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.