Getting Started with FNO³ Beta

We have not prepared documentation for the application yet, so it will be interesting to see how easy you find the application to use without it. Your feedback on the "out of the box" experience will be very valuable to us. Please join our discussion forums to express your opinions, or make known your wishes!

Existing Customers

You do not need to un-install your current File Notes Organizer v2.7. The new v3 will happily work alongside the v2.7. When you view a folder with old notes in it, they will automatically be imported into v3. This is a once-off import. The notes for v3 are then stored in a separate file. Note: only dirnotes.fno files are currently imported from a folder. You need to be using the Pro version of FNO 2.7 to create dirnotes.fno files.

Here are a few things that are worth knowing about:

Once you have run the install you will need to re-boot, which finishes the installation of the new background service. This uses new technology (compared to version 2.7) to detect file system operations, and enables all your notes to be managed even if you are using Windows Explorer or another application to copy/move/rename/delete files. When the background service is running you will see the yellow/orange dice icon in your system tray. It is important to leave File Notes Organizer running in the system tray like this. Processor load while doing this is very small.

To see all the notes columns available, right click on the column titles... you can then select the columns you want. You can drag them into different orders and alter widths too. You can use the right-click menu to rename the title of a column (for the current folder) and also you can save it as a template (or view) so it can be used on other folders.

Above the file list is a "filter" toolbar, with some very useful buttons/tools on it. The white edit dropdown box is the filter. Simply type in it and hit enter, and your files and notes will be filtered to match your criteria. Other buttons let you:

• Apply word wrap to the cells.
• Turn on the thumbnail column
• Turn on the bookmark column

Hover over the others to see hints to describe what they do.

On the left side of the application are four panes, showing shortcuts, folders, catalogs, and viewer. You can either drag their title bars to resize them, or you can left and right click on the title bars to make them jump up or down. The panes are:

• Shortcuts: Drag folders into here to make a shortcut. Then in future just click on shortcut to go to the folder.
• Folders: This is a Windows Explorer folder browser.
• Catalogs: This enable you to store and access notes from removable media, searches or collections... and will be explained further below.
• Viewer: This is able to view all normal image files (JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP) as well as Paperport .MAX files.

We are particularly interested in feedback from Paperport users. Please let us know if you find the viewer of MAX files useful.

In later beta releases we will allow the plug-in of the Outside-in viewers (that are used in Quick View plus) and a PDF viewer. We would be interested to know how useful you think they will be too.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are an important new feature in FNO3. However, their use is limited in this beta as it does not include the Outside-in viewers for viewing multi-page documents like Word and Wordperfect. However, with this beta you can use bookmarks to:

• Write notes against pages within a multi-page TIFF file.
• Create cropped/zoomed segments from any image file, and write a note for it.
• Create a clip from a video file and write a note for it.

Here is a quick-start guide to creating a bookmark for a cropped image.

1. Open the viewer pane, and select an image (e.g. JPG) from your file list.
2. Use the "Shrink to fit" button on the viewer's toolbar if the image is too large to fit.
3. Select the "Make Crop Selection" button on the viewer's toolbar. It has an icon which looks like a square.
4. Drag you mouse to select a section of the image.
5. Press the "Crop Image" button on the viewer's toolbar. It has an icon which has a "tick" within it.
6. Press the "Save as bookmark" button on the viewer's toolbar. It has an icon which looks like a book, with a plus next to it.
7. Select "ok" to the suggested bookmark name
8. Make sure you have turned on the bookmark and thumbnail columns in the file list. They have buttons on the filter toolbar above the files.

If you do these steps you will see in your file list the original file and another "pseudo file" listed underneath. This is the bookmark. The thumbnail for it will show the cropped image. When you select it, the cropped image will appear within the viewer. Note: the cropping is applied dynamically when you select the bookmark. The original file has not been changed, and the cropped image has not actually been created as a real file. If you want to save it as a real file, then use the "Save to file" menu, which is on the menu bar you find on the right side of the viewer title (its has a chevron icon).

Collections

Catalog collections are "virtual folders" of notes. If you right click on the collections subfolder within the catalog pane, you can choose "Create New Collection". Then give it a name. Now you can drag folders into it, by dragging from the folder pane and dropping onto the collection filename.

When you select a collection, it will create a list of all the notes from all the folders within the collection.

Search

Use the search icon on the main toolbar to search for notes across your whole PC. You can save the results of the search with a description if you wish, otherwise it will be saved with the name "Latest Search". All the search results can be accessed from the "search results" subfolder within the catalogs pane.

Removable Media

If you write notes against files on a CDROM, they will appear within the "removable" subfolder within the catalog pane. They are listed under the drive letter and volume label for the CDROM.

Auto-Prompting for Notes

If you click on the Options button on the main toolbar you can select the folders you want to auto-detect within. You will then be prompted for notes whenever files are saved into these chosen folders. This will happen without the main application being open, but the System Tray icon must be running.

Please don't hesitate to let us know how you find the beta. We are setting up a discussion forum so beta testers can more effectively share problems and ideas with us, and so we can respond back publically too.