Author Topic: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo (Read 314793 times)

strife · « **Reply #275 on:** May 20, 2012, 11:33 AM »

I did a search for ActivationHotkeyKey, but didn't see anyone with my problem, so here goes:

I'm running 1.1.3 128 stable on Win7 64.

Using the hotkey to open the echo window always opens it in the same position regardless of where it was when I minimized/closed it.

This does NOT occur if I open the window by clicking the tray icon. I use a dual monitor setup so I want echo on my 2nd mon while I work on my main one.

I like to close windows that aren't used at the moment, but I always have to drag the window over if I use the hotkey.

Strange that no one else has this issue?

Thanks

tranglos · « **Reply #276 on:** May 21, 2012, 10:42 AM »

Using the hotkey to open the echo window always opens it in the same position regardless of where it was when I minimized/closed it.

This does NOT occur if I open the window by clicking the tray icon. I use a dual monitor setup so I want echo on my 2nd mon while I work on my main one.

I like to close windows that aren't used at the moment, but I always have to drag the window over if I use the hotkey.
-strife (May 20, 2012, 11:33 AM)

First, check this setting:

Tools -> Preferences -> Display -> PopupPosition.

By default this option is set to ppAtCaret, so Echo tries to position itself as close as possible to where the caret (text insertion point) is. If this is not possible, e.g. because the currently focused window does not have a caret (a message box, for instance), then Echo pops up at its most recent position.

If this option it set to anything else, change it to ppAtCaret.

This behavior does not depend on how you activate Echo (hotkey, mouse click, etc), but Echo will ONLY reposition itself if it was hidden (minimized) when you activated it. On the same preferences screen there is an option called RepositionOnlyFromIconic, which you can set to False if you prefer.

Please check both settings and see if they help.

strife · « **Reply #277 on:** May 21, 2012, 02:23 PM »

Changing it to ppLastPosition fixed it. Somewhat embarassed I didn't look more thoroughly.

Thanks!

Paul1149 · « **Reply #278 on:** May 21, 2012, 10:28 PM »

Tranglos, I joined this site to thank you for an amazing effort. This is a professionally-done piece of work that stands out among the many clipboard helpers available. Super solid and configurable.

The one area where I have lost ground in the switchover is the stickies. In my old CLCL, I could organize them in folders, in arbitrary order, and I could give them titles. I also could assign hotkeys for sticky clips. Titles enabled me to identify the clip, but to paste only the contents of the clip. I currently have Echo set to show one line only, which is the title, but I have to clean up the paste afterward.

Also, in that regard, I don't see any way to show more of the clip with a hover-over. This would be useful, but maybe I've missed it among all the options.

Thanks again,
Paul

Lazy Moon · « **Reply #279 on:** June 22, 2012, 01:05 PM »

Like the previous poster, I joined this site primarily to express my admiration for Echo. It's a fabulous piece of software, head and shoulders above the other clipboard extenders out there. The level of thought that went into the design is really impressive.

I do however want to note that I have the same problem posted by Hangdog on January 7th and Silat on April 6th: in Windows 7 x64, for some reason, the status of the tray icon is not saved between sessions. In other words, when the tray icon is set to "Show icon and notifications", it appears, but it will not persist once the user has logged off. On the next login, the icon is hidden again and needs to be reset to "Show". The settings for the tray icons of every other application I'm using persist between sessions; Echo is the only exception. From earlier comments by Tranglos and others I gather this is not a problem in 32-bit versions of Windows, but there does seem to be something about Echo that makes it problematic for the 64-bit version to retain this particular setting, although I can't imagine what it is. (I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium x64 and loading Echo via the Start Menu > Program> Startup folder. Haven't yet tried loading it with a scheduled task at login instead; I suppose that might make a difference to the way Windows handles it.) It's not a big deal, but I wanted to make it clear that it's a real thing, not just some funky aberration caused by something specific to Hangdog's and Silat's systems.

But mostly I just wanted to say bravo, and thanks for making it available for free.

jwayne · « **Reply #280 on:** June 27, 2012, 11:42 AM »

I'm currently using an old version of Clipmate that suffers from sporadic annoying disconnects from the clipboard. Don't feel like shelling out $35 for the latest so started searching for an alternative. First place to look was techsupportalert. Tried every one mentioned, each one with major flaws. Saw Ethervane mentioned in a comment and found this to be the best so far. There are, however, two shortcomings that stop me from fully recommending this great piece of software.

1) There needs to be better sorting options, especially a user-defined sort. The sort by ID would be great if only it were both viewable and modifiable. Clipmate has a MySort option (a modifiable number).

2) It can be somewhat problematic in Ethervane when one has a number of long, multiline clips: it can be both hard to find and hard to distinguish some clips as a result. Clipmate solves this problem by having a rename-able clip title attached to each clip.

Anyway, I'm living with these issues for now and hope that you continue to develop Ethervane Echo!

tranglos · « **Reply #281 on:** July 09, 2012, 11:29 AM »

Like the previous poster, I joined this site primarily to express my admiration for Echo. It's a fabulous piece of software, head and shoulders above the other clipboard extenders out there. The level of thought that went into the design is really impressive.
-Lazy Moon (June 22, 2012, 01:05 PM)

Thank you kindly! I apologize for the late reply, I'm just back from vacation.

I do however want to note that I have the same problem posted by Hangdog on January 7th and Silat on April 6th: in Windows 7 x64, for some reason, the status of the tray icon is not saved between sessions. In other words, when the tray icon is set to "Show icon and notifications", it appears, but it will not persist once the user has logged off. On the next login, the icon is hidden again and needs to be reset to "Show". The settings for the tray icons of every other application I'm using persist between sessions; Echo is the only exception. From earlier comments by Tranglos and others I gather this is not a problem in 32-bit versions of Windows, but there does seem to be something about Echo that makes it problematic for the 64-bit version to retain this particular setting, although I can't imagine what it is.

This behavior is governed entirely by Windows. I can try replacing the tray icon library that I'm using with a different one, but I've no idea if this will help.

What would be more likely to help is me switching to 64-bit Windows and the latest 64-bit version of Delphi. I'll move on to Win64 eventually, but the cost of upgrading Delphi and all the third party libraries would go into thousands of dollars, so I'm afraid this is very unlikely. In fact, a move to Win64 will probably mean the end of all development on my side, unless I can continue using the 32-bit version of Delphi.

RobC · « **Reply #282 on:** July 09, 2012, 11:39 AM »

People are using the VB6 IDE in Win 7 64 bit.
VB6 only comes in a 32 bit version.
You may have to play with the Compatibility settings, EG -
- For all users
- XP mode
- And perhaps say the bottom 3 checkboxes (there is a set of 5 in the middle of the dialog)

tranglos · « **Reply #283 on:** July 09, 2012, 12:26 PM »

People are using the VB6 IDE in Win 7 64 bit.
VB6 only comes in a 32 bit version.
-RobC (July 09, 2012, 11:39 AM)

I don't use VB, sorry :-)

Delphi now has a 64-bit version, and I could upgrade to it, but in order to continue development I'd also have to upgrade several third-party libraries. That last thing is a joy-killer, as the cost of upgrading them all is way too high for me.

RobC · « **Reply #284 on:** July 09, 2012, 12:37 PM »

What I meant was, what works for the Goose (VB6), should work for the Gander (Delphi)

tranglos · « **Reply #285 on:** July 09, 2012, 01:04 PM »

What I meant was, what works for the Goose (VB6), should work for the Gander (Delphi)
-RobC (July 09, 2012, 12:37 PM)

Ah, yes, sorry

It should work, but it would do little to help with the tray icon issue, if indeed the problem is somehow related to the 64-bitness.

Ath · « **Reply #286 on:** July 09, 2012, 01:19 PM »

unless I can continue using the 32-bit version of Delphi.
-tranglos (July 09, 2012, 11:29 AM)

32 bit software, as most IDE's are, runs just nicely on 64 bit Windows, I've been doing it ever since the release of Vista x64, ~6 years ago

Development for x64 requires either special compilers and project settings, or a complete x64 environment, depending on the tools used. Delphi for x64 is just an optional part (compiler/linker only) of the Delphi XE2 suite (depending on the level of the suite), and AFAICS the IDE itself is still 32 bit (just like Visual Studio 2008/2010).

jwayne · « **Reply #287 on:** October 22, 2012, 10:08 AM »

Hourglasses Excel!

I have excluded excel (2007) from ethervane echo and have confirmed that it is indeed not capturing clips. However, whenever I copy rows from excel, I get a significant hourglass delay of 15-20 seconds before I can use excel! As a result I have to kill ethervane (or disconnect it from clipboard) while I am using excel. Very annoying.

Ideas?

(registered user)

jwayne · « **Reply #288 on:** November 27, 2012, 08:56 AM »

Is this a dead product? Last participation from the author was in July 2012.

sbayes · « **Reply #289 on:** December 25, 2012, 09:11 PM »

Hi all,

I've just come over to Ethervane Echo from Ditto. I've imported the Ditto database and initial impressions are all good. Echo has been set up but it's not capturing clips! I've rebooted and everything but it's still not capturing.

Please help.

FYI, I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit. Thanks.

bob99 · « **Reply #290 on:** December 25, 2012, 10:56 PM »

The same thing was happening to me with Win7. Try starting it with 'Run as Administrator'. That worked for me.

sbayes · « **Reply #291 on:** December 25, 2012, 11:25 PM »

The same thing was happening to me with Win7. Try starting it with 'Run as Administrator'. That worked for me.
-bob99 (December 25, 2012, 10:56 PM)

Thanks for the reply but it's already set to Run as administrator. No joy.

I've noticed something. Please refer to the attached screenshot. Whenever I copy a selection, the Red part would flash but the clip does not appear in the list. However, the New count in the Green part would increase as well. It's just that the clip does not show up in the list at all.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

RobC · « **Reply #292 on:** December 26, 2012, 12:25 AM »

Windows 7 is a PIA
Try right clicking the EXE, and choose Properties.
Then click the Compatibility Tab
First tick the checkbox that says something like 'do this for all users'.
That shows another identical dialog.
Up the top choose 'Run this program in compatibility mode' picking XP
Now go to the 5 checkboxes in the middle of the screen. Experiment with ticking some of those.
Possibly the top 3
What they do is tell Windows 7 to shove it's fancy aero, etc for this program.

You may have to do this for the EXE, and the shortcut that you use to launch the program.

The above is from memory, as I avoid using my Win 7 PC as much as possible.

sbayes · « **Reply #293 on:** December 26, 2012, 06:26 AM »

Windows 7 is a PIA
Try right clicking the EXE, and choose Properties.
Then click the Compatibility Tab
First tick the checkbox that says something like 'do this for all users'.
That shows another identical dialog.
Up the top choose 'Run this program in compatibility mode' picking XP
Now go to the 5 checkboxes in the middle of the screen. Experiment with ticking some of those.
Possibly the top 3
What they do is tell Windows 7 to shove it's fancy aero, etc for this program.

You may have to do this for the EXE, and the shortcut that you use to launch the program.

The above is from memory, as I avoid using my Win 7 PC as much as possible.
-RobC (December 26, 2012, 12:25 AM)

Thanks. But it's still not working. I spent the better part of 25 minutes trying different combinations of tick boxes etc. Nothing helped.

This is maddening.

I just KNOW each copy action was detected by the program as the count kept increasing but the copied text won't show in the list.

Hope someone can provide the key to this mystery.

RobC · « **Reply #294 on:** December 26, 2012, 06:31 AM »

One of the things that Win 7 annoys me with is the smoke and mirrors it does with folders, not to mention the severe limitations as to where you have access(es) to.

Have you tried using the Echo portable version ?
Ensuring that you place the folder in spot where you have write access.

sbayes · « **Reply #295 on:** December 26, 2012, 06:33 AM »

One of the things that Win 7 annoys me with is the smoke and mirrors it does with folders, not to mention the severe limitations as to where you have access(es) to.

Have you tried using the Echo portable version ?
Ensuring that you place the folder in spot where you have write access.

-RobC (December 26, 2012, 06:31 AM)

Hmmm. Good idea. I'll uninstall this and try the portable. Will update with results.

sbayes · « **Reply #296 on:** December 26, 2012, 07:14 AM »

Ok. Finally got it to work. The problem seems to be the Ditto database I imported into Echo. With the imported database in use, any new clips I capture in say, Firefox, DOES NOT show up in 'Default' or 'ALL CLIPS' tab but only in 'Browsers' tab. However, if I start off with a fresh Echo installation without importing any Ditto database, then any clip I capture in Firefox will show up in all three tabs, ie., 'Default', 'Browsers' and 'ALL CLIPS'.

Perhaps Merak would be able to resolve this bug(?) when he gets around to it.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out.

JeremyWW · « **Reply #297 on:** January 18, 2013, 04:04 AM »

One of my favorite features in Ditto is naming clips with quick paste text and searching them using /q. I am unsure if this feature is already available in Echo but please consider adding it.
-nsathishk (January 28, 2012, 03:46 PM)

Not available yet. I am considering something like it - an ability to assign names or tags to clips - but I need to find a way of implementing it without disturbing the basic design of the app. I've posted some thoughts on it earlier on in this thread, for example here and here.

It's not likely to happen very soon, but it *is* on the wish list.

-tranglos (January 28, 2012, 03:54 PM)

Any update on a clip naming feature? I would find this massively useful - I have a load of sticky clips, some of them numeric and / or meaningless / easily forgotten. A name / tag would solve this for me.

Thanks.

JeremyWW · « **Reply #298 on:** January 18, 2013, 04:56 AM »

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/
-JeremyWW (March 02, 2012, 05:14 AM)

I can confirm it doesn't work. Stickes seems to be doing something special with its windows - unlike normal application windows, they do not acquire focus when they become "uncovered", and without focus they cannot receive input.

Here's a simple experiment:

Start Word. It will have focus.
Start Notepad. Word will now lose focus, and you can type in Notepad.
Minimize Notepad.
Word will now have focus again, you don't have to click it before you can start typing in Word again.

Now if you try the same with Stickes instead of Word, you'll see that in step 4 after you minimize Notepad, you still cannot type in Stickies. You have to click one of the notes first. This is why when Echo tries to paste the clip, Stickies does not "get the message" (figuratively and literally both).

Spell checking while editing simply produces an error pop-up that tells me 'No Spelling dictionaries are available...' On installing EE initially I chose English (UK) and un-ticked the other 2 languages. In the Spellchecker section in Preferences it showed 'Last Language' as being English (US). After using the separate spell-checker installer the Spellchecker section appears as in my screen-shot here - no 'LastLanguage' and no 'DictionaryPath'. Changing the 'DictionaryPath' to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Ethervane\Common\Spell" (which is where the English (UK).adm file is) makes no difference. It still doesn't work, with the same error as above.

The "DictionaryPath" option is only used to add a custom dictionary folder to other folders Echo already checks for dictionaries. It's OK to use it as you did, but it should not be necessary.

Please check if the UK dictionary (English (UK).adm) exists in any of the folders listed in "Database information". I have attached the UK dictionary to this message. You can unzip it and copy it into that folder, then restart Echo.

One more thing: did you select the UK dictionary in the list, in the editor dialog box? Since originally there were no dictionaries, the "last language" option is empty, and no dictionary is selected by default. If you click the list at the top of the dialog box, the UK dictionary should be listed there. Perhaps all you need to do is to select the dictionary in the list.

In the next release I'll make sure to pick a dictionary automatically if only one is available.

-tranglos (March 02, 2012, 11:30 AM)

This still isn't working (other than manual method above). Likely to be fixed? New version...??

jwayne · « **Reply #299 on:** January 18, 2013, 08:00 AM »

As I mentioned earlier, the author of this utility has not participated here since July 2012. IMO, Ethervane Echo should be looked at as abandonware. Check out gizmos for alternative clipboard utilities if this one doesn't work for you.