Blog: WhizFolders, Articles and tips

In case you don’t know, you can copy the paid version of WhizFolders to a portable drive by using the Tools menu on the main window of WhizFolders. This feature has been available since version 6.1 and has been further improved in the new version 6.3 under beta testing.

Better keep your documents in another folder on the portable drive: I recommend that you always keep your WhizFolder documents on a separate folder on the portable drive. For example, if you made a target folder X:\whizfolders to keep the portable copy of WhizFolders, put your documents in X:\mydocs. This way, your documents will not be affected even if you reinstall the portable copy in another folder to solve the occasional file permission problems as described below.

Occasional file permission problems: During this portable copy operation (or when running WhizFolders from the portable drive) an occasional problem comes due to file and folder permissions of the target folder, especially on Windows Vista or later. Here are some clues on fixing this problem.

Make sure that you are using a portable key: When you go to make a portable copy for the first time, it asks for a special license key. This should be the portable key obtained from the self-service web site support.whizfolders.com from the special portable key section. You shouldn’t use your regular purchase key for this as it will give a permission error in versions earlier than 6.3.4.

Try to fix the permissions: In Windows Explorer, right-click on the folder that keeps the portable copy and try to fix the permissions so that anyone can write to it. Do the same for the files within that portable copy folder.

Make a fresh portable copy: If the above is too difficult for you, make a fresh portable copy of WhizFolders. You can even make the portable copy on your hard disk in some temporary folder and then copy the whole folder to the portable drive.

CAUTION: Do not delete your old portable folder as it may have your WhizFolder documents in it. Better move your documents to a separate folder on your portable drive before you delete your old portable copy. You may need to open your moved documents on the portable drive again by using the File–Open menu.

Better update to the latest version 6.3 (in beta testing) before making the above fresh copy: This version improves the portable operation and the improvements are listed on the new features page of version 6.3.

Finally, what is the best way to update the WhizFolders program on your portable copy? If you know that it is a minor update, you can simply copy the whizfolders exe to the portable location and replace the old copy. But if it is a major version change, for example, from version 6.1 to 6.3 where the portable feature has changed, it is better to make a fresh folder and then copy over your own documents from the old location, unless you have put them in a separate folder as recommended above.

If there is any confusion, please send your questions so that this documentation can be improved.

Update: This article is old. A newer article on this feature is available:
http://whizfolders.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/04/portable-software/

Old article:
WhizFolders 6.1 has a new menu operation on the Tools menu that allows you to copy WhizFolders to a portable (USB) drive. However, it needs a portable key which you can get from the special support web site support.whizfolders.com. Once copied this way, WhizFolders runs from the USB drive and overcomes most of the limitations mentioned in an earlier article: Running WhizFolders from a USB drive

A few features do not work when running this way, for example, the spelling-checker.

Does WhizFolders use the registry of the computer the USB drive? It only uses the current user area of the registry temporarily. Actually, it loads your settings from the usb drive into registry and when exiting, stores the settings back to the usb drive and then deletes that part of the registry. This works fine except on Windows Vista where it can’t use the features to restore and store from the usb drive. In that case, it leaves your settings on the computer. If you want it to be able to restore, store and delete the registry on Windows Vista then you must run it as administrator. In a future version, we will even remove this requirement to use the registry temporarily.

Update, Feb 11, 2008: The folllowing information is for version 6.0.8 or earlier. The newer WhizFolders 6.1 does support this in a better way. See the article WhizFolders on a portable drive.

Lately, many users have asked this question about running WhizFolders from a portable usb drive.

Yes, you can certainly use the paid version from a USB drive. But there are limitations as mentioned below.

Instructions: Simply copy the files from WhizFolders “Program files” location to a folder on your USB drive. Avoid copying the file UNINS*.EXE as there is nothing to uninstall when on move. You can also put the WhizFolder documents that you want to carry, in the same or a different folder on that drive.

When you plug in the usb drive to any computer, you can run the exe file for WhizFolders on that computer by double-clicking on it in the Windows Explorer window. You can also make desktop shortcuts as described below. However, there would be certain limitations on using WhizFolders from a portable drive as given in the following list.

Limitations:

1. First time when you run WhizFolders on a new computer, it will ask for the license codes. There is a way to avoid that too but we only tell that to the paid users, and only if they ask for it.
2. WhizFolders will use the registry area and document settings area on that computer as usual. So if it is your own computer, it is OK. But if it is a corporate computer, you might need to remove these settings at some point. If you ever require that, please do ask us for the procedure. We might even make a utility program if enough users ask for it.
3. You will have to redo all your settings on each computer you move to (but only once).
4. Even the main window’s document list will be kept separate on each computer and will work as long as the drive letter for the USB does not change on that computer. So, the first time you run WhizFolders on a computer, this main list will be empty. You will need to use File–Open to open your WhizFolder documents which are not in the list.
5. If the USB drive letter changes on that computer from a pervious run, you won’t be able to open files from the main window list. But you can always open them by File-Open.
6. If the drive letter does not change each time you plug in the usb to that computer, you can even make a desktop shortcut to run WhizFolders on that computer by right-dragging the EXE file to the desktop and “create shortcut” on that menu. You can also make desktop shortcuts to open specific documents by Tools menu on the document window. But remember, these shortcuts won’t work if the drive letter assigned to the USB changes when you plug it in later.
7. The spelling-checker will not work.
8. Take a regular backup: Please take a regular backup of your documents, especially if you kept them on the usb drive because files can become corrupted on usb drives. The backup feature in WhizFolders is quite useful. You can have a backup folder in each computer that it will remember by itself. Then, just clicking on a backup button in the document window can copy that document to the backup folder. There are features in backup to store N copies each day! You can even set up a document to do a back up when it closes. This option is available in File Options of that document.You can even use Windows Explorer to do a backup copy of the documents if that is more convenient.

Here is a summary of the main points in short:

• If a document does not appear in the main window list or does not open from the main window list, use File–Open to open it and it will add itself to the list.
• Make desktop shortcuts to the documents as described. They will work as long as the drive letter remains same for the usb drive on that computer.
• Do a regular back up copy of your documents using WhizFolders backup features. You can even use Windows Explorer to do a backup copy of the documents if that is more convenient.

In WhizFolders, we avoided using any other RTF or HTML editor control from other companies. We decided to use Microsoft RichEdit control as the note editor in spite of the fact that it is quite complex to use, especially for OLE stuff like displaying pictures. Why did we go to all that trouble? The idea is that we want you to easily exchange RTF text with Microsoft Word, Wordpad and other RTF editors. Unless you can exchange text easily, it is difficult to work with many software tools. And, using Windows effectively means being able to use many tools together, isn’t it?

There’s more. WhizFolders now uses the latest unicode-enabled RichEdit. This means even more RTF compatibility. For example, the tables copied from Microsoft Word now display very well in your WhizFolders Deluxe notes.

Using the RichEdit also means being able to insert OLE objects. Try inserting a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet by Insert Object in a WhizFolders note. You will be delighted. Moreover, we have made our own little innovations in RichEdit–easy hyperlinks that can be typed, nested lists and so on. We will continue to use newer RichEdit controls as they are released by Microsoft.

We think no one uses RichEdit as well as we do:) Please also see “Other strong points of using RTF” later in this article.

You can never please everyone: Some trial users complain that WhizFolders doesn’t preserve the format when they copy information from the web. First, I would like to point out that keeping web pages exactly is not the primary use of WhizFolders. As to why WhizFolders can’t preserve the format of the text copied form the web, this is a side effect of using an RTF control as the editor. Here is a little explanation:

It is the Browser that converts to RTF: When you copy text in the browser, it is the browser that is responsible for converting from the HTML format of the web pages to the RTF format. So the RTF that you paste in WhizFolders will be as good as the browser making it up. If you use FireFox, it doesn’t even put an RTF copy on the clipboard. As a result when you paste from FireFox, you get only plain text.

Internet Explorer does a better job of making up RTF of your copied text. But still, it can never be perfect. Many things in HTML, especially tables, do not convert well to RTF.

At least, WhizFolders preserves links: Also, Internet Explorer does not put the links properly in the RTF copy. You can prove this by pasting a text full of links in Wordpad. Wordpad also uses the same RTF control that WhizFolders does but it doesn’t resolve the links and many times, they won’t work. In version 6.1 of WhizFolders, we have spent considerable effort to make sure that the links are resolved properly. Since it is a new feature, it might encounter cases where it can’t do that. If you find a link that doesn’t work, please send us a sample.

Other strong points of using RTF:

Another reason for using an RTF format for WhizFolder documents is based on the different ways that people use WhizFolders:

1. Writing a document: developing a document in pieces, making an outline, adding more pieces as the research progresses, and finally joining the pieces to make a complete document.
2. Making study notes when learning and then print them out to make comprehensive review material.
3. Other information management uses that utilize the power of hyperlinking features in WhizFolders.
4. Managing random bits of information and then categorizing and making sense of them.

While you may find many other tools in the fourth category, you will find that WhizFolders is unique in other categories of uses mentioned above. You should be able to prepare an outline and do your research in a list form and later be able to join the pieces to make a big document. One of the users even made a 1000-page document by combining the pieces. You can’t think of such feats in other software. It is because of the list-outling in WhizFolders and the RTF format that these features are possible.

Had we used an HTML editor, perhaps, the pastes from the web pages had kept their original format. But, the first two major uses of WhizFolders would have practically vanished. You can’t combine different web sites into one document and yet preserve their look and feel in the document pages. The point I am trying to make is that when doing research or writing documents, you care less about the format but the content of the text. You then format it the way you want. That is the core principle on which WhizFolders is designed. And, it will grow in that direction only.

But keeping in view the “random information” users of WhizFolders, in future, we might proide a secondary document type that is not RTF but HTML. This would be more like a database rather than a document and its primary use would be for saving random pieces of information from the web in their original format. But you can never expect other power features of WhizFolders in these types of documents. For example, you would not be able to join those pieces to make a big document or get a combined printout.

Theoretically, WhizFolders has the following constraints or limits. But you should also look at the practical tips given.

1. The file size of a document should stay under 2 GB.
2. A topic can be as large as a GB but it is not practical as it slows down the browsing (clicking on a topic to see it). Each person has a different perception of what is slow. You will find your own limit. When browsing the list becomes irritating, it is time to break the topic into several. In fact, the whole design of WhizFolders encourages breaking of information into pieces for easier management and reviewing. You can always join many (or all) pieces to make a large document to paste in a word processor.
3. WhizFolders uses a very smart virtual listing technology to list the topics. The whole tree list is loaded without loading the text of names themselves. The names are obtained from the file and displayed dynamically as you scroll the list. Hence, the number of topics do not matter much. There is no limit as such on the number of parents, children, etc.
4. The virtual scheme doesn’t put too much strain on memory too. The only objects in memory are the topic name pointers as above and the topic contents for only those topics which are being viewed or edited.
5. There is no limit on number of topics but if the list is too large, it might slow down certain operations like adding a new topic where it has to resolve a unique internal name for it. You have to find your own limit depending on how the speed of operations affects you. We have even seen cases having more than 5000 topics in one file.

OLE (activex) is a great technology whereby a WhizFolders topic can show the contents of another type of document and can let you edit it from within WhizFolders. For example, you can put an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document in a topic. In order for this to work, the host application for that type of document must have an OLE server on the system. When you go to insert OLE objects, you would see a list of all kinds of objects you can insert.

Before I continue, some important points: You can either have objects that completely reside in your WhizFolder document or you can just have a link to an external file holding the object. Unless you know that the object is small, I would recommend you to always use a “linked” object. Otherwise, you might slow down WhizFolders considerably. I will explain how you create a linked object in the following discussion.

We will follow an example step by step.

1. Suppose, you have an excel spreadsheet called “my account.xls” that you want to insert as an OLE object in a topic called “My account.”

2. First decide whether you want to insert a complete copy of the spreadsheet or just a “linked” object. I always advise a “linked” object unless the object is very small. The advantage is that your xls file stays outside for you to manage or edit separately. At the same time, WhizFolders can always display the latest contents of this file.

3. There are two ways, you can insert. Just drag and drop this file from Explorer to the Topic editor with Ctrl key pressed. Then the same dialog will appear that appears when you click on the menu “Insert Object” on the editor. So for existing files, it is quicker to use the drag and drop with Ctrl key method and for new objects, it is better to use Insert Object.

4. On the dialog, select the file you want to insert (unless already filled in the drag and drop method) and select “Create from File.” Check the Link to create a linked object and click OK.

5. That’s it. You will see that the topic now shows the spreadsheet! To edit the spreadsheet at any time, you just need to double-click on it or select “Microsoft excel spreadsheet Object–Edit” on the right-click menu. This menu changes description based on the object. Very neat!

6. There is yet another magic up WhizFolders sleeve. If you are using a non-linked object, you can take advantage of in place editing. You can put ON an editor option “Use in place editing of OLE objects” in General Options. If you do that, for editing, the topic editor itself assumes the role of Excel application and starts looking like it with proper toolbars etc. But this feature is not available for Linked objects.

So understand OLE for once and start using it to your advantage. Only remember that you should not put large OLE objects as embedded objects and you will be ok.

It is important to understand that the list of documents you see in the main window of WhizFolders is just a list. It’s not a database that keeps your documents. Your documents are separate, distinct .wzfolder type files on your disk. They were created in a location of your choice. If you didn’t pay attention, they are probably in “My Documents.” If so, you should know the pitfalls of keeping them in My Documents (see another post in this category) and should move them out to your own folders if necessary. If you don’t understand this, read another article, How to set the default location of the documents?

By default, WhizFolders lists the documents that you opened in last used order. But you can right-click and keep them sorted on names. In the new version, we even show you the locations in the list. In the 5.6 version, you can see the location by moving your mouse pointer over an item or by opening it and then seeing the location.

You can edit this list

The main document list is editable by right-click menu. Suppose you decide to move all your documents out of the My Documents folder to another folder “D:\my whiz docs.” How do you do that? You open My Documents in Windows Explorer, then select and move all the *.wzfolder documents to that other folder by normal Explorer operations. No mystery there. If you want specific details, see Moving your existing documents.

Now the list keeps referring to the old location. There are many ways to modify this list. If you can see or remember which items are referring to the old location, you can select them all, right-click and remove from the list. The locations are easily seen in the new version. Mind you, this “remove” does not mean that the document itself will be deleted.

There is another article that describes this in more detail, Moving your existing documents.

Or, you can even try to open a document and if it doesn’t exist, WhizFolders will offer to remove it from the list.

How do you add the documents from the new location to the list? You can either right-click and add. Or, you can simply open them from the new location and they will be added to the list.

In all of the above discussion, we used the “remove from list.” There is another operation “purge” on the right-click menu that actually deletes the document. Use that with CAUTION, only when you want to delete the document as well.

Microsoft recommends that you put all your documents in “My Documents” folder. Hence, by default, WhizFolders selects that location when you go to create a new document. Let me describe the advantages and disadvantages of using My Documents.

Advantages:

• It is clearly visible in the left pane of the File Open dialog and in Windows Explorer.
• It seems easy to remember.

Disadvantage:
See what I said above, it “seems” easy to remember. The actual disk location of a My Documents is something very different and is very long. You will see the actual location when you open that WhizFolder document. It will be something like “C:\Documents and Settings\Sanjay Kanade\My Documents\my notes.wzfolder.”

Moreover, when a different user logs on in Windows, My Documents points to some other folder. This can cause potential problems if you do not understand how it works. For example, many users casually delete their userid to create a better one. They ignore all warnings from Windows and may lose all their documents in the process. Then they wonder where all the documents went. Take another example. Sometimes, you need to reinstall Windows and create users from scratch. You can lose your documents and settings.

There are means in Windows to back up your documents and settings. There is a backup program in XP that allows you to back up your documents and settings. See this page on Microsoft web site. If you have such a back up, you can restore it in the event of a failure. This is good to know. But who knows what problems might come up? I have never been comfortable with this My Documents strategy. What I prefer is described next.

Keeping documents in own folders
I always choose to put documents in a folder of my choice so that I know where they exist and can easily copy or back them up using any utility that I like. For example, I may create all my Word documents in a folder called ‘D:\my word documents.’ Similarly for WhizFolder documents, I may use a special folder ‘D:\my whizdocs.’ This makes it easy for me to remember where they are no matter what the login is. Even if I have to reinstall Windows, these folders are often untouched. For backup, I can keep simple file copies of these folders on CDs. I feel much safer this way, and I recommend you to do the same.

If you want to move your documents to a single folder, see Moving your existing documents.

Use the new Backup option in WhizFolders 6
In the new version of WhizFolders, we have given an easy backup button. What this does is, copy a document to a special folder that you specify only once as a backup folder for your documents. Multiple copies of your documents can be kept there, many for each day, and so on.

When you create a new document with WhizFolders, it asks you to select a location and a name. By default, it selects the location as My Documents as per Microsoft guidelines.

What does this mean? This means that you have complete control over where you create your WhizFolder documents. The main window of WhizFolders simply lists the documents that you opened in the past. This is for your convenience so that you can reopen a document quickly from the main list. This does not mean that WhizFolders keeps these document files inside itself, in some database.

You must understand that all these WhizFolder documents are in your file system and have the file type or extension as .wzfolder. Just open Windows Explorer and see My Documents, unless you created these documents in some other folder. You will see all those WhizFolder document files in the explorer. You can even open them from the Explorer by double-clicking on them.

The new version also shows locations of the documents in the main window list. This makes it easier to know where they are. In the old version, you could see the location when you moved the mouse cursor over a document name in the list. Or, you can open that document and the location is shown above the topic list.

Also see other related posts:

• How to set the default location of the documents?
• Moving your existing documents
• The pitfalls of using “My Documents” as the location of your documents