Author Topic: [Freeware] Text Filter - portable, search-as-you-type text file viewer (Read 42487 times)

musetips · « **on:** October 22, 2010, 01:17 PM »

Hi all,

MuseTips Text Filter is a free, lightweight and portable Windows software that lets you read, search and filter text files with ease.

Text lines are instantly filtered as you type your search phrase, with all matched terms highlighted in a contrasting color.

Features:

Fast as-you-type searching
Search phrase auto suggestion
Full support to regular expressions
Multiple query modes and filter modes

An Animated Demo:

Home Page:
http://www.musetips.com

Post Your Suggestions/Comments Here:
http://www.musetips.com/suggestions.html

Any comments will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

daddydave · « **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2010, 02:09 PM »

I haven't tried it yet , but I can see a lot of uses for it. Task management is one that comes to mind, especially with GTD and things like searching for contexts or projects. Or any kind of lookup of info that has to be instant.

And welcome to DonationCoder!

PhilB66 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2010, 08:32 PM »

A few questions...

There's no license. Is it distributed as freeware?
What stage of development is it in?

musetips · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2010, 11:42 PM »

I haven't tried it yet , but I can see a lot of uses for it. Task management is one that comes to mind, especially with GTD and things like searching for contexts or projects. Or any kind of lookup of info that has to be instant.

And welcome to DonationCoder!
-daddydave (October 22, 2010, 02:09 PM)

Thank you!

I personally use it to view my text-format dictionaries, Win32 API list, data sheet and log files.

Originally, I created it to make a "search-as-you-type" dictionary lookup tool for myself.

musetips · « **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2010, 12:07 AM »

A few questions...

There's no license. Is it distributed as freeware?
What stage of development is it in?
-PhilB66 (October 22, 2010, 08:32 PM)

I created this tool for myself, put it here to see if others might see it useful.

The dev stage is barely pre-alpha, as some features are missing or still under dev.

Just considering to make it freeware. Not decided yet.

sajman99 · « **Reply #5 on:** October 23, 2010, 01:29 PM »

A simple, useful, and portable app.

Thanks a lot musetips.

kfitting · « **Reply #6 on:** October 23, 2010, 01:57 PM »

Does it, or is it going to, support regular expressions?

Lutz_ · « **Reply #7 on:** October 23, 2010, 10:32 PM »

Does it, or is it going to, support regular expressions?
-kfitting (October 23, 2010, 01:57 PM)

The demo video says: Yes.

musetips · « **Reply #8 on:** October 24, 2010, 12:12 AM »

Does it, or is it going to, support regular expressions?
-kfitting (October 23, 2010, 01:57 PM)

Yes, regular expression is supported. See below for an example:

jaden · « **Reply #9 on:** October 24, 2010, 12:30 AM »

Great app. If it's alpha, I'm guessing you're aware that nothing happens when you select Tools -> Options?

I've been looking for an app to manage lists, and live search is an essential feature. Any plans to add more list-management features to this app (moving items around, editing them, etc)?

musetips · « **Reply #10 on:** October 24, 2010, 12:52 AM »

Great app. If it's alpha, I'm guessing you're aware that nothing happens when you select Tools -> Options?

I've been looking for an app to manage lists, and live search is an essential feature. Any plans to add more list-management features to this app (moving items around, editing them, etc)?
-jaden (October 24, 2010, 12:30 AM)

Still pre-alpha. The Tools -> Options hasn't been implemented yet.

Edit menu options, currently disabled (unimplemented), will help do some editing in a later release.

Since this is a text-viewer program, I may not add many editing options.

jaden · « **Reply #11 on:** October 24, 2010, 01:32 AM »

Depending on how much editing is allowed, this could evolve into the app I've been looking for. I'll keep an eye on it. Keep up the good work

musetips · « **Reply #12 on:** October 24, 2010, 05:57 AM »

Depending on how much editing is allowed, this could evolve into the app I've been looking for. I'll keep an eye on it. Keep up the good work
-jaden (October 24, 2010, 01:32 AM)

Thanks! I'm considering below features:

1) click or double-click an item to enter editing mode;
2) select one or more lines, then copy/cut/paste/delete/hide;
3) sort lines alphabetically, or by text-length, or else;
4) export matched/unmatched lines to a new file;
5) state/stats/summary info for the status bar.

Any ideas?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #13 on:** October 24, 2010, 09:34 AM »

I tried to download Text Filter just now but can't seem to get it.

musetips · « **Reply #14 on:** October 24, 2010, 11:36 AM »

I tried to download Text Filter just now but can't seem to get it.

-cranioscopical (October 24, 2010, 09:34 AM)

My site was under maintenance. The download link is ok now.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #15 on:** October 24, 2010, 12:38 PM »

Thanks, downloading it as I type!

joiwind · « **Reply #16 on:** October 24, 2010, 12:50 PM »

This is really nice, really good !

Thanks !

jaden · « **Reply #17 on:** October 24, 2010, 08:39 PM »

Thanks! I'm considering below features:

1) click or double-click an item to enter editing mode;
2) select one or more lines, then copy/cut/paste/delete/hide;
3) sort lines alphabetically, or by text-length, or else;
4) export matched/unmatched lines to a new file;
5) state/stats/summary info for the status bar.

Any ideas?

Those sound great. Having keyboard shortcuts for those features would be a great addition. I use Checkvist.com for list management and their shortcuts are very intuitive http://checkvist.com/auth/help#keyboard

musetips · « **Reply #18 on:** October 25, 2010, 10:21 PM »

Those sound great. Having keyboard shortcuts for those features would be a great addition. I use Checkvist.com for list management and their shortcuts are very intuitive http://checkvist.com/auth/help#keyboard
-jaden (October 24, 2010, 08:39 PM)

Thank you! Interesting site. Will give a second thought to shortcuts.

jaden · « **Reply #19 on:** October 25, 2010, 10:55 PM »

Great, I look forward to what you come up with

sajman99 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 28, 2010, 03:22 PM »

musetips, have you considered supporting multiple text files?

If Text Filter could load more than a single file, then it could be utilized more like a search/grep tool.

musetips · « **Reply #21 on:** October 28, 2010, 09:48 PM »

musetips, have you considered supporting multiple text files?

If Text Filter could load more than a single file, then it could be utilized more like a search/grep tool.
-sajman99 (October 28, 2010, 03:22 PM)

I considered a tabbed MDI (multiple document interface) scheme at the very beginning. This could add some versatility, but only at the cost of simplicity, one of the most critical objectives.

For now, I might as well keep it as simple as possible. The TODO list is pretty long.

sajman99 · « **Reply #22 on:** October 29, 2010, 03:22 PM »

OK, thanks for the info musetips. I can't blame you for keeping the emphasis on the simplicity of this software.

Looking forward to the development of Text Filter.

daddydave · « **Reply #23 on:** November 01, 2010, 08:39 AM »

Do you plan any command line options? I tried for example from a command window "TextFilter.exe filename.ext" and it didn't seem to work. If you allow that, people could create shortcuts to TextFilter that opened up a specific file automatically, so you could have shortcuts to multiple files without cluttering up the simple interface.

musetips · « **Reply #24 on:** November 03, 2010, 08:00 AM »

Do you plan any command line options? I tried for example from a command window "TextFilter.exe filename.ext" and it didn't seem to work. If you allow that, people could create shortcuts to TextFilter that opened up a specific file automatically, so you could have shortcuts to multiple files without cluttering up the simple interface.
-daddydave (November 01, 2010, 08:39 AM)

This is in the TODO list. Also, I plan to allow TF to run in a command line window.