Current Goals

Here's my current plan for updates.

Since the official release of Rename Master v2.8.0, minor bug fixes will be provided as Public Beta releases and major bug fixes will be official releases. After a small period of time, I'll begin work again on new features. Improving the Insert Meta-Variables dialog to be much easier is the first task. Common JPEG and MP3 operations will be supported with quick select options.

ArsClip is currently going through a similar process that RM just went through. First of all, I'm trying to make it a better looking program. Second, I'm fixing reported bugs and adding new functionality - using all the user feedback I can get for new ideas. In the current betas, I've added a text scrubbing (remove formatting) option and a new "Edit Selected" popup menu item that will copy any selected items in the current program and open a window for edit. You can highlight text on a webpage or even selected files in Explorer and edit the text to save onto the clipboard or save directly onto the popup. I plan on going through the Configuration window and making the option's meanings clearer and easier to understand.

Rename Master Facelift

Rename Master is showing it's age and it's purely utilitarian design. A user and review from Softpedia pointed out the "plain and simple, with no bells and whistles" interface. I'm in the middle of updating the interface to look more modern and hopefully attractive too.



In this first draft,

- the important buttons are grouped together

- less important buttons are "flat" and show as normal buttons when hovered

- the icon have be tweaked a little (though you can't tell from the above thumbnail)

- the browse panel button is more obvious

- the "folder properties" button will change to show the icon of the current file

- "Counting" is now shown as a regular section of the renaming options

The interface is still simple in this attempt, but it seems to be more clean and straight forward with better logical associations for the "Clear" and the "Configure" buttons. It doesn't have that "attractive" feature yet, but it's still on the drawing board.

Rename Master addon

The latest test uploads of Rename Master include an optional installable Explorer addon. It is shown when more than one file is selected on the main right-click menu and is always shown in the Send To - as shown in the image below.

Both commands will open Rename Master with the selected files checked. One major difference is that the Send To option will show the files in the order you selected the files, instead of the order shown in the window.

ArsClip and Vista - update

The latest public beta of ArsClip implements Vista's new clipboard monitoring API. This means that there will be no more chain breaks, notifications and all that jazz. The chain configuration options are automatically updated an locked for Vista users.

The latest ArsClip public beta works as expected in Vista.

Rename Master and Vista

I've found only one small issue with Rename Master and Vista and one big one. The Folder browser shows the Documents icons for all folders. The "Send To" option for running Rename Master works fine, but the Right Click on a folder option does not display any filenames.

So, for a temporary workaround, use the Send To option instead for opening a folder in Explorer with RM.

UPDATE: Open the Configuration window and ensure at least one [Folder Selection] and one [File List] option is checked.

StartRight beta and Vista

StartRight beta with the new service does not work at all in Vista. The service is an interactive service which is disabled by default in Vista. I've not tested if it would work with this enabled, yet.

Vista Support

I'll be upgrading (actually dual-booting) to Vista this Friday. I fully expect StartRight not to function at all in Vista due mainly to UAC. I already know about the error message in ArsClip when starting Media Player 11 and ArsClip has been updated with an optoin to disable clipboard chain checking for Vista [it's no longer needed on that OS].

The new design changes to StartRight (full user account support - currently in Public Beta) is meant to comply with standard accounts, but I'll really only know about possible Vista support when I actually start testing it. Vista isn't supposed to need StartRight at all due to architecture changes in the OS, but that remains to be seen.

Beta Pages Updated

I've created new sub-catagories so that each program has it's own page. This should make it easier for people to follow changes and updates for a single program.