QuickNotes is FREE! Enjoy it! Pass it on to your friends. Email me with any bug reports or suggestions!
OVERVIEW
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QuickNotes is a System 7 only system extension that allows you to quickly and easily jot down notes on your Macintosh saving them for later perusal with the TeachText application or any text editor.
QuickNotes was inspired because I normally bring a Transport Disk with me everyday to work. As I come up with ideas or remember things I need to do that night I would create a folder on my Transport disk and type in a short message to myself as the name of the folder. Something like "Call Marty tonight." When I get home I could open my Transport disk and look at all the folder names to remember what I needed to do.
If the idea was longer than 31 characters, I would create a TeachText file and keep that on my disk. When I get home I could read the text in the TeachText file.
Creating all these folders and TeachText files can get tiresome quickly...so QuickNotes was born to help automate the process.
HOW TO USE
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Place QuickNotes in your extensions folder and restart your Macintosh. It's icon will show at startup to tell you it loaded properly or in error.
The QuickNotes hot-key is currently Command-Tilde (Command-`). Read below to learn how this can be changed.
When in the Finder, choose the window that you would like the QuickNote to be created in. A QuickNote can be created in any Finder window (except the Trash) and on the Desktop. Type the hot-key (or select Create A QuickNote from the rightmost QuickNotes menu) and the QuickNotes dialog box will appear. Type in the name of the file and the text (up to 32K) that you would like saved in the file. When you click OK, the file will be created and the the dialog box will disappear. If the file already existed you will be given the option to rename it. You have just created a QuickNote!
If you attempt to create a QuickNote from within an application other than the Finder, you will be given a standard save dialog box to choose where the file should be saved. There is no need to type a name for the file at this point, simply click the Save button when in the directory where the note should be saved.
Use the Label menu in the QuickNotes dialog box to assign a color to the file when created. The currently selected label in the menu is remembered until you restart your Macintosh for your convenience.
Balloon help is also implemented and full cut/copy/paste will work in the dialog.
CHANGING OPTIONS
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If you are handy with ResEdit you can very easily change some of QuickNote's built in options. ••• PLEASE DO NOT DISTIRBUTE MODIFIED COPIES OF QUICKNOTES. •••
Here is how to do it:
To change the command key that is used to invoke QuickNotes:
1) Open QuickNotes in ResEdit
2) Open STR# resource -4060
3) Change the tilde ( ` ) character to whatever single character you like in the following string:
Create A QuickNote…/`;(-;About…;Help…
For example, if you want QuickNotes to be triggered by command-1 you would edit the string to look like this:
Create A QuickNote…/1;(-;About…;Help…
4) Close QuickNotes and Save.
To change the file creator of the TEXT files created by QuickNotes:
1) Open QuickNotes in ResEdit
2) Open PREF resource -4064
3) Type any four characters in the "TEXT file creator" entry.
For example, to create files that will open Microsoft Word when double-clicked, change the default "ttxt" to "MSWD".
4) Close QuickNotes and Save.
••• PLEASE DO NOT DISTIRBUTE MODIFIED COPIES OF QUICKNOTES. •••
FEATURE CREEP
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Here is a list of other features that have been suggested to me for QuickNotes. Please tell me what you think of these and if you have others.
- Record voice via built-in microphone and save a snd file as opposed to text (for those people who don't like to type.)
- Allow appending to a pre-existing QuickNote.
- Create and append to a daily QuickNote "diary."
- Control panel interface to allow customization of hot-key.
SPECIAL NOTE
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This software has been tested on a Quadra 700, Centris 610, Mac II, Mac IIfx all running System 7.1 with 8-20 MB RAM. I would appreciate any bug reports you may find with this software.
WARRANTY
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There isn't one. You are using this software at your own risk. I will take no responsibility for anything that may happen in relation to this software.
RELEASE HISTORY
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• 1.0b1 - 4/10/93 - First release to testers.
• 1.0b2 - 4/10/93
- added error alerts with messages for the most common errors (and some misc ones)
- changed hard-coded "geneva" to "applFont" so it runs in Arabic! ;)
- fixed various misc little bugs that didn't cause a crash but were more abnormalities.
- i now change any ':' characters in the filename to '|' characters upon file creation.
- if the filename is left blank, I alert the user and name the file "Untitled QuickNote"...there may be a better way...I suppose! ;)
• 1.0b3 - 4/13/93
- Stopped using a resource for the Finder name. Uses FinderName global instead.
- Changed Command-Shift-Q to Command-Shift-Tab so other apps don't quit when you try to launch it within them! The worst that can happen now is you will get a tab character!
- Fixed some error reporting problems so they are a bit more robust now.
- Added default file name which consists of the date and time (with seconds).
• 1.0b4 - Not released
- Fixed Finder help balloon text.
• 1.0b5 - Open Beta (Released 5/16/93)
- Possibly fixed bug that would sometimes cause funny things to happen.
• 1.0b6 - Open Beta (Released 6/xx/93)
- Changed the way QuickNotes is triggered by adding a rightmost QuickNotes menu.
