Notecase Pro v3.1.8 was just released.

Major changes in this release:

- numerous bug fixes
- experimental support to record audio notes (stored as attachment of the note)
- support to play audio files attached to the document note
- support to import XMind document format (http://www.xmind.net)
- many new Lua methods added
- add "Clipboard Monitor" menu item to the tray icon menu
- support quick search mode within a List Pane too
- you can now select an icon in icon list of the Icon Select window by quickly typing the letters of its name
- tagging feature in now enabled in the unregistered version too
- Chinese Traditional translation updated (work by Richard Sun)
- Romanian translation updated (work by Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu)
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- help file updates (work by Paul Merrell)

For a complete list of changes in release 3.1.8, see change log at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php
You can find your NoteCase Pro packages at: http://virtual-sky.com/download.php

An interview

I just got interviewed regarding my NoteCase Pro project by www.FamousWhy.com

You can read the interview at:
http://download.famouswhy.com/publisher/miroslav_rajcic/

Notecase Pro v3.1.2 released

Major changes in this release:

- numerous bug fixes
- created new license type (single OS, valid for lifetime)
- new build for Open Pandora Linux
- support to set custom font, text and background colors for the note title (available through the Node Properties dialog)
- support to highlight all search matches in the current document (plain text search only)
- support to use boolean search and regex when searching in note tags too
- integrate theme/gui font selector to change the global program looks ("Configure Notecase Pro" window > "Display" page)
- Windows 32bit installer now ships with large number of GTK themes (allowing for styling the looks of the program in a wide variety of ways)
- support to import Keepnote file format
- created new document event "Post note inserted"
- option to select a folder as a link target in the Link Properties window
- Find window has two new search targets: "Current Node's Children only", "Current Node's Descendants only"
- new Lua scripts implementing these features: get note ID, copy hyperlink to note on the clipboard, copy List Pane notes as a list of hyperlinks to clipboard, write current crash log content to the file
- Romanian translation updated (work by Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu)
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- help file updates (work by Paul Merrell)
- French translation updated (work by Henri Spagnolo)

For a complete list of changes in release 3.1.2, see change log at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php.

Notecase Pro v3.0.9 released

Major changes in this release:

- numerous bug fixes
- new OS X installer with GTK embedded (no more separate GTK install) and better OS integration
- support for Maemo 5 PR1.2 build
- Fedora 13 i386/x86_64 and Arch 64bit packages
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- Romanian translation updated (work by Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu)
- help file updates (work by Paul Merrell)
- add: new action to clone entire branch
- numerous Nokia Maemo 5 build improvements including kinetic scrolling and some GUI layout redesigns
- add: improve OPML import/export by adding support for OPML values used by Projekt program from www.kylom.com (_category1, _category2, _date, _status)
- Dutch translation updated (work by Lennart Aangeenbrug)

For a complete list of changes in release 3.0.9, see: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php.

New Notecase Pro v3.05 has been released!

Highlights:
- Clipboard Monitoring mode to automatically grab new clipboard contents into the current document (as a new note)
- added approximately 100 new internal icons that can be used through the Icon Picker window
- Icon Picker Dialog now can list icons in an arbitrary directory
- support to use internal icon as the Toolbar Button icon ("Configure Toolbar" window)
- import Palm Memo file format (tab delimited text export format having note contents as the first field and categories as the second field; .palm extension required)
- RTF export now supports note numbering option in "Configure Notecase Pro" window ("Export" page)
- correctly scale pictures embedded in imported RTF document
- "Add Marked Nodes to List" menu item to fill the List Pane with marked items from Tree Pane
- "Clear List" option to clear the List Pane contents
- help file updates (work by Paul Merrell)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

The new release v3.0.1 is out!

Downloads are now available at http://www.virtual-sky.com/download.php
If you are using Windows build, it is highly recommended to uninstall previous version before installing the new one
(GTK layout was changed).

Major news are:
- add: added support to import images embedded into the RTF
- fix: change default GTK theme on Windows from "Raleigh" to "MS-Windows" (better looking one)
- add: support to export images from Notecase document into RTF (embedded images)
- add: support to import HTML files
- help file updates (work by Paul Merrell)
- fix: make Windows installer work even for restricted users (not having Administrator rights), program suggests different install folder for this install mode
- add: new build targets OpenSuse 11.2 64bit and Arch Linux 2009.08 32bit
- changed the Windows installers to copy GTK libraries directly into the app folder, Notecase does not use launcher applications anymore (for portable mode start with "notecase.exe --portable")
This should make the program less vulnerable to so called "DLL hell"
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- updated GTK for Win32 to latest version 2.20.0
- add: new Lua script to change Read-Only flag to entire branch under currently selected note ("24_SetBranchReadOnly.lua")
- add: tags that are assigned to the currently selected note are now painted with underlined text in the Tags Pane
- optimize saving a Sqlite based document (cca 7% faster now)
- fix: when dropping a single image file into the text view, insert the picture into the note text instead of adding it as an attachment
- add: double-clicking the note in the tree view shows Note Properties window (clicking the icon still shows the icon selector window)
- add: experimental Windows 7 integration code for adding recent files list into program's jump list
- fix: use device's Volume up/down keys on Nokia Maemo platform to enter/exit full screen mode
- add: use accelerometer chip information on Nokia Maemo v5 platform to adapt application window to current device orientation (portrait/landscape)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

For those not being in the loop, here are some online resources related to NoteCase Pro:

a) Google group http://groups.google.com/group/notecase-pro
converse with other users, post support requests and feature suggestions

b) Twitter http://twitter.com/NotecasePro
tracks the development of program

c) Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Notecase/151626410312?ref=mf
consider enlisting as a fan of Notecase, or read some news

As always any feedback is welcome.

PS. Few additional news:
I am working on a OS X Snow Leopard installer, there is an experimental build available that uses GTK build with Quartz support (no X11 server needed), feedback if higly welcome.
It requires installing GTK from: http://notecase.sourceforge.net/temp/gtk2-2.18.8.dmg
Then, the Notecase is installed from: http://notecase.sourceforge.net/temp/notecase_pro-3.0.0.dmg

Another news is that I would like to start deprecating support for really old distros like
Fedora Core 6 and 7 and Ubuntu 6 and 7. If someone is using one of these let me know.

The new NoteCase Pro release v2.9.8 is out!

Downloads are now available at http://www.virtual-sky.com/download.php

Major news are:
- option to perform auto-save directly to the main document file (as opposed to using a temporary crash-protection copy)
- improved RTF export adding support for bulleted list, hyperlinks, text color and text background color
- support for one-click installation on Nokia Maemo (using .install file pointing to the apt-get repository)
- new build targets: Centos 5.4 x86_64, Debian 5.0.4 i386 and amd64
- GTK for Windows 32bit upgraded to version 2.18.7, for Windows 64bit build upgraded to version 2.18.6
- updated translations for Croatian, Romanian, German and French language (many thanks for all volunteer translators)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always any feedback is welcome.

Notecase related article/review

I've just spotted a flattering review of Notecase.
The author prefers Notecase to highly popular Evernote.

You can read the article at:
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/69354.html

Notecase Pro v2.9.6 released

The new release is out!
Downloads are now available at http://www.virtual-sky.com/download.php

Major news are:
- implemented text search mode using logical operators (example "friend AND NOT (Bob OR Jack)" )
- RTF export support (WARNING: still experimental, missing support for fonts, colors, bullets, links)
- two new Lua scripts implementing loading/writing note text to the predefined file (linked file name is stored in the note as its custom property named "ExportFile"). This enables users to keep the code snippets in the note and to quickly dump them to the predefined file.
- 475 TIMES faster first-time save to .ncdb file format
- speed up paste text action with "automatic links recognition" option switched on (from 40sec to 0sec for 600kB test file)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

New release

Hi everyone,

I've just released Notecase Pro v2.9.4.

Important info for Windows (x86) users:
please uninstall and make sure the files of the old version of the program are removed before doing new install. This is needed because new version uses latest GTK v2.18 instead of the older v2.16.

Another important news is that since this version, installed Notecase Pro will work even if you did not registered your copy. The unregistered version (called "Lite") will have some advanced features locked, but the program will be usable allowing the user to save the document into the .ncz file format (other formats can be loaded, but they can be saved back only as .ncz).
Feature comparison table will be online tomorrow.

News:

- important bug fixes (major changes related to Maemo and Win64 platforms and bulleted lists)
- new "Add Node to List" method adds the selected node in a Tree Pane into the List Pane
- created builds for Gentoo (Sabayon) Linux distro (with great help with testing and editing .ebuild file by Christoph Zauner)
- List Pane now also supports node marking
- created "Remove Marked Nodes From List" command for List Pane only (context menu)
- when loading Sqlite based file format, warn user if the file is fragmented (fragmentation higher than 15%)
- help file updates (work by Paul Merrell)
- approximately 80% faster save operation for .ncd/.nce/.ncz formats
- French translation updated (work by Pierrick Pinot)
- add: free (unregistered) version, add message box on startup: "Some features are disabled unless and until you have registered ..."
- fix: changed "Section" field value for Maemo .deb package to "user/office"
- fix: assign Alt+Up Arrow and Alt+Down Arrow keyboard shortcuts for navigating between the panes that appear in the Tree Pane column (Tree/List, Tags, Attachments).
- it is now possible to see a list of pending tasks through "View"/"Pending Tasks"
- fix: support to open document files when clicked in File Manager on Nokia Maemo platform
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- fix: "optify" the package for Maemo platform (using "/opt" as installation prefix) to save space on root partition
- redirect GTK warnings/errors into the NoteCase Pro crash log

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

PS. Mandriva 64bit and Gentoo packages will be released tomorrow.

Notecase Pro v2.9.1 release

I am now uploading the latest Notecase Pro release

News:

- some important bug fixes
- save algorithm for .ncd/.nce/.ncz formats is now 60x faster (from 30:35.500 to 29.546 on 75MB test file)
- help file improvements (work by Paul Merrell)
- new "Save all on minimize" option to save changes for every document when program is minimized
- Lua script that takes a list of tags from clipboard (one tag per line) and adds them to the current note
- support to store custom properties (name+value strings) in the document file (per-document or per-note properties)
- support to abort loading html based format files (.ncd, .nce, .ncz)
- crash log for Linux now includes crash backtrace in the log
- support aborting the "List all notes" operation

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

Moblin build

I am looking into creating a support for Moblin based Linux distros.
Is any of Notecase Pro users using Moblin on his/her netbook PC ?

I could use some help with testing so give me a mail if you are interested :)

Notecase Pro v2.8.8 has just been released

Some highlights:

- many important bug fixes
- support for Nokia Maemo 5 OS (Nokia N900)
- node icon is now clickable, double click allows quick change of icon
- implemented node attachment view (with context menu and accepting dropped files)
- saving to .ncd/.nce file now has a proper progress (instead of old "pulsing" progress)
- new "Copy Node Only" action enables user to copy the selected note to clipboard without its children
- many new Lua functions with sample scripts implementing new features:
sample Lua script to fill List Pane with notes who have at least one tag shared with the currently selected note
sample Lua script to sort the selected note text lines
sample Lua script to fetch tags of a current note and put them to clipboard as text, one tag per line
sample Lua script to copy all tags from all notes listed in List Pane to the clipboard
sample Lua script to Mark All Done Nodes
- Romanian translation updated (work by Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu)
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- help file improvements (work by Paul Merrell)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

Now on Twitter too

If you want to stay updated (almost real-time) on the development of Notecase Pro,
feel free to track my new Twitter stream at: http://twitter.com/NotecasePro

Notecase Pro v2.8.5 has just been released
Some highlights:

- many important bug fixes
- improved RTF import support (many formatting tags are now imported), Keynote and Treepad format RTF import was improved too (using the same new code)
- new Lua methods to manipulate the List Pane view (a.k.a. flat list view)
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- OpenSolaris build is active again (built using Nexenta StormOS distro)
- Romanian translation updated (work by Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu)
- tag view context menu operation "List Nodes Having Tag" fills the flat list view with notes having the selected tag (double mouse click or pressing Enter in Tag View activates this method)
- tag view context menu operations working with a flat list view ("Tag This List" and "Remove Tag from List"); visible only when flat list view is active
- help file improvements (work by Paul Merrell)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

Price reductions, Notecase Pro v2.7.9 release

Some highlights:
- portable mode for Windows was merged with the main installer (choose standard or portable installation mode in the installer)
- add: implemented "Align justify" formatting option
- add: added a "most recently used" menu for Lua scripts (inside the "Tools" -> "Scripts" submenu)
- add: add two new menu items for context menu when cursor is over the picture: "Cut Image", "Copy Image". Both copy the image to the clipboard (previously only selected image would be copied embedded as part of the HTML using base64 encoding)
- better looking icon selector in the Note Properties window (seletor moved to popup dialog window)
- "Reload License" menu renamed to "Install License", if the program is not installed this feature now shows the file picker dialog for you to load your key file and the program will try to copy it in the required paths
- updated Gstreamer build for windows to the latest version GStreamer-WinBuild-0.10.4-LGPL.exe (prerelease)
- add: implemented per-task option to play a sound file when some task expires (is due)
- French translation updated (work by Pierrick Pinot)
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- Romanian translation updated (work by Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu)
- help file updates (work by Paul Merrell)
- multiple bug fixes

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

Other than program features, important news is the reduction of the program price, in order to generate faster growth of the user base. New prices are lower by cca 20% or more.

Notecase Pro v2.7.6 released

Major highlights of this release:
- 6 - 10 times speed up the file save operation for .ncd/.nce file formats
- drastically lower CPU usage on Linux systems
- formatting Styles feature (apply your custom combination of bold, italic, font, colors, .. to the selected text)
- added "Acknowledge All" and "Snooze All" features for Task Expired dialog
- postpone autosave process by 10 seconds, if the user is currently typing working with the program
- faster find operation when searching by "has attachment" or "is task" flags within the .ncdb file format document
- some fixes to the Windows application launchers, should reduce "dll hell" problems
- help file and tips.en.txt file updates (work by Paul Merrell)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

Notice of absence

I'll be away starting from 18th until 23rd of this month, I am going to Rome, Italy for a vacation.
If you plan to contact me for any reason, please do it few days before or few days after this period.

Thank you for your understanding.

Notecase Pro v2.7.3 released

The new version is out. Mostly concentrated on bug-fixing and speed improvements, but there are some nice new features too.

Some highlights:
- fix: drastically speed up the file save operation for .ncd/.nce file formats (on my test document new save time is cca 20% or the original save time)
- add: new Windows installer concept working similarily to the already existing portable install (advantages: does not change environment variables on the PC, less vulnerable to "dll hell")
- add: dropping the URL on the tree view creates a note that is a hyperlink (previously it created an ordinary note)
- add: Find dialog was enhanced with the option to search in the note contents (text) only
- add: implemented "Remove From List" command in the flat list view context menu (does not delete actual note, just removes it from the flat view)
- add: left click on the save warning label (status bar) starts the file saving operation
- Romanian translation updated (work by Alexandru Bogdan Munteanu)
- add: save reminder in the status bar changes color from gray to red when enough document changes have been accumulated (to remind you it's time to save)
- fix: do not translate the "Insert new node or select an existing one to start typing." string multiple times (should drastically lower CPU usage on Linux)
- fix: greatly improved speed of fetching the image from the internet ("Html contains image links. Do you want to fetch and embed images into the document?")
- moved "Insert symbol" menu command to the "Tools" menu
- honor hoisting when printing the document (only work with notes below the hoist root note)
- fix: "date_last_acknowledged" was not being written back to the document after the task was triggered (caused the already ack. task to be triggered)
- add: implemented "File"/"Document"/"Document compact" menu action that compacts the database-based file format document
- add: added Ini-file key to disable loading gstreamer audio system ("[Startup]" section, "DisableGstreamer=1" key), must be adeed manually, no GUI yet
- add: make flat/tree view column sizes restored on the next application start and when switching between flat and tree view modes

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

User mail problem

For Kouzuki-san: if you are reading this, can you please send me a mail from another account.

I've been trying to send you license key file three times now without success.
Hopefully, another mail account of yours will help me to complete this process.

Notecase article

If you are Japanese user of Notecase or you know Japanese language, here is the link to the online review of Notecase in written in, you can already guess, Nihongo :) .

http://journal.mycom.co.jp/articles/2009/04/01/notcase/index.html

Notecase Pro version 2.7.0 has just been released

Major changes are:
- multiple bug fixes
- add: implement tree view columns (switched on/off through the document tab context menu, columns edited through header context menu)
- help updates (work by Paul Merrell)
- add: draw "completed" notes with strikethrough font in the Flat List View too
- add: show note icons in the Flat List View too
- add: added option to make the note "Completed" from the Flat List View (context menu option, shortcut works too)
- German translation updated (work by Marcus Hennig)
- add: new "List All Notes" feature to make a flat list of all notes in the document
- add: implemented "Delete Document" action (under "File/Document") to close the current document and delete it from disk
- add: new "Is Clone" column for tree view having these states ("", "clone", "clone of current" (currently selected note))
- add: add new task status values "planning" and "waiting", old status "initial" renamed to "not started", old status "normal" renamed to "in progress"
- add: support to search notes by task status property (see "Find" window)
- add: added Lua method to get tags associated with the note (NcDocument_GetNoteTags)
- add: find window can now accept empty date field to search for the notes whose task dates have not been filled in
- add: support to accept dropped URL or web page selection from Firefox both in tree view and text view (Linux only, GTK on Windows still does not have full d'n'd support)
- add: implemented "Go to clone's source node" option in the tree view context menu
- add: new Lua method to insert new document note (NcDocument_InsertNote)
- add: new Lua method to set note contents (NcDocument_SetNoteHtml)
- add: new Lua method to create new document (NcDocuments_New)
- add: new Lua method to save the document to file (NcDocument_Save)
- add: ability to search note by "Is completed" property
- add: added "Invert marked nodes" feature
- add: when making the note "completed", make its task state completed too (if the task exists)
- add: ability to search note by "Is clone" property
- add: add new possible flat list columns: "Status", "Completion Date", "Expire Date", "Node Flags"
- add: implemented "Use block cursor" feature (Options -> Display tab) to draw thicker text view/text entry cursors
- add: added "Up", "Down" buttons to reorder entries in the list of files to be loaded at startup (Options window)
- add: implemented "Save All" feature, to quickly save all modified document with one command
- add: support for hyperlink to the local file stored as a relative path
- add: added "Force icon for attachments" feature to force the clip icon to the notes that have an attachment (user's note selection is not removed, just not temporarily used)
- add: store/restore "Store as relative link" state for new hyperlinks in the .ini file
- add: initial support for importing RTF type of the notes in the Treepad document

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

I am in the process of updating a roadmap page at: http://www.virtual-sky.com/roadmap.php
There you can see major tasks that I would like to implement in this program.

As always feedback is welcome.

PS. Note that some users noticed that Ubuntu .deb when installed on the latest 9.04 beta can end up showing empty list in the File Open window.
It appears that when linking with GnomeVfs library instead of GIO, this problem goes away. That's why I've created yet another build for Ubuntu that explicitly links with GnomeVfs.

Group test: note takers

I've just stumbled upon a nice article (first published in Linux Format magazine) where they compare 6 most popular note taker programs for Linux.

Free version of Notecase got a really nice review and the 8/10 score with the verdict: "The best GTK-based note taking tool around: mature, feature-laden and very snappy in use."
Notecase was placed second in total list (Basket being the first).

You can read the article here.

Notecase Pro 2.6.6 released

I've just released a new Notecase Pro version 2.6.6.

Major changes are:
- faster .ncd/.nce file format saving operation (test document average save time changed from 31sec to 17sec)
- experimental build for 64-bit Windows (looking for testers!)
- if the document title is defined, it will be used as tab title
- added new internal icon ("favorite"-like yellow star)
- new help file update (work by Paul Merrell)
- much faster copy to clipboard of plain text (no formatting links or pictures) document notes (on test PC copying 11MB text note is almost instantaneous)
- using standard File Save dialog (with some usability fixes) for Save As operation
- added "--run" command line switch to enable running a Lua script on start-up
- implemented initial "Send via E-mail" feature (works with OE on Windows, might work on Gnome with gio builds on Linux, does not work on other "platforms")
- loading .ncd document is now much faster (big test document load time changed from 16sec to 7sec)
- support to build Slackware package in its own .tgz format
- support to build Puppy Linux package in its own .pet format (done on Slackware using the tgz2pet script)
- support to reorder document tabs using mouse (drag and drop)
- automatic hyperlink generator now supports "file://" links too
- added support for email hyperlink type (new type in the Link Wizard window)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

PS. Don't forget that you can converse with other NoteCase Pro users, post support requests and feature suggestions, and talk about anything
related to the program by joining the NoteCase Pro user group at <http://groups.google.com/group/notecase-pro> (also linked from the
NoteCase Pro Help menu). You can read archives online or subscribe to receive posts by email.

If you are a Facebook.com user, consider enlisting as a fan of Notecase, or rad some news at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Notecase/151626410312?ref=mf
Additionally, Marco Costanzo opened Facebook group related to his data analisys technique related to Notecase at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56792619209&ref=mf

One more note: if the English is not your native language, consider helping to
translate Notecase Pro to your own language.
You can find more date and information at these pages:
http://www.virtual-sky.com/translations.php
http://www.virtual-sky.com/translating.php

Interesting article

I've just been informed by the authors about the online article titled
100 Free and Useful Portable Apps for College Students

Authors selected 100 best free programs useful to students and the free version of the Notecase is in the list!

Anyway, you might also be interested in other 99 programs, so feel free to take a look at the list.

New release

I've just released the new Notecase Pro version 2.6.3.

This release was almost exclusively concentrated on bug-fixing. The new release should be more stable, and taking much less RAM memory when doing the export operation.

Additionally, major news in a complete help file redesign, thanks to the great work by Paul Merrell. Thank you Paul.

Next version should also concentrate on removing some issues with bulleted list. Additionally, there are plans to finally integrate Gstreamer library in order to add initial support to play audio from within the program.

You can read detailed list of changes online at:
http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always feedback is welcome.

Don't forget that you can converse with other NoteCase Pro users, post support requests and feature suggestions, and talk about anything related to the program by joining the NoteCase Pro user group at (also linked from the NoteCase Pro Help menu). You can read archives online or subscribe to receive posts by email.

How to handle dependencies

Recently, Notecase Pro became dependent on a GtkSourceView library in order to implement syntax highlighting and a few other cool features.
Slight problem is that the program requires at least version 2.4.1 of this library, because it fixes a crash when the library needs to display a picture inside the note.
The problem is that many distros still offer the old versions of the library, for example Ubuntu is still stuck at 2.2.2 which is not good for us.
Windows installer for Notecase Pro comes with this library already prepared for you, so there is not problem there.

To resolve the problem on Linux, you need to compile this library by hand. Here are the steps (adapted for Ubuntu):

• download the library sources (see website link above) and unpack them
• open the terminal application and go to the sources directory
• execute these 3 commands: "./configure", "make", "sudo make install"

Note that if you are missing some dependency for the library, you'll get notified in the configure phase. In that case, install the required dependency and repeat the 3 commands written above.

Once the GtkSourceView library is installed, you might need to install the notecase .deb with force option (because you didn't install the .deb for the GtkSourceView library - because it
doesn't exist).

To do this, from the directory with notecase .deb file execute this command (again from within the terminal application):
"sudo dpkg --install --force-all packagename"
(where packagename is the name of the notecase .deb file)

That's it. Now your Notecase Pro should work fine.

New year

I hope everyone had a nice holidays. I know I did.
I've just returned from the vacation, so I am now ready to start preparing the new release.

Not that I didn't do anything though. During the vacation I've fixed some bugs and added support for Bonsai Natara outliner import (as requested by one potential user).

But the best news I've got this morning by mail. Daniel Hertrich managed to get the Notecase Pro installed successfully on OS X 10.5! Thank you Daniel, really great work!

Here is the description from his mail:

All commands entered on Mac OS X Terminal, not X11 terminal.
Precondition: Intel Mac (in my case MacBook) with Mac OS X 10.5.6
(10.5 with all recent online updates as of 2009-01-08).
Internet connection must be active for the procedure.


- Installed XCode tools from the Mac OS X install DVD
- Installed Macports from http://www.macports.org/install.php (use the "Leopard universal" package)
- XQuartz installed (X11-2.3.2.1.dmg from
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki (use the inconspicuous
download link in the "Latest release" section of the page)). XQuartz
is needed because otherwise gtk2 will fail to build
- sudo port -d selfupdate
- sudo port install gtk2
(this takes a while, maybe hours, because it fetches and compiles a
LOT of packages GTK depends on)
- sudo port install dpkg (actually not needed in this scenario, because Notecase cannot be installed from the .deb package anyway due to a packet architecture mismatch: i686-apple-darwin8 (package) vs. i686-darwin (system))
- sudo port install Xrender (this is a library which is needed by Notecase, otherwise it won't start)
- Downloaded tar.gz version of Notecase Pro
- cd /
- sudo tar xvf /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Downloads/notecase_pro-2.5.7.tar (adapt version number)
(Binary is then in: /usr/bin/notecase.x11app)
- sudo ln -s /usr/bin/notecase.x11app /Applications/Notecase.x11app
(This generates an Alias entry in the Applications folder)

Now, you can start Notecase by clicking its entry in "Applications".
When a new version is released, download the tar.gz and do the steps
- cd /
- sudo tar xvf /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Downloads/notecase_pro-X.Y.Z.tar
This will upgrade Notecase to the downloaded version X.Y.Z.

New release

I've just released new Notecase Pro v2.5.7.

Major news:
- syntax highlighting support (only newer distros were compiled to use this)
- optionally show line numbers in the text view
- subscript and superscript text formatting
- "Scripts" / "Register script" window to register up to 10 scripts to be displayed in the scripts menu
- "Scripts" / "Script events" window to register scripts to be automatically executed at the specified program events
- OPML export support
- plain text with tabs file format (import and export)
- "Find and Replace" can now be run globally (over the entire document)
- new .ncz file format (basically it is a compressed form of .ncd file format)
- new link execute code for Nokia platform (I need your feedback on this)
- new Fedora 10 build

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

All builds that were built to include syntax highlighting feature (see if "Node Properties" window has "Source language" combo box) now require that you install gtksourceview library (at least version 2.4.1). It can be found at: http://projects.gnome.org/gtksourceview/index.html

Note that the Solaris build is delayed, distro broke apart while running its package update program. That's why I would like to know if any of you uses Solaris build (the logs show only one download for Solaris).

As always feedback is welcome. I am especially interested in the feedback on the new Maemo code to handle hyperlink clicks.

Additionally, if you are interested in having the program in your own languages, why not contribute a translation? You can find more info on Notecase Pro translation here:
http://www.virtual-sky.com/translating.php
http://www.virtual-sky.com/translations.php

New (last) free Notecase release

I am now in the process of releasing new Notecase v1.9.8.
The major news are:
- syntax highlighting using GtkSourceView library
- text line numbers
- text formatting can now be applied even it there is not text selected
- fixed undo issue

GtkSourceView usage in the code is optional. Not all builds where done with support for GtkSourceView! The reason is simple: some distros are quite old and I couldn't compile GtkSourceView for them. For example, when compiling on Fedora 6, GtkSourceView complained it requires GTK+ >= 2.12.x, but I could not find the newer GTK package for this distro. That's why only newer distros are compiled with this library.

Note that this is my last release of the free Notecase. It's been 4 years since I've started the project, and it was a great experience. I had a great feedback and the project seems to become popular.

As always, the problem is basically my free time. I have less free time than before, and now my time is mostly reserved for my Notecase Pro project. It became more and more hard to maintain two different projects who are growing more and more apart in their code base.

This is my final decision, it's been "cooking" for more than several months now. I won't make any new releases or builds, but you can send me your translation updates, and I'll post the at the project's website.

The beauty of open source is that the source code is here, and anyone can fork and improve the project under a new name.

Anyway, enjoy the new release. My feeling is that I've left the project in decent state and it is pretty usable for all the standard tasks you might want to do with the program.
If you want something more, consider buying Notecase Pro.

Google group for Notecase Pro

As suggested by one of the users (thanks Paul), I've created a Google discussion group for Notecase Pro product.

Here are the essentials:

• Group name: Notecase Pro
• Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/notecase-pro
• Group email address notecase-pro@googlegroups.com
  

Anyone is free to drop by and post the questions.

Off course, you can still mail questions directly to me, the
group is just another channel that can help you to get the answer to your problem.

Notecase Pro v2.5.2

I've just released the latest Notecase Pro v2.5.2.

Major news:
- added text alignment formatting (left, right, center)
- note cloning support (notes sharing the same text and other properties)
- initial automation support through Lua language scripts

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php
As always, your feedback is appreciated.

For the next version, my plans are to concentrate on bugfixing and finishing some started features like Lua scripts, reccurent tasks, ...
Additionally, I'll try to add syntax highlighting through GtksourceView library.

Note that Zaurus build will be delayed, hopefully only by a day, due to some OS problems.

Notecase Pro Scripting

Yesterday, I've added a "proof of concept" support for scripting within the Notecase Pro. You can test the sample application here (warning, this is unofficial release).

Basically, I've integrated well known Lua programming language interpreter (http://www.lua.org), known for its simplicity, speed and small size.

The image above may look ordinary :-), but behind this is a major feature.
Currently, Notecase Pro only exports "MessageBox" function, but on the next release I hope to add export to 10 most useful internal methods for opening/closing the documents, getting document count, ...

I am interested in your feedback.

What kind of script would you write for Notecase ?

Notecase 1.9.7 release

Free, open source version has just been released.

Major new features:
- autoindent (new line is indented on the same position as the line before it)
- Windows portable launcher now passes all its command line arguments directly to the notecase executable
Other changes include bug fixes and translation updates.

I must admit I have less and less free time to invest in the open source version lately :-(

As always feedback one the new version is welcome.

Notecase Pro v2.4.7

I've just released new Notecase Pro v2.4.7.

The news are:
- implemented document outline printing (note titles arranged in a tree)
- greatly improved Knowit import (external links and formatting are now supported)
- undo/redo toolbar buttons now have attached menus (you can now undo more than one step at a time)
- flat list view now supports additional column types (use context menu over the column headers to switch on/off)
- some important bugfixes

Thanks to everyone who helped with reporting the problems or sharing their ideas.

To share some ideas with you, for the next version my plans are to implement two major features: node cloning and text alignment formatting (left, right, center).
These two have been the most wanted features judging by your mails.

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

I am now preparing a free version of Notecase, it should be out within a week.

Syntax coloring

Recently I was contacted by Gerhard Kalab with a wish to support syntax coloring in Notecase. We discussed the idea and the possible implementation, but since I didn't have much time, he implemented this himself.

You can find the sources here. This is a patched notecase v1.9.5 using GtkSourceView instead of the standard GtkTextView as a text displaying widget.

The bad news is that the GtkSourceView crashes when trying to apply the syntax coloring to a note that contains the pictures.

Hopefully, the future versions of this library will have this bug fixed, and the notecase will have both syntax coloring and a margin with line numbers implemented (supported by a new widget library).

Thanks Gerhard for your work!

Notecase Pro v2.4.3 release

This weekend, I've released the new version of the Pro edition.
Clients were notified on time, I just had not enough time to write a blog post on it.

The major news in this version:

- major task management improvements, recurrent tasks are now supported (alarm settings still need to be implemented)
- new "Open associated URL" feature that allows you to connect your public document with some website part (allowing users to easily post the comments on the exact document note)
- many important fixes including printing, undo, copy/paste and HTML export fixes

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

As always I am interested in your feedback, especially from those who run the progam on Nokia devices, since I don't own one (I would like to know if all windows can fit the screen, screenshots welcome).

Many users are now being more active in sending their improvement ideas, so if you have one, don't hesitate :)

Thank you

Yesterday, I got a nice surprise in the form of postal package by Amazon.com. Inside was a book gift from my Amazon wish list, and a "thank you for Notecase" note.

Fiona from Philippines, thank you for a nice gift. You've made my day better :) You haven't left the email, so I am expressing my gratitude here.

Free Notecase v1.9.5 is out

The short story of the new release is following:
bugfixes, lot of new build targets (like OpenSolaris, OpenSuse, Mandriva, Nokia Maemo 2008 v4.1 codename Diablo) translation updates and some nice new features like "Keep on top" and abortable search operation.

Let me know how it works for you.

I am now releasing a new Notecase Pro v2.3.8.

Some news in this version:

- new builds for OpenSuse 10.3, Slackware 12.1, Mandriva 2008 Spring
- added initial support for task management, each note can be a task ("Task Properties" window)
- "Insert Symbol" window to view and insert special characters in the text
- added import plugin support for importing Notekeeper file format (http://tolon.co.uk/notekeeper/)
- change case commands implemented: "To Uppercase", "To lowercase", "Invert Case"
- "Copy marked nodes" action will copy the nodes to clipboard
- drag and drop file in a tree view while holding Shift key allows for easy import of multiple files at once

As always, some bugs were fixed (thanks to all who reported).

As you can see, major news is a task management feature.
Currently it is still considered experimental, having most basic parts implemented (task info input, task expired popup).
I am extremely interested in the feedback regarding the new feature,
and your ideas will shape the new versions of this feature.
I need to know what are your needs in task mangement, any idea of your own, etc.

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

I hope to make a new free version of Notecase in the next 5-7 days.
I hope that all translators will make the work in time ;-).

New Notecase Pro v2.3.4 release

Some news in this version:

- new builds for OpenSolaris, OpenSuse 11 and Nokia Maemo os2008 v4.1 (codename Diablo)
- many changes in "find" window: search by regular expressions, search by date, search by "has attachment", store searches under custom name
- document bookmarks
- when pasting HTML with tags, ask user to use HTTP to fetch and embedd linked images
- "Document Properties" window to view/edit document title
- implemented "Keep on top" menu item to keep Notecase window always on top level

Many bugs were fixed, thanks mostly to the Stephen F. who
tested the application in great detail and reported the problems (and some good improvement ideas).
Thank you Stephen!

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

Another release

Today, few days after the Pro release, I've released the free version too (v1.9.3).
Other than standard bugfixes, there is a new FreeBSD 7 build and an important 12 times speed-up when loading a document having big attachments or images.

Free version of Notecase is feature-wise complete, so expect less frequent releases in the future.

My plans for the next period of time is to improve Notecase Pro, adding support for task management, and to improve tagging support.

There were some people who wrote to me about Atol file manager. Unfortunately, this project is more or less dead, there is practically no demand for it.

New release

New Notecase Pro v2.2.8 has been released.

The major news in this version:

- implemented "export presets" (export settings can be saved by name)
- document bookmarks
- quick search mode for tree view (type letters in tree view to jump to the matching note)
- "Open from web" menu to load document from http:// link
- new FreeBSD build
- 12x speedup when loading .ncd documents with big images/attachments
- imortant bug fixes

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

I am now preparing an update for the free version of Notecase. It should be released in a few days.

Note to Marie-Hélène: I had problems to send you notification of the new release. It appears your mail is not valid anymore, so please send me a new one.

Notecase in Linux Format Magazine (again)

I've got a tip from Ian (a Notecase user), that the Notecase has been mentioned in the new issue (107) of the Linux Format magazine.

This is the second time that the Notecase appears in this magazine, nice. This time it was a product comparison between Basket, Knowit, NoteCase, Tomboy, TuxCards and Zim.

I don't know full details, but here is what Ian informed me:

The comment for notecase is "The best GTK-based note taking tool around, mature, feature-laden and very snappy in use" and they give it a rating of 8/10. It is only beaten in the ratings by 'Basket' which gets 9/10.

Thanks Ian, thanks Linux Format people :)

As always after a month of work, new Notecase Pro v2.2.0 was released.

The major news in this version:

- new Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 builds
- global hotkey support ("Ctrl+Shift+K") to minimize to program tray/restore program from tray
- support to import Vault file format (www.personalmicrocosms.com)
- "Show Tree Lines" option to change the look of the tree view
- option to automatically change node icon when it becomes a child (leaf) or a parent node
- option to split single note into multiple notes using defined text delimiter (for example "--")
- option to join multiple marked notes into a single note having combined text delimited using defined text delimiter (for example "--")
- "Mark child nodes", "Unmark child nodes" marking options (useful for split/join operations)
- implemented Option to update file format registration for Notecase on Linux
- implemented Option to register notecase at be started at login time for Linux (Win32 mechanism already exists)
- implemented Option to allow only single instance of NotecasePro to be started at a single time for Linux using .lock files (Win32 mechanism already exists)

You can read detailed list of changes online at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php

Notecase 1.8.8 free version released

Yesterday I've released the new free version of Notecase.
The new version is mostly bug-fix release with some important bugs fixed, thanks to the numerous quality reports from different people.

Additionally, there is a new platform supported: eeePC (Xandros).

Notecase Pro v2.1.5

I've just released a new Notecase Pro, version 2.1.5.

This is a mostly bugfix release, with two new things:
- toolbar editor
- eeePC build


Major efforts were made to systematically test the application and fix the found bugs.
You can find change details at: http://virtual-sky.com/history.php
Zaurus build will be released tommorow.

The free version is expected to be released in a week.

What's cooking

Thanks to the Justin Madigan, the new Notecase project team member, I got several quality bug reports. His detailed testing work was mostly the reason for the new improved version of the program.

Thanks also goes to Max from Russia, who sent me a report on the problems with "Find" feature when using Russian alphabet. With his help with testing, I've managed to fix this problem too.

Unrelated to bugs, I got a good idea from Daniel Hertrich, the long time collaborator on the project, to build the package for the eeePC. I've set up the build system using VMWare, so you can expect this platform as a target for future versions.

Daniel even contributed a Notecase .deb package built on eeePC. You can find it here.

I don't own a eeePC machine, so I am always interested on a feedback from the people who can try the program on the real hardware.

New Notecase videos

Here are two new links to videos on Notecase made by Dai again. Thanks!

http://dai-videotutes.blogspot.com/2008/04/notecase-encryting-file.html
http://dai-videotutes.blogspot.com/2008/03/notecase-185.html

Notecase Review at Softpedia

I've just got a link to the latest Notecase review published at Softpedia by Daniel Voicu, Linux editor. You can read the review here.

Thanks Daniel!

Notecase video tutorial

There is a new video tutorial on Notecase created by an user. Thanks Dai! The video is embedded in this blog post, you can also reach it at the original address: http://videotutes.blip.tv/#789443

Notecase Pro 2.0.7 released

New Notecase Pro v2.0.7 is out there, featuring some some important fixes and some major new features.

New features like:

• major: copy/cut paste of text now maintains the formatting: font, bold, italic ... (using HTML for clipboard format meaning that you can copy formatting even across the different instances of NotecasePro or to your HTML editor)
• major: plugin system implementation (experimental) - currently only defines import API
• implemented import plugin to support OPML file format importing
• toolbar button to quickly activate/deactivate spellchecker (not available on Maemo due to small screen size); disabled when language not defined or no aspell
• Option window - automatically list available aspell dictionaries in the combo box (user does not need to remember the language codes anymore)

I also got some really good ideas from my clients, so expect some great things in the future.

Affiliate sales

I am currently in the process of finding the partners to help me sell Notecase Pro through the affiliate sales network.

Basic idea is this:

If you are confident in your marketing skills, you would be tasked to build your own sales channel for my product. This is probably a new website or something similar.

Each sale made through your channel can be tracked, and you will earn a percentage of the sales that you generated.

If you think this offer could be interesting for you, please contact me to any of my mails.

Notecase 1.8.1 is out

I've just released the new version of the Notecase.
Apart from the standard bug fixes and multiple translation updates,
there is a new OSX 10.4 (Intel) build and a feature to execute an attachment with double-click within the attachment list (as suggested by one of the users).

Note that the build and release process (for all supported targets), takes more than three hours these days :)

OS X installation

Here are the quick instructions to make the OS X build work on your Mac.

1. Install macports from http://www.macports.org/

2. Use macports to install GTK (this will take a while):
actual command is "sudo port install gtk2"

3. If you want to install the .deb package for OS X, you need to install dpkg: "sudo port install dpkg"

4. Install Notecase from .deb or unpack the .tar.gz archive

5. Notecase must be started from X11 terminal (Applications -> Other -> X11). Open the X11 terminal window and type "notecase.x11app"

Milestone release

NotecasePro has just reached milestone version 2.0.
The new release is now online featuring multiple fixes and new features.

New features include:
- new OSX 10.4 (Tiger) builds
- new advanced HTML export mode (using a frame based template with graphical tree view on the left)
- Firefox-like document tabs GUI for quick document changing/closing
- "Tip of the Day" dialog with useful tips

The Journeys of Socrates

I've got a great surprise yesterday. The postman brought me a book from my Amazon wish list, gift by Mr. Geer (the first name part was unfortunately not readable) with really nice words of encouragement for my work on the Notecase project.

Thank you for the gift and the kind words! It made my day great.

In case anyone were wondering about the title of this post, this is the name of the book I got :)

New build(s) coming

This will surely be a good news for a lot of people who asked about this issue:
I've managed to get access to Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
Starting with next release, I'll ship the builds for this system for both Notecase and NotecasePro projects.

Compared to older OS X 10.3, starting Notecase from X11 terminal does not feel strange anymore, application has much better look-and-feel now.



Additionally, I am trying to get the projects compiled on one of the OpenSolaris-based distros, but this might take some time. I've tried "Project Indiana" distro, but it was literary crawling inside my VMWare server. Next I've tried Schillix, and the latest experiment was with Nexenta.

I'll probably keep Nexenta for a while, but the big problem is to install Gnome desktop, GTK+ toolkit and other important packages on this distro. Its apt-get repository seems to be missing the required packages, or I am missing some obvious information (I've did my share of googling though :-).

This means that OpenSolaris build might not get there for a while (any help is welcome).

Document Tabs in Notecase Pro

In the past I've received few requests for adding tabs in the Notecase, but at that time I was not so sure about the idea. Finally, it was Daniel that convinced me that this is a really useful feature. Thanks Daniel!

The result can be seen at the picture below. When this feature is switched on (through "View"/"Document Tabs" menu), all the currently open documents are displayed as tabs for your quick browsing pleasure.

For all the people that don't need this feature, it's easy to hide it (document tabs are hidden by default).

Notecase Pro 1.9.8 has been released

New to this release is an option to mark more that one node in a document and execute several new commands on "marked" nodes. This includes "mark and gather" command that is usually found only in advanced outliner programs.

Many bugs were fixed in this release (see full list in a changelog).

NoteCase in the news

Thanks to a tip from the user, I've found out that the new issue of Linux Format magazine (January 2008) comes with the Notecase program on a cover disc as one of the "Hot Picks".

I don't know the exact details, because I am not a subscriber, but you can see the Linux Format webpage related to this issue here.

Not to forget, I've found a really nice podcast related to the Notecase program here on productivelinux.com. Thank you Nathan.

Notecase v1.7.6

New free version of Notecase project has just been released. Enjoy!
There are no big news, mostly bug fixes (some of them are important) and translation updates.

Notecase Pro v1.9.2

New Notecase Pro has just been released.

Major features in this release are:
- file synchronization
- hoisting
- importing Tomboy file format

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas for all the readers that celebrate this holiday.

I've been contacted recently by several people regarding the Notecase (Pro) build for latest OS X Tiger. Unfortunately, I don't have an access to such machine, I only can build for older OS X v10.3.7 system (PPC based).

Previously, I had a similar situation with Sharp Zaurus platform. Notecase project was able to expand to Sharp Zaurus platform due to generous donation by a user.
User was compensated through the free lifetime license for Notecase Pro, and some other requested custom work integrated into the project (MM/LX import).

So if anyone is willing to donate Mac mini with OS X Tiger (10.4) installed, feel free to contact me directly. It can be second-hand machine, but it must work :)
Compensation similar to the one with donator of Zaurus would be arranged.

File Synchronization

One of the features requested by paying customers is file synchronization feature. Since I've just implemented the initial code, you can see the result in the picture


Basically, if you have two versions of the same document file and you are not sure which version is the latest, this feature will help you to synchronize the differences between the files.

It works like this:
- load one of those documents in the Notecase Pro
- then select "File" -> "Synchronization" menu
- in the window as in the picture, select other one of those documents
- press "Compare" to get a list of differences between the documents
- now you can synchronize the current document to include the listed changes (you must check the line that you want to be applied)

Currently, algorithm can detect number of node changes like: new nodes, renamed nodes, changed icons, node text, formatting, links and other node properties like "finished" etc.

This will be in the next release (probably released in the new year).

This weekend I've released new Notecase v1.7.4

Major news in the new release is a port to OS2008.
Additionally, Maemo port features many improvements,
due to help by Gioele Agostinelli who did extensive testing and bug reporting.

Thank you Gioele!

Release time

I've just released latest Notecase Pro version 1.8.7.
You can read more about the new features in my previous post.

Note that the new build for Maemo OS2008 is untested, because I don't have the actual device, and the emulator behaves somewhat unstable.
That's why I need your help! If you have latest N810 or N800 with upgraded OS, please try the software. I am interested if the package installs correctly and all the other feedback that you can send me.

Other news:

I have to thank Saul Thomas for yet another support for the Notecase project. This is a second time that he bought me the book from my wishlist. Thank you Saul!

Here is also a call to John who bought a license for Notecase Pro:
it seems that the e-mail address that you submitted at registration is invalid.
Please contact me directly to my email, so I can send you the registration key.

New Pro release soon

For everyone that might be interested in translating new Notecase Pro version,
I've put the new .pot file online.

You can find it at the standard place: http://virtual-sky.com/download/translations/notecase_pro.pot

Of course, this means that the new release will be online soon, probably by the end of this week.

Some of the news in the new release:
- port to the new Maemo Chinook platform (Nokia N800/N810)
- improved "Document Preview" window
- aspell is no longer a dependency, if not present, program will work without it
- speed-up when loading database based formats (for files created by this new version)
- as always some bugs were fixed

Notecase translation

For all those who wish to update Notecase translation for their language,
you can find the latest .pot file on the official website:
http://notecase.sourceforge.net/catalogs.html

I'll make a new release probably on Monday, so if you make it by Sunday evening,
then your translation will be included in this release.

I've just made a release of Notecase Pro v1.8.2.

Major new feature is a Print and Print Preview.

For Windows, I've upgraded GTK to the latest version 2.12.1, so please make sure to check "Install GTK" in the installer.

The new GTK version for Windows fixes some bugs with Print Preview (Linux version does not have those bugs), but not all of them.
I've reported the GTK Windows bug to the GTK developers, so hopefully it will be fixed in the next version. Note that this Windows bug is related to Print Preview, not the actual Printing (embedded images are not displayed in print preview window).

Another new feature is a history list (go back/forward toolbar buttons).
Other than that I've fixed some important bugs.

Feel free to send me your feedback on this.

PS. New Notecase is planned to be released in next 5-7 days.
I also plan to put a "roadmap" page for Pro version at the website in a day or two. You are invited to send your ideas too.

I've just released Notecase Pro version 1.7.7

News in this release:
- multiple important bug fixes (especially related to new database formats .ncdb and .ncde)
- important fixes regarding bulleted list
- drastic speedup of document loading (up to 30 times on a very large documents)
- fixes for Maemo platform
- new window to rename node title
- added hyperlink color setting (help for users using high contrast themes)

You can see detailed list of changes at:
http://www.virtual-sky.com/history.php

Unfortunately, printing did not make it into this release, but I plan to add initial printing support into the next release.

Feel free to send your feedback and suggestions.

Notecase version 1.6.9 released

I've just released new version of Notecase.
I've had a good feedback from users and testers in the past period,
so this version features some important bug fixes.

Big thanks goes to Marcus Hennig for his help on testing Notecase, giving numerous quality suggestions and maintaining German translation. Marcus is also a new team member, he plans to help testing the application on the regular basis.

Additionally, I must thank the program translators. In this version several translations were updated.

So enjoy the new release (feedback is always welcome).
As said before, Pro version should be released in 4-5 days.

Notecase to be released soon

I plan to release new Notecase version in a next few days (Pro version will follow a week after). That's why I've updated and uploaded new translation template files (notecase.pot and notecase_pro.pot).

If you want to have complete translation for your favorite language in the next release, now is your chance.

I plan to use blog posts to notify of new releases in the future too, so you'll be able to track the need to update translation through the RSS.

News

It's been a while since the last post. After releasing new version of both Notecase and Notecase Pro, there were some issues with the code that required quick fixes and new release posted.

Now that the "crisis" is over, I've turned to the brave new features.

I've noticed that Notecase Pro version loads the new database format (.ncdb) slower than it should. After some profiling and a lot of tweaks in various places, the new results are spectacular! New fixes benefit the other document formats as well!

My test .ncdb document with 6411 nodes now loads in 2 seconds instead of 9 (as was before).
Load time for the same document in .ncd format fell from 27 to 4 seconds.

If that does not sound spectacular listen to this: load time for the another .ncd document having 31000 nodes fell down from 338 to just 10 seconds !

Off course, having changed so much code will require detailed testing.

New Notecase Pro release is approaching

I am working hard to iron the last problems with the new Pro release.

The release should be impressive, with major features:

• two new file database-based document formats (encrypted and unencrypted). This will allow for creating and using really huge documents.
• text font formatting support
• text background color formatting
  
• option to automatically generate links while typing URLs ("http://", "https://", "ftp://")
• added "Read-Only" document property
• MAEMO platform support (Nokia N800)

Thanks to Peter Pregler who is helping me to test Maemo port, I've managed to fix some platform related problems and improve .deb instalation.
The only Maemo-related problem is that when using "maemo-custom" file open/save file choosers, application keeps crashing.

If someone can help me with the problem, you can find both latest code for Notecase and the .deb file at http://notecase.sourceforge.net/temp/

Wind of change

I hope you like the latest speed of changes, here is another one :)

Few days ago I've read a great tutorial on how to develop for Nokia Maemo (Nokia N800) platform using a SDK on your Linux distro. You can find the tutorial here.

The result is a Notecase port to Maemo platform (see the screenshot below) !


The only strange thing that I've noticed is that the toolbar is placed at the bottom of the screen. I've yet to see if this is my error, or something else.

This is a completely new platform for me, so I am very interested if someone could give it a try, test the program, and give me an opinion.

Binary .deb and sources are available at the standard (pre-release code) storage: http://www.sourceforge.net/temp/

Project feedback

We users are interesting creatures.

Sometimes, we do not like how some part of the program works. Or we have some cool ideas that would make it 100 times better!

But usually we keep the ideas for ourselves. Or we speak to the wrong people.

Being curious about what users think on Notecase, I run a thorough Google search from time to time.

And this thing always amazes me: you can find a lot of ideas and bug reports in some blogs, forums, newsgroups that were never pushed upstream to the project's author.

Even worse: you can a number of distros that patch the Notecase code but they never try to work with me to push those changes upstream.

It appears that this is a more rule that exception in a open source world. Maybe the users are afraid to have the idea rejected. That's one possibility, but this is also a chance to make the program that you use better and more suited to your needs.

I always kept an open ear to the user suggestions. I don't plan to stop now :)

Did you know that you can be notified when new Notecase is released?

Every project that is being hosted on sourceforge.net has a mechanism to notify users when new files are relased.

To do this, you need to do following:

• register as new user at sourceforge.net (it's free)
• make sure to fill in your real email in the user settings
• after logging in your SF account find out project summary page at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/notecase
• click on the green section link titled "Download NoteCase" (see picture below)
• on the next page, click the "Monitor" icon (icon of an envelope) to subscribe yourself for a notification (see image below)

This way you'll get an email each time Notecase is released.
If you wish to unsubscribe this notification, just click the same monitor icon once more.

Release day

I've just made a double release!
Notecase v1.6.1 and Notecase Pro v1.6.4 are out.

New things in Notecase:
- Macintosh OS X port
- support to execute links for Linux systems that don't have GnomeVFS (thanks to Barry Kauler from Puppy Linux for a suggestion)
- "Change password" feature for encrypted documents
- added support to execute your own external script to process exported file (post processing)
- import from text file
- import: if unknown format, ask user whether to import as text file
- optional "close to tray" feature (when clicked "x" on window title, minimize to tray instead of closing)

Notecase Pro ships with previously listed features and these major new feature:
- spellchecker support (based on aspell)
- bulleted list support
- hyperlinks now can point to the node inside another Notecase document
- there is a new view - flat list view - that can be filled by a search action
- option to edit picture in external image editor

This Notecase Pro release has been one of the release with a biggest number of code changes. I hope you'll like the speed of the changes :)

I am very eager to hear your ideas and thoughts on the future of this program.

I am working hard to prepare the second release of Notecase Pro.
Following screenshots demonstrate some of the cool new things in the new release.

spellchecker support

bulleted list support

This and much more should hopefully be available in 10 days or so.

Coming ... Mac OSX port

Good news for users that wanted to have Notecase working on Macintosh.

I got my hands on a iMac (G4 800MHz, 256MB sdram, OSX 10.3.7), and the result is that both Notecase and Notecase Pro will be able to run on OSX, starting from the next release.


As you might guess by the picture, GTK on OSX still does not use native API, so each app must be started within the X11 server.

I've also ported Atol on OSX, having just few problems with Zip archiver plugin. Once that is fixed Atol will have its long-due release.

Notecase Pro launched

After a few months work on the Pro version, I've finally created the website and published the builds for this new project of mine.

You are invited to visit the new website at: http://www.virtual-sky.com and give it a try.
I am interested in the feedback and ideas regarding both the program and the new website.

Other than the features mentioned in the last post, new program also supports an import from Tuxcards format (currently text only).

Note that, when the program is being in unregistered mode (when there is no license key file found in the system), "Save" and "Export" features are being disabled.

BTW, product ordering should become active any day now.

New Notecase Plans

I've been on a vacation in Ireland recently, and now that I am back, I am working on my new plans for Notecase.



You might have noticed, it became hard to invest my free time into a free project (I've been doing it for 3 years now). Lately I had a simple choice: either to drop this project and start working on a paying side-jobs, or to start commercial venture based on the Notecase project.

Since I can not let go off this project easily, I have a following plan:

The plan is to create a commercial version of Notecase named "Notecase Pro", that will incorporate many advanced features and feature that are not trivial to add.
The possible commercial success of this project will enable me to continue working on a free, open source version of the same project. For the free version, I plan to concentrate to make it bug free and make it faster.

So, you can expect new Notecase Pro release soon. It will feature:
- multiple document interface
- support to import Knowit documents
- support to import Keynote documents
- support to import Treepad documents

Document importing might ignore text formatting in the first version, but I plan to support the full thing soon.

If you wish some new feature, I am open to your ideas and suggestions.

Great news. I've got myself a Zaurus.

I've actually got it through a deal with Daniel, as a payment for my work on supporting MM/LX format import in Notecase. It came with Daniel's weeXpc platform preinstalled.

I had a strange feeling when trying a Zaurus for the first time. It's something looking so toy-like and it's also a serious tool, all at the same time! After playing with it for half a day, I now feel very comfortable working with the little machine. Especially, when Daniel told me that there is a stylus that I can use instead of my fingers :)

I hope that Notecase users on Zaurus will benefit from the fact I can test my program(s) on it. I've already fixed Zaurus-specific bug with application crashing when you press "Add" or "Remove" button to add/remove node tags in the "node properties" dialog.

It turned out the bug was due to GTK call "gtk_combo_box_get_active_text". It appears this call causes the application to crash (probably a bug in GTK port used by pdaXrom platform).

To make the code work I had to replace the call:
gtk_combo_box_get_active_text (GTK_COMBO_BOX(cbo3));
with
gtk_entry_get_text(GTK_ENTRY(GTK_BIN(cbo3)->child));

I've added more changes, based on Daniel's suggestions, that will benefit Zaurus users. One of them is a better title in the main window. New format is something like "basename.ncd - Notecase 1.4.9 [/full/path/here/basename.ncd]"
This way, when the window is minimized to "task bar", you still can see document name without the need to maximize the window.

So, expect a new shiny release soon ...