Tag: copy

Freeware FileSieve 3 Sifts Through Files And Folders

FileSieve 3 is a small program which organizes files and folders into highly configurable destination folders. As with software of its kind it is best used for organizing large amounts of files that accumulate on a system over many download and similar sessions.

The process or work flow of FileSieve 3 is well defined in a five numbered step process (see image). A profile and/or a list of directories can be created, saved and loaded for future sessions. These source folder(s) would contain all the files that will be sorted using FileSieve. Then a destination folder is chosen where the sifted and sorted files will be placed in. The third step is to choose method(s) and if applicable modifiers.

A method, one of 13 that FileSieve 3 supports, defines how the chosen files are sorted and processed. These methods are themselves very configurable and it is very easy to come up with complex criteria to operate on the chosen files. Methods include:

Sorting by attribute: Subfolders in the destination directory will distinguish files that are Read Only, Hidden, Temporary, Offline, Compressed, Normal and more.

Biggest: The biggest file from the source directory is placed in the destination directory.

Consolidate: All Files from the source directory are placed into the root directory of the destination folder.

Date Stamp: Files separated into dated destination folders.

Delimiter: Files sorted based on delimiter characters in their names, for example “-” in the file name.

Extension: Files are separated and sorted based on their extension. Likely the most used feature of the program.

MP3 Tag: MP3 files are sorted based on their tags such as album and song name.

Owner: Files are sorted based on the Windows account or domain they belong to.

Parent Rename: First or biggest file in the source directory is renamed after it’s parent directory name and placed in the destination folder.

Smallest: Opposite of Biggest!

A-Z: 27 directories are created (for file names starting with numbers and those starting with A to Z) and files are placed into them based on their names.

Substring: The user chooses which position of a file name is the ‘StartIndex’ and how many characters to read from there, files are then sorted based on ‘substring’ matches.

Word: Files are sorted based on words contained with their names.

Once method(s) are chosen modifiers can be added to change the way the path, file name or extension of files are written in the destination. These include all lower case, word capitalization and others. Step 4 is where the user chooses to move or copy the source files. Here one can also create a simulation and preview the results in the simulation window. Step 5, the final step, lets the user limit the sorting to files within the ‘root’ of the source directory, to all files or just folders residing in the source directory.

FileSieve 3 should run on all Windows systems, even Windows 95, but requires the .NET Framework 2.0.

September 4, 2010
Organize Files With File Bucket

File Bucket is one the many excellent programs and coding snacks from DonationCoder. File Bucket’s main purpose is to copy or move scattered files into one central or organized location. It was created because a user on the DonationCoder forums asked for a program to ease disc creation. The user wanted to automatically copy media files to one single folder and then burn them to a disc. In my opinion the same concept can be applied to backing up files. Working on my system I am using File Bucket and moving files that have been created in various My Documents and other folders into one location so subsequent system backups are easier and cleaner.

File Bucket is divided into four panes or areas, the top left hand side shows all systems drives and below it the folder tree. Highlighting a folder in the tree will show its files in the upper right hand pane. The lower right hand pane is the bucket or list of files and folders that will be moved or copied.

The three buttons on lower left side of the interface act as aids or shortcuts for adding files or folders to the bucket. “Add folder’s file to list” will add only files – from the folder selected in tree – to the bucket, ignoring any subfolders. “Add folder & subfolder’s files to list” will add all files including those in subfolders. “Add to list as a folder” will add the selected folder as is to the bucket thereby moving or copying it as a folder and not only the individual files that are within it. The “Add selected to list” and “Add all to list” buttons work on the folder(s) and file(s) visible just above them. After the bucket is populated the destination folder can be configured and the option to move or copy – or “Delete items to Recycle Bin”, “Save list with absolute paths” and other – chosen.

One other feature that adds another degree of usefulness to File Bucket is the filter (middle right of the program interface). Using the filter one can specify the file formats that will end up in the bucket. For example one can only move *.mp3 or *.jpg files. Any number of formats can be defined in the filter list which pops up when clicking the filter button. The filter(s) must be defined before any files are added to the bucket and in that sense the location of the filter button – and its associated dropdown – is perhaps not the best as one can mistakenly add files to the bucket before ‘reaching’ or getting to the filtering part on the right hand side of the program.

Once used it becomes clear that File Bucket is more difficult to describe than to use and it joins a long list of very useful utilities coded at DonationCoder.

August 7, 2010
ClipboardFusion: Free Alternative Clipboard Manager

ClipboardFusion is a freeware clipboard utility. I think good and easy ways of managing text copied to the Windows clipboard often leads to a better Windows experience and ClipboardFusion does its part.

Text Scrubbing is the main feature of the program. In the program’s settings (accessed by right clicking its tray icon) one can set all copies to be ‘scrubbed’ or only those which are copied by clicking the native Windows Ctrl+C twice. Some of the things scrubbing can do is to remove or strip any white space from the beginning of the copied text or remove all HTML code from the copied text. The Text Replace feature automatically replaces character(s) with others in any copied text. For example one can replace all instances of double quotes (“) with single quotes (‘). ClipboardFusion gives the user the option to use hotkeys to enable or disable its features, for example to temporarily disable any text replace rules one can assign a combination of keys to toggle it on or off.

A more advanced feature is Macros, one can write and test one’s own in the included C# or Visual Basic editor and also assign hotkeys to them. A selection of pre-written macros are also available for download from within the program, these include ‘Convert Text to Upper Case’ and ‘Search For Copied Text using Google.com’ just to name two.

Another feature concerns colors and images. Copying a HTML color hex value (say #FFFFFF for white) will trigger a small popup in the far right of the system tray with a preview of the color and also its RGB value ((255,255,255) for white). The same applies if an image is copied, in this case a small preview of the image will be shown. One can also set ClipboardFusion to ignore certain programs, when this is done text copied within those specified programs is not operated upon by ClipboardFusion.

The author also offers, for $24/year, the ClipboardFusion online or ‘on the cloud’ version for sharing clipboards and macros across computers and the ability to pin a clipboard item for repeated use. ClipboardFusion runs on all post 2000 versions of Windows and requires .NET Framework v2.0.

June 21, 2010
Trix: Freeware Efficiency And Productivity Utility For Windows
Trix is a lightweight and no-install program that acts much like other hotkey managers. It makes certain task easier and faster. Trix assigns, and lets the user choose, combination of hotkeys for some typical and often-used PC tasks. Combinations of Ctrl, Shift, Win and other letters or keys are assigned to and are configurable for the following tasks:
- Export copied text to (default) email client, Word, Excel or Notepad. The copied text is automatically inserted into the applications.
- Open Files, folders, websites or the terminal. In this case it is probably easier to do it the old fashioned way especially since trying to open multiple items at the same time is seemingly not possible.
- Unzip and zip chosen or highlighted files.
- Show brief computer specs, quote of the day, a timestamp with the current date and more, or stats on any highlighted text such as the number of characters. All these are shown in tooltip style.
- Access power management tools such as hibernation, rebooting, or locking the computer.
- Generate passwords. Encrypt and decrypt copied text. In the latter Trix will prompt for a passkey and allow the encryption level to be chosen and then asks what to do with the encrypted text (copy encrypted text to the clipboard for example).
- Speak the highlighted text.
- Control system volume.
- Convert units of measurement. This works on a highlighted number.
- Calculate highlighted expression. Here if “44+44” is highlighted the tooltip will show “44+44=88”
- Generate Lorem Ipsum text.
- Translate highlighted text, either based on saved settings (one of the last items in Trix’s settings window) or by choosing languages on the fly.
- Extract email, IP, links or file and folder paths from any copied text.
- Transform text. Reverse case for example but perhaps most importantly strip formatting.
- Adjust the focused window to fill the screen or maximize the focused window.
- Open the system color picker.
- Launch any one of web searches, from google to iconfinder and more.
The somewhat confusing nature of Trix is that some of the text tools seem to require a text highlight while in others the text needs to be copied. This along with the fact that to be really productive one must learn the assigned hotkeys makes Trix, or any other hotkey manager for that matter, useful for some and not for others.
June 10, 2010
PlainText Is True To Its Name

PlainText is another alternative lightweight and no install software to make copying and pasting text more efficient and useful.

In much the same way as PureText featured earlier on RGdot.com PlainText removes formatting from text copied from such sources as the web. This includes removing the likes of font sizes, colors, images, tables and borders. The program let the user choose any combination of the Windows, Shift or Ctrl keys along with any one letter or number to use for pasting the text unformatted. This key combination would be used as an alternative to the traditional and standard Ctrl and V keys.

PlainText sits in the system tray, consumes less than 5MB of memory, is a 486KB download and is GPL GNU General Public License v3 software.

November 2, 2009
DragTargets Makes Moving Files Convenient

DragTargets is a desktop tool that is similar to DropIt featured here on RGdot.com.

DragTargets makes the task of moving or copying files more efficient by providing an interface that acts as alternative of opening instances of Windows or alternative Explorers and then navigating to a particular folder.
When installed DragTargets presents a small window on the desktop, right clicking the window one can browse to a drive or folder and create a new dragtarget. After a new dragtarget is created any files dragged and dropped into the interface or target will copied to that destination or chosen folder. The default action here is to copy the files but checking the small square (see image) at the bottom of the program interface changes the action to move instead of copy.

Additionally, clicking on any of the saved targets opens the destination folder so targets are also alternative shortcuts to folders and drives on the computer.

October 30, 2009
DropIt Organizes Files And Folders

DropIt is a small portable download that helps manage the process of moving, copying and organizing files and folders. When installed DropIt adds a floating image or icon on the system desktop. Dragging and dropping files or folders over or into the icon moves or copies the files or folders into a configurable destination.

Right clicking on the floating image one can access the program Settings where one can choose to move or copy files when using DropIt and to activate the feature which treats folders in the same way as it does files.

Managing the main settings of the program is done via the same right click but instead choosing the Manage option. Here one can use the Search File button to find a file with the extension (*.jpg for example) one wants to work with or type the extension in the small box to the immediate right of the Search File button. After doing that one should press the Folder button to browse to the folder where the *.jpg (or other) files will be moved (or copied) to when ‘dropped’ on the DropIt icon. The chosen extension will then appear in the far right Extension List box. There after one can edit the association or setting for each file extension by highlighting it and editing the settings that appear in the Edit Associations area.
DropIt is a useful tool for cleaning up the desktop or indeed any other folder.

October 25, 2009
PureText Clears Text Formatting

PureText does a simple task and does it well. It clears any formatting from text that is copied from such sources like the web.

There are many occasions when a text needs to be copied without the original color, font face, font style or character margins and spacing. PureText does this without the need to follow any extra steps. For example pasting text in Notepad and then copying it again will clear all formatting but using PureText it is possible to use Windows+V (or other configurable keys) instead of the traditional Ctrl+V keys and paste any text unformatted.

PureText does not require installation and when it is run it sits in the system tray. Right clicking its icon allows the user to configure any combination of keys by choosing any of the presented variations or to use the “Capture the next key typed’ button to choose and configure other variations. PureText should run on any Windows versions up to Vista.

October 19, 2009
FreeFileSync Manages Your Folders And Files

FreeFileSync is described by its author as

…is an Open-Source folder comparison and synchronization tool. It is optimized for highest performance and usability without restricted or overloaded UI interfaces

FreeFileSync has a simple yet attractive, with well made icons, interface that synchronizes folders and compares files and folders. The options to compare are based on file size and date and also the file contents. The help button to the right of the big rectangular compare button attempts to explain how the comparison is calculated in both the aforementioned possibilities or features.
The synchronization feature is more detailed and includes the possibility to copy files between folders so that they are identical or to copy files and overwriting any that already exist in the other folder or to even delete files that already exist in the other folder.

FreeFileSync is also capable of saving configurations to be loaded to make future uses even more automated. Batch files can also be saved to ease work for every use with identical folders. Files can also be filtered so that certain file types are not included in the syncing procedures. FreeFileSync is available both for Windows and Linux machines.

July 9, 2009