Development Release 2 of v2.0

Ah, it's been a while, but 2.0dev2 is here.

The main feature in this release is the full hyperlink support. The hyperlinks in v1.x of The Guide were constrained by the limitations of the older version of the rich edit control. Having switched to the new control, however, gives us the flexibility to support "normal" hyperlinks; the way one would assume hyperlinks to work.

Here are some screenshots. The first one shows the "Edit Hyperlink" dialog, invoked from the menu/right mouse button. You can choose a node as the link target. (Click to enlarge image).

Here's having a URL as the link target instead:

Or an email address:

Files and directories can also be selected. The "File" and "Dir" buttons popup standards Windows dialogs to locate the file or directory you want as the link target. Files open up with the applications they are associated with (similar to what happens you double-click the file in Windows explorer).

The link targets also appear in the status bar, ala Internet Explorer. (However, it does so only if the focus is on the right view, and for nodes they might be.. ah.. cryptic! ;-) Here is the link on the statusbar:

This snap also shows off the multilingual support that was added 2.0dev1. Here's another one, that shows the changing of node colors:

The package can be downloaded from sourceforge. Do play with it, and tell me what you think. But don't forget that this is an alpha release, and the file format is not yet stable, so be sure not to use it with valuable data!

Development Release 1 of v2.0

The upcoming version, v2.0, is slated to be a big one. I plan to make a few work-in-progress releases for this version, so that there is more time for feedback (and bug hunting!). Releases will be made as and when a few features have been added, and the build is usably stable. These releases are strictly non-production-use. DO NOT use them with real data! While the builds itself may be stable the file formats may not, and you might end up with a .gde file that cannot be read by the final 2.0 software.

The first of these releases (named 2.0dev1) is ready. The application has been ported to Unicode, and the latest version of the rich edit control is used. The file format is changed. The existing format .gde files can be read, of course; the newly saved files will be in the new format. Changing the foreground and background color of a node in the tree pane is now supported (via the context menu only as of now). The node colors are also used during print, preview and export as well. The search dialog is resizable.

The files are available on sourceforge as winguide-2.0dev1.

If you have some time to spare, do have a look! The best way is to just get the binaries zip file, unpack it somewhere and run the guide.exe from there.

Update [26-Jun 14:17 GMT]: The files on sourceforge were somehow corrupt, I've updated them. Thanks for the tip from an anonymous user!

Announcing The Guide Users Group.

Thanks for the enthusiastic responses towards the users group. So without further ado, here is the official Guide Users Group:

http://groups.google.com/group/the-guide-users-group

Let's meet up there!

User's group, anyone?

The Guide has over 500 downloads a month. A few users correspond regularly with me, mainly regarding the new features they'd like to see in future versions. The user community of Guide is picking up, going by the frequency of these interactions.

Would you guys like a forum to discuss Guide-related issues? A mailing list or a web forum?

Let me know. If there are enough votes, I'll set one up.

BTW, did you all like 1.6rc1? I've had some feedback, including 1 bug so far.

v1.6 Release Candidate 1

It's a fresh, beautiful Saturday in Bangalore, and looks ideal to declare a feature complete of v1.6! I'll put up the release candidate 1.6rc1 this weekend. Here are the changes after v1.5:

v1.6rc1, xx-May-2007:
Features:

• Print, print preview and export for single node, subtree or entire document.
• Auto save on close (configurable).
• Auto save every 'n' minutes (configurable).
• Automatically create backups while opening (configurable).
• Single-click (configurable) restore from tray.
• Minimize options: Minimize on 'X' button, on 'Esc' key.
• Drag-drop revamp: no more menus on drop! Drag moves, ctrl+drag copies.
• Insert date/time, with customizable formats.
• New Office 2003-style foreground/background color selectors.
• Remember custom colors across sessions.
• Line, character counts on the status bar.
• Child node count on the status bar.
• Expand all/Collapse all entries in tree menu.
• Prevent simultaneous edit of same .gde file.
• Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+K strikethrough, Ctrl+, preferences.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed Ctrl+C/X/V while renaming nodes
• Fixed handle leak in print preferences dialog
• Minimize then exit prevented window from showing up correctly next time
• Heading numbers > 10 would be reversed ("1.10" => "1.01")

The sorting of nodes didn't make it for technical reasons, sorry about that.

New in v1.6: Insert Date and Time

You can now insert the current date or time, with a single keystroke. Ctrl+D inserts the current date and Ctrl+T the time. The keys work with the text pane as well as while editing the node text.

The format of the date and time so inserted is configurable via the preferences page:

You can override the system default formats and choose custom date/time formats, so that you can have Ctrl+D insert the string "26-Apr: " for example. Here are the dialogs where you can configure this:

The codes used here are the same as those used in the "Regional and Language Options" control panel applet.

So -- do you like it? Personally, I tend use The Guide as a journal frequently, with each node representing a day's notes. The insert date feature would be quite handy in this case.

New in v1.6: Minimize, save, backup options

Here are some more options, that are now configurable:

Minimizing: It is now possible to minimize The Guide using the 'X' button or the 'Esc' key. The "Use System Tray" menu entry has been moved here.

Saving: Options for:

• Automatically saving the current document (if there are modifications) every 'n' minutes. Not applicable for documents without filenames yet ("Untitled").
• Automatically saving the document, when the document is closed (i.e., when another one is opened) or when the application exits.

Backup: .gde files will be backed up when they are opened (x.gde -> x.bak).

Like them? Do let me know!

Let me also thank all of you who wrote, and keep writing, to me about what you'd like to see in The Guide. Nearly all features that appear here are the result of your mails. Keep writing!