Beta Release Notes
Click HERE to DOWNLOAD THE NEW FNO3 30-DAY TRIAL VERSION

This is the first full release of FNO3.   The beta trial is now completed.  If you are an existing beta-tester, then you can install this new version and get a new 30-day trial license.  The website is in the process of being updated to now solely promote the new version 3 instead of the old version 2.7

March 3rd 2003: Build 3.0.4

New row color rows: you can now add color to rows to make them stand out.  The color is added as a note for the file or folder so can be copied/moved with the files, just like a note would.

Improvements to printing: 

Can now print (in color) the yellow highlights drawn on b&w tiff files.

Image files now have a great print dialog...

Yellow highlights now displayed in thumbnails:

Significant improvements to background note maintenance:  Generally about 10 times faster at updating notes catalogs when any windows application does a copy, move, delete or rename of files.   There are now no performance issues if you were to copy 1000s of files using FNO3 or Windows explorer even if they all files had FNO3 notes on them.

Wizard rename speed improvements to note updates. Works for collections spanning several folders.

Export Layouts: You can export layouts to create .reg files that can be imported on other computers.... send us your favorite layouts and show us how you like to have FNO setup!

Layouts now save the status of image tools (pan, zoom, size to fit etc)

Left Docking:  You can now dock toolbars vertically on the left side.  There is a new toolbar called "sidebars" which you can see docked below.   Also, you can now customise a special toolbar called "My Toolbar".

Column Templates: Column templates now store the choice to display ThumbGrid column.  By creating a thumbgrid template and including it within a layout we have create the "Image Viewer" example layout in this release. 

Shortcuts to Collections:  You can drag a collection into the shortcuts pane so it can be displayed quickly without needing to use the Catalogs Pane.

Bugs Fixed:

• Thumbnail grid now works with CDROM catalogs
• Sorting by File Type didn't work correctly
• Flood fill now ignores fnotes3.fno catalogs
• Thumbnail grid causes errors when size/date sort used
• Sidebars and ZIP viewer panes sometimes didn't remember positions on next start up.
• Crop and rotate used together for bookmark now allowed.
• Restoring layouts sometimes caused the sidebars to return to wrong positions.
• A number of other fixes

February 4th 2003: Build 3.0.3.50

License Control

This version introduces use of licenses to control the features of FNO.  The following licenses are available:

1) Professional Version:  This license allows all features for local and network folders, for one person. When we release the "outside-in" viewers (which are like QuickView Plus (TM)) they will be included with the Professional version.  However, those getting a free upgrade from version 2.7 will need to pay a small upgrade fee for the viewers.  The professional version will detect (and stop) the abuse of licenses if you try and use one license on several networked PCs.

2) Network License: Purchases of 20 licenses or more will receive a network license that does not need each workstation to have its own personalized license key.

3) Standard Version: This license allows all features but only on local disks. Notes cannot be written at all to network folders.

4) 30-day Trial License:  This allows you 30 days of full access to the application.  After the 30 days, if a license has not been purchased, then the application changes to operate as the Lite version.

5) Lite Version:  If there is no license file, then FNO acts as a time-unlimited free version.  This can be freely distributed as a free viewer, for example as a CDROM browser.  The Lite version does not limit the quantity of notes and never times out, but has some limitations: Only the notes1 field can have notes added.  No other fields, or bookmark notes, can be saved.  However, any existing notes or bookmarks can be viewed without any restriction apart from being read-only.

Re-designed Menus

As a result of feedback we have improved the main menu bars.  They now have a more logical grouping, and include more windows explorer features, such as Open, New folder, Properties and Map network drive. 

Options for editing notes within the file list

There are now 4 advanced options in the Options window for configuring how the note editor works when you select a note. The note editor now automatically grows as you type notes, and opens to a size to display the full contents of the note (unless the note is very large). 

We expect most serious users will probably find that the "Use Inplace Cell Edit" and "Cursor step on in edit" to make their use of FNO quicker and easier.

Improved File Detection

Thanks to feedback from testers, we have been able to improve the accuracy of detecting files being created using "save as", or when downloaded from the internet.  FNO has been tested to detect files correctly from all popular applications, including MS Office and Wordperfect, from DOS apps, and from download managers.

Bug Fixes

* A number of improvements have been made to ensure that notes are properly maintained when there is copy/move/rename/deletes of files. We have no outstanding issues with note maintenance, so please let us know if you find any problems.

* The problem with the installation causing lockup on a few Windows 2000 systems has been rectified.

* A number of other small bugs and small changes have been made.

January 20th 2003: Build 3.0.3.37

* Multiple File Notes Organizer Windows

You can now have 3 instances of FNO3 at the same time. Each remembers the way you have configured it (such the monitor its on, the layout chosen, the size and position).  You can drag and drop between the windows, the same as you can from and to windows explorer or any other windows application.  To run another instance just click again on the program's icon, or double-click on the FNO3 dice icon in the system tray.

* Drag and Drop within File List

You can now drag files into folders listed in the file list.

* Information field shows Office Document Summary Info, and MP3 tags

If you have Word/Excel documents and have added information into the document properties (such as author, title, keywords) then they are automatically displayed in the information field.  You do not need to have Word/Excel for this feature to work.  The same happens for extracting MP3 information tags.

Note: The summary information is only displayed when the files are listed, i.e. dynamically.  At the moment this information is not able to be filtered or searched like notes.  We are expecting to enable this information to be extracted into the FNO notes catalogs in a future release. 

* Slideshow Improvements

Now when you slideshow images you can select "fullscreen mode" and get a fullscreen borderless display.  The toolbar with play buttons automatically disappears after a few seconds of mouse inactivity and re-appears when the mouse moves.  The toolbar has been expanded with more of the features available already within the internal viewer.

The slideshow is able to display multiple videos (or bookmarked segments) and automatically steps between them as the video/segment completes.

* Search Improvements

Search now includes bookmark notes.  It also searches for filenames that match search criteria even if you have no notes for them.

* Collections Improvements

You can now add bookmarks into a collection (i.e. just bookmarks, without needing to add the main filename). 
You can remove entries from a collection using the right-click menu.  This includes being able to remove individual files from a collection created from adding just a folder name.

* Addition of bookmark notes with auto-generated unique id

You can type Ctrl-i to get an auto-generated bookmark with a unique 8-digit id.  You can use this to add a bookmark against a selected file, or even within an empty folder to add a bookmark as a general-purpose note not associated with a particular file.  This allows you to write notes for files yet to be created !  

The following screenshot is from the examples folder in this release, which shows how a set of bookmarks can be used to create notes in a folder, with the notes not against files, but just as independent notes.  In the future we are expecting to build on this feature to fully support using bookmark notes for calendaring functions... to write "to-do" notes, appointments and address book entries.  These notes can be included with others files when you zip them or send them... a great way of keeping information together.

* Move bookmark notes between files

New right-click menu items allow "copy bookmark to file" and "move bookmark to file".  This allows a bookmark to be moved from one file to another. 

* Miscellaneous Improvements

- File Menu improvements. Extra menus and changes to make it more like a file context menu.
- Multi-selection of file types within the File Detection options window.
- The display of word-wrapped notes in the file list is now limited to about 6 lines (to stop very large notes taking too much space).
- Back button takes you to back to folder mode from viewing a collection.
- Column templates stored in a folder (in ctemplate files) can be overridden with a user's changes.
- Shift-Delete keypress now deletes without moving the file to the recycle bin.

BUGS FIXED

* Rename and file movement caused loss of notes with Win2k/XP (as result of changes in last beta).
* Detection of the creation of new files from DOS applications (such as WP5.1 for DOS) now works properly.
* Image Edit/Video Edit toolbars sometimes vanished.
* Sidebar pane settings remembered across restart of application.
* Running files in their associated applications (with 2x click) now works consistently.
* Bookmark files that are viewed on live CDROM.
* Autosize column fits the icon and thumbnail columns properly.
* Refreshing file list improvements.
* Add or Edit note "on top" remembered.
* Rotate within embedded viewer sometimes needed 2 clicks.
* Folder size updates caused un-wanted flicker, this is removed.
* The horizontal scrollbar now works as expected when the number of notes columns is too many to fit width.
* Disk toolbar properly refreshes with addition of removal drives.
* Shortcut pane shows correct drag-over cursor .
* Rename wizard doesn't loose notes when auto-renaming files within same folder.
* ZIP files from collections includes notes.
* Edit date using text entry allows use of "return" to select edit mode.

January 3rd 2003: Build 3.0.3.22

* Define Note Titles

You can now edit all the titles of note fields in one go, using the "Define Note Titles" window.  You can start the window from the Column Views toolbar button in the main application, or from "Add or Edit Notes".

* Bold Filter Results

When you apply a filter to notes, any matches are displayed in bold.

* Specify Search Folder

When you search for notes, you now have to specify the folder to start looking in, with the default being the current folder.  You can search all your notes by clicking on the "My Computer" icon, as shown below.

* Search Results are now Collections

When you do a search, the results are now saved in Notes Collections.  This means that any changes you make to the notes are saved in the live notes catalogs for the files.  Before any changes were only kept within the search results itself.

* Keyword Notes

You can now use special note keywords that get substituted when the note is saved.  The following keywords can be used:
$filename  = the filename that the note is for.  No file extension is included.
$filename.ext = the filename that the note is for. The extension is included (e.g. filename.doc)
$date = the current date
$time = the current time
$login = the login name of the current user
$random = a 6 digit random number

The screenshow below shows how the keywords $login, $filename, $date and $time were substituted for values when the notes were saved.

* Improvements in Collections

Please see the Tutorial about Collections to understand how collections can be created and used.

* File Detection and Folder Refresh Improvements

The automatic detection of files has been improved, in particular with Windows XP and network files.  The refreshes to the file list when changes occur to files are now reliable.  In particular improvements have been made for network folders, and when notes are being added to files.

* Username added to "note date" field.

As well as a timestamp being added when the note is added or edited, the username of the author is included.

* Save Columns in Folder

On the Column View toolbar dropdown you can now select "Save Columns In Folder".  This saves the current column settings into a file called "ctemplate.fnt" within the current folder.  Whenever the folder is viewed the settings in the file are used in preference to any other settings.  Any changes you make (e.g. dragging column sizes) will be removed and replaced by the template settings when you do a refresh.  

Now the setting of "wordwrap" is also included in the saved column template.

* Improvements to multi-line notes.

You can now paste a multi-line note into a cell (which makes it a special formatted single-line note) and copy the note back to the clipboard and it becomes a multi-line note.

Bugs Fixed

* When dragging files from a floppy disk or between disks a "move" was being performed.  Now the correct default of a copy is used.

* Add or Edit Note correctly handles set/unset of dates when multiple notes are being editted.

* When toggling between the thumbnail grid and file list the selected files remain selected.

* Restoring a layout that has a filter actually applies the filter now.

* Mailto:  now works within a note.

* When only bookmark notes have been added for a file they didn't copy when the file copied.  This has been fixed.

* The new thumbnail grid had a memory leak, which is fixed.

* The folder dialog (used with Copy To and Move To) would not allow the typing of a drive (e.g. d:\) without jumping to another folder.  This is fixed.

* Many other smaller bugs/issues have also been fixed.

December 12th 2002: Build 3.0.3.8

* Release of FNO3 Help File. 

At last! we have a help file.  Its not exactly in step with the latest release, but its well worth downloading and using.  It has alot of useful information, including example walkthroughs of FNO3 features.

Please Download the FNO3 Help File

Here are the main changes in this release... they are well worth updating for !

* Thumbnail Grid viewer mode

You can now select to view a folder using the thumbnail grid browser.  It only displays image files, ignoring non-images in the folder. Underneath each file is its filename (or bookmark name) and the note from the "note 1" column.

The thumbnail grid has all the features you expect... such as being able to filter the selection; being able to select and view. You can see bookmarked images (of cropped or zoomed image segments).  You can drag the files into another windows application or the desktop.

For more information, see the Thumbnail Grid Information page

* New Add/Edit Window

This window has the following improvements:

• Multi-line editor can be started from a button by each note.  Also you can paste multi-line text into a single-line editor
• Redesigned layout so there is space for the custom note titles (above the note)
• Drag Files.  You can drag from the top left icon to drag the file into another application. This is useful when the window appears as a popup from auto-detecting a saved file.  You then have the file immediately at your disposal to drag into an e-mail or an instant message.

* Real-time Folder Sizes

You can now see the size of a folder (including all its subfolders).  As the size information can take time to calculate it is added as a background task after the folder/files have been displayed.  So you can continue to work while it appears.  You can now see where all your disk space has gone to !

To turn this feature on you need to select it from the Options window:

* Other changes

- The "note date" field now includes the username of the person adding the note as well as the timestamp.

- When you start typing in an unselected note cell (in the file list), the first character now gets included in the editor as it opens up.  Previously the first character was lost as it opened the editor window.

- when you make changes to the column titles they are immediately saved, so will appear when you use the Add/Edit window.

December 4th 2002: Build 3.0.3.2

Click here to get the beta download now

Features

* New Projects Collections.  Drag files or folders into a project, and any notes added are stored in a project catalog, rather than the main fnote3.fno catalog.

  - new menus to allow notes to be copied into projects and vice-versa
  - sub-folder trees can be made to enable grouping of project collections
  - please see help file for more information

* Collections (normal collections and Project collections) now default to displaying only the files that have notes. A new button "Show All Files" allows the display to also include all the live files in the folders within the collection, so additional notes can be added to the collection.

* ZIP dialogs now show progress of bytes/total bytes.

* UNZIP dialog now displays "open folder" and "install" options once its finished unzipped.

* ZIP feature now allows creation of "self-executing" files (ie. .exe files).  Just choose ".exe" from the file type dropdown when choosing zip filename.

* If you double-click on a file showing within a ZIP, then it automatically extracts and runs. When the application shuts down all these files which were extracted into a temp folder are deleted.

* Options window allows setup of .zip to be associated with FNO unzipper utility. So you can use FNO to unzip files directly from Outlook (or any windows app).  You can choose to also open FNO in the target folder you unzipped to.

* Enables windows explorer 2x click on ZIP file to cause FNO unzipper utility to start up.

* Photo Transfer now allows dropdown selection between removable drives (when you have more than 1)

* Photo transfer has "select all" toggle.

* When photos transferred, the thumbnail column is automatically turned on in target folder.

* Rename Wizard (available when doing Photo Transfer, or any file copy/move) enables the files to be automatically renamed to rootname001, rootname002, etc.  You give the "rootname".  This is great for downloading the photos from your camera (say from a wedding) and getting them renamed to JohnWedding001" etc.

* Added "Smooth Image" icon to the viewer toolbar.

* Added Tips window, when start app, and from help menu.

* Toolbars can be reset to their starting positions from View > Toolbars menu.

* Filter highlight colour is now the same as the popup edit window colour.

* Can now use explorer "Open With" to get a note prompt for the file.

* Can invoke FNO with a filename (to get a note prompt) or folder (to open browsing folder).

* Index (Numerical) column now automatically shows SUM value of the selected rows in the status bar. This makes it ideal for using the index column for $ values, such an an invoice value, so you can filter and see the total amount for your selection.

* Redesigned "Flood Fill" and re-named it to "Create a Catalog...". 

* A new menu "Create CDROM catalog" now enables a whole CDROM (or filtered files of your choice) to be made into an offline catalog.

* Explorer auto-expands the view of subfolders when you select a folder (like in Win XP).

* Displays current folder or catalog name in the main window caption bar.

* Address Edit box remembers the contents of its dropdown history list.

* Layouts are deleted when they have become incompatible with changes made in latest build.

* Print notes improvements. In particular printing large notes with wrapping in cells works properly.

* Started new design of slideshow window, combining the play buttons within the viewer window. Note: the next release will have the play buttons on a floating toolbar that vanishes when a slideshow is in progress.

Bugs Fixed

* Left click on system tray icon now displays note on last file opened within Detection Folders. To turn this action on, you select the "Add/Edit Note on Current File" from system tray menu.
* When row is selected, it stays in view if user selects a different column to sort.
* Stopped rows jumping when column sorts applied.
* Stopped lockup that can occur displaying a folder (after showing blank file list).
* Stopped startup making screen flash when file associations set.
* Toggling thumbnail column to on caused file list to appear while displaying a catalog.
* Import of central catalogs for removable media now works properly.
* Stopped file detect from using CPU in certain circumstances.
* Stopped the note popup (in cell) from having wrong buttons after adding a bookmark.
* All toolbars are now on the tools menu and in the toolbar customise list.
* Creating a bookmark for a zoomed image now saves the zoom information. Previously it only saved with crops.
* Multi-line note editor didn't handle fullstops correctly. Now uses ' -- ' to switch between multi-line and single-line views of data.
* You can now select the column menu when the folder is empty.
* Can now delete date notes.  Need to click a second time to edit, first time just selects.
* Now consistently hides thumbnails and catalog files.
* Now runs .exe files correctly when 2x clicked on.
* Address Edit box now allows \\servername entry, and displays the list of server shared folders in the list list.
* Copy and Paste cell contents now possible when cell is not in "edit mode".  This particularly benefits copy/paste of date cells.
* If you hit "del" key having selected bookmarks it now deletes just the bookmarks, and not the real files.
* Many more smaller issues also fixed.

========================================================

October 31st 2002: Build 3.0.2.1

Features:

* Import from Central Catalogues - used in v2.7 Lite and v2.7 Standard

To import notes from v2.7 central catalogues, just double-click on them.  The catalogues are typically stored in:

c:\atlast\notes

If you are not sure, you can see the folder in Setup > Directories

The files have the format:

c_fnotes.fno   (for C drive)

* The System Tray Menu has new item "Add/Edit note on Current File".

When you select this menu, a small note prompt window appears, displaying the last file that was opened within your detected folders.  For example, if you have setup your D drive within Options > File Detection, and then open a file "d:\my documents\a-letter.doc" within Word, then when you select this menu you will be prompted for a note on "a-letter.doc".   You can use this menu instead of selecting the "Detect Opened Files" which sometimes is annoying as it prompts for too many files.  Now you can get it to prompt only when you choose.

* Left click and Double click actions on System Tray Icon

A single left click on the System Tray icon now performs the "Add/Edit note on Current File" that is described above.  A double click will open up the main File Notes Organizer window (if its not already open).

* Defined file types for Auto Detect

Instead of the default file types for auto detect being *.*, a list of over 80 popular file types has been used.  This now allows you to detect over a broader range of folders without being prompted for notes on files you don't want.  Please let us know if we have missed a file extension that you think should be included.  Of course you can also add and remove from the list yourself.

Bugs:

* Right-click menus will now disable items that should not be clicked.

* The problems on Windows XP displaying the shortcuts pane have been resolved.

* The problems of inconsistency over the state of the "Detect Opened/Saved Files" has been fixed