notesnotes_v1.6 ReadMe
notes.exe is better, or at least a more pragmatic, sticky notes utility. Includes basic organizational and text editor functionality.
How is this different than a folder full of text files?
Not by much, actually: Filenames are implicit, generated from the first line of the text. File Saving/Backup is automatic. The filtering features are nicer. And finally: Hotkeys are available to bring up the manager or a new note.
Usage Notes
Requirements: Version 4 or better of the .net framework is recommended. Get it from Microsoft.
No installation; just unpack and run. A settings file and ancillary files may be created in the program folder.
Instructions:
A new note can be created by pressing the 'New Note' button, or by using the New Note hotkey. (Configure that in the settings dialogue) The editor window will open when a new note is created. The first line of text in the editor is used as the note's 'name' and can be searched from the manager. The up/down arrow icon on the bottom right-ish of the editor window can toggle on the 'always on top' option traditional sticky notes have.
After adding text, the note editor can be dismissed by using the standard close button, or pressing escape. The note content is automatically saved when you do this. The newly created note will now appear in the manager. Click the column headers to sort the list of notes; or enter some filter text to search the list.
To delete a note: click the delete link in the editor, the right click menu in the manager, or press delete in the manager. Note: If an empty note (nothing in the textbox) is closed/dismissed, the file will automatically be deleted as well.
If you have grep installed, the 'Grep' button will run the filter text as an extended regular expression on the contents of each note. You can get a grep.exe for windows from unixutils. Just put grep.exe in a %PATH% folder, like system32; or just in the same folder as notes.exe.
Sync: It's easy to use an external tool, like BitTorrent Sync or Dropbox, to synchronized notes between computers. Just share/link the 'savedNotes' folder that is created in the program folder on each computer. The notes manager will automatically update when any changes are made to this folder; so unless you edit the same note at the same time on two computers, everything should work fine.
Note Manager Keyboard Shortcuts:
- [Enter] Open the note
- [Delete]: Delete the note
- [Ctrl+A]: Select all notes
- [Ctrl+C]: Copy selected note(s) content to clipboard
- [Ctrl+O]: Open selected note(s) in the external text editor, ie: 'let me use a full-featured editor.'
Note Editor Keyboard Shortcuts:
- [Escape] Dismiss the editor
- [Ctrl+D]: Delete the note
- [Ctrl+S]: Save the note to an external location (basically 'Save As Copy...')
- [Ctrl+O]: Open the note in the external text editor.
- [Ctrl+T]: Togggle the editors 'always on-top' status; making it more like a traditional sticky note.
- [F2]: Insert timestamp.
- [F3]: Show frind pane. Escape hides it.
- [F4]: Togggle the minimal UI 'sticky-mode'.
Command Line Usage:
- -startHidden If an instance of the program is not already running, starts the program and immediately hides it.
- -newNote Opens a new note.
ChangeLog
Version 1.6; 2020-03-11
- Added: sticky mode: an utra-minimal editor display. Experimental and can currently only be tried out by hitting F4 in an editor window.
- Added: command to insert the current date&time. Use F2 or the editor's context menu for this.
- Added: -newNote command line arg to create a new note.
- Changed: in the editor's context menu: the 'make top-most' command has been moved to the command menu with a visible link on the bottom row (the up or down arrow)
- Changed: Version info now stored in the assembly properties.
- Fixed: bug in hotkey assignment with certain keys.
Version 1.5; 2020-01-10
- Changed: Now we try to use the best available version of the richedit textbox; this should be a universal performance boost for very large notes.
- Changed: In-note search now defaults to 'from the beginning' instead of 'from the cursor'.
- Fixed: When saving a note as a text file, the title is now sanitized to replace invalid characters before being sent to the 'save as' dialogue.
- Fixed: semi-rare regression introduced in last version were deleted notes would hang around in the list.
- Fixed: More reliable focusing of the editor window when using the 'new note' hotkey.
Version 1.4; 2019-08-28
- Added: Search feature in individual notes. Toggle the search panel via the magnifying-glass link on the note editor. Related keys: press F3 or ctrl-f to show the search panel (or run a search if the panel is already open)
- Added: Now remembering the caret position in closed note editors.
- Added: Accelerator keys on context menus
- Fixed: Bug in save file dialog.
Version 1.3; 2017-01-02
- Fixed: regression where moving an editor window would sometimes discard unsaved changes.
- Added: Better handling of notes that are modified externally (ie: in sync apps). Also these notes will now have their modification dates bolded as a notification of the change, instead of popping up.
- Added: Manager hotkeys; F3 toggles focuses between the filter textbox and the note list. Enter on the filter text now focuses the list and selects the 1st note.
- Added: Editor hotkey; ctrl+t toggles always-on-top.
- Changed: Better hide on startup. (Window no longer flashes)
- Changed: UI tweaks.
Version 1.2; 2016-12-06
- Added: Undo/Redo context menu items to note editor.
- Added: 'New Note' command to tray icon context menu.
- Added: Editor window position is remembered (saved via ntfs alternate data-stream in the text file)
- Added: Text Drag/Drop enabled to/from the note editor.
- Added: Drag/Drop of whole notes to/from the Notes Manager (converts to file or text as appropriate).
- Added: "Open in Editor" setting and commands added, opens the note in a user-specified (or default) text-editor. Closes the note's editor window if it's open.
- Added: UI change; editor commands (links along the bottom) now collapse if the note is too small to show them all. Also 'last saved' time moved to a tooltip, since autosave means it shouldn't matter.
- Changed: Back to old icon. Apparently several other apps using the one we appropriated.
- Fixed: Potential issue on note creation.
Version 1.1; 2016-11-27
- Added: Option to make a note the topmost window. (In note context menu)
- Added: Option to linkify URL's (in settings)
- Added: Grep button & search handling.
- Added: New Editor hotkeys: ctrl+s (save note to) ctrl+d (delete note)
- Added: Note manager list sort is remembered.
- Fixed: Three character titles should be OK.
- Changed: Updated Settings Code, plus new window placement code.
- Changed: UI Tweaks; (Apparently I hate borders now.)
- Changed: New Icon.
Version 1.0; 2015-10-27
- Refactored using new template.
- CHANGED: Using a listview with sortable columns rather than a treeview. Grouping notes should be done by adding text to the names instead of adding directories: eg: create a note called 'shopping.groceries', instead of 'shopping' inside the 'groceries' group. Then use filtering instead of opening/closing groups.
Version .1; 2010-06-07
- Initial version.
License Information
This software includes code or resources from the following sources:
Some Hotkey code by Ashley van Gerven
Licensed under the terms of: The Code Project Open License (CPOL) 1.02Host icon grabber routine by Sergey Stoyan
Licensed under the terms of: The Code Project Open License (CPOL) 1.02Additional icon code by Steve McMahon
Licensed under the terms of: vbAccelerator Software LicenseIcon derived from work by Mazenl77
Licensed under the terms of: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
This software is distributed as-is, without any representations or warranties of any kind.
The author of this software imposes no additional license terms or limits upon its use or redistribution.
Feedback/Bugs
Send to utils@cresstone.com
App Website
DocumentId: b5b3323e4d559fef51da1e994154f9f4e2a505f2
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