more restricted. Check & Get's website indicates that you can use it to organize your bookmarks. While it is true that both Check & Get and Website-Watcher can be used to organize bookmarks, their searching features are far less developed.

What I would love to see is an integration of these two classes of software. While Check & Get currently comes the closest to this as it stands, I prefer to use Website-Watcher and Linkman for these tasks. That means I need to keep the links synchronized between these two programs, but it gives me tremendous flexibility in website monitoring and organization/searching of bookmarks.

Why I think you should use this product

I believe you should use this program if you have a lot of bookmarks you want to organize, if you have trouble finding the bookmark you want, if you have numerous programs that you want to synchronize the bookmarks between, or if you need to search your bookmarks to locate the one(s) that you want. In all of these circumstances, Linkman allows you to perform the task quickly and easily. On the other hand, if you just have a few sites you visit and have no problem keeping track of your bookmarks, then you probably don't need Linkman or any other bookmark manager.

How does it compare to similar apps

I have looked at numerous bookmark programs and found Linkman superior to the others. It is lightning fast, more customizable, and has features others don't, such as the toolbar, the ability to create export templates, user defined fields to identify, categorize, and track bookmarks, and many other features. It is one of the few remaining programs that is still in development and has a recent release version. The developer of this program has always responded to me within a few hours whereas neither of the developers of other programs ever has.

Conclusions

In my opinion, there is no competition between Linkman and the competitors. The program does more and does it better. The support is rapid and actually pleasant. The program remains in development with a responsive developer. It is compatible with virtually every browser and can import from some bookmark management programs and export to other programs as well. The interface has a main interface window and a toolbar allowing you to use the program and access your links about any way you want. We will also be having a discount and some license giveaways.

I could go on and on extolling the features and wonders of Linkman. Instead though, download a fully functional copy of Linkman directly from the its homepage. You can work with it for 30 days and see what you think of it. You might need to cut that time down a bit though to capitalize on the 30% discount, which happens to be perfectly timed with DonationCoder's fundraiser. If you've gotten this far in my review, I'm sure you realize that I believe this program is outstanding and exactly the type of software that people come to DonationCoder to find out about. I recommend it without hesitation or reservation.

The author wishes to thank TucknDar for his editorial suggestions.
Kenneth P. Reeder, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Jacksonville, North Carolina  28546
« Last Edit: March 20, 2008, 08:14 AM by KenR »

mouser

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2008, 08:05 PM »
Fantastic review  :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:
and thanks for lining up the discount and giveaway copies for DC members!

KenR

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2008, 08:22 PM »
You're welcome, of course, Jesse. Thanks for the positive feedback on the review. I hope everyone finds the review helpful and informative. Good luck to everyone on the licenses for giveaway.

Ken
Kenneth P. Reeder, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Jacksonville, North Carolina  28546

Darwin

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2008, 09:34 PM »
Awesome job, Ken  :Thmbsup: I'm going to have to give this a try and am downloading a trial copy to that end as I write this!

luc

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2008, 07:33 PM »
Thanks for the review and the pointer to Linkman ! 
You are a very skilled writer. :up:

I would have two questions for which I could not find an quick answer at the outertech site:
Does Linkman provide an option to synchronize bookmarks between two PCs - perhaps with an online option?
Does it run from an USB stick?
One license seems to be only good for a single PC  - presumably the answers to the previous questions are NO.

zridling

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2008, 04:06 PM »
Ah crap, now I really want to buy this. Damn you, Ken. Damn you to hell!  :D

wales

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2008, 03:12 PM »
I am trying out Linkman, but how do I make it open Firefox, which is my default browser?

At present it always opens Internet Explorer.  Your help would be appreciated.

Grorgy

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2008, 07:08 PM »
I tried it, it freezes up as soon as i start to use it, cant use its menus and the only way to get rid of it was to kill it in process explorer. 

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2008, 11:12 AM »
Thanks for the great review, Ken. For those who don't already have the program, be aware that it is available for "free" through TrialPay.

I am just learning the program as a replacement for the dying Powermarks, which I have used for years and love. As for synchronization, luc, this is an issue for me. Powermarks provides their own server and NetSync feature, which you can use to synchronize your bookmarks between PCs. I am missing this.

wales, there is a "Launch URLs" setting that lets you set your default browser.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2008, 11:15 AM by Magic Speller »

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2008, 03:40 PM »
Outertech.com is currently under a DDOS attack (the first ever).

We have set up a backup server at:

http://78.47.197.243

Edit 04/24:

The attack is not over, but the intensity has diminished (15 instead of 40 GB / hour), so the main server is back up.

« Last Edit: April 24, 2008, 04:40 PM by Outertech Support »

J-Mac

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2008, 02:10 AM »
I notice that on the Outertech site it syas that there is an Internet Explorer toolbar but does not mention a Firefox extension nor toolbar.  Does either exist?  If not, will it?  It also mentions that it directly supports Internet Explorer Favorites, but doesn't say the same about Firefox's Bookmarks.  Sounds like it was developed strictly as an Internet Explorer tool and Firefox has recently been added as an afterthought.  I hope not.

Thanks!

Jim

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2008, 03:49 AM »
Where I'm coming from: I'm a registered user of LinkStash and I'm pretty happy with it, but I still use 1.7.3 because it's the last version that works for me on my Win98SE laptop.  Current version with more features is 2.0.9.

According to Linkman's homepage, Linkman is compatible with "...Internet Explorer 3.x-7.x, Firefox 1.x-3.x, Netscape 3.x-7.x, Mozilla 1.x, SeaMonkey 1.x, Opera 4.x-9x, Avant Browser, Neoplanet, Netcaptor, MyIE2, [and] SlimBrowser...".

At home, I also use K-Meleon, which isn't on that list.  I can partially integrate it with LinkStash by stealing the entry for Mozilla and pointing it to K-Meleon's .EXE (there's a separate entry for Firefox), and LinkStash will send the entries, though it can't grab URLs from K-Meleon.

You can export the links to other programs and even create new export templates

This is a weakness of LinkStash.  HTML output only.

The needs improvement section

To some people, Linkman's biggest problem is the fact that it does not have an internal browser and that you must use it with another program.

That's not a bug, that's a feature  ;)  It would make for a much bigger program, and how many more browsers does one need?

A related set of programs is designed to check websites and see if they have changed. Website-Watcher and Check & Get are examples [...]

What I would love to see is an integration of these two classes of software. While Check & Get currently comes the closest to this as it stands, I prefer to use Website-Watcher and Linkman for these tasks. That means I need to keep the links synchronized between these two programs, but it gives me tremendous flexibility in website monitoring and organization/searching of bookmarks.

Disagree strongly.  You'd end up with a bigger program with very much bigger footprint for its data files, make portability much more difficult, and while I may like to bookmark lots of links, I don't necessarily want to routinely check them.  In other words, I see this as two separate functions I'm happy to keep separate.  Different folks...

How does it compare to similar apps 
[...] 
The developer of this program has always responded to me within a few hours whereas neither of the developers of other programs ever has.

LinkStash is still in development - the latest .EXE is dated 2008-03-03.  I've occasionally used the forums for support, but haven't needed e-mail.

In my opinion, there is no competition between Linkman and the competitors.

Power users like more power...  I don't need all the extra power, but I consider LinkStash to have two particular advantages for me:

LinkStash EULA: 3. LICENSE GRANT

XRayz Software hereby license use on (A) your own personal computer(s), desktop(s) and/or portable(s), or (B) multiple users on a single computer, but not both (A) and (B). Usage on a LAN or in a server/workstation environment requires that each workstation accessing the software must be licensed.

In practical terms this means the software can be used by a single user *for personal use* on the work computer and the portable computer for that user only.

I would really recommend that Linkman's author reconsider license policy, at least to the extent of offering a discount license bundle that allows one person to own a home, work and portable license, and not have to pay for three at full price as I presume is currently required.


... Take LinkStash and your bookmarks with you on a portable device such as a USB pen drive.
[...]
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.

Which is really nice for moving bookmarks around.


KenR, LinkStash's bookmarks file can be optionally encrypted, and it also has a KeePass-like passwords function where passwords only are encrypted in an otherwise unencrypted file.  I'm surprised that Linkman doesn't offer those; did you overlook them in your review?


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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2008, 04:07 PM »
I tried it, it freezes up as soon as i start to use it, cant use its menus and the only way to get rid of it was to kill it in process explorer.
-Grorgy

This sounds like a conflict with some other software that changes the menu style (although no other user has reported such problems). You can revert Linkman to using default menus by disabling Office-Style menus in the Interface section of the Settings window.

Updating to the latest build (7.2.0.21) may also help. Every reported bug is usually fixed within a week.

I notice that on the Outertech site it syas that there is an Internet Explorer toolbar but does not mention a Firefox extension nor toolbar.  Does either exist?  If not, will it?  It also mentions that it directly supports Internet Explorer Favorites, but doesn't say the same about Firefox's Bookmarks.  Sounds like it was developed strictly as an Internet Explorer tool and Firefox has recently been added as an afterthought.  I hope not.
-J-Mac

Direct IE Favorites support means that Linkman can integrate all features (user defined fields etc) within IE Favorites. It can also load and save them directly, every other URL manager does an import/export and will mess up the sort order.

We would like to add a toolbar to Firefox, but Firefox does not support COM servers, so it's way more difficult to add a database connection to it.

But there is the Desktop Toolbar and the Drop Basket (a feature that was not showed in the review, since it's a mini review). Both do support all browsers.

At home, I also use K-Meleon, which isn't on that list.  I can partially integrate it with LinkStash by stealing the entry for Mozilla and pointing it to K-Meleon's .EXE (there's a separate entry for Firefox), and LinkStash will send the entries, though it can't grab URLs from K-Meleon.
-rjbull

You can do this also with Linkman. We thought about official K-Meleon intergration, but K-Meleon developers refused to add any support for URL grabbing.

You'd end up with a bigger program with very much bigger footprint for its data files, make portability much more difficult, and while I may like to bookmark lots of links
-rjbull

The footprint is minimal (or none if you don't use the feature) and portability not really affected.

The URL validation is deeply intergrated into Linkman. After you start it you can continue editing all links (drag drop, delete etc), you can even exit the program and resume the check on next launch.

LinkStash's bookmarks file can be optionally encrypted
-rjbull

So can Linkman's.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2008, 04:47 PM by Outertech Support »

J-Mac

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2008, 09:14 PM »
I just downloaded and installed Linkman on my notebook running Vista Ultimate. First thing I did was import my Firefox bookmarks.  However it does not seem to read subdirectories with the Firefox Bookmarks file.

E.g., I have a folder on the Fx Bookmarks Toolbar called "Firefox & Mozilla Information", and within that directory are a few subdirectories, such as "Firefox Tweaks/Help" and "Firefox Extensions" that contain more bookmarks.  Yet after Linkman imported them those subdirectories are just blank files, not subdirectories.  I guess the bookmarks within them are lost (to Linkman, that is).  Why don't those bookmark subdirectories show as subdirectories?  Doesn't Linkman support anything beyond one subdirectory level? If not, I don't know that I could use it, having a number of subdirectories like that.

Also, my Firefox browser window was shortened up due to Linkman opening up at the bottom and forcing the browser up.  Is there anyway to stop that and just have Linkman show as a deskbar?

Finally, Linkman was only open during the time it took me to inout the first two sentences of this Reply to Post. When it opened in that that 'bottom of browser" window, it apparently also placed a rather large logo in the middle of my desktop that forces itself on top of everything else - or at least on top of Firefox.  That logo was sitting right across the text I was inputting at the time and so out of frustration from not being able to get it out of my way to complete this post, I immediately closed Linkman!

I realize that I have not yet read anything to show me how to configure the Linkman UI, and that I need to do that.  But no application should place parts of its user interface right across open applications like that from the very start. That is the kind of UI "feature" that should have to be user configured.

Thanks for any help with these problems.

Jim

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2008, 09:20 PM »
@rjbull:

I visited the LinkStash site but was immediately turned off - I couldn't find much of the information that I would need before making a purchase. So I clicked on the feedback link and was taken to a page that first wanted me to choose whether I would need a reply or not - before I could submit any request.

How would I know??  They would have to answer that - it depends mostly on the answer!

So I visited their forum, but you are required to register there before even being able to read anything.  That's plain ignorant! I shouldn't be required to register for anything prior to being a user of the software!

So that program is out based on general principle.

Jim

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #15 on: April 24, 2008, 11:38 PM »
Linkman seems to have some browser confusion built-in.  Or maybe I don't understand what it is trying to do.

First, by default it is configured to open Internet Explorer - even though Firefox is my default browser.  Why wouldn't it be initially configured to use the default browser?  Seems presumptuous...

So I went into Settings and changed it to use the default browser.  But now double-clicking a URL does nothing at all.  Soooo, finally I tried the Mama Bear's bed, OOps - I mean I selected Firefox, and then it worked.  Why doesn't it pickup the default browser?  Other programs do this fine, so I know I have it correctly set as my default browser.  Also, the Settings say for it to always open a new tab, but it insists on opening a new Firefox window.  I went in and changed that, and then went in again and changed it back to Firefox in new tabs.  This time it did work.

However there are some URLs that instead open a "parked domain" page at Texturizer.com.  Huh?  The domains are good - if I copy it and paste it into Firefox, IE, or Opera, it goes right to the correct site.  But in Linkman it goes to the Texturizer.com parked thing.  (I'm guessing that Texturizer is the developer's web host, and this is his way of referring bad URL's to them?)  This does not happen on all URLs; just on some.  If they were bad URLs I would understand, but they are good ones.

Jim

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #16 on: April 24, 2008, 11:57 PM »
The more I try to use Linkman, the more it is apparent that it is designed for use with Internet Explorer.  It needs to have a little more development toward Firefox and/or Opera before I would take it seriously.

The IE stamp is all over it.  Defaults to using IE no matter what your default browser is; the toolbar has an icon to "Open IE Favorites", but nothing for Firefox; the File menu on the top menubar has "Open IE Favorite", Save as IE Favorites", and "Merge with IE Favorites".  Nothing in support of Firefox except that it can import its bookmark file. And open URLs in it - if you change the default Settings - which are initially set for IE.

I know he said that he can't add a toolbar to Firefox because of Firefox's limitations - though that doesn't seem to prevent others from adding at least extensions that offer similar functionality as toolbars.  And I don't believe Firefox prevents the addition of "Open" and "Save As" or "Merge As" commands in the Linkman menus.  Or icons on its own toolbar.

Hopefully it will break out of the IE shell in future releases and add more Firefox support.  As for Opera, I do know that they severely limit access to their API and make it very difficult for ANY third party integration - the main reason Opera is not my primary browser.  But Firefox most definitely invites a lot more integration than Linkman currently has.

Thanks!

Jim

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #17 on: April 25, 2008, 03:09 AM »
Yet after Linkman imported them those subdirectories are just blank files, not subdirectories.  I guess the bookmarks within them are lost (to Linkman, that is).  Why don't those bookmark subdirectories show as subdirectories?  Doesn't Linkman support anything beyond one subdirectory level?
-J-Mac

It does and the import code is some 2 years old and you are the first one with this problem.

I've just done a quick test to verify it, see the screenshot below (used build 2.0.0.14).

ffbookmarks.png

Is there any way you could send your boomarks.html file to [email protected]? 100% confidentiality is guaranteed and the problem will be fixed within 48 hours.

Also, my Firefox browser window was shortened up due to Linkman opening up at the bottom and forcing the browser up.  Is there anyway to stop that and just have Linkman show as a deskbar?
-J-Mac

Could you show a screenshot so there is no confusion about the problem?

A deskbar (like the Linkman Desktop Toolbar) reduces the desktop space by it's size, so it can not be overlapped by other windows, it's just the nature of a deskbar. You can drag it to the top of your desktop or if you don't like this behavior detach it from a screen edge so it becomes a normal window (and you get the full desktop size).

See the Linkman Desktop Toolbar tutorial for details, including screenshots.

desktoptoolbar1.png

it apparently also placed a rather large logo in the middle of my desktop that forces itself on top of everything else - or at least on top of Firefox.  That logo was sitting right across the text I was inputting at the time and so out of frustration from not being able to get it out of my way to complete this post
-J-Mac

This logo is the Drop Basket, one of Linkman's most prominent features.

To move the logo, drag it to any position with the left mouse.

To get the menu of the basket click it with the right mouse button. There you get the options to hide it. (This same can be done in the View menu of Linkman). In this menu you can also add the current browser URL to Linkman amd access all your Linkman links. The logo is a "Drop Basket", because you can drag & drop any links from your Firefox window to this logo and Linkman will add them to its database. The size can be configured by using any gif image (Tools | Settings | Drop Basket).

The drop basket is explained in the Linkman tutorial.

dropbasket.png

But no application should place parts of its user interface right across open applications like that from the very start. That is the kind of UI "feature" that should have to be user configured.
-J-Mac

With Linkman 7.0 Beta both the Desktop Toolbar and the Drop Basket were hidden by default. From user feedback we've realized that many users have not seen that there are such features after several days of use (people don't read help files).

Both features are enabled by default, because both they are integral parts of Linkman and can be hidden within seconds (both can be dragged with the left mouse button and a popup menu is available on a right click).

The IE stamp is all over it.  Defaults to using IE no matter what your default browser is; the toolbar has an icon to "Open IE Favorites", but nothing for Firefox; the File menu on the top menubar has "Open IE Favorite", Save as IE Favorites", and "Merge with IE Favorites".  Nothing in support of Firefox except that it can import its bookmark file. And open URLs in it - if you change the default Settings - which are initially set for IE
-J-Mac

You are right in one point. Linkman is better intergrated with Internet Explorer as with any other browser. There are two reasons for it. The URL management in IE is the worst of all browsers, so there is the most room for improvement. This means that an IE user is much more likely to be in need of a replacement for the bookmark management. The result is that the majority of Linkman users are IE users (this was already the case before the IE Toolbar has been implemented).

This does not mean that we don't want Firefox users to purchase Linkman, on the contrary. IE has been only a priority because of the larger base of potential customers and time constraints.

After we have added the Linkman IE toolbar a lot of people have requested a similar toolbar for Firefox. We have looked into it and it proved extremely difficult to implement a toolbar with similar features (but the idea has never been dropped, it's still on the to do list).

The very result of this limitation was the creation of the Linkman Desktop Toolbar. The Toolbar fully supports Firefox. You can drag & drop links from Firefox to the Toolbar (even to a specific folder) to add links to Linkman.

Eventually there will be a toolbar that intergrates directly into Firefox. It's just not a Top 10 to-do priority because of implementation difficulties and the existense of the Desktop Toolbar, Drop Basket, Tray Icon and configurable Windows-wide Linkman shortcuts.

As you've pointed out Open/Save IE Favorites buttons are available in the main Linkman window, but no Firefox buttons. This has several reasons.

* Buttons for every browser would clutter the UI (button configurability is on to do list).
* The IE buttons point out that Linkman unlike other URL Managers can load Favorites and not just import them.
* You can configure Linkman to load your Firefox Bookmarks on program start automatically (Tools | Settings | Program start).
* We strongly recommend to use the native Linkman bookmark format with Firefox (to make use of all Linkman features)

As to the problem that Linkman was launching URLs with IE on your system.

This is definitely a bug. Linkman should use your default browser. I think it may be a problem with Linkman and Vista Ultimate, since we use Vista Business here. I'll look into the problem within the next 3 days.

And I don't believe Firefox prevents the addition of "Open" and "Save As" or "Merge As" commands in the Linkman menus.
-J-Mac

The menus are there.

File | Import | Firefox
File | Append | Firefox
File | Export | Firefox

And as I wrote before, you can automate the import in the first section of the Linkman settings window, but we recommend to use the native lmd format with Linkman.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2008, 03:25 AM by Outertech Support »

rjbull

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #18 on: April 25, 2008, 03:28 AM »
At home, I also use K-Meleon, which isn't on that list.  I can partially integrate it with LinkStash by stealing the entry for Mozilla and pointing it to K-Meleon's .EXE (there's a separate entry for Firefox), and LinkStash will send the entries, though it can't grab URLs from K-Meleon.
-rjbull

You can do this also with Linkman. We thought about official K-Meleon intergration, but K-Meleon developers refused to add any support for URL grabbing.
-Outertech Support (April 24, 2008, 04:07 PM)

Probably because of their "closed Gecko engine."  It's a disappointment, but not a surprise, and thank you for trying.

You'd end up with a bigger program with very much bigger footprint for its data files, make portability much more difficult, and while I may like to bookmark lots of links
-rjbull

The footprint is minimal (or none if you don't use the feature) and portability not really affected.

Footprint - not so much of the program itself: the context was KenR's wanting a program that combined the functions of Linkman with WebSite-Watcher/Check & Get Web page monitoring tools.  If you monitored a lot of Web pages, you'd have a lot of data on disk, and more to transport in a portable version.

The URL validation is deeply intergrated into Linkman. After you start it you can continue editing all links (drag drop, delete etc), you can even exit the program and resume the check on next launch.

URL validation is nice, but what was meant was a way of tracking changes in Web pages, not whether their URLs still existed.  As I said, I prefer to have those functions in separate programs.

LinkStash's bookmarks file can be optionally encrypted
-rjbull

So can Linkman's.

Good...  do you plan a KeePass-style password feature?  Again, that's nice to have, but might be best left to a separate program.


rjbull

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #19 on: April 25, 2008, 03:30 AM »
I visited the LinkStash site but was immediately turned off
[...]
So that program is out based on general principle.

It could be better arranged  :)  I've already alerted its author to this thread, so I'd better nudge him again  ;)


Outertech Support

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #20 on: April 25, 2008, 03:36 AM »
URL validation is nice, but what was meant was a way of tracking changes in Web pages, not whether their URLs still existed.  As I said, I prefer to have those functions in separate programs.
-rjbull

Page changes tracking is a part of Linkman URL validation. Linkman announces every page that has changed (and by that I mean the content, not just the URL) since your last validation by underlining the link name.

Good...  do you plan a KeePass-style password feature?  Again, that's nice to have, but might be best left to a separate program.
-rjbull

No, I think it would bloat Linkman, because user would cry for more features once you go into the password manager direction. There are too many good tools that are specifically designed for this purpose (I recommend Roboform).

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #21 on: April 25, 2008, 05:04 AM »
However there are some URLs that instead open a "parked domain" page at Texturizer.com.  Huh?  The domains are good - if I copy it and paste it into Firefox, IE, or Opera, it goes right to the correct site.  But in Linkman it goes to the Texturizer.com parked thing.  (I'm guessing that Texturizer is the developer's web host, and this is his way of referring bad URL's to them?)  This does not happen on all URLs; just on some.  If they were bad URLs I would understand, but they are good ones.
-J-Mac

I have never heard of Texturizer.com. There is no relation between this site and Outertech. I think the problem is specific to other software on your system (that somehow hooks into the URL launching).

see http://www.windowsbb...dex.php/t-38193.html
« Last Edit: April 25, 2008, 05:07 AM by Outertech Support »

rjbull

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #22 on: April 25, 2008, 06:20 AM »
URL validation is nice, but what was meant was a way of tracking changes in Web pages, not whether their URLs still existed.  As I said, I prefer to have those functions in separate programs.
-rjbull

Page changes tracking is a part of Linkman URL validation. Linkman announces every page that has changed (and by that I mean the content, not just the URL) since your last validation by underlining the link name.
-Outertech Support (April 25, 2008, 03:36 AM)

That's an interesting feature, but short of WebSite-Watcher's ability to show you old and new pages with the differences highlit.  It can also be misleading, e.g. because many pages include a date.  WebSite-Watcher has functions to filter out things like that.  Again, I think that full monitoring is best left to a dedicated program.


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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #23 on: April 25, 2008, 06:41 AM »
That's an interesting feature, but short of WebSite-Watcher's ability to show you old and new pages with the differences highlit.  It can also be misleading, e.g. because many pages include a date.  WebSite-Watcher has functions to filter out things like that.  Again, I think that full monitoring is best left to a dedicated program.
-rjbull

Linkman is smart enough to ignore dates, user login texts etc.

Dormouse

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Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool
« Reply #24 on: April 25, 2008, 06:57 AM »
After reading the review, I downloaded and tried Linkman out. Never really got the hang of it at the beginning & stopped using it and then uninstalled when the trial ended. Maybe its because I use Opera & don't need it as much as ie users. And I don't have a massive number of favourites. Maybe its because I didn't read the 90 page manual. Maybe its a natural inability.

I can see an advantage to having a prog that keeps links with a bit more info than just the url - but for me it has to be very, very easy to use. I'd add things to the drop basket and not find them there when I looked later and it was easier to let it go than to try to read manuals or find out why. And the drop basket did get in the way, and I kept moving it around. I'd probably have preferred a small, hidden and zoomable basket somewhere on the top of the screen. (And maybe I could have pressed a couple of buttons and made it do that).

None of this is meant to be a criticism of Linkman; just a question of whether this type of software really makes my life easier or not. I'll possibly try again another time.