Category Archives: Miscellaneous

XP Renaming a Series of Files

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I recently downloaded pictures taken with my digital camera and as usual they had names which made no sense to me like imag0051.jpg, imag0050.jpg, etc.

In the past I would rename each one according to the event and date taken. This task was very tedious, as I would have to go into thumbnail view and determine what the name was going to be each time, not very efficient.

I decided to do a Google search with the phrase “rename a series of files”. The first page of 10 entries, out of about 5,840,000 entries, all referred to a built in XP function to accomplish just what I was looking for. My original thought was that I would have to use some type of freeware or shareware to do what I wanted but, as I am using XP, this suits my purposes.

To use this function in XP:

  • Locate the series of files to be renamed.
  • Select the files to be renamed. (Any type of file, not limited to images, but they must be all the same extension.)
  • On the File menu, click Rename. (You can also right click the first selected file and then click Rename.)
  • Type the new name, with appropriate extension, and press Enter.

The selected files will now be sequentially named, that is newname.ext, newname1.ext,newname2.ext, etc.

If you want to specify the start of the numbering sequence, so that all files are numbered, just type the starting number in parenthesis after the new file name and before the extension. e.g. newname(01).ext

Now, by using the tactic described above, I have much more descriptive files with names like July05_HiltonHead_Vacation(10).jpg, Katlynn_Birthday_05(12).jpg, bpcablog(12).txt, etc. I think these are much easier to find and categorize. Try it for yourself, it should be easier to keep track of your files this way.

NoteTab Light

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I was unable to access the internet while I was on vacation June 6th and 8th, so this post will be a little longer than most.

I have been using NotePad Light, a free Windows Notepad replacement, for a little while now. I like it because it enables me to create my blog posts in HTML, by using the included library of HTML codings.

The version I am using is the freeware NoteTab Light 4.95,available at http://www.notetab.com. NoteTab Standard and NoteTab Pro are also available at the ame site.

Though most people think that a Notepad replacement would be as relatively simple as what it is replacing, that is definitely not the case. NoteTab is much more than just another plain text editor. NoteTab has all the following and more:

  • Open and edit many documents at once, even huge files (only limited by system resources.
  • Text drag-and-drop editing.
  • AutoCorrect/Auto-replace mode similar to Microsoft® WinWord.
  • Programmable. Add your own custom features using an easy script language.
  • Web enabled: can open links and HTML documents in browser.
  • Supports third-party Web tools: HTML Tidy, TopStyle, and CSE HTML Validator.
  • Each document can have different settings such as font, tab widths, word wrap.
  • Supports outline-type documents
    that help you organize your notes or any kind of information.
  • Supports document templates.
  • Covers all essential features available in Notepad (including LOG).

I particularly like the ability to have multiple documents open in a tabbed interface, similar to the way I work in my Firefox browser. I can have a text only document in one tab from which I am copying information, an outline document in another tab to keep everything in a logical order, and be creating an HTML version in another tab, all at the same time. This results in a much more efficient use of my time and keeps me orderly in the way I work from print to desktop publishing to web page development; I just keep my basic formatting consistent by only utilizing 3 sets of headings, an unordered list, an ordered list, and very basic body text setup.

I currently take the plain text into one of my full fledged word processors for spell check but, in the future plan to see if I can find a freeware or open source spell checker for use with NoteTab to eliminate the crossing back and forth. One of the third party products recommended with the installation of NoteTab is WordWeb but, I can not tell from what they show if it can be used for spell check or, just as a thesaurus.

I can take a plain text file and convert it to HTML easily using the options under the Modify menu in NoteTab as well as stripping the HTML tags if necessary from an HTML email for example; both of these come in quite handy for the various formats I receive information for the Newsletter.

There is a lot more functionality available within NoteTab. As I become more familiar with specific functions, I will post my thoughts on them here.

On a personal note, my hurricane shutters were installed today. We feel a lot better now about this year’s hurricane season and being prepared but, hope that they won’t be needed.

 

Anonymouser

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I have found an extension for Firefox that I like a lot.

It is called Anonymouser 0.3.1.

Once installed, just right click a link (must be an http:// type link, does not work with ftp, https, etc.), select “Open with Anonymouser” or “Open with Anonymouser in New Tab”, to open anonymously through anonymouse.org.

You can also go directly to anonymouse.org, if you would rather not install the extension or if you do not use Firefox.

Either way anonymouse is great to use if don’t want the sites you are using to have access to your personal information.

I used to use another anonymising site, but got annoyed with all the hoops I had to jump through to use it.

Anonymouser does have advertisements but, as I also use the Adblock v5 extension in Firefox so I don’t see them.

As with any unfamiliar software, don’t just take my word for it, check it out, Google it, check it out in Usenet groups, etc.