RGdot

Tag: notes

  • myPortablePIM Is Data On The Go

    myPortablePIM is a no installation Personal Information Manager that offers a chance to keep contacts, calendar and other information in one folder and carry data on a USB key or stick. Needing to keep everything in one folder means a newly unzipped myPortablePIM approaches 90MB in size.
    myPortablePIM
    myPortablePIM features include tasks and notes, alarms, a ‘gmail checker’, calendar – with support for both iCal and vCard – a RSS reader, a weather checker, an image viewer, an application launcher, a password manager and an address book.

    Additionally the program can be protected with a password to make carrying it around safer and includes several themes (under the Preferences menu). The different features or ‘modules’ can also be viewed on their own. One can also add icons to use within the program and configure several options like using Fahrenheit or Celcius for the weather module. myPortablePIM runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 7.

  • DzSoft Paste & Save Looks After Your Clipboard

    Windows computers, in general, keep the most recent text or image copied to their clipboard.

    DzSoft Paste & Save, Freeware

    DzSoft Paste & Save is a small and simple utility that saves multiple clipbord contents. However, instead of the typical clipboard manager like Clippy, CLCL and others Paste & Save holds or saves every text clipboard in one of three note (*.txt) files in its program folder. The advantage of such a set up could be in that excerpts of text can be collected from different sources in one location. As Paste & Save automatically appends the clipboard contents into one of its three text files. One can therefore have a large collection of related notes only by having the program remain in the system tray and do nothing more than the usual Ctrl+c – and not even need to use notepad or any other text editor and forget about Ctrl+v altogether. DzSoft Paste & Save lets the user define a separator between each clipboard and using its ‘remote control’ floating bar set and choose which note file is used on the fly, without maximizing the program’s main window.
    For example the excellent Clipboard Help+Spell From Donationcoder.com has a notes section that allows permanent use of commonly used notes, and more features of course, but Paste & Save simplifies collection of notes very well as well.

  • Text Block Writer Organizes Notes And Thoughts

    Text Block Writer is described by its author as

    …a virtual index card program for writers

    Text Block Writer works similar to the way one would write notes on one or several pieces of paper. By using Text Block Writer one can organize the notes in pages and columns cleanly. It is also possible to export all notes to the standard *.rtf format or keep using the program’s own *.tbwml format which in itself is simple *.xml.

    Text Block Writer

    Each note is saved in a square or rectangular block, within a page. Each page contains at least three (by default but can be changed using the program’s options) columns and a side column (situated to the right of the numbered columns) for extra and unclassified notes. A title can be set for each page using the text box just under the program menu. A block shelf to the bottom right of the program’s interface holds temporary notes that are not exported when notes are backed up. The scratchpad area at the bottom performs a similar function as the block shelf and holds temporary notes. The utility panel that slides open on the far right of the program window provides the index or titles of all pages. Its groups action setting is for such tasks as moving panels or blocks between pages and changing their colors. Its live preview is one long text file of all saved notes. The utility panel also features more options for such things as a panel size and export syntax.

    Text Block Writer also supports a number of useful shortcut keys that are listed in its helps file, for example viewing a previous page is done via the Ctrl and left keys. The program requires version 2.0 of the .NET framework, however it is useful for keeping records and notes.

  • Notes Organizer AllMyNotes

    Another interesting notes organizer is AllMyNotes. It stores notes in the familiar tree structure and boasts drag and drop and rich formatting as its features. It is also possible to password protect notes. AllMyNotes does both within notes and also global search. via ghacks

  • fSekrit Holds Your Secrets

    fSekrit is one of the many useful tools available from donationcoder. fSekrit has a very simple and useful purpose. Its purpose is to create encrypted notes and ones that are self contained. What this means is that when using fSekrit the note taking application and password setting and encrypting tool are one and the same.
    Double click on the fSekrit icon and start typing or pasting (or use Import text located under the File menu) the desired text. When exiting and saving the program will prompt for a location to save an *.exe file, not a *.txt file, and then also prompt for a password. No unencrytped text is written to the system’s hard disk and the encryption used is 256bit AES, a near unbreakable encryption standard.
    Download the latest beta from this thread or visit the above link for the older but non-beta release.

  • Pigeonhole Is A Convenient Notes Organizer

    Pigeonhole is a useful notes organizer that does a simple job well. The program interface is divided into a grid, clicking inside a grid opens a window where a note can be entered and formatted with anything from color to text case, blank line removal and more.


    Pigeonhole

    When a note is saved the first few characters would be visible on the program grid and here is where the usefulness of Pigeonhole comes in. Hovering over a note triggers a relatively large preview of the saved note. This used in conjunction with Find (Ctrl+f) makes it really easy to not only find a note but to also get an idea of its contents without too many keystrokes. The program also includes options to set it to start with Windows, to be maximized with a hotkey or by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. The note data are saved in files named group.0, group.1, etc. but a peak inside using a text editor confirms that the they saved as pure text which makes future access to the data relatively painless.
    The free version includes one group or set which means 175 separate notes can be stored using it instead of the 20 groups in the professional or full version. Groups would be accessible from the File menu. Pigeonhole runs on Windows, from 98 to Vista.

  • StickySorter From Microsoft Office Labs Does Notes Differently

    StickySorter is another rather pretty innovative idea from Microsoft’s Office Labs, the site with ‘grassroots’ projects coming via ’employee initiative and ingenuity’. StickySorter is akin to mind mapping or brainstorming software but with a twist. The twist is that, as the name of the program implies, brainstorms take the form of sticky notes. Many a number of sticky notes can be added to the program’s interface and arranged in several different ways.

    StickySorter
    Each note can belong to a group to make sorting and arranging easier. Clicking customize under the note menu one can also create separate fields so that the text on the notes themselves can be categorized. The view menu includes several ways to arrange all notes such as piling notes on top of each other or aligning notes to grid. The search box works well as a text filter and does a good job with large collection of notes as well. The interface can be zoomed in and out or panned to bring into legible view as many or as few notes as needed. There is no networking or sharing feature built-in but separate *.csv files can be inserted into existing ones as a way to merge notes.
    The program’s FAQ page has a few more hints on usability. For example creating a field, using the aforementioned customize menu, and placing an ! in front of it will make the field appear only on the back of the note and selected notes can be flipped by pressing Ctrl+t.
    Perhaps the best attraction of StickySorter is that it saves everything in *.csv format. It is therefore usable even if the program is discarded for another similar software. StickySorter works on Windows XP or Windows Vista with .Net Framework 2.0

  • ScrapBook Captures It all

    ScrapBook is a Firefox addon that is perhaps the most useful written. Using ScrapBook it is possible to capture parts or all of a web page and to save it for future reference. It is also in one sense better than bookmarking a page because as much or all of the page is saved locally as it existed at the time of the capture. It is also an alternative to taking a screenshot because all the elements are saved in a text format and can therefore prove useful in the future.
    Using ScrapBook is as simple as right clicking any where on a page and choosing the Capture Page to save the page into the root of ScrapBook’s data folder or a subfolder within it. Choosing the other option, Capture Page As provides options to save or not save images, styles or javascripts that reside on the page. Additionally it is possible to save different files that are linked on the page or to even to follow links, meaning one has the ability to download elements that are on the linked pages as well or to essentially download or capture entire web pages.
    ScrapBook’s options don’t end there. Once a page is captured, certain portions can be highlighted, an annotation or note can be added to them to ease future reference or certain paragraphs or elements can be removed by clicking on the Dom button. A page can actually be bookmarked and reside in ScrapBook’s folder as a straightforward bookmark as well. When clicking Alt+k to load ScrapBook in the Firefox sidebar all captures can be searched, not only by title but by the text inside them. Notes, which can be added by right clicking a captured item in the sidebar, add further information for and to captured pages. The Tools drop down menu that resides in the top right hand corner of the ScrapBook sidebar includes additional features such as import/export that essentially makes a back up of captures, calculation of size that provides an overview of the size of captured pages and many more.
    As of this article the current version of this superior addon is 1.3.5 and works on Firefox 3.0 to 3.5.x.

  • esyPlanner Is A Useful PIM

    esyPlanner is a freeware personal information manager that provides calendars, reminders (which it calls popups), notes and password storage.


    esyPlanner

    The program doesn’t exactly have the best or cleanest of interfaces, which somehow mirrors the author’s website as well, however it is more than adequate as a PIM. Notes can be created by using the Microsoft outlook style side panel or bar. A note can be turned into an event so that a reminder can be set, they also include a number of fields to make categorization and future search useful, these include adding an attachment to a note as well. However there is kind of an overlap with what the program calls memo – accessible via its Windows menu. There is a similar confusion differentiating between the planner and the calendar. However after a few minutes of use esyPlanner does prove to be an acceptable and good alternative to the more known personal information managers. The strength of esyPlanner might actually lie in its search capability – accessible either via its Windows menu or by clicking F3. In my test the search provided quick results from all the notes fields that I had intentionally filled.
    esyPlanner uses the SQLite database engine therefore at the very least one is not stuck with proprietary information storage.

  • Text Master Notepad Alternative

    Text Master is certainly not alone in the world of Windows Notepad alternatives but is nevertheless a useful entry. It is described by its author as

    Text Master is a plain text editor with extra features and is a good alternative of NotePAD.


    Text Master
         Text master, of course, looks a lot like Notepad and the additional features are mostly categorized into one menu item, or toolbar. Those features include the following. Add Date in various formats. Analyze Text to get character, word, line and other counts. Combine Lines that are separated by a configurable separator, such as a comma for example. Crypto, a beta feature I did not test, to scramble lines. Delete Unnecessary Lines to delete empty or identical lines. Extract text has a few parameters that belong in a more solid programming setting rather than a notepad like software. Filter Lines chops or shortens lines starting from both their start and end. Generate Email List looks for emails in the open text document. Generate Word List converts the open document into an alphabetical list of the words it contains. Import Picture As Text only works with bitmaps. Insert Numbers adds line numbers. Insert Text adds text to the beginning or ending of all lines. Keypress Simulator is a time waster more than anything else, presenting the open document with a type writer effect. Randomize Lines and Reverse Line Sequence and Line Contents are also more fancy effects than anything else. May be the same can be said about Sort Lines and Trim Lines (from both, left or right sides). Finally Uppercase & Lowercase converts text into one of all uppercase, first letter uppercase or all lowercase.

    It is also possible to use F11 to maximize the workspace and additionally find or find and replace text. Text Master runs on all Windows versions and is a 560KB download.