Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

[superboyac]

Now that Firefox 3 is available, the PowerMarks bookmark program doesn't work with it anymore.  It's really the best bookmark manager ever.  Very simple, very fast, very easy to use.  I know there have been reviews here for other bookmark managers, but they're different.

Someone needs to copy Powermarks and do something very similar.  The author has killed the program earlier this year, so there will be no more Powermarks.

[nevf]

SB, I've recently started using Delicious and the Delicious plugins for Firefox and IE to manage bookmarks. This keeps a central copy on Delicious and all your Browsers see the same bookmarks. Works well for me. And then of course I use Surfulater for the heavy lifting.

[superboyac]

Neville, what's going on?  Good to hear from you.

Yeah, I have to check out some other options.  I'm the most idiotically simple bookmark user in the world, that's why I loved Powermarks.  All I would do is click to open it, then click the bookmark.  On the rare occasion where i had to search for a bookmark, i would do it lighting fast with the search feature.  I never used any structure, categories, or anything.  I may have added tags to certain bookmarks if they didn't automatically get included when it was created.

Surfulater's another option, but I would never use it for bookmarks because of my simplicity.  But Delicious looks interesting, that might need to be my first exploration.

[patteo]

Superboyac, I'm am also a long time user of Powermarks and ever since switching to Firefox 3, I have been looking for a way to overcome what we long time users of Powermarks are facing.

I've look long and hard and I thought I had found a solution with combination of TagSifter and HandyTag

TagSifter
"Firefox 3 lets you tag your bookmarks, but it doesn't give you a great way to browse your bookmarks by their tags. TagSifter tries to. Select a group of tags in the sidebar or menu, and TagSifter shows you all the related tags and bookmarks. Or search your bookmarks with set operators, like "tag1 - (tag2 + !tag3)". Comes with a tool to help tag your existing bookmarks as you move to Firefox 3."
https://addons.mozil...agsifter&cat=all

Handytag
Search Add-ons :: Firefox Add-ons
"HandyTag simply providing a complete set of most relevant keywords in the bookmark's edition panel. These keywords are retrieved from many different sources."
https://addons.mozil...handytag&cat=all

BUT, I keep thinking that a lot of the convenience I was experiencing with Powermarks was still missing.

Besides, I have not figured out how to backup all these Tags I'm entering into Firefox.

But guess what, I think I have hit upon a solution - with just a couple of small steps missing.

This is what I'm doing :

You will need to have a few things to accomplish this.

1. Powermarks
2. Firefox 3
3. Turnon Global HotKeys - enable you to hit the hot key to bring Powermarks to the foreground
Make sure you assign an unused key combination to     "Add Bookmark from Clipboard" such as Alt+Shift+P

Chapter 8 - Powermarks User Guide
"    8.1.7 Hotkeys

    Switch to Powermarks
        Display the Powermarks window
    Add Bookmark to Browser
        Add the current browser URL to the Powermarks bookmark list and allow for editing.
    Fast Add Bookmark from Browser
        Adds the URL currently in the Browser to the Powermarks bookmark list.
    Add Bookmark from Clipboard
        Searches the clipboard for a URL and adds it the Powermarks bookmark list. Powermarks will attempt to contact the site and retrieve the name, keywords and description of the new bookmark. "
http://www.kaylon.co...ter_8.htm#SystemTray

4. Chapter 8 - Powermarks User Guide
"8.1.12 Browsers"
http://www.kaylon.co...apter_8.htm#browsers

If you look at your actual Option Screen in your Powermarks program, you will see an additional line item - Firefox which is not shown in the online Powermarks User Guide.

Make sure you tell Powermarks where to find Firefox 3.

Your are almost all set for a test run now.

5. Using Firefox, do you usual surfing on the web.

Let's say you are at

https://addons.mozil...handytag&cat=all

And you want this url plus whatever keywords to be captured in Powermarks.

(Note: Do make sure Powermarks is loaded and it could also be minimized in the backgroud)

a. Press Crtl+L - this highlights the URL bar in Firefox 3 (Note that Alt+D also works in same way)
b. Press Crtl+C - this places https://addons.mozil...handytag&cat=all into the clipboard.
c. Press Shift+Alt+P - this executes "Add Bookmark from Clipboard" which you configured in Step 3 above such as Alt+Shift+P

Step 5c tells Powermarks to store retrieve https://addons.mozil...handytag&cat=all into the database together with the associated keywords.
And all this time, Powermarks remain in the background until you invoke it with say Crtl+Alt+P Hotkey you assigned (See 8.1.7 Hotkeys  in Chapter 8 - Powermarks User Guide)

Presto - you are done - back in business with Powermarks. Clicking on a url in Powermarks would launch the url in a new tab (if you set the options correctly) in Firefox (if it had been set as the default browser.)

Now of course Steps 5.a, 5.b and 5.c can all be combined as a single command if someone can write a Autohotkey script and compile it into and exe and attach it to a Button on Firefox - This part I have not figured out as yet - but it certainly can be done. Once the script has been written and compiled, it could possibly be launched by
"Launch External Windows Applications Directly From Firefox
http://www.inspiredg...rectly-from-firefox/

But take note that "Launch External Windows Applications Directly From Firefox" does not seem to operate properly with Firefox 3. [See How to add a Button (to execute a AutoHotkey script or an exe) to Firefox 3 - DonationCoder.com
"I would like to execute a particular command from within Firefox 3.
This could be calling a AutoHotkey script or the same script compiled into a DoThis.exe"]
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=14850.0

Perhaps someone with Greasemonkey script (if that is the thing to use) could figure this out.

Take note that "Alt+Ins Add URL from clipboard" does not quite work - It would have completed the picture for people like us.
Chapter 10 - Powermarks User Guide
"Alt+Ins    Add URL from clipboard"
http://www.kaylon.co..._10.htm#ShortcutKeys

Do tell me what do you think - no more worries that Firefox 4, 5, or 6 would break it !!!

Yes no doubt it is not as convenient right now, but it works !!!

Anyone would like to craft a Autohotkey script for us poor Powermarkers and figure out how to use "Launch External Windows Applications Directly From Firefox"

[superboyac]

patteo, I'm going to try this later.  If this works, you are such the man!!  You will get whatever $10 credits is left in my dc credits here!

[twinkler]

Hi guys,

I've been meaning to post a writeup of my recent research into this question but have procrastinated until now. Thanks, patteo, for inspiring me to share my results.

I've been married to Powermarks for almost ten years. With the twin blows of Kaylon no longer supporting it and it "not working" with Firefox 3, I recently found myself moving through the five stages of grief. Then, having finally accepted that I must abandon my longest-used, most-used, and most-loved program, I furiously started looking for an alternative.

Without even testing them, I rejected most standalone bookmark managers because they rely on a tree rather than tags. That left two that actually use tags, miTaggedMarks and Power Favorites (formerly XBEL Bookmark Manager). I tried out miTaggedMarks and was impressed by its ability to import a Powermarks file and by its tag handling features. But before I could try Power Favorites (and figure out how much trouble it would be to devise a way to import my powermarks), I realized that I was essentially on the road to recreating the sorry situation in which I had found myself--having entrusted the most important part of my online life to a lone obscure programmer who could close up shop tomorrow.

So I decided to look at del.icio.us. I figured out how get my 4300 powermarks into del.icio.us with the tags intact (I'll post that process separately in the next few days). I've had a Google Alert for the search term "powermarks" for years, which among other things has led me to read several unanswered appeals from Powermarks users desperate to get their bookmarks into del.icio.us. So seeing all those powermarks there in del.icio.us felt like quite a triumph. But you know, after working with it for a while, I just did not like that web interface. I tried the del.icio.us Firefox extension, and that was pretty nifty, but the whole experience was so far short of what I'd been used to that I started thinking again.

Because I had equated Firefox 3 with Death to Powermarks, until last month I hadn't paid it any attention at all. But during all my research I discovered that Firefox 3 had incorporated tags into bookmarks, so I took a look. I installed Firefox 3 and, as patteo did, the TagSifter extension, then went to work on importing my powermarks into Firefox. (I'll post that process soon, too). Seeing my powermarks in Firefox with tags, I experienced once again the feeling I had upon successfully importing my powermarks to del.icio.us: a mixture of jubilation, joy, and wonder. But, once again, after a few hours I was dissatisfied, as patteo was.

In desperation I (finally!) decided to see what it meant that "Powermarks doesn't work with Firefox 3". I found that Powermarks can indeed launch a bookmarked URL in Firefox 3, but it can't load info about a page into a new bookmark--hitting my usual hotkey for "Add bookmark from browser" brings up a blank powermark.

So I fooled around with AutoHotkey for a while and came up with this kludgy, temperamental, but functional  script:

[Select]

!m::
    WinActivate Firefox ; move to the Firefox window
    Clipsave = %clipboard% ; save the current clipboard contents
    Send !d^c ; copy the page's URL
    Send ^+m ; simulate the hotkey for "Add bookmark from browser"
    Sleep 200 ; wait a moment for the blank powermark to appear
    Send {Tab}^v ; move to the URL field and paste in the URL
    Sleep 1000 ; wait some more
    Send !f ; hit the Fetch button
    Sleep 1000 ; wait some more
    Send {Enter} ; hit the OK button
    Sleep 1000 ; wait some more
    Send {Tab}^+{End}{Del} ; delete the fetched keywords so I can enter my own
    clipboard = %clipsave% ; restore the previous clipboard contents
    Return

If you use this script, change line 1 to whatever hotkey you want to hit to add a new powermark, and change line 5 to send whatever hotkey you entered in the "Add bookmark from browser" field in Powermarks's hotkey options.

Using "Fetch" to fill the name only works half the time; the other half it inserts the URL. I delete the keywords that Powermarks adds because I've developed my own taxonomy.

I've been using this for about a month now. It's not ideal, but it's pretty close. In any event, it has enabled me to continue using one of the best pieces of software I've ever encountered.

Any AutoHotkey whiz reading this who can suggest improvements?

[superboyac]

Wow this is cool.  Skrommel is the ahk expert here, but I haven't heard from him for a while.  I need to read both of your posts more carefully later, but all we need is to have the three buttons for powermarks working in firefox 3, it seems very simple.  The program itself still works fine, even with firefox 3.  I can call up the program using my hotkeys pick a link and it will open in a new tab.  I used to prefer it opening in the existing tab and the buttons were on the toolbar, but this is still workable for now.

I still truly can't believe nobody has imitated this program yet.  It's really very simple.  There's a list of bookmarks with absolutely no organization, you filter the list in the search box, pick the bookmark and it opens.  That's it.  What could be simpler?  The whole program is a list, a search box, and some buttons to add items to the list.  Yet it's the greatest program of all.

It just goes to show you the beauty in simplicity.  With all the bookmarking tools around, there's something so exceptional about Powermarks.

[twinkler]

You might want to spend a little time with miTaggedMarks. It's the closest thing to Powermarks. Michael has put a lot of thought and work into the program, and his tag handling is actually more sophisticated than that of Powermarks. It's too bad he hasn't implemented something like Powermarks's status checking of the bookmarks.

[twinkler]

I spent some time this afternoon improving my code:

[Select]

!m::
   Clipsave = %Clipboard%                    ; save the current clipboard contents
   WinActivate Firefox                       ; move to the Firefox window
   WinWaitActive Firefox                     ; wait until the Firefox window is active
   Send !d^c                                 ; copy the page's URL
   Send ^+m                                  ; simulate the hotkey for "Add bookmark from browser"
   WinWaitActive Bookmark Properties         ; wait until the new blank powermark appears
   Send {Tab}                                ; move to the URL field
   ControlGetFocus, ControlName              ; wait until we're at the URL field
   loop
   {
      if ControlName = Edit7
         break
      sleep 50
      ControlGetFocus, ControlName
   }
   Send ^v                                   ; paste in the URL
   Send !f                                   ; hit the Fetch button
   WinWaitActive Updating Powermark          ; wait until the fetch finishes
   ControlGetText, ButtonText, Button1
   loop
   {
      if ButtonText = OK
         break
      sleep 50
      ControlGetText, ButtonText, Button1
   }
   Send {Enter}                              ; close the fetch window
   WinWaitActive Bookmark Properties         ; wait until the fetch window closes
   Send {Tab}{Del}^+{End}{Del}               ; delete the fetched keywords so I can enter my own
   Clipboard = %Clipsave%                    ; restore the previous clipboard contents
   return

I replaced the clunky sleep statements with tests to determine when Powermarks has finished responding to the keystrokes I send it. Besides being cleaner, it works better, and the script will work the same on someone else's system as it does on mine.

[superboyac]

You might want to spend a little time with miTaggedMarks. It's the closest thing to Powermarks. Michael has put a lot of thought and work into the program, and his tag handling is actually more sophisticated than that of Powermarks. It's too bad he hasn't implemented something like Powermarks's status checking of the bookmarks.

-twinkler (September 11, 2008, 02:48 PM)

OOoo!  miTaggedMarks looks really good.  I may have to get this one.

[patteo]

You might want to spend a little time with miTaggedMarks. It's the closest thing to Powermarks. Michael has put a lot of thought and work into the program, and his tag handling is actually more sophisticated than that of Powermarks. It's too bad he hasn't implemented something like Powermarks's status checking of the bookmarks.

-twinkler (September 11, 2008, 02:48 PM)

I did look at this sometime ago. But somehow it could not match the simplicity and power of Powermarks as Superboyac put it so aptly "Very simple, very fast, very easy to use" - what more could one ask.

I think Powermarks is one of those programs in my opinion that I would place alongside Fineprint.

Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer) - DonationCoder.com
"What Fineprint Does"
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=6519.0

Powermarks is a one trick pony and really very good at what it does.

Perhaps those software authors which want to write a bookmarking software could do well not to detract from its simplicity.  And I quote from Superboyac again because I feel likewise :"I'm the most idiotically simple bookmark user in the world, that's why I loved Powermarks.  All I would do is click to open it, then click the bookmark.  On the rare occasion where i had to search for a bookmark, i would do it lighting fast with the search feature.  I never used any structure, categories, or anything."

However, I may take another look at miTaggedMarks.

But now that I have got Powermarks "working" again with Firefox, I have much less incentive to do that.

I mean, I hate to have to go through another Oh Oh !, this new program I'm highly dependent on
no longer works with Firefox 6. Now how do I migrate my Bookmarks to whatever because development has stopped ! These were the same concerns as alluded to by Twinkler earlier in this thread.

I underwent this agony more than once when I went from Polaris Packrat, then to Netmanage Ecco (which incidentally dropped development when Microsoft Outlook appeared) over the years.

With the method I'm using, so long as it works with Windows 7 etc I won't have to worry the next development of Firefox will kill it.

[superboyac]

patteo, you are so right about that.  The simplicity of Powermarks is really the thing that sets it apart.  I like mitaggedmarks, but it's not nearly as easy to use as powermarks was.  If it's my only option, I'm okay with it...I'm happy with it.  But first, I will try to get Powermarks working with that script posted above.

I'm just really happy that a couple of you resurrected this thread with these solutions.  I had given up!

[TucknDar]

Finally tried PowerMarks and have to admit that first impressions are VERY good. I've tried a few bookmark managers before, but as you've already said there's something so simple yet powerful about PowerMarks. It just works... By far the best initial impression I've had from any of the bookmark managers I've tried.

And since I'm using Opera, PowerMarks works just fine

BTW, does anyone know how I can legally obtain a license? Doesn't seem possible through kaylon.com site. Is it just not possible anymore, since they won't provide support?

[patteo]

Try emailing Kaylon at [email protected]

You may want to refer the author to this thread.

Who knows, he may see the value of his product.

I think perhaps it is really a marketing issue.

I wouldn't think it's a technology issue for them to support Powermarks on Firefox since the key elements of extracting a URL from the clipboard are already built into the product.

It doesn't look that difficult to build a Firefox buttons to activate and save the url from the clipboard if one knows how and with all the IT experts that can be found at www.donationcoder.com, surely someone can build a tool to add a Firefox button that we can link to a AutoHotkey script that will

1. Copy URL
2. Tell Powermarks (in the background) to retrieve the URL and it's associated keywords.

[TucknDar]

Try emailing Kaylon at [email protected]

-patteo (September 13, 2008, 04:04 AM)

Too obvious 

Done, and mentioned this thread. Doubt anything will happen though, I bet Kaylon's gotten tons of mails asking for renewed development.

[superboyac]

I've actually had a couple of back and forths with the author.  He's a nice person.  I don't have any information as to why he chose to stop development.  But at least he made the program in the first place, so I'm thankful for that.

[twinkler]

patteo, tomorrow I'll see if I can add my compiled ahk script to a Firefox button using Custom Buttons² and the External Application button.

[TucknDar]

Does anyone know any PowerMarks command line parameters? Such as for adding and fast adding bookmarks.

[twinkler]

TucknDar, I don't think it works that way. You launch the program at startup and it runs in the background, waiting for a hotkey or button push to trigger it to add a bookmark.

[TucknDar]

all right, twinkler. I was hoping there was a way to pass command line parameters so that I could make a button in Opera. But like FF3 users I'll have to get some help from good old AutoHotkey for that

[twinkler]

TucknDar, do you use AutoHotkey? If so, and you don't mind hitting a hotkey instead of pressing a button, try my script above and let me know if it works for you.

patteo & TucknDar, I've always preferred hitting Alt-M (my defined keystroke) to add a new bookmark over moving the mouse to press a button that takes up room on a browser toolbar.

And relying on an extension to implement a button re-creates a dependency on Firefox that could fail with a future Firefox upgrade.

Nevertheless, as I said, tomorrow I'll try compiling my script and see if I can attach it to a button for the Firefox users who want one.

[TucknDar]

TucknDar, do you use AutoHotkey? If so, and you don't mind hitting a hotkey instead of pressing a button, try my script above and let me know if it works for you.

-twinkler (September 13, 2008, 03:14 PM)

Actually PowerMarks hotkeys work with Opera, which is my preferred browser. I just wanted a button in Opera as well. But it's not really a big deal for me, since I can click the tray icon and then Add Powermark...

I might look into your script to see if it helps me create a button though. But I can definitely live with hotkeys only

[urlwolf]

just a quick note.
I really like delicious bookmarks for FF, but!
Magnolia (similar to delicious) actually takes an snapshot of what you bookmark there, so you can see the page even if it's no longer available. JFYI.

[superboyac]

Ugh...I'm such a moron with autohotkey stuff.  I've been trying this solution and I just can't get it to work
My shortcuts are:
shift+ctrl+p  starts Powermarks
shift+ctrl+=  adds a bookmark

I was editing the script above, but I guess I'm not doing it right.  What am I supposed to do, edit the script, compile it, and then execute the exe file?  I don't know.  If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.

[twinkler]

superboyac, I suggest doing the following:

1. in your Powermarks options, in the Startup section, check "Start Powermarks when Windows starts"
2. in your Powermarks options, in the Hotkeys section, set "Add bookmark from browser" to alt+ctrl+=
3. if you haven't already, install AutoHotkey and read the tutorial for basic info on how it works
4. create a new file called hotkeys.ahk, copy the code below into it (modified for your hotkey), and save it
5. set the hotkey to be defined for your system at startup by adding a shortcut to hotkeys.ahk to your startup folder
6. reboot

[Select]

^+=::
   Clipsave = %Clipboard%                    ; save the current clipboard contents
   WinActivate Firefox                       ; move to the Firefox window
   WinWaitActive Firefox                     ; wait until the Firefox window is active
   Send !d^c                                 ; copy the page's URL
   Send !^=                                  ; simulate the hotkey for "Add bookmark from browser"
   WinWaitActive Bookmark Properties         ; wait until the new blank powermark appears
   Send {Tab}                                ; move to the URL field
   ControlGetFocus, ControlName              ; wait until we're at the URL field
   loop
   {
      if ControlName = Edit7
         break
      sleep 50
      ControlGetFocus, ControlName
   }
   Send ^v                                   ; paste in the URL
   Send !f                                   ; hit the Fetch button
   WinWaitActive Updating Powermark          ; wait until the fetch finishes
   ControlGetText, ButtonText, Button1
   loop
   {
      if ButtonText = OK
         break
      sleep 50
      ControlGetText, ButtonText, Button1
   }
   Send {Enter}                              ; close the fetch window
   WinWaitActive Bookmark Properties         ; wait until the fetch window closes
   Send {Tab}{Del}^+{End}{Del}               ; delete the fetched keywords so I can enter my own
   Clipboard = %Clipsave%                    ; restore the previous clipboard contents
   return

Now, Powermarks and AutoHotkey will run in the background. Hitting shift+ctrl+= will run the code associated with that hotkey. One of the things that code will do is simulate pressing alt+ctrl+=, which you've set in Powermarks as the hotkey to add a bookmark. You don't have to mess with compiling the script.

I owe you more than I can ever repay for your contribution to this site, especially the note-taking project. Plus, like you, Powermarks showed me the brilliance (and unfortunate rarity!) of find-as-you-type. So I'd be more than happy to work with you until you get this running.