Tag: text

ClipCube: Freeware Notetaker And Clipboard Manager

ClipCube was reviewed while an old beta version here on RGdot, now it is back. The current version is 1.1 and comes with a new look and a new site. It is still freeware and still doesn’t require installation. With a new emphasis on being a note taker and keeper – complete with tags – in addition to its clipboard history feature it more useful than it has been.

After running it click the tray icon to show or hide its window. The left side of the program window is where you find the search box and tags. There are three default tags or categories and they are Clipboard, Links and Scratchpad. The notes are on the main or right side with the newest ones first on the list. In addition to automatically capturing the clipboard you can create a new note by clicking Ctrl+N, the + button or right clicking the tray icon. Edit a note with Ctrl+Space or the editor button (the keyboard looking icon). Select one or more items or notes and click the tag editor button to move a note to the Scratchpad category or other existing ones. Create new tags using the same tag editor, Alt+N or by right clicking in the tags area.

ClipCube, via its tray icon, has another interesting feature called “Trim incoming text”. This trims white space from the beginning and end of any copied text.

The preferences include toggling ‘system tray’ mode on and off – this is same as click close to minimize or click close to exit – stay on top, monitor the clipboard, clear clipboard on quit, show tooltips, edit a note on double click and others. By default ClipCube keeps 500 clipboard items or notes, this can be changed to 100, 2000 or 6000. This limit applies only to the notes tagged with Clipboard and not others like Scratchpad.

Hotkeys are available at http://zodcode.com/clipcube/manual. A Mac version is in the works and depends on donations.

August 25, 2012
Freeware No Frills Clipboard Manager: anyClipboard

anyClipboard (Version: 1.0.2) is a single executable, no install clipboard manager. It is virtually featureless and does one thing only. It helps the user keep copies of all clipboard items in the order they were captured. It captures everything – though one can disable captures by file type – be they files, folders, photos or text (with the promise of more to come).

The program’s settings are accessed by right clicking the program’s tray icon. Since it copies everything to its data folder, created after first run, it can become large quickly. It does warn if the to be captured file is larger than 10MB and at that point it can be set to not create a copy of files larger than 10MB.

To reuse a past clipboard item highlight it and recopy the preview, however since not all file types, mp3s for example, can be previewed inside anyClipboard it is less useful for media files. In this case one must open the program’s data folder and grab a copy there.

anyClipboard should work on all Windows versions.

August 23, 2012
PNotes: Feature Packed Sticky Notes Freeware

PNotes (Version: 9.0.110) is a sticky notes program, while cluttering the desktop with notes is not always the optimal method of keeping reminders and other text PNotes does it well and allows the user to easily hide the sticky notes and maintain a clear the desktop.

PNotes’ features are accessible via a right click on its tray icon. To begin one can create a note, loads saved notes, create a note from the contents of the system clipboard or create a diary note. The latter features a configurable date format as its title. All note configuration options are accessible by right clicking inside a note or on its top or bottom section (title and toolbar sections respectively.)

Notes can be favorited and assigned to groups so that they can be managed in batches, for example different colors or different visibility added to a more than one sticky note at a time. Notes can be rolled, unrolled, tagged and linked together as well. They can also include images.

PNotes has extensive preferences, hotkey support and a control panel. The latter is like a central repository to manage the sticky notes. The preferences includes settings for transparency, font and the visibility of the toolbar – which include controls for text color, bullet lists and others – on the sticky note itself. Skin support is complete with width, height, color, padding settings just to name a few. Ready made skins can be downloaded as well.

Sound or note centering (to bring a note to one’s attention) is part of PNotes’ scheduling or reminder feature, a reminder can be added by right clicking on the bottom or top section of the note. Docking is a useful feature to move notes into different sides of the screen and adjust their distance.

PNotes offers extensive number of options in how notes behave and how to interact with the program. Forcing new notes on top, double clicking on the tray icon to create new note, using notes contents as its default name and many more. Protection is another important part of PNotes. Notes can be password protected either individually or as a group, they can be encrypted and automatically backed up. PNotes can also synchronize notes between a USB key and a local machine automatically. Notes can be pushed and pulled to and from a FTP server to be synchronized with local versions. The Misc tab in the preferences has option to launch a web search with a note’s text as the query or to open external programs.

PNotes’ control panel shows or previews notes that are in the program’s database. Here one can create notes, change note group icons, launch the built-in back up or synchronization feature, export chosen notes as text files or search inside notes.

Hotkeys can be applied to almost any action. The most important one for this user is the ability to quickly hide or show all notes. Of the many hotkey choices available the show/hide section is probably most useful.

PNotes is available with or without an installer and should work on all Windows versions. Spell checking using the Hunspell library can be downloaded and used, the program as a whole can be password protected as well.

August 10, 2012
Freeware No Frills Clipboard Manager: ArchiveClipboard

ArchiveClipboard (Version: 12.7.17 tested) is multi-platform open source and freeware clipboard manager. It doesn’t boast many features but it does one job and that is to keep more than one clipboard item stored or archived. When an item is copied it is kept in the top section of the program, subsequent clipboard items bump the previous ones to the lower section where they are archived to be kept forever.

ArchiveClipboard also supports images and file paths and they are archived in separate categories. Right clicking any item in the archived section presents options to preview it – where it can also be edited – to cut it , to copy it, to paste it or to remove it forever. It feels redundant to have cut or paste operations for an archived item but nevertheless the option is available.

Mobile device apps and synchronization are on the roadmap. ArchiveClipboard is java based, runs on Windows, Mac and Linux systems and is available in both 32bit and 64bit versions.

July 28, 2012
Freeware Notes And Clipboard Monitoring: NoteClip

NoteClip (Version: 2.50 tested) has recently become freeware. It tries to be a clipboard monitor and note keeper in one. Using it requires a bit of getting used to because it may take time to feel comfortable with how, where and within which group (post, data, essay, etc.) a note or clipboard item is kept.

The clipboard function of NoteClip is not exactly emphasized as by default the clipboard monitoring is off (toggle it on by clicking the ‘more’ dropdown near the top right of the program). However the program does have a secondary way of capturing text. The Ctrl+1 keys create a new note from highlighted text and Ctrl+2 appends highlighted text to the last note.

Initially notes – captured via hot keys or created using the quick notes (Ctrl+Q) window – are sent to the draft group. New groups can be created by right clicking one of the existing groups and notes can be dragged from the draft or any other group to another.

Various options are available when a note title is right clicked (see image). Notes can be edited by clicking on the Edit column beside them and either editing them within NoteClip or using an external editor. The program also has a search function which works across all notes and groups.

NoteClip can read text files and create new notes using file names as their title, this is done by choosing ‘Create from text files’ from the aforementioned ‘more’ dropdown menu. Additionally there is a built-in back up and restore tool (Accessed via the small arrow near the top right of the program.) NoteClip requires Windows XP and newer and does not write anything to the registry.

July 26, 2012
MyShelf: Multi-Platform All In One Organizer

MyShelf (Version:1.0) is a newer software that is available for all operating systems, iDevices and Android as well. Information can be synced across devices and across a network. It strives to be both an organizer and central storage for text and images. Its interface fulfills at least one important requirement and that is notes, pictures and everything is saved using MyShelf is at least somewhat visible and in view when the program is open.

Use the Add tab to add text, image or alternatively import the current clipboard entry. A shelf or rectangular area is where items are saved, each can have a subject (type it in the yellow area when adding a shelf) and each can hold one or many text snippets or images. Tags are added via the tag tab. The tags can then be added to each shelf and will appear above them beside the shelf date.

Editing or moving around shelves is done while in quick edit mode. Click the Quick Edit mode button and then click anywhere on any shelf. It can be dragged (move mouse over the red/black circle) elsewhere to change its order or it can deleted (button on bottom right of the shelf). Clicking the Open button that appears when hovering over a shelf opens a separate window to edit its contents. MyShelf also lets you save the file back to its original format. For example an image can be saved to any folder in its own format.

When in edit mode one can archive a shelf, this will remove it from view. Archived shelves can be viewed and if needed unarchived and brought back into the default view by switching the program view from Show Normal to Show Archived (drop down near top right of the interface).

Shelves can have one of three sizes, click one of the three squares to the left of the aforementioned dropdown to resize them. MyShelf is java based and works on XP and newer, Mac OS, Linux systems and the aforementioned mobile devices (it is available in the App Store and Google Play).

July 4, 2012
Aml Pages: Feature Rich Notes Manager

Aml Pages is described as a tree-structured notes manager. It supports plain and rich text as well as webpages, images and attachments. As a fan of such software, whether freeware or shareware as in the case of Aml Pages, here on RGdot I have reviewed and written about many notes managers or organizers.

To start with Aml Pages begins by creating what it calls a document or perhaps re-using the sample that comes with Aml Pages. I believe the interface, especially when looking at the sample or demo is rather busy but if notes structure are convenient for the user this becomes easy to manage soon. Aml Pages probably meets many requirements if one is comfortable with a two pane tree system for keeping notes.

Aml Pages can create nodes with different colors, fonts and icons to make each stand out if necessary. Each node can be tagged which often eases future retrieval. One interesting extra is the ability to not only sort (right click anywhere on the tree and choose sort) the notes tree by date, category, type, size, title and others but also filter (may need to expand the tree area to see the filter drowdown (see image above)) them to show those created/modified in the last 6 hours, today, yesterday, last week or those largest, smallest or created within the current Windows session.

Styles and formats can be used and created (Format—>Styles) to give text different colors and fonts. Existing styles can be applied by using the drop down on the far top right of the text area. There is also Format—>Text Templates that can save highlighted text for future re-use. Aml Pages also supports syntax highlighting for the usual like C++, Visual Basic, Java, HTML and other languages. Some of the additional efficiency features include inserting dates (F5 or Insert—>Date and Time) and capturing screenshots (Insert—>Screenshot).

Aml Pages opens with two processes, the second is the Aml Assist whose icon sits semi-transparent on the corner of the desktop. It’s main use is to be the drop for text and other media dragged from browsers or other programs such as Microsoft Word. Right clicking the Aml Assist icon provides settings for its use and a configurable hotkey for automatic text grabbing.

The bookmarks feature adds more usefulness. Any part of a document can be bookmarked via a right click. The same right click gives additional ways to find, view, manage and a count of the bookmarks. For even easier later retrieval Aml Pages has tabs on the left hand side of interface to show all bookmarks in one view. The same area offers the different views available.

There is also sticky notes support, most easily created via right clicking the Aml Assist icon. These will ofcourse stay on the desktop even if the program itself is minimized.

The program’s search has a good number of options as well. The search can be restricted to selected nodes or folders, categories or tags, or creation or modification dates.

Aml Pages has autosave options (Tool—>Settings—>Autosave) and keeps backups which are then visible in Backup Explorer (Tools—>Backup Explorer). From the same Tools menu one can setup encryption for opening the program or password for opening documents.

On the program’s site there are many videos and a tips and tricks page highlighting more of Aml Pages can do. On that note I found two potentially useful features. File—>New has two extra options, one is creating a blank document with nodes named from A-Z (or other first and last letters) with optional prefixes or suffixes. The other is creating a diary sort of document with any start and end date as node titles. There are also plugin which include everything from Auto Completion to Spellchecker to Aml2Dropbox (for synchronization of documents) and to Aml Export to save a document in XML format.

Aml Pages should work on Windows versions going back Windows 98 and it currently costs $19.50.

May 18, 2012
ClipTrap Watches The Clipboard

ClipTrap is a simple clipboard watcher instead of a full blown clipboard manager. It is best suited for collecting text snippets, one after another perhaps, in one location to save and use later. Clipboard watching or monitoring can be toggled on or off. If it is toggled on ClipTrap will collect all copied text and append each new clipboard item to existing ones. The collected items can be separated by any number of – configured – blank lines.

Additionally there are options to clear all the items from ClipTrap’s window and to also clear the item stored in the Windows clipboard itself. This handy little program is one of many created by ‘skwire’ on and for DonationCoder forum users. The download includes an ANSI version as well.

April 28, 2012
QT Writer Express: Light Freeware Word Processor

QT Writer Express is a word processor from the makers of SSuite Office Suite. It is a simple and lightweight program that handles documents pretty well. It is perhaps best suited for simple text files but it can do more. It stands out from most of its kind in looks at least.

Most of QT Writer Express’ options are available to the left of the writing area. Changing font, color and size. Underline, bold and italic. Text justify, indent and zoom. List style and line spacing. All occupy a relatively large portion of the screen space.

Additional features and options line up across the top of the program interface. These include print, print preview, find and replace, insert current date and insert special characters, images and emoticons.

QT Writer Express supports .pdf (both read and save), .rtf, doc, .txt and SSuite’s own presentation format .ssp. The question mark button near the top left is a very short tutorial with a list of hot keys the program supports and a list of settings saved when the program is closed and reopened later such as font size and color.

It is completely portable and the zipped download comes with MMMaster.exe, SSuite’s Mail Merge utility.

March 9, 2012
Ken Rename: Freeware Rename Utility

Ken Rename (Version: 1.02) is a rename utility with a good number of features. It presents an immediate preview of renaming results. Choosing files or folders to be renamed can be done either by the buttons or menu near the top, drag and drop or selecting a folder from the explorer tree.

The Macro tab is first and offers a bunch of options and actions to create very flexible renaming rules. The user can use the buttons to include original file name, a counter (by any starting point and increment), date, EXIF and folder name (1st, 2nd or 3rd parent folder) in the renamed files. File filtering is available to include or exclude system, archive, hidden, read only or folders plus the option to include or exclude subfolders and some file types.

The Replace tab offers to replace matching letters in the original with something else, it has regex and match case support. It can save the replace/with combination to a preset to be re-loaded for use later on.

The Change Case tab has options to capitalize, sentence, upper or lower case renamed files. It can be set to include or exclude either the file name or extension when it renames files.

The Remove tab removes letters from file name and can again work on either or both the file name and extension.

The Insert tab adds letter(s) to different positions within the file name or extension.

The Script tab comes with several ready made (VBScript) ones to further customize renaming options. One can add other scripts as well and save them for future use. For example one of the included scripts is “reverse.vbs” to reverse the file name (eg. hello.jpg to olleh.jpg):

Function Rename(strPath, strName, strExt, bIsFolder)

If bIsFolder Then
Rename = strName + strExt
Else
Rename = StrReverse(strName) + strExt
End If

End Function

Code page and Decode work on Unicode and other formats to convert to different encoding and characters. This was not tested for this review.

The Import list tab can import a text or list type file format (lst, txt, ini, wpl, m3u or pls). An existing file list can be loaded and worked on here.

Ken Rename supports Unicode file names and reading ID3 tags, it has some command line support as well. It is available both in a zipped portable and installer.

March 3, 2012