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!