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Tag: notes

  • Simple Calendar With Desktop Calendar

    Desktop Calendar is described as

    Organize your life! Never forget a birthday or anniversary ever again!

    Desktop Calendar is a relatively simple and potentially useful almost 2.5MB download that overlays a calendar on any desktop. It can be thought of a semi-dynamic calendar, that is the calendar is certainly not a static image but on the other hand the reminders are restricted to annual events in the freeware version of the program. Having said that setting one time reminders is of course possible, just leave the ‘Every Year’ checkbox unchecked when adding it. The said reminders are set by right clicking on a date and choosing Edit, then filling the text area presented.

    The program has more settings to control its looks than anything else. Background color of calendars is configurable as are today and other days’ text colors. The format of the month and time shown is configurable as well. The placement and size of the calendar can also be changed as can the style of the notification when hovering over a day (that contains an event). The author has also provided wallpaper packs to be used in conjunction with Desktop Calendar. Using the Wallpaper tab of the settings one can check to choose and enable the packs and choose a small or full screen preview, using the slider for the former and the preview button for the latter. Strangely there is no clear way to stop the full screen preview as it cycles through each month’s wallpaper, however the preview happens in the ‘background’ (pun intended) and doesn’t disrupt other tasks.

    Desktop Calendar is one not so new tool for enhancing the desktop. It does have one very useful added capability, it is possible export (and import) data and settings to either a .dat, .txt, or .csv format. It runs on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and NT. Many screenshots are available on the author’s site.

  • SysPad Is A Simple Folder And Notepad Utility

    SysPad is a utility from CodePlex, it is described simply as

    A Notepad-like program and folder management program

    Syspad is only 570KB but sometimes consumes a bit more than expected memory, approaching 40MB, but nevertheless provides easy access to two useful functions for the efficient user. Installation adds an icon to the tray bar. Thereafter a right click launches a tabbed notepad and a left click launches a favorites folder manager.

    SysPad

    The notepad (called TrayPad) is simple, allows for the typical background and font control. Notes can be saved in .txt format. There is an option to export and open the note using the famous and highly rated Notepad ++ – with syntax highlighting preset from within SysPad –  but in my test I was unable to launch Notepad++ after doing the required to set the path to the program within Syspad’s settings (Edit—>Settings).

    The file manager (called FolderPad) has preset icons to common folders and locations including My Computer, My Documents, Desktop, Control Panel, Program Files, Add/Remove Programs, Network Properties, plus the Printers and Font folders. Right clicking in the white area presents a dialog to add one’s own favorite folders either via browsing or manually typing a location. A tag or title can be added to server as a description as well.

    SysPad while certainly not unique or feature rich is useful and is another download that works well to add some level of efficiency for any computer user. Interestingly since both right and left clicks are used to launch the note and folder utilities there is no way to shut down and completely exit the program via the computer’s tray area. The only way seems to be to have the notes or TrayPad portion open and use File—>Exit Syspad.

  • Writemonkey Is Soul Food For The Modern Writer

    Writemonkey is described by its author as

    Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.

    Writemonkey is a text editor where any writing, essay or note can be initiated while keeping a minimal look and feel. That is not to say Writemonkey does not have useful features but the full screen – which can be exited by pressing the Esc key – has a black background by default, or any other color using the preferences, and provides a good measure of quietness. To keep it in that serene look all settings can be accessed by right clicking on the ‘paper’ area so exiting from the full screen mode is rarely, if ever, necessary. It has many features that make it useful and interesting such as keeping a tab of number of words typed with the possibility of adding a progress bar to keep a running indicator of how close a user is to a word minimum or limit for an essay for example. This, with all other application settings, is accessed either in the relevant, in this case Progress, tab of the preferences or straight from a right click. On the same Progress tab there is also a timer feature to keep tabs on how long a project or writing is taking. Other notable and pretty rare and unique features include a Repository where unfinished notes can be stored and accessed later. Any text can be added to the Repository by highlighting it and then right clicking and choosing Move to repository. The Jump, a popup toggled on/off via a right click, lets the user move between paragraph and bookmarks within the document. One other, but certainly not the last, feature of Writemonkey is Replacements. This is a text replacement feature for re-using common words where triggers or hot keys are defined in the preferences.

    Of particular note is that if a user does not associate .txt files with Writemonkey the only way to access the said files is by opening the Writemonkey executable itself and then clicking Tab and Ctrl to get a list of recently open and used documents. Alternatively Open With Writemonkey can be added to the Windows context menu or the Start with last opened file setting enabled in the preferences’ Open & Save tab.

    Writemonkey is a no installation freeware and its executable file is less than 1MB. it is extremely fun to play with and has many simple yet interesting features. The features page has a more complete list and the application’s facebook group many screenshots. Writemonkey is also UTF-8, Unicode and ANSII capable, runs on XP, with .NET Framework 3.5 installed, and higher including Windows 7.

  • Minipad2, Store Notes, Set Reminders And More

    Minipad2 is a tabbed, lightweight and portable – 305KB download – single executable that can be used as an text editor, note taker, calculator, dictionary and memo or reminder (tray popup without sound) program.
    It is also capable of watching the clipboard and inserting pre-defined text such as time, date, separator and signature – which can be defined via the Tools—>Edit Template menu. New tabs can be created for separate notes and aforementioned included functions. The features such as the calculator, memo and dictionary are available via typing and following a certain format. For example a memo or alarm can be set by typing

    @m1, 15 9:00, write report

    and pressing enter, this translates into a popup reminder every first and 15th of the month at 9AM with the text ‘write report’ (see images for two more examples).

    minipad2

    Other examples and syntax are given in the accompanying help file. Search and replace is also available but in my testing the search only worked on the current visible tab and not all text stored across the many tabs I had open. Another feature of minipad2 is called Special Effect. Effects can be enabled under the Options menu and chosen in Options—>Preferences. The two main effects available are auto scroll and auto hide. The auto scroll rolls up the window leaving only minipad2’s title bar intact. Auto hide, which didn’t perform as expected in my testing and usage, hides the window when focus is off minipad2, much like the feature available with Windows’ taskbar. But as mentioned, in my testing the minipad2 window seemed to want to hide – the animated effect hovered over my monitor – but the minipad2 window didn’t actually go away.

    minipad2
    To use the dictionary one or more chosen languages must be added via the Preferences menu after they have been downloaded separately. Currently Chinese, Spanish, French, German and Japanese are available.
    A very interesting application with a couple of unusual features and different ways of doing things. Minipad2 is a single executable that after hours of being used and tested remained under 10MB of RAM usage. Minipad2 is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

  • Capture All You Want From The Internet Using Canaware NetNotes

    Canaware NetNotes allows the capture, organization and storage of whole webpages or excerpts directly from a browser. It is really easy to create a knowledgebase or simply a collection of text using NetNotes. The captured material can be categorized, highlighted and even edited using the built-in editor. The captures are organized and saved in folders that reside within libraries, all of which are fully searchable, movable and mergeable. It is further possible to email notes and captures and also to back them up in zipped format and since all are stored in HTML they remain usable even without the NetNotes application.

    netnotes

    Canaware NetNotes’ usage consists of highlighting the portion of a web page or just right clicking (Firefox requires the accompanying but optional Add-on) on an empty area of a page and choosing the Export To Canaware Netnotes option. The program then opens with the option of saving the capture and optionally editing its title and adding keywords. Prompt will be given to choose and download any attachments that are part of the capture as in elements that may exist within a webpage.
    Under the Tools—>Option menu such things as the default library, in which to automatically save new notes, is configurable but more importanly it is possible to make the captures safe by forcing NetNotes to filter out potentially dangerous elements and scripts. (see image above)
    Canaware NetNotes runs on Windows 2000 and up and requires Internet Explorer or Firefox and perhaps as a con the .Net framework. The limitation on browsers of either not being directly supported or needing an Add-on can be viewed as a negative, and when there is no support such as for Opera, to a positive because one is not forced into yet another download and can just launch the program directly to and paste the contents of the clipboard and use the program.

  • Easily Gather And Collect Notes with CintaNotes

    CintaNotes is a lightweight and potentially extremely useful note taking program. At a portable download of 344KB and an executable of 625KB CintaNotes is useful and small. Notes are collected via a configurable hot key (Ctrl+F12 by default), a simple paste or by opening the program and using the Add option. In the first two cases the title of the note is automatically taken from the originating application window and if it happens to be from a web browser the URL is added to the note’s Link field.

    CintaNotes

    Each note is dated and can be tagged. A real time search bar finds them by any or all of text and title, time, link, title, text and tag. It is also possible to merge notes by selecting them, by using the usual Ctrl or Shift keys, and pressing Ctrl+M. The font and color of notes and the whole program itself can be configured as well. A hot key is configurable to bring focus to the program and also to add a new note. Perhaps the feature that makes CintaNotes most useful and hassle free is the Silent Clipping one. When checked under the Options menu the program window does not pop up whenever a note is added, when using the aforementioned Ctrl+F12 for example, the program will instead show a balloon tip at the system tray with the contents of the note being captured.

    CintaNotes runs on Windows 2000, 2003, XP and Vista and fully supports unicode text.

  • Clipboard Help+Spell From Donationcoder.com

    I wrote about the Donationcoder.com’s website in a previous article and one of the more impressive and useful software written there is the Clipboard Help+Spell.

    There are certainly many freeware, well reviewed, useful and popular clipboard utilities available. The sadly semi-abandoned Yankee Clipper, the open source Ditto and ArsClip just to name three and of course the clipboard capabilities of the all powerful PowerPro.

    Clipboard Help+Spell is nevertheless a worthy contender, if not down right winner in the category. It is simply described as

    …a text-based clipboard utility

    But it has many features. Among its many features is the ability to archive and delete clipboard based on configurable dates, defining hot keys for viewing, pasting and working with the stored clipboards, filtering entries to find the forgotten ones and backing up the database of collected clipboards. The features don’t stop there, an internal editor spell checks and adds text editor features to manipulate the entries as well. For example it possible to change the case of the clipboard entries within the editor, strip characters, add lines and even find and replace words using regular expressions.

    A clipboard utility won’t be complete without the ability to permanently store ‘favorites’ and in this case it is only a matter of dragging an entry into the said category (see images below).

    cliphs1cliphs2

    Having said all that one of the most innovative features is the ability to create ‘Virtual Folders’. This feature allows certain definable clipboards to be grouped separately. For example a preset Virtual Folder is  ‘Clips With URLs’ and the way it is defined, using SQL database conditional statements, is as follows

    (Lower(ClipText) LIKE ‘%http:%’) OR (Lower(ClipText) LIKE ‘%www.%’) OR (Lower(ClipText) LIKE ‘%https:%’) OR (Lower(ClipText) LIKE ‘%ftp:%’)

    in that the clipboards containing any of http, https, ftp or www will be placed as a subset of all clipboards under a separate icon (as shown in the above image).

    The program’s Windows tray icon is configured such that left click, double left click, right click and double right click are all defined and show stored clips, the program’s main window, the program’s general menu and the program’s on and off toggle respectively. With Clipboard Help+Spell there is a lot to play around with and discover, well worth the support and download.

  • Enware Freeware & Dirhtml Index.html Generator II

    Shortly after I wrote about the dirhtml index.html generator I received an email from its developer. In part due to my confusion about the way the sorting options were presented and how the output listing was actually sorted Eric, the enware developer, had released a new, then beta, version. It has since gone out of beta and v4.833 presents a more intuitive sorting menu (see images below).

    Older version of dirhtml
    Older version of dirhtml
    New version of dirhtml
    New version of dirhtml

    In my opinion it is now easier to visualize the output because the ‘Unsorted’ option is now in a column with all the primary choices that determine the shape of the output.

    Two notable omissions in the original article were that at the ‘Input/Output’ and final tab it is possible to create a batch file by clicking the ‘Save Batch File’ button or F7. This will generate a batch file and an associated .ini file. Launching the .bat will use the .ini file, containing all the settings that have been gathered by going through the program, and this will then immediately generate the required output.  This is very useful as it makes subsequent uses much easier and faster. Also worth pointing out is the ‘div_recursive.txt’ script, one of the ‘Script’ choices in the initial ‘Folders, Files’ tab. This will generate an output with a recursive listing of the folders and files being worked on. It is a very useful way of presenting the results.

    I also want to take this opportunity to write about the other freeware Eric is and has worked on.

    First up is the Mp3 ImageMap. This is free for non-commercial purposes and portable. The developer, Eric, describes it as

    …an attempt to bring back the shock value of music finding to people who know all their tunes and searches by heart, and incorporates a rather unique algorithm for dividing rectangles into N squares.

    It works by the user specifying a folder (containing MP3 files for example), file extension(s)(MP3 and WMA for example), path to the output HTML file, image (GIF, JPG, JPEG or PNG) and choosing one of several sort types and then clicking ‘Build It’. The app will use the image to generate an image map with different areas linked to the different MP3 and WMA files. A nice and fun way to listen to music or simply launch files.

    Next is the ScrapBook described as

    ScrapBook is a freeware, unstructured database program that holds chunks of text.

    A lightweight and only 252KB download, it is surprisingly useful. It is possible to save all sorts of text with the first line of the said text acting as an index. It is also possible to differentiate and separate different chunks by placing them in different ‘cards’. To navigate between cards one can, for example, use the left and right arrows or click Alt+L, F2. Even easier is finding text by using the ‘Find’ box. It is also possible to save shortcuts in ScrapBook and use it as a launcher by moving the cursor over the text or shortcut and clicking F12. One interesting feature is the ability to ‘tag’ cards, by clicking Ctrl+space, and therefore making an index or listing even more intuitive by then viewing a list of tags (Ctrl+T). As with dirhtml ScrapBook is filled with useful features.

    Finally there is CopyDate, taking a further step in making tasks easier, described as

    Copydate copies files, optionally inserting today’s date/time into the copied filename.

  • Total Text Container PIM

    Total Text Container is a PIM (Personal Information Management) software described by its author as

    Store Documentation, Notes, Passwords, Images, Bookmarks, Contacts, Spreadsheets, Money Transactions, Calendar Events & Tasks, iCalander events, CD/DVD/Movie catalogs, Multi layer encryption, Portable, xml database, all in one powerful PIM app.

    Total Text Container is a pretty complete and feature rich software that allows you to do a lot and organize your information all in one folder.

    ttc

    It has many interesting and valuable features.  It can store all sorts of lists, such as movies, bookmarks, confidential information and images. Syntax highlighted code and snippets can be saved as well. It is possible to add clipboards and even tasks to Total Text Container and access them via the program’s tray icon without actually wading through the program itself. There is also a ‘Mix Frame’  feature which allows the user to work on different ‘frames’ such as notes, spreadsheets, code and others at the same time, though it seems to be a work in progress in my tests, I got a few access violation errors while attempting to add or show frames.

    TTC is worth checking out and though at alpha v0.a070 as of this writing it can prove useful with a bit of caution because as mentioned access violation errors can pop up from time to time. The author claims that

    As long as TTC is below version 1.00 then its still in beta stage, I use TTC almost every day so i def want it to be error free myself. I fix errors as i find them but if I don’t know about an error i can’t fix it so let me know on my forums on sourceforge.

    so one should be able to get some help just in case. Have a look at http://mtirnanic.googlepages.com/

  • 8start Launcher

    8start is decribed by its author as

    A free Application Launcher to make your desktop clean, with Tree Notes feature to keep and share your notes fast and easy. Portable, skinable, customizable, innovation…

    Using it you can keep notes in trees with additional features recently added like tree shortcuts and favorites. One can customize skins and backgrounds or download a few more available on the developer’s forum. Most importantly one can make rows and rows of shortcuts to launch application, documents and sites and divide them all into categories. On a XP system tested and used for months it has never surpassed 10MB usage and can be made portable as well. The tiny graph to monitor drive space is a useful little tool too.

    Take a look at screenshots and a more thorough explanation of 8start’s features. It is free for any use and can be downloaded from here