CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v2.46.0 - Dec 30, 2019

[tomos]

I'd really love to hear some more reports that the beta works well before I release it officially..

-mouser (December 21, 2016, 06:57 AM)

just installed and using in my usual very basic manner -- does seem much more responsive; everything working fine so far
Windows 7 x64

For the record:
I have WinAnti-Ransom [WAR] installed. It blocks every install: normally I click the Allow button, run the exe again, and it works fine.
CHS extracts to a different temp folder every times it's run, so keeps getting blocked by WAR (as the previous 'Allow' was for a different path).  I had to disable it in order to install.

[mouser]

New official (non-beta) release:

v2.39.0 - Dec 22, 2016

• [Improvement] Significantly improved performance when browsing through clips and adding new clips.
• [Improvement] Home and End keys now go to top and bottom of grid.
• [Improvement] New option to not update last view date of clips when browsing (better performance).
• [Improvement] Path to database folder now shown in options dialog on Database Backup tab.
• [NewFeature] You can now set custom printer font for printing clips.

[IainB]

@mouser: Thanks. I have dl CHS v3.29 (portable ,ZIP version) and it's going fine.

[IainB]

The text in the clip is in the spoiler:

Spoiler

I had just selected the default Title "NOTE" and pasted over it with the clipboard string: "Words and Phrases to Lose in 2017" - which was the article title for the URL saved in the Memo pane.
Note the string is invisible in the Title in the Memo pane, though it is visible (correctly) in the Grid pane.
This was the second instance - the first was in the
lower clip in the Grid. It is inconsistently repeatable, but happens often. The invisible string will appear in the Title field in the Memo pane after a re-sort.

@mouser: This non-fatal, episodic error first occurred some time ago in CHS v3.6, and as it was a minor annoyance I did not think to mention it until today (using CHS v3.9) - when I recalled your request for feedback.
So I took the time to repeat it after its first occurrence today - just to see if I could repeat it - and I was able to do so, per the screenshot above.
I had never bothered before, because it was a minor issue.

However, it is an inconsistently repeatable error, as I can't make it occur every time I try, so I have not yet figured out the exact conditions to force it to happen, though it only seems to happen when something has been pasted (not typed) into the Title field in the Memo pane - whereupon the text "NOTE" in the Title field is cleared/deleted, but the pasted string is not yet displayed.

The "invisible" Title text of the changed clip in the Memo pane only becomes visible after the clips have been re-arranged in the Grid display, which can happen if the user clicks on one of the other clips in the Grid (whereupon the clip just edited is moved to the bottom of the Grid), or re-sorts the Grid. Either of those actions seems to force the CHS GUI display to be updated/re-displayed. I think that probably indicates that the bug may simply be due to a delay in displaying whatever is in the relevant display output buffer for the Title field in the Memo pane.

An additional note (may be relevant):
I am experiencing this error more frequently now, because I have changed my work processes to work around the problem of CHS not capturing the URL metadata of text clipped from some web browsers. I am now usually using Slimjet (a Chrome-based browser), and CHS does not capture the URL metadata of clips from Chrome browsers (though it is always captured in the Clipboard).

So I now have a frequently-used tedious manual workaround consisting of these steps:

• Select the text in the web page to be copied.
• Press CTRL+C (copies the text to the clipboard).
• Press CTRL+L (selects the URL in the address pane).
• Press CTRL+C (copies the URL to the clipboard).
• Open CHS main screen.
• Mouse-select the relevant clip for Step 2 in the Grid.
• Mouse-select the Notes column field for that clip in the Grid.
• Press CTRL+V (copies the URL to the Notes field for that clip).
• Mouse-select a point in the text of that clip in the Memo pane to place the cursor where I want to insert the URL also.
• Press CTRL+V (copies the URL into the Memo pane at the cursor-point selected).
• Select some of the text in the Memo pane for that clip, to use as a Title.
• Press CTRL+C (copies the text selected to the clipboard).
• Mouse-select the Title text (default is "NOTE") of that clip in the Memo pane.
• Press CTRL+V (pastes the current text from the clipboard over the Title text selected).
• IT IS AT THIS POINT that the Title text just goes blank (per screenshot above).

[mouser]

Can I get an update about this bug -- is it still happening?

The latest version of CHS seems to have been a great success in terms of speed improvements.  I would like to squash any remaining oddities..

[IainB]

@mouser: To answer your Q, from my perspective:
The described episodic and non-fatal CHS problem of tardy display of the Title text copied/pasted into the Memo pane is still occurring - e.g., I noticed it sometimes occurring yesterday, whilst I was doing  a fair amount of clipping and editing in CHS.

As I think I have already pointed out, the problem is nothing new, having been observed by me for a long time and on different laptops and versions of Windows. Because it is episodic, it would probably only be observed by people who were - like me - periodically engaged in doing a lot of editing of clip Titles, with the Title text being copied/pasted into the Memo pane, from the same or another existing clip. Even then, unless the user was - like me - an analytical user accusomed to testing software, the problem might well pass unnoticed.

Similarly with the tooth-grindingly chronic, laggy scrolling refresh timing problem, it seems. Fortunately, that seems to have been almost fully fixed now (thankyou very much!), with CHS most of the time now being/feeling blazingly fast by comparison with its earlier performance levels. Such a great improvement. I am now getting the sub-second response times I would expect and like to get from CHS on my computer system. As one inevitably becomes accustomed to this new, faster level of ergonomic performance, it of course reduces one's tolerance/expectations for delays even further, so that I can now very occasionally perceive those very brief, almost imperceptible, and intermittent lags that might still manifest for some so far inexplicable reason. These are minor imperfections. It's all about "better. faster, bigger or smaller", I suppose.

Two things that I have thought might be desirable improvements:

• (a) In addition to the existing fixed or variable text strings that can be inserted into the clip Title field, for my purposes at least it could be useful for the Title field to be able to be filled by the first "n" characters in the string of the first line of text in a clip (set as a default user parameter). This could be a time-saver.
• (b) The Notes field to always automatically include the source URL for clips captured from any web browser. This currently only seems to work in CHS if the browser is Firefox, or something, despite the Clipboard apparently always containing that metadata anyway. This too could be a time-saver.

[IainB]

I have accidentally discovered how to consistently reproduce this obscure "error" - except it is NOT an error at all, as CHS seems to be doing exactly what it was probably designed to do.

What I have "discovered" is that the Title field in the Memo pane seems to be able to accept multiple lines of pasted text, including line feeds - I'm not sure what the max text limit might be.
So, if you copy a string which has an invisible linefeed character embedded at the end and then paste it into the Title field in the Memo pane, the result will be as follows:

• (a) The text and the line feed are pasted in correctly to the Memo pane and the cursor in the Title field rests at the last character displayed - which is the line feed - thus the preceding text will have been scrolled up (out of sight) and the invisible line feed character is all that the user "sees" in the Title field window of the Memo pane.
  
  
• (b) In the Grid pane, the first line of the the Title text string is displayed.

Thus, when the Memo pane is refreshed, the Title field then reverts to displaying just the first line of text, as was already being displayed in the Grid pane. So, the apparent delay in displaying the first line of text is not a delay at all.

Far from it being an "error", I would suggest that this is an undocumented feature of CHS which could be turned into a rather useful feature for users of CHS, by the simple expedient of making the Title field window in the Memo pane able to be draggable-down by the user, so as to expand its depth to display "n" more lines of title text, as may be required by the user.

[mouser]

awesome find. nice to have another mystery solved.
but i'd consider that a bug -- you shouldn't be able to have a title with newlines in it. I will fix.

[IainB]

I had forgotten to note this as I had become so accustomed to working around it:
When editing text in the body of a clip, the "standard" Windows text editing hotkeys seem to work OK, including, for example:

• Ctrl+Backspace: deletes the word and space preceding (to the left of) the cursor.
• Ctrl+Delete: deletes the word and space following (to the right of) the cursor..

However, these hotkeys do NOT seem to work this way when editing text in most/any of the other fields in CHS which can hold editable text - but they probably should.

[IainB]

This is a minor issue. I thought it was occurring because of something I had done, but if it is, then I can't figure out what I have done!
This window saying a new version of CHS v2.39.0 is available always pops up at CHS start, even though the version being executed is definitely v2.39.0 (or at least, it thinks it is and that is the version number given in the file version field for that .exe file).
When I installed this version, I copied it from a .ZIP "portable" file, rather than use an installer.

[IainB]

Current CHS v2.39.0
Win10-64 Pro
____________________
Suggested change:



Change options in "Quick Paste Pop-up menu" to read:
  - Only show Clip Title Text that is INSIDE [] square brackets.
Add new, mutually exclusive option:
  - Only show Clip Title Text that is OUTSIDE [] square brackets.
(NB: square brackets and parentheses look the same in miniscule font.)

[IainB]

Current CHS v2.39.0
Win10-64 Pro
____________________
Query:
If I create a  new "Group" in the Tree pane called "All Things" and with the assigned default ID#32, and

• - then later create a child VF (Virtual Folder) called "Things B" based on an SQL filter/search and with the assigned default ID#39, and
• - then later create a child VF (Virtual Folder) called "Things A" based on an SQL filter/search and with the assigned default ID#51,

then:

• (a) the parent Group "All Things" does not inherit any child clips for either of the 2 Child groups (VFs), and
• (b) the Child groups can only be displayed in ascending ID#No. order thus:
  "All Things"
   - "Things B" ID#39
   - "Things A" ID#51
  

Questions:

• How can the Child clips all be automatically "inherited" upwards by the Parent group?
• How can the tree display be arranged in alphameric order of name?

Sorry if the answers are obvious, but I can't figure 'em out.

[IainB]

Current CHS v2.39.0
Win10-64 Pro
____________________

In the CHS Help document, the text in the RHS pane can be zoomed in/out, which is great for those of us as need specs to read the screen.

The visible characters (text) in the CHS Options panels is fixed, minuscule and pixely (character lines seem to be drawn one pixel thick) making them hard to read, and even specs don't help much as the light pollution from glary screens tends to swamp those visible characters making them appear faint (grey) rather than black - so contrast is lost (harder to distinguish and read).
The same seems true of the CHS Add a Quick Note panel.

Using the system magifier pane/lens is a useful, but clunky workaround for this problem.
What would seem to be needed is the ability to zoom in/out or (better) to adjust fonts/colours as can be done for the CHS GUI  - which latter is great by the way.

[IainB]

Current CHS v2.39.0
Win10-64 Pro
____________________
Could conserve space and simplify using a toggle switch here:

[mouser]

Questions:
How can the Child clips all be automatically "inherited" upwards by the Parent group?
How can the tree display be arranged in alphameric order of name?

It's an interesting question regarding parents of virtual folders.. Currently the parents do not show inherited contents of virtual folders -- but I could change that.. Let me think about adding an option for that.

Regarding arranging the tree alphabetically -- you must manually drag and drop to reorder groups in the tree.

[IainB]

...Regarding arranging the tree alphabetically -- you must manually drag and drop to reorder groups in the tree.
_________________________

-mouser (February 28, 2017, 12:29 PM)

@mouser: I already tried that and it doesn't seem to work. Tried it again just now, with same result. Maybe I am doing it wrong? We're taking about the tree in the Tree pane here - right?
In fact trying to move stuff around manually like that in the tre seems to be really difficult/kludgy in CHS, so I figured it was not in the design.
Maybe there is an option I need to set somewhere?   
In any event, whilst having to do it manually might actually be useful and OK for small trees or groups, it could be too tedious in a larger/more complex tree, and so it would be best to have an automated option in those cases (also less error-prone).

Request: New option for Alphameric (Ascending/Descending) sorting in the whole tree or just in a specified group/sub-group, please.

[mouser]

@mouser: I already tried that and it doesn't seem to work. Tried it again just now, with same result. Maybe I am doing it wrong? We're taking about the tree in the Tree pane here - right?
In fact trying to move stuff around manually like that in the tre seems to be really difficult/kludgy in CHS, so I figured it was not in the design.

You know, you are right.  You can drag and drop groups to move them in and out of parents in order to hierarchically arrange them, but you can't reorder them within a group using drag and drop.

To change their relative order WITHIN a group, right-click and edit the group and then change the DISPLAY ORDER WEIGHT setting -- the lower it is the higher in the order it is.

[IainB]

Ah, OK. Thanks for that. I shall try as you suggest. (Is this an "undocumented feature"?)

Made me think: If you just sort of discovered it as well, then does it mean that I am the only CHS user to have experienced/reported this problem? I would have thought that other CHS users would have experienced similar problems - no?
Maybe I might be "pushing the technical boundaries" as a user of CHS.   

It's certainly one of the most useful info-gathering and storing tools that I have. It's actually the first one I usually rely on in my info-gathering processes.

[IainB]

@mouser:

To change their relative order WITHIN a group, right-click and edit the group and then change the DISPLAY ORDER WEIGHT setting -- the lower it is the higher in the order it is.
____________________

-mouser (March 01, 2017, 03:46 PM)

Since you wrote the above I have installed CHS v2.41 Portable High-DPI Beta, but I don't think that version had been changed as regards the alphameric sorting problem in the Tree pane of the CHS GUI - the problem being that there appears to be no facility for such sorting.

Sadlement, your suggestion (quoted above, and which I have tried) is kinda useless to all intents and purposes - it does not really address the problem and at best would seem to be simply an impractical, tedious manual kludge that arguably nobody would find of much practical use.
I don't wish to appear ungrateful, but would I be correct in taking your response, therefore, as an indication that you don't intend adding the alphameric tree-sorting functionality that would seem to be clearly lacking in the Tree pane?   

[mouser]

would I be correct in taking your response, therefore, as an indication that you don't intend adding the alphameric tree-sorting functionality that would seem to be clearly lacking in the Tree pane? 

It wouldn't be too hard for me to add a right-click function on a group node that said "Sort children alphabetically".
This function would simply set the "DISPLAY ORDER WEIGHT" of each child so that it showed alphabetically.  You could always manually change child weights to rearrange after that.
Note that newly added children would require performing the operation again.

[IainB]

It wouldn't be too hard for me to add a right-click function on a group node that said "Sort children alphabetically".
This function would simply set the "DISPLAY ORDER WEIGHT" of each child so that it showed alphabetically.  You could always manually change child weights to rearrange after that.
Note that newly added children would require performing the operation again.
___________________________

-mouser (March 15, 2017, 06:03 AM)

I think that could be just the ticket. Practical and a time-saver.   
It would also allow for the user to (say) later disrupt an alphameric ordering by introducing a new item at random and then not re-sorting - i.e., users would not be forced to always put up with a purely alphameric sort, if they didn't want it.

[IainB]

I noticed this a while back, but had forgotten to mention it.
I set up a search for "sage onion stuffing" (without the quotes) and then set it as a virtual group, using:
Menu | Edit | Create new (virtual) group matching current search filter term

This causes an error message to appear as red text in the status bar. The message disappears out of sight as it is evidently too long to all fit in the status bar.

The problem seems to be that the search SQL generated is incomplete:

[Select]

(Lower(ClipText) LIKE '%sage%' OR Lower(Title) LIKE '%sage%' OR Lower(Application) LIKE '%sage%' OR Lower(Description) LIKE '%sage%' OR Lower(UserKeywords) LIKE '%sage%') AND (Lower(ClipText) LIKE '%onion%' OR Lower(Title) LIKE '%onion%' OR Lower(Application) LIKE '%onion%' OR Lower(Description) LIKE '%onion%' OR Lower(UserKeywords) LIKE '%onion%') AND (Lower(ClipText) LIKE '%stuffing%' OR Lower(Title) LIKE '%stuffing%' OR Lower(Application) LIKE '%stuffing%' OR Lower(Description) LIKE '%stuffin

I can't figure out what I am doing wrong to get this.
It is consistently repeatable.

[mouser]

v2.41.0 Beta - Mar 15, 2017

• [MajorFeature] First High-dpi compatible version beta.
• [BugFix] Newlines could be pasted in clip title edit, making it seem empy [thx IainB].

[mouser]

I can't figure out what I am doing wrong to get this.

Well your sql is clearly incomplete as pasted.

Are you saying that CHS won't let you write a longer statement, or?

[IainB]

Sorry, maybe I was not very clear about this. I think you misunderstand. It is not "my" SQL. What I pasted into the post above is merely a full copy of the sql generated by CHS, when it automatically created the virtual folder for the 3-word search term that had I put in the search box.
I love it that CHS generates the SQL for the user, but this example seems to show that the sql generated by CHS is truncated for some reason (hence the error report).
Maybe it's a buffer overflow, or something and the buffer needs to be expanded to a size where it is too big to fill up completely?

Is the 3-word search string too complex for the SQL generator to cope with, or have I written the 3-word search term incorrectly? (e.g., should it have a special syntax?) The generated SQL seems OK as far as it goes, it's just that it has been truncated during or after generation by CHS.