JotALot Help

Content

1. Introduction 1.1 What is JotALot? 1.2 System Requirements 1.3 Installation Instructions 2. Registration 3. Using JotALot 3.1 Pads 3.2 Making Searches 3.3 Creating and Deleting Jots 4. Menu Reference 4.1 File Menu 4.2 Edit Menu 4.3 Go Menu 4.4 Arrange Menu 4.5 Settings Menu 4.6 Help Menu 5. More JotALot Tricks 5.1 The Magic of Ctrl-Clicking 5.2 Keyboard Shortcuts 5.3 Command-Line Interface 6. Exporting and Importing 6.1 Cooperating with the Macintosh Version of JotALot 7. Synchronization 7.1 Limits of Synchronization 8. Technical Details and Other Loose-Mouthing (Geeks Only) 9. Questions and Answers 9.1 How do I get JotALot to work with my mail program? 10. Final Words

1. Introduction

1.1 What is JotALot?

JotALot is a program for storing small pieces of information --- jots. Use it as a replacement for all the scribbled notes that litter your desktop --- addresses, phone numbers, recipes, loose ideas --- anything you need to store and retrieve quickly.

With JotALot you can store all these jots at the same convenient place and retrieve them with a fast free text search. All you have to do is start typing and JotALot immediately finds all the jots that match what you are typing.

JotALot starts quickly so that you can scribble down your ideas before they escape your mind. The memory requirements are low so you can keep it running in the background without wasting system resources.

You can include file names, web addresses and email addresses in your jots. To open a file, surf to a web page or to send a new mail, all you have to do is hold down the Ctrl-key while clicking on the address.

The synchronization features of JotALot lets you keep many copies of the same file. For example, you may store one copy of your address book in your computer at work and one in your computer at home. You can edit the two files separately and later synchronize them to make sure the changes you have done at work are visible at home and vice versa.

1.2 System Requirements

To run JotALot you need Windows 9x/NT and a polychrome monitor.

1.3 Installation Instructions

For JotALot to function properly, the JotALot icons and file extension (.jot) must be installed in the registry. To do this, just run JotALot by double-clicking the application icon. You will be asked if you want to change the registry. Answer yes to this question. (Unless you have good reasons not to.) The registry will be set up properly.

JotALot automatically detects when the program has moved and updates the registry settings. This means that it is safe to move the JotALot folder after installation. Just double click the application icon at its new location and the registry will be updated.

(Most other PC programs do not have this function. If you want to move them you need to uninstall the entire program and then reinstall it again.)

You can uninstall JotALot by using the "Remove Program" option in the Control Panel, or by writing jotalot /u on the command line. This will remove all registry settings made by JotALot. You can then delete the program folder manually.

(If you plan on ever reinstalling JotALot or if you remove it to install a newer version, it is best not to run the uninstall program. If you do, you will loose the personal preferences you have set for JotALot. Instead, simply delete the program folder.)

2. Registration

JotALot is $7 shareware. If you like it and use it you should pay for it. The more money I earn from shareware, the less ordinary work I need to do, which enables me to spend more time developing shareware.

The simplest way to pay for the program is to use the "Register Program..." option from the File menu. This will run the register.exe application which (hopefully) was distributed with your version of JotALot. The application will provide you with several alternative ways of paying for the program. If you cannot run the register.exe application, you can try to pay at http://order.kagi.com/ or contact me.

You can contact me by email at the address niklas@kagi.com. Feel free to send me questions, bugs, suggestions for improvements, etc, but keep in mind that I do not always have time to answer all mails.

My home page is currently found at: http://www.acc.umu.se/~r2d2/.

If you need to send regular mail, use the address

Niklas Frykholm
Rothoffsv. 37 A
S-903 42
Sweden

3. Using JotALot

3.1 Pads

The documents that JotALot works with are called pads. Each pad contains a number of jots, small pieces of textual information, just as an ordinary notepad contains a number of pages.

When you start up JotALot for the first time it opens the "Default Pad". This pad is stored in the same directory as the JotALot application and is usually opened when you start the application (a more detailed explanation is given below).

The simplest thing to do is to store all your jots in the Default Pad. That way they will be immediately accessible whenever you start the application.

Another possibility is to use different pads for different purposes. You might use one pad for addresses, one for recipes, et cetera. Using many small pads speeds up the searches, since there is less text to search through. If your searches start to run sluggish you may want to consider distributing your jots among more than one pad. You create and open pads using the New Pad and Open Pad menu options.

When you start JotALot it tries to restore the workspace from the last time you used JotALot. It opens the documents that were open and puts them on the same places on the screen.

3.2 Making Searches

A JotALot pad contains two fields. The upper field is the find field, which is used for searching among the jots. The lower field is the text field where the jots are displayed.

To start a search all you have to do is type some text into the find field. JotALot will find all the jots in the pad that match the text you have entered and display the first match in the text field. In the lower left corner of the window, JotALot displays how many matching jots there are and which one of them you are currently viewing.

If more than one jot match the search word you can use the arrows in the lower right corner to move between the matching jots. You can also move between the matches by pressing Ctrl and one of the arrow keys or by using the options in the Go-menu.

When the find field is empty, all jots will match. The text in the lower left corner will then show the total number of jots in the pad.

3.3 Creating and Deleting Jots

You create a new empty jot in the pad by using the New Jot menu option. New jots are added at the end of the pad.

You can delete a jot by using the Delete Jot menu option or by deleting all the text in the jot. JotALot will automatically remove empty jots from the pad.

4. Menu Reference

4.1 File Menu

New Jot creates a new empty jot sheet in the pad.

Delete Jot removes the current jot sheet from the pad.

New Pad creates a new pad containing a single empty jot sheet.

Open Pad... brings up the open file dialog box and allows you to open a pad.

Close Pad closes the current pad.

Save saves the current pad. By default, JotALot saves changes when documents are closed so you rarely need to use this option. You can switch of autosaving in the "Other settings" dialog.

Save As... allows you to save the current pad under a different name.

Save a Copy As... saves a copy of the current pad under a different name. It is useful for backing up files.

Synchronize... is used to synchronize to jot files to make sure the content is the same. See the section on synchronization for a more thorough explanation.

Import... is used to import jots from a text file. See the section on exporting and importing for a more thorough explanation.

Export Found... is used to export the jots that match the current search string to a text file. See the section on exporting and importing for more thorough explanation.

Register Program... lets you register your copy of the program. Since JotALot is shareware you should register if you use and like it.

Quit terminates the program.

4.2 Edit Menu

Undo undoes the last action. Not all actions can be undone.

Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select All all work as you would expect.

Insert File Link... lets you browse for a file on your hard drive and inserts the file name into the jot. You can then hold down Ctrl and click the file name to open the file.

4.3 Go Menu

First moves to the first matching jot.

Last moves to the last matching jot.

Previous moves to the previous matching jot.

Next moves to the next matching jot.

Find Field moves the insertion point to the find field and allows you to enter a new search string.

Text Field moves the insertion point to the text field.

Switch Field moves the insertion point to the field which it is not in at the moment.

4.4 Arrange Menu

Put this Jot First moves the current jot to the first position in the pad.

Put this Jot Last moves the current jot to the last position in the pad.

Move this Jot Towards Beginning moves the current jot one step closer to the beginning of the pad.

Move this Jot Towards End moves the current jot one step closer to the end of the pad.

Order Jots Alphabetically orders the jots alphabetically.

4.5 Settings Menu

Choose Font... lets you select the font of the current pad. A new pad gets the latest select font.

Other Settings... brings up a dialog box that allows you to configure JotALot to suit your personal preferences.

Autosave documents on close. When this option is checked, the changes you make to a JotALot pad are saved automatically when you close the pad. If you uncheck this option JotALot will instead ask you whether you want to save the changes or not. This constant questioning can be a nuisance, but on the other hand it gives you the opportunity not to save, if you have made changes that you regret.

Fix registry when program has moved. When this option is checked, JotALot will try to detect if the program has moved and if so --- update the registry with the new program location.

4.6 Help Menu

Help shows this document.

About JotALot brings up the JotALot about box.

5. More JotALot Tricks

5.1 The Magic of Ctrl-Clicking

I always like to put a little magic into my programs. In JotALot you call upon this magic by holding down the Ctrl-key and clicking on a word in the text.

If the word you are clicking is the address of a web page, your web browser will (provided it is installed correctly) be started and the document opened.

If the word is an email address your mail program will (provided it is installed correctly) be told to start a new letter to the specified address.

If the word is the name of a file or application, JotALot will try to open it.

You can insert a file name into the pad by using the Insert File Link option from the Edit menu. This allows you to browse for the file. Spaces in the file name will be coded to make sure that the file name is a single word.

If the thing you click is not a web address or a file name, JotALot will search for another jot in the current pad which contains the word and display that jot. You can use this feature to jump quickly between your jots. For example, your address book entry for Susan could contain the words "married to Roy". By control-clicking "Roy" you could jump to his entry.

5.2 Keyboard Shortcuts

In the find field, press the return key to cycle through the matching entries.

You can use the scroll keys (page up/page down) to scroll the text in the text field even if the insertion point is placed in the search field.

5.3 Command-Line Interface

You start JotALot and tell it to open a number of documents with the command

jotalot filename1 filename2 ...

If the filename contains spaces you should surround it with double quotes, like this

jotalot "My address book.jot"

Use the /f option if you want to open a pad and search for a specific piece of text.

jotalot filename /f search_text

For example, to search for "Niklas" in the pad "addresses.jot" you would write

jotalot addresses.jot /f Niklas

Use quotes if the search text contains spaces.

You can quit JotALot from the command-line by giving the command

jotalot /q

To synchronize two files, give the command:

jotalot filename1 /s filename2

JotALot will synchronize the files. This command can be useful in batch files. For example, here is a batch file sync.bat that I use to download my address book from my FTP site at work, synchronize it with my address book at home and upload it back to the FTP site at work. (Passwords and server names have been changed.)

ftp -s:download.txt
jotalot home_addressbook.jot /s work_addressbook.jot /q
ftp -s:upload.txt
del work_addressbook.jot

Here download.txt and upload.txt are files with ftp commands for downloading and uploading the work address book. The download.txt file might look something like this

open test.abc.se
niklas
my_secret_password
cd test
binary
get work_addressbook.jot
quit

And the upload.txt file might look something like this

open test.abc.se
niklas
my_secret_password
cd test
binary
put work_addressbook.jot
quit

You can remove JotALot's registry settings by giving the command:

jotalot /u

6. Exporting and Importing

JotALot has facilities for exporting data to and importing data from text files. This is useful if you want to exchange information between JotALot and other programs.

All jots are exported to (or imported from) the same text file. Each jot in the file is separated by a special separator string. When you choose Export or Import a dialog box will be displayed that allows you to enter the separator string you want to use. Tabs and new lines in the separator string can be coded with the special sequences \t and \n respectively. The \ symbol is coded as \\.

If the separator is \n\n***\n\n and the pad contains the three jots Penny Lane, Montana and Cornholio, the exported file will look like this

    Penny Lane

    ***

    Montana

    ***

    Cornholio

If the exported file would later be imported, using the same separator string, the same three entries would be added to the pad. However, if we instead used the separator string \n\nMontana\n\n when importing, we would get the two entries

    Penny Lane

    ***

and

    ***

    Cornholio

Using \n\n as separator would give us five entries Penny Lane, ***, Montana, *** and Cornholio.

6.1 Cooperating with the Macintosh Version of JotALot

The file formats of the PC and Macintosh versions of JotALot are not compatible. If you want to move JotALot files between a Macintosh and a PC, you need to use the export and import facilities.

Make sure that the export and import strings are the same, but remember that line breaks are represented by \r on the Macintosh and by \n on the PC.

7. Synchronization

It is often convenient to have several copies of the same file stored at different computers. Your address book is as valuable at work as it is at home, so you may want to store it at both places.

In ordinary applications, this can lead to problems. The changes you make to the copy at work will not be visible at home and the changes you make at home will not be visible at work. Synchronizing the files can be hard --- if you have made changes to both files you cannot simply keep one of them and delete the other, if you do you will use information.

JotALot's synchronize feature is a solution to this problem. Synchronizing two files will merge the changes you have made to the files.

To exemplify, suppose that the pad originally contains only two jots "Niklas" and "Gunnar" and suppose that we make two copies of the document, one for work and one for home. At home we change the first entry to "Niklas F". At work, we change the second entry to "Gunnar G". If we later synchronize the files, both will contain the jots "Niklas F" and "Gunnar G".

The best way of synchronizing your files is probably this: When you want to synchronize your work files with your files at home (how often you want to synchronize probably depends on how frequently you change the jots), begin by copying your files at work to a disk. Bring the disk home and synchronize your files at home with the files on the disk. Then bring the disk back to work and copy the files from the disk to your hard drive at work (or use synchronization again to syncrhonize your work files with the files on the disk).

If you have internet access both at work and at home, you could of course use e-mail, FTP or some other means of transferring the files instead of disks.

7.1 Limits of Synchronization

JotALot synchronizes two pads by always keeping the most recent modification of each jot (you should make sure that your system clock runs correctly). If the same jot has been changed in both pads, JotALot will not try to merge the changes, instead it will simply keep the jot that was changed most recently.

In the example above, if we change "Niklas" to "Mikael" at work before synchronization, the result of the synchronization will not be "Mikael F" or something similar. The result will either be "Niklas F" or "Mikael" depending on which of the changes was made last.

8. Technical Details and Other Loose-Mouthing (Geeks Only)

The JotALot settings are stored under the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Cygnus X \ JotALot. Modifying these settings manually allows you to set some options not available from the standard menus.

Don't you just hate it when an installation program sprays cryptic files with unintelligible names and no record of their origin all over your hard drive? I have a CD that every time it is inserted tries to install Netscape 3.0 in my Windows folder. I don't want Netscape 3.0 and I certainly don't want it in my Windows folder.

Luckily for you, JotALot is not such a program. It does not install files in strange places, all the necessary files are found in the JotALot folder itself.

The only installation that needs to be done by JotALot is some modification of the registry. The affected registry keys are:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Cygnus X \ JotALot
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ .jot
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ jotfile
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ App Paths \ jotalot.exe
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \ jotalot

JotALot is its own installer and uninstaller. When you run JotALot for the first time the registry keys above will be set (if you want them to). To uninstall JotALot you give the command jotalot /u and the registry keys above will be removed. You can then delete the program folder.

(Note that you cannot do it the other way around. If you delete the program folder first, then there is no JotALot application left, so you cannot get rid of the registry entries by giving the jotalot /u command.)

.jot files can be read and edited in ordinary text editors. If you want to have a peek at exactly what is stored in a .jot file just drop the icon on a text editor. Don't edit the file unless you know what you are doing. Take special care to make sure that the byte counts match.

JotALot exists for Macintosh, Windows and Java. The Macintosh program handles styled text. I will probably add styled text capabilities to the next Windows version. The Java program is in alpha and I have stopped developing it since I wasn't satisfied with the performance, especially the user interface (Swing) was annoyingly sluggish. If you want to try the Java version anyway (for example to run JotALot on a Unix system), just ask me and I'll mail it to you.

Note that the Macintosh and the Windows version use different file formats. You need to use export/import to move files cross platform. Synchronization will not work cross platform.

9. Questions and Answers

9.1 How do I get JotALot to work with my mail program?

When you control-click an e-mail address, JotALot uses the system's mail handler to create the mail. You should make sure that your favorite mail-program is set up to handle mail.

The best way of doing this is to use the Internet Settings dialog box in the control panel. On the property sheet "Programs" you can select which program you want to use for mail handling.

If your favorite mail program does not appear in this list you have to set up mail handling manually. You can do this by modifying the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ mailto \ shell \ open \ command. The value of this key should be the command string used to create a new mail in the mail program of your choice. For example if you are using Netscape you could set the value to C: / Program Files / Netscape / Program / netscape.exe %1.

10. Final Words

Don't let the world bring you down, it is just the canvas of your imagination. Bask in the love of cosmos and your light will be reflected. Rejoice with your sisters and they will give you strength. Embrace the stranger, for she is your companion.