New year filler

Just to have a post for 2010 on the home page, I'm writing a reminder for the newest Public Beta upload or Rename Master. This version is likely to be the official release for version 2.4.9, unless a problem is found.

In this new version, almost all changes are bug fixes except for one. The new "Remove Expression" step is a new and very powerful renaming option. This is a simplified version of regular expressions that the average person should be able to figure out. It lets you explain the part of a filename you wish to remove without using specifics.

An expression starts with something, has something in the middle, and ends with something. This "something" can be an exact phrase, a stream of certain characters in any order, or stream of any characters that aren't in a list. For example, the expression "(TextHere)" starts with "(", has the letters A thru Z in the middle, and ends with ")".

Google Famous

Just out of curiosity, I turned on Google's search suggestions and typed in "rename". At number 8 in the list is my humble little program - Rename Master.

On January 18th 2010, Rename Master will be over 8 years old. Happy birthday RM.

A New Step for RM

The last official release of Rename Master was in July, but I'm currently working a new renaming option. I've uploaded my progress in the current Public Beta upload and I'm looking for feedback to see if I'm on the right track.

This new step adds support for removing an "expression", or a pattern, from a filename. While RM has had support for full Regular Expressions for quite some time, this new step adds a GUI for a much easier to understand version. Normally, only programmers know about or understand regular expressions, but this new addition makes it so most anyone can learn and understand the concept.

A new ArsClip release

ArsClip v3.1.3 has finally been released, after one of the most involved testing cycles ever. The most notable changes in this release are a setup program, support for a single history list (with both text and non-text items), a new right-click hold trigger for the popup, and "column break" item that will break the popup into two columns. As always, all of these changes are options but some of these items are set on by default.

Along with these new features, a lot of compatability of bug fixes have been added to this version. Conflicts with large clipboard items [like from Office programs] and IntelliType software have been resolved. A workaround for a crash after a video driver reset has been added, and compatibility has been added for non-US keyboards with AltGr support for mimicing typing.

Windows 7

Now that Windows 7 is in public beta, I'll be testing my programs on it. There should be no difference between the testing results I get in Vista, but if there is a problem I should be able to track down the problems without the difficulty of relying on email exchanges.

A long overdue promise

A long time ago, I said that I would add support for renaming files using text from a text file. I've been thinking about how to do it in Rename Master for a while and I had one of those "duh" moments for a simple solution that is flexible. I thought of a good way to add support that seems match the multiple ways this feature has been requested.

In the current Public Beta upload, I've added support for a new Textfile tab that lets you define a text file or CSV formatted file and retrieve data into special ?text1? style meta-variables. There are two basic modes for matching a file to a line of data. The first mode uses the textfile as a sequential list and the second method will search to match each file to a line in the textfile. By default, the current filename meta-variable is used for this search string, but any of the many meta-variables can be used to match a file to a line of data.

MouseWrangler v1.0.0 released

For the first time in many years, I've released a brand new program. MouseWrangler is a mouse gesture program that can be used to automate common window tasks. Its job is to help make common mousing easier, bridging the gap between what you can do quickly with a keyboard and what you can do quickly with a mouse.

Rename Master v2.9.2 Release

This new version of Rename Master adds a new renaming option to find text and remove everything before or after a phrase. This feature allows for cut-and-paste style operations. Another new feature makes selecting and formatting meta-variables in the Scripting View much easier. Lastly, many bugs have been fixed - mostly in the Scripting View interface.

MouseWrangler, a new program

I've created a new program called MouseWrangler - for mouse gestures. While holding the right mouse button, mouse motions are detected and a series of motions will trigger an action. Currently, a keystroke or a series of keystrokes will be simulated for each gesture.

See the Public Betas page for more information and to download. This program is still in the Beta stage, but it's currently stable and functioning well.

More site trivia

- There have been at least 600,000 downloads from this site over the past 3 year [including beta versions]

- Less than 1 percent of downloaders send feedback [ Hint, Hint :) ]

- About 60 percent of visitors leave after viewing one page

- About 1 percent of visitors that don't block ads click on an ad

- About 80 percent of visitors are new visitors and spend less than 2 minutes browsing 2 pages

- There are about 10,000 unique visitors a month

- Over the last year: 141,343 visited the site once, 12,314 visited the site twice, and about 9,000 visited 3 to 200+ times

- Firefox and Internet Explorer is used most frequently and account for 45 and 44 percent of all visits

A new ArsClip version

It's been a while since the last official release of ArsClip.

Version 3.1.2 adds the newly popular Search item to the popup, a Recently Clicked popup menu item, and some more quick edit options for the highlighted item on the popup. As always, a handful of bugs have been fixed in this version.

Special Note: The new sound configuration option makes it 99.9% portable. Only when enabled will ArsClip write to the Windows registry. All other changes are stored on disk and will work with thumb drives and other portable media.