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The software I take everywhere

One of the first things I do when I get a new PC after starting in a new contract is to add the little software utitlities I can't live without. Here are some of them.

If you've got something you use that's a must-have let us all know about it using the comment form.

Green Parrot's Action Outline:

How many times have you cut some text/code in to the clipboard planning on using it later and then accidentely overwritten it by copying something else and thus losing the original code? I seem to do it all the time and, as far as I know, there is no way back.

What I used to do to avoid this is have "temporary" .txt files on my Desktop and place code in to these. The trouble is that this is time-consuming and messy. What we need is a handy little tool that we can use to quickly paste lots of text, adding them all in to distinct categories so that we can quickly find them again. All hail Action Outline, our saviour.

This handy little tool lives in the System Tray as a little icon. You can configure it like I have so that pressing something like Windows Key + A opens it up. You can then paste text in and simply press Escape to save the content and minimize it back in to the tray area. Whenever you need to get some of this text back you simply open it up again and there it is.

screenshot

This is not the only way you can use it. As it happens, I am using it right now to write this article before I bother to login to codestore and start to pretty it up. I use it for alsorts! Give it time and I'm sure you all will too.

Moon Software's Multimedia Explorer:

If you've got loads of different gif and jpeg files knocking around your hard drive whose file names mean absolutley nothing and you have to open them all the time to remind you what they are then this is the tool for you.

Multimedia Explorer is kind of like Windows Explorer in appearance apart from that it only shows you multimedia files and has a window that lets you view the file.

I can't live without it and it is usually one of the first programs I install on a new pc. Try it here:

http://www.moonsoftware.com/

BradSoft's TopStyle:

I'd never managed to find a decent Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) editor until I found TopStyle.

The program has been written by the bloke who left Allaire, after writing HomeSite for them.

The fact that I shelled out the money to buy it is proof enough of its worth and indeed quality.

Try it for yourself: http://www.bradsoft.com

Ethereal:

Ethereal is a TCP/IP analysis tool. Specify any valid domain name and port number and it will monitor all traffic between that domain name and your machine.

This allows you to see packets of information as they pass through. Spy sessions can be saved and loaded for off-line viewing.

Why? Good question! Well apart from giving a Domino developer an interesting glimpse at what is going on behind the scenes it can also come in useful when something weird starts to happen. I've only ever found it truly useful once or twice but, when you do use it, it can save hours of pulling at your hair.

You can read more about it and download it here


Feedback

  1. Alternative to Action Outline

    A little alternative to Action Outline, especially taking into account, that developers are keen to get rid of MS Notepad anyway.

    NoteTab Light (www.notetab.ch) is a full-blown free editor with an incredible bunch of features. The one I want to put emphasis on, is it's ability to act as (what they call) pasteboard. Everything you copy to the clipboard goes to the currently opened document instead (you can toggle this function using a keyboard shortcut, of course). This makes even more sence, as NoteTab can edit multiple docs at the same time. Plus it can be configured to minimize to the system tray (if desired) and it can even be set up to trap calls to Notepad without fiddeling with file associations or similar stuff. (Requires renaming of one file on W2k though due to WFP).

    I simply love this one, it's sureley the one prog I can't do without.

    1. Re: Alternative to Action Outline

      Looks interesting but I couldn't get the whole clipboard functionality to work at all ;-(

      OT a little but I always wondered why Switzerland has the ccTLD .ch. What do the Swiss call Switzerland? In French is Suisse and in German it's Schweiz. Looking at [<a href="http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm">this</a>] is see .su is available and that .sc has been taken by the Seychelles.

      Anyway, enough nonsense, I think my favourite Notepad variant, that I neglected to add to the original list, is still TextPad.

      http://www.textpad.com

      And that one's British ;-)

      Jake

      Show the rest of this thread

    • avatar
    • Jaap
    • Fri 1 Mar 2002

    The tool I can work with...

    notepad

    1. Re: The tool I can work with...

      For keeping all my Copies and Cuts I use a utility called ClipMate (http://www.thornsoft.com). You simply copy anything and your copy is then saved into ClipMate. It sits in the system tray and you retrieve from there. I like it a lot.

      One problem is that it doesn't keep formulas for computed text or any fields, if I retrieve them from ClipMate.

      Show the rest of this thread

  2. Recommended

    About 8 months ago I bought Action Outline after Jakes recommendation on this site and I can honestly say its the second most usefull thing I have ever bought. I store all my predefined functions and agent skeletons, contact lists. If I dont have the software installed I can still read the information from the file as its just a structured text file.

    As an API hobby I am currently looking into hooking it directly into the Notes IDE to use it like TeamStudio Code snippets.

    In case your wondering the most usefull thing I ever bought and still use is my Libretto.

    Check it out. (as a Domino.Doc developer once said. That me)

  3. Useful Freeware stuff I use

    HTML Kit - Freeware HTML editor, best of the bunch. (www.chami.com)

    IrfanView - Quick, simple and small. Great for thumbnails and for converting jpgs to gifs to bmps to whatever. Search Google for it, I can't remember the specific site.

    1. Re: Useful Freeware stuff I use

      I agree - the VERY first thing I install on a new PC (after virus protection, of course) is IrfanViewer. I've used it since before 386 chips came out! I started using it because it was free, but I've continued to use it because it is - bar none - the finest app of it's kind available.

      • avatar
      • Glen
      • Thu 26 Jan 2006

      Re: Useful Freeware stuff I use

      The URL for IFRAN is:

      http://www.irfanview.com/

      I use this all the time... really a great utility and it's FREE.

      Great for making slide shows from a batch of pictures.

  4. I've changed my Designer page to...

    I've modified my BOOKMARK.NSF

    1. Oops! (hit by mistake!)

      I've modified my BOOKMARKS.NSF by replacing the designerwelcome page with a bitmap of the "Domino Objects for Lotusscript" object map. Then I added hotspots to link each box to the appropriate page in the Designer Help database.

      Now I've got my object map with me at all times, and I can browse the methods and properties of any object by just clicking on that object.

      (I showed this to an Irii at Lotusphere '99, and now I see that it's been built into R6!)

      Show the rest of this thread

  5. Use XaraWebStyle www.Xara.com

    perfect software and relative cheap !

      • avatar
      • Scot
      • Mon 18 Mar 2002

      Re: Use XaraWebStyle www.Xara.com

      I agree. This is a great piece of software that makes the task of creating graphics very quick.

  6. this functionality must be available in...

    Notes R7...

    http://www.globalscape.com/download/cutesitebuilder.shtml

    The product is called "Trellix v4.0" and will amaze you...actually it doesn;t have to do with this subject "developer tools" but I couldn't keep this under the bush...;-))))

  7. HomeSite as HTML editor

    A good HTML editor is a must have. For me, the weapon of choice is HomeSite. It doesn't add any extraneous coding, it has colour-coding of tags and consistent indenting which helps with maintenance, automatically creates closing tags, includes lots of features like code validators, sweepers to tidy up coding, etc and of course integrates perfectly with TopStyle for creating CSS. I create all my page designs in HomeSite and get them to work before cutting them up for Notes.

  8. What about javascript?

    Since i'm just starting to learn javascript (i know, better late then never), i whas thinking, is there some nice javascript compiler on the market, next to notepad? Like the designer, it shows errors and wrong syntax, is there a tool like this for javascript ?

    thanks in advance, Johan.

    1. Re: What about javascript?

      I've search around the web and found this piece of software that could be useful to you :

      Platypus JavaScript Editor

      Allthough I haven't tried it yet myself, it looks to be what you are looking for. Here's a link to the web site : http://www.c-point.com/pjedit.htm

      Regards, JM

  9. Screenshot solution

    Preparing screenshots is never fun. But it sure is made easier with a good, SIMPLE program like SmartCapture.

    www.desksoft.com

    It does everything I need it to do. It doesn't try to do too much more than that. The UI is very clean, consistent, and follows Windows conventions. (I hate it when *developers* try to be designers and get creative with the UI.) It is not free, but is inexpensive and well worth it.

      • avatar
      • Lee
      • Fri 20 Sep 2002

      Re: Screenshot solution (free, videos too!)

      Here's a freeware screenshot tool that I think is truly wonderful.

      www.mirekw.com

      The developer accepts donations, and once this bloody economy improves, he's getting a beer a minimum from me. This tool even doubles as a quick n dirty image viewer, just point it at a folder full of files.

      - - - - - - - -

      If you need to record the screen to make videos, try CamStudio. It's Free, and also wonderful!

      www.atomixbuttons.com/vsc

      But note while it works superbly, it only makes very large .AVI files. You'll probably want to compress them, stream them, etc. Look at Quicktime pro from Apple, for about $30. It'll convert and make the files you'll want to end up with.

      A slightly higher end solution is Squeeze from Sorenson, which can batch compress a set of different file sizes for various bandwidths, and formats. It even supports batch uploading to vcast, a $25 per month streaming, global ISP (users get feeds from a strategically local efficient streaming media server).

      Uh, maybe Sorenson opens only Quicktime and not .AVI directly. I can't remember. Your mileage may vary.

      But lo, I digress.

  10. Here's another one

    Another very small program that I tend to always install is called Eydropper. It is just a little program that sits in your task bar. You double click it and a small window will follow your mouse and tell you the RGB, HEX, CMYK and X, Y values of what your mouse is over, down to the pixel. The newer version has the ability to customize the data it shows in the window. And the best thing is, like Sizer, it is totally free. Here is the link:

    http://eyedropper.inetia.com/HTML/eng/default.asp

    Regards, Will DeLano

    1. Re: Here's another one

      The problem with Eyedropper is, that the readings are not correct. Close, but not exact.

      This was true at least in V. 1.0.0.1. Don't know if it has been fixed in the meantime (our firewall won't let me access the link at the moment...).

  11. Excellent Network Tool.... CyberKit

    CyberKit is perfect for those of us sick to death of DOS Ping, TraceRoute, NSLookup etc.

    It allows you to do continuous pings with custom delays, port scanning, pop mail check and many other things.

    And it's free!

    http://www.cyberkit.net

    Cheers, Chris.

  12. www.sysinternals.com NTFS Boot disk

    I have posted this elsewhere before but what the hell...

    "For total control checkout

    www.sysinternals.com

    I have never seen so may usefull free programs in one place.

    Process Explorer is awesome for killing processes.

    There also other utilities for remotely starting and killing processes. Creating NTFS boot disks. Always wanted to boot an Windows 2000/NT Server in command line mode. Recovering files after they have been removed from the recycle bin. It just goes on and on. "

    1. Re: www.sysinternals.com NTFS Boot disk

      Problem with NTFSDOS. The saga follows and hopefully someone can explain how to remedy.

      Here is my problem hope someone can help or let me know what is messed up.

      I have a P4 2.4 Ghz system with three hard drives: C = 80 gig D = 80 gig E = 120 gig

      Under W2K I can run and see all drives, folders and files. However, when I experiment with NTFSDOS after using the command.com from Win98 to boot the system NTFSDOS only sees the physical D and E drives. It mounts the D as C and the E as D. As a further test in the I went to the bios and removed the D and E drives. Next rebooted the system and ran NTFSDOS. After NTFSDOS ran it said there were no NTFS volumes on the computer.

      I boot from a floppy and no matter what the physical c is never recognized as a NTFS drive even though W2K and PM8 both say NTFS. No errors reported by PM8(partition magic).

      I have even had a friend come over with an NTFSDOS floppy.

      His configuration is NTFSPRO

      Sitting on his floppy are the following files: Command.com Drvspace.bin himem.sys msdos.sys NTSKRNL.gz NTFS.gz license.bin NTFSPRO.exe

      We know the NTFSDOS works because it sees my physical D and E drives as NTFS volumes.

      Does anyone have any suggestions please post or email me.

      Thanks

    • avatar
    • curtis kuhn
    • Wed 6 Mar 2002

    3D Clipboard stores multiple cuts/copies

    I recently got a new machine and made a similar list of utilities I need to get by on a daily basis. One that I really like, and maybe you will too, is 3D clipboard. It saves a configurable number of cuts/copies to its clipboard and then allows you to grab them later on. It lives in the system tray and can be configured to load when your computer boots up. It also saves the step of pasting code/text/pictures somewhere as to not lose them. I downloaded it from downloads.com, one of the many cnet sites.

    http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-1475091-100-897952.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103 -1.lst-7-1.897952

  13. My Must Have Software Toolkit

    For a Notepad replacement, I enjoy using EditPlus; http://www.editplus.com. In addition to being a great text editor, this program can be used to write Javascript, Lotusscript, VisualBasic, etc. Some very useful features are: text sorting; word wrap; line numbering; the ability to open multiple files, identified with top or bottom tabs.

    I used to be a diehard Ecco fan, but had to search for something else for storing bits of information (I switched to Outlook for contacts, calendaring, and tasks). I recently came across a great program called Treepad Pro; http://www.treepad.com. Like Action Outline, Treepad Plus uses a tree structure in the left pane, with the content of "nodes" showing in the right pane. Text can be formatted as plain text or rich text, and graphics and scanned images can be stored within nodes. The program is constantly updated with new features. A great bargain for the money.

    Ives Development puts out a good utility for examining differences between design elements and code, but it is overkill if all you want to do is compare a script or two. I found a great tool to help me out when comparing text-based information. The program is called ExamDiff Pro; http://www.prestosoft.com. I'm currently in the middle of a major design upgrade, requiring the migration of existing data into the new design. I used ExamDiff Pro to compare field values between different test migration runs to ensure that fields and their values were being properly migrated into the new design.

    1. Ecco

      As my whole life is in Ecco, can you tell me a little bit more about how Treepad compares? Things i like about Ecco are true context categorizing of item under other items, speed, ability to store objects etc..

      thanks!

  14. We all have our favorites

    And another opinion...

    After reading this I tested Action Outline a couple of days, and then bought it without hesitation. Now I´m using it all the time. I just love the simplicity and it´s plain design (away with those ugly folder icons :-). Everything goes into this program - codepieces, new ideas, appointments (put in a scheduler and A.O. will be perfect), internet links with description of what information the sites offer, ....

    For the notepad-type application <a href="http://www.winedtt.com">WinEdt</a> is a personal favorite (Don´t let the awfull design of their homepage scare you off). It´s GUI is nice and smooth, and you can change it to whatever fits your needs from a wide range of actions.

    Originally this editor was primarily used for editing LaTeX documents, but now you can create HTML pages and much more.

    For viewing pictures <a href="http://www.acdsee.com">ACDSee</a> is my number one choice. This program is fast, highly configurable and easy to use. That right-click on a folder, and "Browse with ACDSee" often comes in handy.

    Cheerios, Mathias

  15. Best Cliupboard utility I know....

    is xrayz (www.xrayz.co.uk) ClipCache Plus - everything (text, graphics, the lot) you put on the clipboard gets added to the db in ClipCache, and you can get everything back! any time! even supports hotkey macros etc. (I use Ctrl+L to write @DbLookups these days)

    Mark

      • avatar
      • Glen
      • Thu 26 Jan 2006

      Re: Best Cliupboard utility I know....

      I use ClipBoard Recorder... great little utility and the best feature is that it's FREE

      You can download it at:

      http://www.lw-works.com/

    • avatar
    • Andy
    • Wed 12 Jun 2002

    Don't forget Notes Medic

    For me THE most useful app when developing in Domino is the Notes Medic by Cassetica.

    http://www.cassetica.com/cassetica/notesmedic.asp?

    This little baby gets rid of any lingering notes files every time it crashes meaning you no longer have to completly reboot your pc after each crash. Something that has saved me hours.

    Andy

    1. Re: Don't forget Notes Medic

      Don't forget not to give them your proper email address when you register to download it either.

      For those who don't know - they have/had a trojan on their server (or so they claim) that intercepted the addresses of all mail they sent. So when they mail their "customers" to thank them for downloading the product they are introducing them to the kiddy-porn spammers. Not good!

      Nice bit of software though, apart from that ;o)

      Jake

  16. Virtual PC

    Vitual PC

    www.connectix.com

    You have to check this product out.

    It lets you install and run multiple Operating Systems on one PC without repartitioning your hard disk. Each OS in contained in one file on your host OS. You can even copy them.

    e.g. I am typing this on a windows xp machine while simultaneously installing Red Hat Linux.

    Each OS can be run at the same time and they can communicate with each other as though they are networked.

    This is ideal for testing environments. You dont need multiple PC's and you can roll back to basic OS install by copying one file.

    I can finally try out Linux without trashing my Window XP installation.

    Fan-bloody-tastic.

    A friend of mine currently has a Windows 2000 PC running, BSDUnix, Solaris 8, Suse Linus, Red Hat Linux at the same time. Bit slow though but it can be done.

  17. A handy image editing tool

    Try this

    http://harmware.com/sTile.htm

    • avatar
    • Paul
    • Thu 14 Aug 2003

    Pixie

    Check out Pixie by http://www.nattyware.com/?m.

    I use TopStyle and a few of the software items mentioned but this little gem is great. Pixis simply tells you what color something is on your screen. It provides HEX, HTM, RGB, CMYK, and HSV. Its very small and serves a simple purpose and does it well.

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Author: Jake Howlett
Category: Miscellaneous
Keywords: Clipboard; Images; TCP; IP;

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