Blog: WhizFolders, Articles and tips

I’m happy to announce the Alpha release of version 6.2 of the Deluxe Edition. An Alpha release means, new features are still being added with each release. If you are a paid user of the Deluxe edition, you can participate in the Alpha testing by a login at our self-service web site support.whizfolders.com. You will be able to download the Alpha update and begin to enjoy the new features. Now is the time to remind me about a feature you suggested but still don’t see it in WhizFolders.

Here are the Release Notes for WhizFolders Deluxe 6.2 (Alpha).

The Pro edition 6.2 won’t be updated during the Alpha testing. Once the Alpha release finishes, the Beta testing will start. The Pro edition 6.2 will be released during this time for beta testing.

From next version, we are going to maintain a combined history for all editions.

Please see the combined history for all future versions.

Known problems in version 6.1.4.2: (list updated on Sep 14, 2008)

• If you use “Start with Windows” general taskbar option on Windows Vista, you might find WhizFolders very slow to read or write to the disk at times for about a minute after the start up. This seems to be a feature of Vista where it runs the start up programs at very low priority for about one minute. So if you are using Vista, please do not use this option if you find this delayed response irritating.
• The file option to automatically backup a changed document on close does not always work, especially if you modified a topic by quick edit or did a save yourself. The fix is coming in the next version. Meanwhile, please do an explicit backup by the backup button whenever you make an impotrant change to be backed up.
• Due to the new location pasting feature from the browser, the pasting of pictures from the browser is broken. The fix is coming in the next version.
• When you paste text from Internet browser, the location is always pasted before this. Currently, there is no way to put this feature off. This feature also causes problem in pasting pictures copied from the browser. The new option is coming in the next version.
• If you see the “Old Style Link” message on clicking a link, please do a Save. This will fix the link unless it was really pasted from web in an earlier version as the message says. The fix is coming in the next version.
• You must have noticed that when you are browsing topics, pressing a key in the right pane automatically starts Quick Editor there. This feature is for your convenience. But, please don’t type rapidly to start the editor. It may cause links in that topic to be disturbed. The same problem might occur if you use some kind of keyboard macro utility to insert text when the editor is not already started.

  If you have a habit of typing rapidly or use a keyboard macro utility, please always start the editor first by the “Start Quickedit” button and then type. The fix is coming in the next version.

Update 6.1.4.2 released (June 24, 2008): We have released an update that fixes the links problem mentioned below. If you are still using 6.1.4, please update your copy from the support area. In addition, this version also has much improved link processing for the text pasted from Internet Explorer.

Known problems in older version 6.1.4:

• If you see any corruption of links in the new or old documents, please stop using this version and let us know immediately. The corruption can look like < > appearing around the links. We are working on this and hope to release an update soon.

New features and improvements in 6.1.4:
The following list gives the history of even minor fixes in this version. Instead, you may want to see a nice description of only major new features in 6.1 available at http://whizfolders.com/whizfolders61.aspx.

• Copying a Run command to open a note: Some times, you just need to get a run command that you can use in another application to start WhizFolders, positioned on a particular note. You can do that by the “Copy Run Command” operation on the Tools menu. You can simply paste the copied command in the other application that supports executing a run command.
• When you perform an “Insert Favorites” type Links operation in the topic list, the target used is the final web address instead of the url file. This makes sure that if you move that document to another computer, the links still work.
• When you insert links in the topic list, certain help text is inserted to show how the link works. You can now disable this automatic insertion of help text in a miscellaneous general option.
• For advanced users who can see and understand the targets of web links in Internet Explorer: The web links in the pasted rich text from Internet Explorer only work if full web addresses are provided in the links by the web designer. Otherwise, it doesn’t work because the browser does not put the complete resolved web address (a bug in the browser) in the links of the copy. To solve this problem, WhizFolders can now resolve such links with the help of a common base web address that you need to manually insert in the first line of such a topic that contains the pasted web text. So whenever you paste some rich text from Internet Explorer, check if the links work. If they don’t, find the base address by comparing the link’s target with that in the original link in the browser and then put it in the first line of the topic. Repeat till you get it right.

Fixes in 6.1.4:

• The Numeric List button had stopped working properly in the Editor. Fixed this.
• Fixed “Insert a Favorites Folder” operation in that it didn’t position the file dialog in the proper favorites folder to start with.
• Inserting new Jump links in rich text pasted from Internet Explorer sometimes caused strange problems. Fixed.
• Drag and drop of web address links from Internet Explorer 7 to the topic list does not work on Vista if you are not running Internet Explorer as admin. WhizFolders now catches this problem and suggests the solution.
• If a document was set up to use automatic date or time prefix in the topic name, it broke the link insertion in the topic list because the prefix was inserted before ~~jumpfile. This is now fixed.
• Fixed occasional error, “List Index out of Bounds.”
• In a rare case, an access violation occurred when a topic was inserted at the end of a topic list. This is now fixed.

Known problems in 6.1.2:

For known problems in this version, please see the subsequent release note for 6.1.4.

New features and fixes in 6.1.2:
The following list gives the history of even minor fixes in this version. Instead, you may want to see a nice description of only major new features in 6.1 available at http://whizfolders.com/whizfolders61.aspx.

• The following General Editor options were not working in 6.1. Fixed.
1. “Pick and Apply Format buttons also copy paragraph settings” (when switched on)
2. “Detect URLs automatically as links” (when switched off, rarely used)
• In the Editor, the last used text color and highlight color was not remembered. Fixed.
• In the Editor, when an inner list’s indent was decreased, it resumed the outer list properly only for numeric lists. It did not work for bullets or no lists. Fixed.
• Proxy improvement: Updates menu operations “Check for Updates” and “Get Product News” now ask for the proxy user name and password if they can’t connect through a proxy.
• New Editor Option: Some users didn’t want an indent on the bullet list to start a numeric list. We have now given a General Editor option to do that: “Do not change to numeric list type on indenting a bullet list”

Known problems in 6.1:

For known problems in this version, please see the subsequent release note for 6.1.2.

New features and fixes in 6.1:
The following list gives the history of even minor fixes in this version. Instead, you may want to see a nice description of only major new features in 6.1 available at http://whizfolders.com/whizfolders61.aspx.

• Thesaurus: WhizFolders now includes an English Thesaurus that you can use in the editor. Just put cursor on a word and click on the menu “Tools–Look up Thesaurus.”
• Portable WhizFolders: Now you can copy WhizFolders to a portable drive and use it from there on any computer. The operation “Copy WhizFolders to a Portable drive” is available on the Tools menu of the main window. This is not a simple copy but involves many other features that the Portable version detects and uses. For example, its main list can handle the documents on the portable disk even if the drive letter changes.
• Desktop shortcut to a particular note: Now you can create a shortcut to open the document at a particular note by selecting that note and using the menu “Tools–Create Shortcut for the Selected Topic.”
• Live Spelling Check and Live Correction: On the editor, you can now turn on “Live Spelling Check” option as described in “Spelling Checker Options” in the help file. This puts red underlines on the words with spelling errors. You can correct such errors by right-clicking on them. Similarly if Live Correction is on, any word you type is automatically replaced with its auto correction if it is found in the auto correction dictionaries. To put words in auto correct dictionary, you just need to right-click and select the operation “Auto correct” once and then WhizFolders remembers it. This way, you can even quickly type long phrases by assigning them to custom mnemonics in the auto correction dictionaries.
• Popup links: This is an exciting new feature for advanced users only who understand that JUMP type statements can be constructed by typing too. You can change a JUMP or JUMPSHOWTEXT statement to a REF statement by typing over to make that change in the editor. To place the editing cursor in the link you can press Ctrl key when clicking otherwise the link will activate. Once you change a JUMP link to a REF statement, the link works like a popup link so that the target topic opens in a popup window.
• Office Look & Feel: This option was removed for Windows Vista. Now it is available on the General Options–Desktop page. The option there is actually reverse. You need to switch it off to get an office like blue theme for WhizFolders.
• EWhizBook: The operation to make a self-running EXE eBook on the Tools menu is completely revamped. It is now called an EWhizBook that you create. Also, it no longer uses the public freeware WhizFolder Viewer product. Instead, WhizFolders uses its own internal module to make it and it looks quite different now. See “Distributing your documents” for more details.
• New general options:
  1. Startup with Windows option: You will find this new option to start WhizFolders with Windows on the Taskbar page of the General Options.
  2. No popup hints on Topics List: If you don’t want the popup hints on the list of topics, you can switch on this option on the “Miscellaneous 2″ page of the general options. The purpose of the hints is to show the topic name when it is wider than the list and is not fully visible.
  3. Always show resize picture wizard: This option is now moved to Editor page of General Options.
  4. Advanced options page of general options is now called “Miscellaneous options.”
      
• Fixed:
  1. The Windows shutdown processing is now improved so that the RichEdit warning does not appear on the next start up. Moreover, WhizFolders now detects if RichEdit 4.1 is not being used and allows you to switch it on at the start up.
  2. When selected pages were printed, the next print preview operation also showed the selected pages. This is now fixed.
  3. Occasional error messages when opening files from the shortcuts are fixed.
      
• Deluxe Edition 6.1 New Features: If you are using WhizFolders Pro, you might be interested to know what new features are there in the Deluxe 6.1 in addition to the above Pro features. Here they are:
  The new View menu (Deluxe Edition): There is a new View menu on the top before the Tools menu. The View menu also appears below the Topic List. It has the following operations:   
  1. Hoist, Hide Selected Items, Unhide All: Hoisting is a great new feature. It means concentrating on only a few topic trees and hiding the rest. If you select one or more top level topics and click on View–Hoist, it will hide all other topics so that you can work on the outline of only the topics that you selected. Afterwards, you can click on View–Unhide All to restore the full list of topics. There is also a different operation available to Hide Selected Topics instead of hoisting (that hides all but selected).
  2. View outline: This operation opens a popup window where you can see a list along with outlined text contents in the same list. You can not do any editing or changes in this list but you can print an indented outline from there.
      
• Keywords improvement: You can now select more than one keywords in the Keywords Index to look up topics associated to them.
   
• You can get the Deluxe edition at a discount: If you are a Pro edition paid customer, you can buy an upgrade to get the Deluxe edition at a great discount. You will see that information when you login at the support area: support.whizfolders.com.

Known Problems in 6.0.8:
(documentation updated on September 5, 2007)

1. Starting prompt to switch off RichEdit 4.1: Sometimes when starting up, WhizFolders gives a message asking to switch off the use of RichEdit 4.1. Read more on this in this article.
    
2. Strange behavior of the list: In rare cases, you might notice a strange behavior of the list of topics in a document. You will be able to scroll such a list beyond the last topic, and see blank area with some topic names. You will also find it difficult to select topics from the end of the list.

   Solution: This problem can only occur in those documents where you have set the File Options–Deskop to “remember nothing.” So if you see this problem, just change the above option to “Remember Folder Position” and it will go away.

3. Progress on advanced search: When doing the advanced search through multiple files from the main window, the progress bar shows only the top of the Cancel button. But you can still click on that button to cancel the operation.
    
4. Tutorial launches each time you start WhizFolders: Only two users faced this problem. We have not been able to duplicate this. If this happens, you will probably also see a question next time from WhizFolders whether to put off the use of RichEdit 4.1. Say yes and see if this fixes the problem. Please report the result in any case to us.

New features and fixes in 6.0.8:

• Improvement, Vista native support: Although the previous version worked on Vista, it was mainly because of backward compatibility features in Vista. We are now complying with all the Vista guidelines and the new version will run fine both under Admin and Standard users. Vista UAC prompts will come up appropriately when WhizFolders requires to change some settings allowed only for admins, for example, to set up the spelling-checker and the default opener for WhizFolder documents.
• Own Help System: WhizFolders now uses its own Help system that will work on Vista as well as on Windows XP systems. We had to make this change as Vista does not natively support our existing WinHelp files for WhizFolders. Instead of moving over to the other Microsoft Help technologies, we devised our own. WhizFolders is a first-class documenting system. Why can’t it use its own features for help display as well? Well, it does now.
• Improvement, picture insertion: Normally, the picture size reduction wizard appears only for large pictures. Some users asked that this should appear for all pictures. There is a new advanced general option, “Always show resize-picture-wizard,” that does this.
• Change in theme support: We had to make this change for Vista native support. WhizFolders now uses themes on both Windows XP and Vista and the theme support can not be switched off as there is no manifest file now. However, you can turn off its use of Office Look and Feel when using Windows XP theme on Windows XP. See General Options–Desktop page for this option which will only be visible on Windows XP.
• Improvement, more check mark utility operations: In the previous version, the check mark feature was introduced for the topics list but no other utility operations were given. Now you can find them under “Tick or Check Mark Operations” on the right-click menu of the topic list (also on the Edit menu).
• Improvement, Search feature: Now you no longer need to insert an “AND” operator to search for multiple words. WhizFolders inserts ANDs automatically if you type multiple words in the search box. You can even turn off this advanced general option if you don’t like it.
• Improvement, Copy to clipboard feature for some lists: You can now right-click and copy the list of documents from the main window to the clipboard so that you can use them for any purpose, for example, to print the list. The same feature is also available on the List of Keys too.
• Improvement, incremental search on other lists: Now you can type the beginning characters of a document name in the main list to quickly position on a document. The same feature is also available in the keywords list.
• Fix, Word Outline export: Sometimes, extra levels appeared when exporting a list containing empty topics. This is now fixed.
• Fix, strategy for dealing with occasional RichEdit 4.1 errors: The new Microsoft RichEdit 4.1 is great for supporting tables and many new features. However, at times, it causes strange problems, especially when pasting information from web pages. Some of these problems cause the application to abort. WhizFolders detects such an abort and on next startup, asks you whether you want to disable the use of RichEdit 4.1 (falling back to older RichEdit). It is a good idea to say yes, especially when you can’t open any document for this reason. Later on, after correcting the problem text, you can switch on the use of RichEdit 4.1 on the editor page of general options.
• Fix, import topics behavior reverted for smaller number of topics: In the last version, we had introduced a change for improving the speed of “Import Topics from Text File” operation. This caused a suffix to be added to the imported topic names to improve the speed of import. During our own help system development, we found that this is inconvenient for managing links to those topics. Hence, we have now modified this naming feature so that the suffixes will be generated only when the number of topic names go beyond 1000. In addition, we have increased the limit on text for each imported topic to 5 MB. Also, the RTF codes in such an import were improperly truncated when they exceeded the limit. This is now fixed.
• Many other fixes to recover from error conditions: We have made many other fixes to try to recover from errors caused by corrupted files, topics or toolbars.

Update to this note on June 27, 2007: This is an old note. The latest paid version 6.0 of WhizFolders uses its own help system and does not face this problem. However, if you are using the old trial version 5.6, the following note still applies to it. We have not yet released a new trial version for 6.0.

When you go to see the help file for WhizFolders, Windows Vista might give you a message, “Why can’t I get Help from this program?” This means Winhelp is absent on that system. This problem might come not only for WhizFolders but for many other applications that use HLP files to display help.

You can fix this problem on your Vista by downloading and installing WinHelp from Microsoft. More information on this and a download link for WinHelp installer for Vista can be found at on this page.

known problems in version 6.0.7.3:

• Move TOC to beginning: If you switch on this option in General Options, the other option “Print TOC” should be ON too. Otherwise, nothing would be printed. We will fix this in the next version.
• Windows Vista related problems: Please see WhizFolders runs fine on Windows Vista.