Author Topic: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo (Read 314665 times)

hangdawg · « **Reply #200 on:** February 13, 2012, 04:31 PM »

hi tranglos ive got echo to start with windows but when restarting echo main window shows for a second or 2 as the desktop loads is there a setting to prevent the main window from showing it does this with the portable and the installed version thanks

tranglos · « **Reply #201 on:** February 13, 2012, 05:40 PM »

hi tranglos ive got echo to start with windows but when restarting echo main window shows for a second or 2 as the desktop loads is there a setting to prevent the main window from showing it does this with the portable and the installed version thanks
-hangdawg (February 13, 2012, 04:31 PM)

Try:
Tools -> Preferences -> Startup behavior -> StartMinimized, and set it to True.

That should work, but you can also make the equivalent setting in the shortcut used to start Echo. Right-click the shortcut, select Properties, and in the "Run" (or "Run as", not sure what the English version of Windows says) select "Minimized".

hangdawg · « **Reply #202 on:** February 13, 2012, 09:23 PM »

hi tranglos i had it set this way Tools -> Preferences -> Startup behavior -> StartMinimized, and set it to True.
but didnt help but by checking Minimized in the properties box fixed it in the installed version but no option to do so in the portable version but echo places 2 icons in the customize notifaction area only shows 1 in tray but not in customize heres a pic
http://img841.images...mg841/6583/echob.png thats just using the installed version but to double check i ran a batch script to clean the notification icon cache to be sure i got from here http://www.7tutorial...tion-area-icon-cache but 2 icons will still show up 1 set to always show and the other not to show maybe this will help you ive been battling for it to always show

tranglos · « **Reply #203 on:** February 15, 2012, 02:54 PM »

checking Minimized in the properties box fixed it in the installed version but no option to do so in the portable version
-hangdawg (February 13, 2012, 09:23 PM)

Create a shortcut (in the Start menu, for example) that points to the portable version. Then you can set the property in the shortcut.

but echo places 2 icons in the customize notifaction area only shows 1 in tray but not in customize heres a pic

Echo doesn't add two icons. I'm not sure why that is, but Windows 7 can't seem to keep track of the icons correctly at all. On my system:

NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

Some apps don't have icons at all, some are listed four times, each time with a different icon... This is not a fault of the application. I can understand multiple listings, perhaps Windows creates a new entry when the file location or version number changes, but the icons mess is something else entirely. It isn't Echo's doing, and the problem occurs with all kinds of apps. In the screenshot, even Windows Explorer did not get the correct icon (and it should not show up in the tray at all).

robbero · « **Reply #204 on:** February 17, 2012, 03:50 AM »

tranglos,

do you have any idea if and when these things will be added to echo eth.:

- double click on icon Enables/Disables the clipping
- Pin function (with automatic refresh when copying a text to clipboard)

tranglos · « **Reply #205 on:** February 17, 2012, 07:35 AM »

- double click on icon Enables/Disables the clipping
-robbero (February 17, 2012, 03:50 AM)

Double click, I don't think so, because a single click is used to activate the main window. And anyway, since Win7 (and Vista? not sure) now hide all the icons by default, it's generally too much clicky work for my taste to get to the icon and then click some more.

There will be a hotkey though. As for when, I've made the mistake of answering that question way too many times and I know better now :-)

- Pin function (with automatic refresh when copying a text to clipboard)

If you mean the "stay ion top of other windows" feature, it was implemented in 1.0.6, the version before last. Grab the latest version here.

robbero · « **Reply #206 on:** February 17, 2012, 11:19 AM »

- Pin function (with automatic refresh when copying a text to clipboard)
-robbero (February 17, 2012, 03:50 AM)

If you mean the "stay ion top of other windows" feature, it was implemented in 1.0.6, the version before last. Grab the latest version here.

-tranglos (February 17, 2012, 07:35 AM)

Wow.. great

But... I can't make it work.
I checked it (1.1.0. 117)
Keep on top of other windows.

But it doesn't stay on top.

ps: isn't it possible to put a little pin icon on the toolbar?

tranglos · « **Reply #207 on:** February 17, 2012, 11:32 AM »

I checked it (1.1.0. 117)
Keep on top of other windows.

But it doesn't stay on top.
-robbero (February 17, 2012, 11:19 AM)

In what way doesn't it work?

By default Echo minimizes and hides when it becomes deactivated. If you keep this default setting, then "stay on top" will work but you won't ever see it, because Echo will hide as soon as you switch to a different window. If this is the part that doesn't work, you need to do

Tools -> Preferences -> Display -> MinimizeOnDeactivate and set this option to False.

If you already use that setting and stay on top still doesn't work as expected, please give more details.

ps: isn't it possible to put a little pin icon on the toolbar?

First Echo would have to have a toolbar :-) I'm still in two minds about whether or not it needs one. If the toolbar appears, then this setting will be included.

I will add a keyboard shortcut though, and maybe an indication in the status bar.

robbero · « **Reply #208 on:** February 17, 2012, 11:40 AM »

Tools -> Preferences -> Display -> MinimizeOnDeactivate and set this option to False.

If you already use that setting and stay on top still doesn't work as expected, please give more details.
-tranglos (February 17, 2012, 11:32 AM)

Wonderful

I would like to have it a bit different but it is already ok as it is.

I would like to hide the window when it is not active and
I would like to keep the window always when "keep on top" feature is active.

First Echo would have to have a toolbar :-) I'm still in two minds about whether or not it needs one. If the toolbar appears, then this setting will be included.

Thank you.

I will add a keyboard shortcut though, and maybe an indication in the status bar.

Thanks, how could I have missed this stay on top feature.

robbero · « **Reply #209 on:** February 17, 2012, 11:58 AM »

no still something doesn't work as I want:

When I paste a clip ethervane echo hides again even when the "keep on top" feature is active.
I would like to keep it unhided (on top).

(MinimizeOnDeactivate is set to false)

tranglos · « **Reply #210 on:** February 17, 2012, 01:07 PM »

no still something doesn't work as I want:

When I paste a clip ethervane echo hides again even when the "keep on top" feature is active.
I would like to keep it unhided (on top).

(MinimizeOnDeactivate is set to false)
-robbero (February 17, 2012, 11:58 AM)

I'm afraid this isn't quite possible. Echo must minimize before it can paste. Please see this earlier post for an explanation.

Though the semi-workaround described in that post might help just a little - Echo could restore itself after pasting, though it will not be able to regain focus.

tranglos · « **Reply #211 on:** February 17, 2012, 01:11 PM »

I would like to have it a bit different but it is already ok as it is.

I would like to hide the window when it is not active and
I would like to keep the window always when "keep on top" feature is active.
-robbero (February 17, 2012, 11:40 AM)

"Window not active" means the window does not have focus, i.e. you have switched to another application. This is when Echo hides by default. But it cannot hide *and* stay on top at the same time :-)

What I should do is not auto-hide the window as long as "stay on top" is enabled; that way will at least be more intuitive, and you won't have to fiddle with the MinimizeOnDeactivate option when using "stay on top". Will be fixed in the next release.

robbero · « **Reply #212 on:** February 17, 2012, 04:32 PM »

Thank you for your nice answer.
I regret that it is not possible.

I have read that Echo Eth. can restore itself without focus.
I haven't understand how to do this.

ps:
Btw.. I once used ClipCube. In Clipcube it is possible to click on a clip item which copies the item and then paste it in another application. The program doesn't minimize and stay on top.

tranglos · « **Reply #213 on:** February 17, 2012, 06:00 PM »

I have read that Echo Eth. can restore itself without focus.
I haven't understand how to do this.
-robbero (February 17, 2012, 04:32 PM)

Can't be done yet. I'm working on it right now. With StayOnTop, it seems like Echo will indeed get its focus back when it restores itself.

I'm not sure if it isn't self-defeating though, because you'll want to work in the application into which the text was pasted, rather than be returned to Echo. I'll release a new version and see what happens.

Btw.. I once used ClipCube. In Clipcube it is possible to click on a clip item which copies the item and then paste it in another application. The program doesn't minimize and stay on top.

Different applications may use different techniques of (a) pasting data into other programs and, more importantly, (b) figuring out which program to paste into. The way Echo works, it needs to hide so that it can reliably detect which program becomes active - this is the program Echo pastes into. Making that check before you bring up Echo to select a clip for pasting was too unreliable, and making that check after has been 100% reliable so far. This is the single most important thing Echo does, so I cannot use a method that will sometimes pick the wrong window (or detect no window at all).

robbero · « **Reply #214 on:** February 18, 2012, 07:38 AM »

I'm not sure if it isn't self-defeating though, because you'll want to work in the application into which the text was pasted, rather than be returned to Echo. I'll release a new version and see what happens.
-tranglos (February 17, 2012, 06:00 PM)

Thank you.
Maybe I didn't explain myself very well.

Its ok that ethervane echo lose the focus after pasting but my problem is that the software minimize itself again after pasting (even when MinimizeOnDeactivate is set to False).

robbero · « **Reply #215 on:** February 19, 2012, 01:32 AM »

I noted that eth. echo does not minimize anymore at windows startup.
Is that because I changed MinimizeOnDeactivate to False?

tranglos · « **Reply #216 on:** February 19, 2012, 06:50 AM »

I noted that eth. echo does not minimize anymore at windows startup.
Is that because I changed MinimizeOnDeactivate to False?
-robbero (February 19, 2012, 01:32 AM)

Yes. Minimizing at startup was only a side-effect of that setting. If you want Echo to always minimize at startup, there are two ways:

(a) Tools -> Preferences -> Startup behavior -> StartMinimized, set it to True.

(b) You can also make the equivalent setting in the shortcut used to start Echo. Right-click the shortcut, select Properties, and in the "Run" (or "Run as", not sure what the English version of Windows says) select "Minimized".

robbero · « **Reply #217 on:** February 19, 2012, 10:24 AM »

Thank you Tranglos.
I had already set StartMinimized to true months ago.
I'll try your second solution.
Will see tomorrow if it opens minimized or not

robbero · « **Reply #218 on:** February 20, 2012, 02:32 AM »

I noted that eth. echo does not minimize anymore at windows startup.
Is that because I changed MinimizeOnDeactivate to False?
-robbero (February 19, 2012, 01:32 AM)

Yes. Minimizing at startup was only a side-effect of that setting. If you want Echo to always minimize at startup, there are two ways:

(a) Tools -> Preferences -> Startup behavior -> StartMinimized, set it to True.

(b) You can also make the equivalent setting in the shortcut used to start Echo. Right-click the shortcut, select Properties, and in the "Run" (or "Run as", not sure what the English version of Windows says) select "Minimized".

-tranglos (February 19, 2012, 06:50 AM)

I did (a) + (b) but eth.echo doesn't minimize anymore at startup.

tranglos · « **Reply #219 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:10 AM »

I did (a) + (b) but eth.echo doesn't minimize anymore at startup.
-robbero (February 20, 2012, 02:32 AM)

Dang, I'm drawing a blank here. Which version of Windows? Could you try using only (a), not (b) - or not both at the same time, anyway?

On my system Echo's internal option to minimize on startup works regardless of all the other settings, like stay on top or minimize on deactivate. I'll re-check the code, but right now I've no idea what could be going wrong.

tranglos · « **Reply #220 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:16 AM »

Heads-up before the next release:

In Echo's thicket of configuration settings, there is this one: Database -> StoreFullApplicationPath. It defaults to false, so that for each clip Echo only stores the filename of the source application (e.g. notepad.exe). When set to true, this option would store the complete path (c:\Windows\notepad.exe).

I hope no-one is running Echo with that option set to True, because in the next release it will be removed. Echo doesn't use it anywhere at all, and when set to True, it interferes with finding application icons in the database. If you do have it set to True, then Echo does not display those nice icons on the clip info bar for you. So I hope no-one has it set to True :-)

From the nearest release onwards, that option will be gone, and full paths will not be written to the database.

PhotoComiX · « **Reply #221 on:** February 20, 2012, 01:40 PM »

From the description seems exactly what i was looking for !

A suggestion not much for add more but to simplify all that privacy options:

" encrypt " :" encrypt " is to send the text as input to a associate encrypt program, and retrieve back the output from it
If was this i would not need any of the others privacy options

PS several encrypt program may run from a USB pen-drive ....

tranglos · « **Reply #222 on:** February 20, 2012, 02:56 PM »

From the description seems exactly what i was looking for !

A suggestion not much for add more but to simplify all that privacy options:

" encrypt " :" encrypt " is to send the text as input to a associate encrypt program, and retrieve back the output from it
If was this i would not need any of the others privacy options

PS several encrypt program may run from a USB pen-drive ....
-PhotoComiX (February 20, 2012, 01:40 PM)

I know what encryption is :-) but are you asking for the clip database to be encrypted?

It is possible, i.e. SQLite supports it, but I don't think I want to do it in Echo. Much better to put the database on a TrueCrypt partition - that way is more secure and no need to enter a new password for one more password-protected application.

PhotoComiX · « **Reply #223 on:** February 20, 2012, 06:19 PM »

oh yes i didn't think about, good idea

tranglos · « **Reply #224 on:** February 20, 2012, 08:21 PM »

New release February 21 (Version 1.1.1)

A few recent requests implemented, a few very esoteric options changed and one removed. Database maintenance improved, though not really simplified. I must work harder on simplifying things!

See the top post in this thread for download links.

New in this release:

ADDED: Keyboard shortcut to toggle the option to keep Echo always on top of other windows: Ctrl+Y.

ADDED: Global hotkey to connect/disconnect from clipboard. By default this hotkey is disabled. The default hotkey is Shift+Win+] and it can be changed in Preferences -> Keyboard ->ConnectHotkeyKey and ConnectHotkeyModifier. To enable the hotkey, set UseConnectHotkey to True.

ADDED: An option to control what happens after Echo hides itself and pastes a clip into the active window: Preferences -> Pasting clips -> FinalWindowAction. By default, Echo behaves as it had before: hides itself and does nothing. The other available setting is waRestore: Echo will hide, paste the clip and restore itself (but it will not regain focus). The new option is useful if you want to keep Echo on top of all other windows, since in that case you probably don't want Echo to hide and stay hidden.

ADDED: In the external clip editor, a prompt is now displayed if you close the editor without saving the changes. The prompt can be disabled directly in the dialog box, or under Preferences -> Prompting -> BeforeClosingEditor.

ADDED: An option to ignore clips if they were copied from within Echo itself, for example in the clip editor. This option is disabled by default, so Echo will capture clips from itself. To change this setting: Preferences -> Capturing clips -> IgnoreFromSelf and set this value to True.

ADDED: A new action was added in the "Maintain" section of the Database Maintenance dialog:

Refresh clip data: this action refreshes the "display text" for all clips in the database, as well as the part of each clip that gets searched. You may want to use this action after you have made a change to the setting in Preferences -> Database -> MaxDispTextSize. This setting controls how much of each clip is displayed and searched. (For very long clips, Echo displays and scans only the first part of each clip, up to the length specified here). Since this operation is time-consuming, Echo does not perform it automatically.A change in MaxDispTextSize is only applied to clips captured after the change has been made. This maintenance action applies the new MaxDispTextSize to all clips in the database. Note that this procedure takes a long time to complete; perhaps as much as 10-15 seconds for a thousand clips in the database. Echo is unresponsive during that time. A small progress bar is displayed to indicate how much of the process has been completed.

ADDED: One new action was added in the "Erase" section of the Database Maintenance dialog:

Delete application icons: this action deletes from the database all application icons.

ADDED: In the Database Maintenance dialog, a prompt is now displayed if you choose to delete all clips from the database on the Erase tab. The prompt can be disabled directly in the dialog box, or under Preferences -> Prompting -> BeforeErasingAllClips.

CHANGED: When the option to keep Echo always on top of other windows is enabled, Echo no longer automatically hides itself when you switch to another application, even if the option to do so (Preferences -> Display -> MinimizeOnDeactivate) is enabled. This is because hiding Echo in this case defeats the purpose of the "stay on top" feature.

CHANGED: In Preferences -> Display, two options have been removed: TrayNotifications and TrayNotificationsOnlyIfIconic. These options controlled which tray notification messages ("balloons") to show, but they were incorrectly implemented. Two new options have been added to replace them:

TrayMsgsToSkip: a list of events for which Echo should not display tray notifications. By default, the list includes only "tnCapture", which means Echo will not be notifying you every time it captures a clip. All other notifications will be shown by default: tnClipboardConnect (on connecting and disconnecting from clipboard), tnClearClipboard (when clipboard has been cleared), tnMaintenance (when Echo has finished database maintenance) and tnDBCreated (when Echo has created a new database, e.g. because the old one was missing).
TrayMsgsOnlyWhenIconic: when set to True, Echo will show tray notifications only when it is minimized, buyt not when its window is visible. When set to False, Echo will always show notifications, regardless of its window state.

REMOVED: Preferences -> Database -> StoreFullApplicationPath. This option was false by default. When set to True, it would prevent Echo from finding application icons for clips. Since the full path information is not needed and not used anywhere, the option has been removed. Echo will now store application executable names only (notepad.exe instead of c:\Windows\notepad.exe).