 eCleaner Help Index

How To ...

Overview

Cleaning an e-mail message

FAQ

Contact info

Commands

File menu

Edit menu

View menu

Clean menu

Help menu


Overview

eCleaner is an application / mini-editor that you can use to ‘clean up’ your e-mail messages by:

•	Removing those annoying ‘>’ symbols

•	Word wrapping fragmented sentences

•	Removing HTML code

•	Removing headers

I originally wrote this application for myself years ago because I was tired of cleaning up the ‘>’ symbols out of the jokes that I would forward to my friends.  A couple of my friends convinced me to put this program out as freeware.

Anyway, after a couple years of the Cleaner v1.02 being out there, I’ve gotten a lot of feedback of which I’ve been able to incorporate into this version.  For those of you used to v1.02, the main changes are the following:

•	Allowing the use of RichText, which enables the use of different fonts and formatting styles.

•	Cleaning of HTML code and message headers.

•	Ability to print

•	Additional of a help file.

•	On a more technical note, I switched APIs from Borland’s Object Windows Library (OWL) to Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC).

Enjoy!


Cleaning an e-mail message

To clean an e-mail, perform the following steps:

1.	From your original e-mail message, select and copy (Ctrl+C or go to E)dit – C)opy on the menu bar) the desired text that you want to clean.

2.	Run the eCleaner application.  (See FAQ on how to make a shortcut key or setup an icon on the IE Taskbar.)

3.	Hit F1 or click on the Smiley Face icon.    Note: The changes are automatically saved on the clipboard.  You don’t need to select all and copy the text into the clipboard again, unless you make changes manually to the text after it has been cleaned.

4.	From your e-mail application, create a new message and paste (Ctrl+V or go to E)dit – P)aste on the menu bar) in the reformatted text.

That’s it!

If you want to perform one of the other ‘cleaning’ commands, such as Remove HTML, Remove Symbols or Remove Headers, perform the above steps but for step 3, click on the appropriate toolbar button instead of clicking on the Smiley Face.

Suggestion: If you are cleaning a file that really doesn’t need word wrapping, try using just the Remove Symbols [image] command instead.  Sometimes, the full cleaning does more reformatting than you want.

For more control over the way the program cleans the text, see the Options Dialog


Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ

What is the clipboard?

The clipboard is just temporary memory kept by Windows to store information that you want to transfer from one place to another.  When you use E)dit – C)opy, you are copying the data to the clipboard and when you use E)dit – P)aste, you are retrieving information back from the clipboard.

How can I create an eCleaner icon on the Internet Explorer Taskbar?

You can either right drag the application down to the taskbar and select ‘Create Shortcut Here’ or, alternatively, you can create a shortcut link in the directory, C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.

How do I create a Shortcut Key for eCleaner?

•	If you have not done so already, create a shortcut for the eCleaner on your desktop (or some other part of your hard drive, if you don’t want to clutter up your desktop.)

•	Right click on the shortcut, select Properties and select the Shortcut tab.

•	Go to the Shortcut key and pick a letter that you want to use to bring up the eCleaner.  If you select E, for example, your shortcut key will be Ctrl + Alt + E.

How do I change the eCleaner program icon to the smiley face?

Right click on the shortcut for the eCleaner and select Properties, just like in the previous question.  Select the Shortcut tab and select Change Icon.  Then, just select the icon you want to use and click OK.

How can I get the ‘Save changes to’ dialog box when I exit the program?

You can enable this dialog through the Options Dialog under the Misc Tab.  Uncheck the Ignore Save Dialog On Exit box and click OK.


Contact Information
Contact info

E-mail: 	schin@cs.stanford.edu (Nope, I’m not a student anymore; this is just an alumni account.)

schin26@msn.com

URL:	http://members.tripod.com/schin26/index.htm

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to send me an e-mail.

I firmly believe in the idea of freeware.  I have now put in a good amount of time into this program, but it’s kind of a labor of love thing – my reward will be not receiving any more e-mails with those darn ‘>’ characters in them!

However, if you really feel the need to reimburse me monetarily, then if you were already going to buy something on the web with one of the advertisers on my web site, please feel free to make your next purchase(s) through the banner on my site.  I’ll get a small commission on the sale.

If you still have money that you just want to give away, send me an e-mail and we can work something out…

Steve


File menu commands

The File menu offers the following commands:

New	Creates a new document.
Open	Opens an existing document.
Save	Saves an opened document using the same file name.
Save As	Saves an opened document to a specified file name.
Print	Prints a document.
Print Preview	Displays the document on the screen as it would appear printed.
Page Setup	Selects a printer and printer connection.
Send As Attachment	Sends the active document through electronic mail.
Exit	Exits eCleaner.


Edit menu commands

The Edit menu offers the following commands:

Undo	Reverse previous editing operation.
Cut	Deletes data from the document and moves it to the clipboard.
Copy	Copies data from the document to the clipboard.
Paste	Pastes data from the clipboard into the document.
Paste Special	Pastes data from clipboard into document in different format than default.
Select All	Select all text in document.
Find	Find text in document.
Find Next	Find next occurrence of text in document.
Replace	Replace occurrences of text with another string of text.
Insert Object	Inserts and embeds an object, such as a chart or an equation in a document.
Object Properties	Get properties of selected object.


View menu commands

The View menu offers the following commands:

Toolbar	Shows or hides the toolbar.
Format Bar	Shows or hides the format bar.
Status Bar	Shows or hides the status bar.


Clean menu commands

The Clean menu offers the following commands:

Clean Text	Cleans up formatting of document.
Remove HTML	Removes all HTML code from document.
Remove Symbols	Removes symbols (>, |, :, etc) without rest of process of Clean Text.
Remove Headers	Removes headers from document.
Options	Configure specifics of cleaning process.


Help menu commands

The Help menu offers the following commands, which provide you assistance with this application:

Help	Offers you an index to topics on which you can get help.
About eCleaner	Displays the version number of this application.


File New command
New command (File menu)

Use this command to create a new document in eCleaner.

You can open an existing document with the Open command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+N


File Open command
Open command (File menu)

Use this command to open an existing document in a new window.

You can create new documents with the New command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+O


File Save command
Save command (File menu)

Use this command to save the active document to its current name and directory.  When you save a document for the first time, eCleaner displays the Save As dialog box so you can name your document.  If you want to change the name and directory of an existing document before you save it, choose the Save As command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+S


File Save As command
Save As command (File menu)

Use this command to save and name the active document.  eCleaner displays the Save As dialog box so you can name your document.

To save a document with its existing name and directory, use the Save command.


Send As Attachment command
Send As Attachment command (File menu)

Use this command to send the active document through electronic mail.  This command presents a mail window with the active document attached to it.  You may then fill out the To: field, Subject: field, etc., and add text to the body of the message if you wish.  When you are finished you may click the "Send" button to send the message.


File Print command
Print command (File menu)

Use this command to print a document.   This command presents a Print dialog box, where you may specify the range of pages to be printed, the number of copies, the destination printer, and other printer setup options.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+P


File Print Preview command
Print Preview command (File menu)

Use this command to display the active document as it would appear when printed.  When you choose this command, the main window will be replaced with a print preview window in which one or two pages will be displayed in their printed format.  The print preview toolbar offers you options to view either one or two pages at a time; move back and forth through the document; zoom in and out of pages; and initiate a print job.


Print Preview toolbar

The print preview toolbar offers you the following options:

Print

Bring up the print dialog box, to start a print job.

Next Page

Preview the next printed page.

Prev Page

Preview the previous printed page.

One Page / Two Page

Preview one or two printed pages at a time.

Zoom In

Take a closer look at the printed page.

Zoom Out

Take a larger look at the printed page.

Close

Return from print preview to the editing window.


File Page Setup Command
Page Setup command (File menu)

Use this command to specify the desired print parameters.  This command presents a Print Setup dialog box, where you specify options such as paper size, orientation, and margins.


Print Setup dialog box

Orientation

Choose Portrait or Landscape.

Paper Size

Select the size of paper that the document is to be printed on.

Paper Source

Some printers offer multiple trays for different paper sources.  Specify the tray here.

Margins

Enter the size of the desired page margins.


File 1, 2, 3, 4 command
1, 2, 3, 4 command (File menu)

Use the numbers and filenames listed at the bottom of the File menu to open the last documents you closed.  Choose the number that corresponds with the document you want to open.


File Exit command
Exit command (File menu)

Use this command to end your eCleaner session.  You can also use the Close command on the application Control menu.  eCleaner may prompts you to save documents with unsaved changes, depending on how the Ignore Save Dialog On Exit option is set.

Shortcuts

Mouse:	Double-click the application's Control menu button.

Keys:	ALT+F4


Undo command (Edit menu)

Use this command to reverse the last editing action, if possible.   Note: You can only undo typing and editing changes, not “Cleaning” changes.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+Z


Cut command
Cut command (Edit menu)

Use this command to remove the currently selected data from the document and put it on the clipboard.  This command is unavailable if there is no data currently selected.

Cutting data to the clipboard replaces the contents previously stored there.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+X


Copy command
Copy command (Edit menu)

Use this command to copy selected data onto the clipboard.  This command is unavailable if there is no data currently selected.

Copying data to the clipboard replaces the contents previously stored there.

Note: When any of the cleaning commands are executed, the reformatted text is automatically selected and copied to the clipboard.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+C


Paste command
Paste command (Edit menu)

Use this command to insert a copy of the clipboard contents at the insertion point.  This command is unavailable if the clipboard is empty.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+V


Paste Special command
Paste Special command (Edit menu)

Use this command, like Paste, to insert a copy of the clipboard contents at the insertion point.  However, with Paste Special, a dialog box will appear that allows you to select as what clipboard format you want to paste in the data.  This command is unavailable if the clipboard is empty.


Select All command (Edit menu)

Use this command to select all text in the document.

Note: When any of the cleaning commands are executed, the reformatted text is automatically selected and copied to the clipboard.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+A


Edit Find Command
Find command (Edit menu)

To search for text

In Find what, enter the text you want to search for, and then click Find Next.

To find additional instances of the same text, continue to click Find Next.

Notes

•	If you have closed the Find dialog box, you can press F3 to search for more instances of the same text.

•	You can also search for and replace text by clicking Edit and then clicking Replace.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+F


Edit Find Next Command
Find Next command (Edit menu)

Finds the next instance of text specified in the last Find

Shortcuts

Keys:	F3


Edit Replace Command
Replace command (Edit menu)

To search for and replace text

On the Edit menu, click Replace.

In Find what, enter the text you want to replace.

In Replace with, enter the text you want to replace it with.

Notes

•	To replace all instances of the text, click Replace All.

•	To replace each instance of the text individually, click Find Next, and then click Replace.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+H


OLE Insert Object Command
Insert Object command (Edit menu)

With this command, you can insert an object created with another application (for example, Microsoft Paint or Microsoft Word) into your document.  A mini version of the other application is actually run inside of this application.


OLE Object Properties Command
Object Properties command (Edit menu)

Displays the object type and properties for the selected OLE object.

Shortcuts

Keys:	Alt+Enter


View Toolbar command
Toolbar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Toolbar, which includes buttons for some of the most common commands in eCleaner, such as File Open and Clean.  A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Toolbar is displayed.

See Toolbar for help on using the toolbar.


Toolbar

The toolbar is displayed across the top of the application window, below the menu bar.  The toolbar provides quick mouse access to many tools used in eCleaner,

To hide or display the Toolbar, choose Toolbar from the View menu (ALT, V, T).

Click	To

Open a new document.

Open an existing document.  eCleaner displays the Open dialog box, in which you can locate and open the desired file.

Save the active document with its current name.  If you have not named the document, eCleaner displays the Save As dialog box.

Print the active document.

Copy the selection to the clipboard.

Insert the contents of the clipboard at the insertion point.

Performs complete reformatting of document, removing symbols and word wrapping.  Also, copies entire document to clipboard when finished.  Note: you can specify what symbols you want to remove in the Symbols To Clean edit box of the Options dialog box.

Displays options dialog, where you can set specific details about reformatting process.

Converts all selected text to Plaintext (Courier font), so that all characters are equally spaced.

Removes all HTML code from the document.  Also, copies entire document to clipboard when finished.

Removes all symbols from document.  Also, copies entire document to clipboard when finished.  Note: you can specify what symbols you want to remove in the Symbols To Clean edit box of the Options dialog box.

Removes all subject headers from document.  Also, copies entire document to clipboard when finished.


View Format Bar command
Format Bar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Format Bar, which includes buttons for several formatting and font commands in eCleaner.  A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Format Bar is displayed.


View Status Bar Command
Status Bar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Status Bar, which describes the action to be executed by the selected menu item or depressed toolbar button, and keyboard latch state. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Status Bar is displayed.

See Status Bar for help on using the status bar.


Status Bar

The status bar is displayed at the bottom of the eCleaner window.  To display or hide the status bar, use the Status Bar command in the View menu.

The left area of the status bar describes actions of menu items as you use the arrow keys to navigate through menus.  This area similarly shows messages that describe the actions of toolbar buttons as you depress them, before releasing them.  If after viewing the description of the toolbar button command you wish not to execute the command, then release the mouse button while the pointer is off the toolbar button.

The right areas of the status bar indicate which of the following keys are latched down:

Indicator	Description

CAP	The Caps Lock key is latched down.

NUM	The Num Lock key is latched down.

SCRL	The Scroll Lock key is latched down.


Clean Text command
Clean Text command (Clean menu)

This command performs the following tasks:

•	If no text is currently loaded, it pastes in text from the clipboard.

•	Cleans up all symbols (>, |, :, etc) located at the beginning of each line.  Note: you can specify what symbols you want to remove in the Symbols To Clean edit box of the Options dialog box.

•	Removes blank lines from document.  Note: you can disable this function in the Options dialog box.

•	Performs word wrapping to connect up fragmented sentences.

•	Copies reformatted document to clipboard.

There are several other modifications which can be made to this function via the Options dialog box

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	F1


Remove HTML command
Remove HTML command (Clean menu)

Use this command to remove HTML code from the document.  HTML code is considering to be anything surrounded by brackets (<HTML>), as well as the commands &nbsp, &gt and &quot.

After the HTML code is removed, the reformatted document is copied to the clipboard.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Remove Symbols command
Remove Symbols command (Clean menu)

Use this command to only remove symbols from the document, without having the word wrapping and blank line removal of the Clean Text command.  Note: you can specify what symbols you want to remove in the Symbols To Clean edit box of the Options dialog box.

After the symbols are removed, the reformatted document is copied to the clipboard.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Remove Headers command
Remove Headers command (Clean menu)

Use this command to remove headers from the document.  Headers are considered to be parts of code that start with lines like -----Original Message----- and end with Subject: or Date:

It also removes footers tagged on by some free e-mail providers, such as Hotmail or Juno.  If there is a type of header than you would like removed that is not currently removed, let me know and I can add it into this function.

After the headers are removed, the reformatted document is copied to the clipboard.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Clean Options command
Options command (Clean menu)

This command brings up the Options dialog box, which has two tabs, Clean and Misc.

Clean Options

Symbols To Clean	Defaults to >, | and :.  By adding (or removing) characters from this string, you can tell the program to remove additional symbols from the beginning of each line.
Also Clean Symbols From End Of Line	In addition to removing symbols from the beginning of the line, this option allows you to remove symbols from the end of the line.
Perform Word Wrap	Uncheck this option if you don’t want to perform word wrap during the Clean Text function.
Leave Blank Lines	Uncheck this option if you don’t want to remove blank lines during the Clean Text function.
Assume First Line Is Title	Assumes the first (non-blank) line of your message is a title, so won’t word wrap on this line.
Don’t Wrap Lines Starting With Numbers	Assumes that lines starting with numbers are some type of numerical list, so won’t word wrap these lines.
Don’t Wrap Lines Ending in Punct Mark	Won’t word wrap lines ending in punctuation mark (period, exclamation mark, question mark, etc).
Don’t Wrap UPPER CASE Lines	Assumes that lines that are all UPPER CASE are titles, so won’t word wrap these lines.
Double Space After Periods	Uncheck this option to only put one space after periods, instead of the default two spaces.

Miscellaneous Options

Default Save Directory	If you type in a directory into this box, the program will default to this location (for Open and Save dialog boxes) when the program first starts.
Ignore Save Dialog On Exit	Uncheck this option to add back in the dialog boxes that warn you about closing modified documents without saving.
Auto Remove Headers During Clean	Check this option to also remove headers automatically when performing the Clean Text function.
Auto Remove HTML During Clean	Check this option to also remove HTML code automatically when performing the Clean Text function.
Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Index command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the opening screen of Help.  From the opening screen, you can jump to step-by-step instructions for using eCleaner and various types of reference information.

Once you open Help, you can click the Contents button whenever you want to return to the opening screen.


About command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the copyright notice and version number of your copy of eCleaner.