programmed by Jae Ho Chang
March 12, 1998
<mailto:jaeho@xs4all.nl>
<http://www.xs4all.nl/~jaeho/FinderNote/>
IMPORTANT 1 : This application is freeware! It can be freely distributed as long as it is not modified and there's no charge for it, but it may not be included in any commercial package (except CD-ROMs included in magazines) without the written consent of the author.
IMPORTANT 2 (if you've used any earlier version of FinderNote): Run this new version of FinderNote as soon as you place it in your hard disk. This makes FinderNote remember its location and makes FinderNote Extension work properly with the new version. Otherwise, FinderNote Extension might launch an old version of FinderNote when you open files with Hot Opening Key from the Finder.
* What is FinderNote ?
FinderNote is a simple text editor whose documents can be read in the Finder (on the Desktop) without needing to run any application. This means that these notes open up as quickly as any other Finder window. This is possible because a FinderNote document is a particular type of file that Apple call a 'clipping'.
Clippings are very handy for keeping memos, to-do lists, notes about other files or folders, 'boilerplate' text (like letterheads) that you can insert into other documents - the list is almost endless.
FinderNote is FAT binary, which means it runs natively both on 68k and on PowerPC Macintoshes.
* Why FinderNote ?
Apple thought up the ingenious idea of clippings, but gave us no simple and immediate way of editing them. And it is very difficult to make a clipping which contains both text and picture. Now FinderNote gives you the quickest and easiest way of editing them and using them to the full.
* Creating a note
When you launch FinderNote, it opens a new note window automatically. And you can open a new note at any time by choosing New Note from the File menu.
Notice that a 'note' represents the document of FinderNote, but it is actually a 'clipping' when saved, as mentioned above in 'What is FinderNote' section.
* Editing a note
Typing and editing text is as usual as in other text
editors. Here are the key features:
- Double-click selects a single word.
- Triple-click selects a line of text.
- Arrow keys with Command key moves the cursor to
the beginning of text (up arrow), to the end of text
(down arrow), to the beginning of line (left arrow),
or to the end of line (right arrow).
- Arrow keys with Option key moves the cursor to the
end of a word (right arrow), or to the beginning of
a word (left arrow).
- Dragging and dropping selected text moves it or
copies it (when holding down Option key).
- Intelligent dragging adjusts the spaces on either
side of selected text automatically.
- You can paste or drop a picture in text. For more
information, see 'Saving a note' section.
* Saving a note
You use Save or Save As... under the File menu to save text.
A note is either a text clipping or a picture clipping.
A note will be a text clipping when there's only text,
but no picture and no tab.
A note will be a picture clipping when there's any
picture or any tab in the text.
There's no difference between them in FinderNote,
but there are in the Finder.
The only disadvantage of picture clipping is that
you can't directly drag and drop onto other applications
to get the text. When you do that, it will be recognized
as a picture but not as text.
You can force to save a note that contains picutres
or tabs as a text clipping. In this case, the pictures
and the tabs are not shown in the Finder. They are
shown only in FinderNote.
See 'Always Save As Text' section to know how to do
this.
* Always Save As Text
If you skipped 'Saving a note' section just above, please read it first.
This is option is shown in the Preferences window.
When you turn on this option, every note will be saved
as a text clipping. So the pictures and the tabs in
the note, if any, will not be shown in the Finder.
When you turn off this option, a note is either a text clipping or a picture clipping. It is determined by FinderNote according to whether the note has pictures or tabs (see 'Saving a note' section.)
You can temporarily alternate this option by holding down the Option key while choosing Save or Save As... from the File menu.
* Opening a note file
Double-clicking a note opens it in Finder, but not in FinderNote. This is the major difference from other text editors.
Of course, a note can be opened in FinderNote so that
you can edit it. There are three ways in which you
can do this:
- Launch FinderNote, and choose Open Note... from
the File menu.
- Drag the note file and drop it onto FinderNote's
icon (or an alias of it).
- Double-click the note while holding down the Hot
Opening Key (see 'Configuring Preferences' section).
* Quick open
FinderNote provides Open This menu under the File menu. This sub-menu can have a list of notes, and you choose one to open it without needing to navigate in the open dialog box. You can put notes in this list using Edit This Menu... or Add The Current Note menus.
You use Add The Current Note to insert the currently opened note into the list. However, You can't do this with unsaved note.
You use Edit This Menu... to edit the list, that is,
adding, changing, or removing. When you choose this
menu, a dialog box appears that has the list of notes,
and some buttons:
- The list area: When you click an item in this list,
the full path appears under the list. You can change
the order by dragging an item with holding down Option
key.
- Add button: Click this button to add a note into
the list.
- Change button: Click this button to replace the
selected item with another note.
- Remove button: Click this button to remove the selected
item.
* Using a note file in the Finder
As mentioned already, a note file can be read in the Finder without needing to run any application. Double-click opens the note file in a window in the Finder. But you can't edit it. You should open it with FinderNote to edit.
You should know that there are two types of note,
text clipping and picture clipping (see 'Saving a note'
section above), and that their features are different:
- Text clipping
: You drag it onto another application's window to
use its text contents.
: You choose Copy from the Edit menu in the Finder
to copy its text contents.
: When you change the window size in the Finder, the
contents will be re-aligned.
- Picture clipping
: You can not get its text contents by dragging it
onto another application's window.
Instead, you only get its contents as a picture.
: You drag it onto FinderNote's window or open it in
FinderNote to get its text.
: When you change the window size in the Finder, the
contents will not be re-aligned.
Instead, you get horizontal scroll bar.
* Text Search
FinderNote provides a simple search tool.
You can always use the Find window to search for text.
Choose Find... from the Search sub-menu in the Edit
menu, and you will see the Find window. You enter the
text you want to search for in the Find field. Click
the Find button or press the Return or the Enter key
to begin the search.
To enter a Return character in the Find field, press
Return key with holding down Option key.
When the text has been found, it is selected and shown
to you. If not, FinderNote sounds an alert.
If you want to find the next occurence of the find
string, choose Find Next from the Search sub-menu in
the Edit menu.
When you search for the text that is selected in the
note, you don't have to use the Find window. Instead,
you can use some items in the Search sub-menu in the
Edit menu. In this case, :
- choose Find Selection, or
- choose Enter 'Find' String and choose Find Next
to find the next occurence of the selected text.
* Importing from a normal text file
You can import a normal text file (created with SimpleText or another similar application) in the same way as you open a note file. The text will appear in a new window called 'untitled'. Remember that when you come to save it that it will become a clipping rather than the original type of text file.
* Importing from a picture clipping
You can also import a picture clipping in the same way as you open a note file. The picture will appear in a new window called 'untitled'. When you come to save it,
* Working with Internet Config
As with some recent programs you make your Internet
program work by clicking URL in note window while holding
down Command key. You need Internet Config 1.1 or later.
You can download it at <http://coos.dartmouth.edu/~emk/ic/index.html>.
* Configuring Preferences
You choose Preferences... from the Edit menu to configure the features of FinderNote. A dialog box will appear that has these options:
- Always Save As Text: See the 'Saving a note' and
'Always Save As Text' sections.
- Auto Save: If you check this, FinderNote will save
any changes to the note without asking when you close
its window. WARNING: If you are not too familiar with
your Macintosh, don't turn on Auto-Save. You could
lose important data by overwriting notes by mistake.
- Features: You can turn on or off various features.
- Hot Opening Key: If the FinderNote Extension is
installed you can directly open clippings files for
editing by double-clicking them while holding down
one or more of the modifier keys specified here.
* Defining a default note style
Use As Default under the Edit menu lets you set a default text style (font, size, style, colour) and window size for newly created notes. Just set the window size as you like it and drag-select a piece of text with the attributes that you want and then select the Use As Default menu item. This won't work if you select a text block that contains two or more styles.
* Installing the FinderNote Extension
If the FinderNote Extension is installed, you can
directly open clippings files for editing by double-clicking
them while holding down the specified Hot Opening Key
(one or more of the modifier keys: Option, Command
or Control).
To install the FinderNote Extension drag the file
to your System Folder and it will be put away in the
Extensions folder. Restart your machine. (The FinderNote
application itself can live in any convenient place.)
* International support
FinderNote fully supports the multi-byte character script systems (except bi-directional systems) with inline input.
* System requirements
Basic requirements
System 7.1 or later
Finder 7.1.3 or later
Additional extensions requirements for System 7.1 to
under 7.5 users
Macintosh Drag and Drop
Dragging Enabler
Clipping Extension
Finder Scripting Extension
Additional extensions requirements for System 7.5 to
7.6.x users
Clipping Extension
Finder Scripting Extension
MacOS 8 users need no additional extensions
* Acknowledgements
* Dale E. Bernelle for encouraging me to re-write
FinderNote.
* Marco Piovanelli for his great text-edit engine
'WASTE' and technical help. Without the WASTE, FinderNote
was never able to have nice and powerful text editing
features.
* John Mallinson for great help in bugs, features,
and documentations.
* Young Jin Kim, my friend.
* Tom Nguyen, Yigal Arens for their great help.
* Many kind people for their bug reports and suggestions.
* FinderNote home page on WWW
You can find the latest version at <http://www.xs4all.nl/~jaeho/FinderNote/>
* Known Problems
* If you put too big picture, the saved file can have
no content.
* FinderNote is not compatible with ScrollMagick (written
by Eden Sherry).
* The note file whose name contains '(' can't be included
in the Open This menu.
* You can't include Shift key in Hot Opening Key.
* The window size of note opened in the Finder is
not identical with that in FinderNote. Changing the
size of one of those windows does not affect to the
other.
* FinderNote can handle more than 32K of text, but
the Finder can open only 32K.
* Option-left arrow does not work properly with Korean
script system.
* Bugs? Suggestions?
Please send me details of any problems you encounter, giving details of your machine and System version. Also please do let me know your suggestions to make FinderNote even more useful and powerful.
email : jaeho@xs4all.nl
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