Tiny but Powerful

[Mike Mills]

from:
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/win/mempad22b.zip

Tiny treepad like note taker
capacity limited only by memory
small size ~27k
no install
no registry uses .ini file
ini file may be easily edited
saves in ascii

I have been using this little mini treepad notepad for a while now.
I have had several notes between myself and Horst Schaeffer [sp?]
about the program development. I think it is a tremendous little
program. Quick loading, topic view and edit view, autosave with
exit, and in the latest one exit with escape & autosave. What
could be quicker. The minimum editor functions are all there and
the program supports variable font display which is good for me
with my poor eyesight. A mini treepad that loads like lightning to
the last page used, and exits with autosave by a single keypress.
Just the thing for many purposes.
I can drag junk from web pages, like url's and text to the open
MemPad window and drop it. The url's will be called by my browser,
etc.. Standard link protocol.
The difference between the two versions is considerable and some
may prefer the older one. The older one lacks exit with escape
option, but has button interface for gui to add new items to the
topic side of the dual pane edit window. It also has .htm help.

The newer one displays help in the program itself , and adds items
by keypress only. Press F1 for help anytime, exit with save by esc,
easier selection of multiple files.

I am glad to see that Horst has kept the old version on the site at
least for now, as some may like it more.

The only difference in the newer versions is that Horst has changed
the help files a little for greater clarity.

An excellent application

=============from website this am.=====================

homepage:
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/win/

MemPad 2.10 Download (27Kb)

MemPad keeps little notes with a handy index.
The program does not remain in memory - it will load fast enough
when you need it. MemPad offers standard editing functions
including cut, copy, paste, undo.
Features: Window sizing, custom font and background color, web
links, search function, word wrap mode, "Always on top" option,
change index order, HTML Help.
Automatic backup with the option to restore the last backup.
MemPad can handle different files through shortcuts (with file name
as command parameter).

Ver 2.1: search, more keyboard shortcuts, improved index handling

MemPad 2.2b3 Download (34Kb)

New beta version features:
Menus instead of buttons; File Open, New File, previous,
Read-only handling New handling of different directories and file
extensions: separate environments with own settings (INI files)
Insert date/time Embedded links can handle local files
Help as MemPad file (instead of HTML file)

 

[Tim Weaver]

Tiny treepad like note taker
capacity limited only by memory
small size ~27k
no install
no registry uses .ini file
ini file may be easily edited
saves in ascii

Needs a hotkey and minimize to the tray. Also, stick a note to the desktop
would be nice.

 

[omega]

http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/win/
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/win/mempad22b.zip

Tiny treepad like note taker
small size ~27k

I have been using this little mini treepad notepad for a while now.

Thank you for the very good review.

I am snipping most, as right now I've just a couple of immediate things
that come to my attention.

The difference between the two versions is considerable and some
may prefer the older one. The older one lacks exit with escape
option, but has button interface for gui to add new items to the
topic side of the dual pane edit window. It also has .htm help.

I had version 2.10. It did not support multiple files. You had to create
a plurality of directories on disk each with a copy of the MemPad exe, if
you wanted to have different files. This new one, it has changed that. You
can create new files, open previous ones, all using the same instance of
Mempad. Good change.

The newer one displays help in the program itself , and adds items
by keypress only. Press F1 for help anytime, exit with save by esc,
easier selection of multiple files.

My next immediate observation... It's that which you are referring to when
you say, "adds items by keypress only." Great majority of the tme, I take
the option to remove toolbars from a program's interface. Yet with Mempad,
I valued its toolbar buttons. It made things fast. And unlike most other
toolbars, I could recognize what the icon symbols meant. The plus button
to add a note, the minus button to delete a note. The arrow keys to navigate
through the tree pane.

This new version, it's all vanished! One has to use keyboard
double-presses (alt key + ). Or the multistep of contextmenu. Any chance
at all there issome secret option in the .ini or something, to bring back
the toolbar? Or is it truly gone?

I am glad to see that Horst has kept the old version on the site at
least for now, as some may like it more.

Agree. For now, I am keeping both. I'll have to weigh out the pros and cons
of each before deciding which one to stick with.

MemPad 2.2b3 Download (34Kb)

New beta version features:
Menus instead of buttons; File Open, New File, previous,

Ahhhh. Guess that answers the question. There is no option about having
the buttons. I can only hope that he eventually changes back in some future
versin. I know that he is batch programmer dude...so maybe he thinks toolbar
buttons are for wimps. But for my habits: the alt-this and alt-that, ouch,
that's too much hardcore labor.

 

[omega]

MemPad
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/win/

I can drag junk from web pages, like url's and text to the open
MemPad window and drop it. The url's will be called by my browser,
etc.. Standard link protocol.

One thing I always check for with an editor's link launching. It's whether
it will launch files when I tell it the names of the .lnks that are in my
path.

(If you to your path a directory where you've specially placed .lnks, then
you can launch anything that is there, including in subdirectories of the
parent, by that short .lnk filename, either from the Run command, and also
from places such as document windows of various editors.)

Tested, and Mempad will let me have a line such as this, for launching
an app:

file:rm.lnk

Some editors want the // things, but on my system at least, the colon is
adequate for Mempad. There are a few editors that don't even require the
file: protocol prefix, but that's pretty exceptional. And, at the other end,
some editors are preset to limit of only certain standard protocol
recognition, ie http and maybe mailto.

.. . .

Eh! Update. The new version 2.2beta of Mempad will not let me launch .lnk
shortcuts. Only the previous version. Maybe it's a beta issue only, and this
function will come back soon. Meantime, mainly because of that other toolbar
button issue, I'm getting close to the decision of staying with version
2.10.

 

[omega]

Re: MemPad

Needs a hotkey and minimize to the tray.

It works out best to install a third-party minimize-to-tray utility. Thus
always having that function available. And not being dependent on individual
programs happening to offer it.

 

[Bob Adkins]

from:
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/win/mempad22b.zip

Tiny treepad like note taker
capacity limited only by memory
small size ~27k
no install
no registry uses .ini file
ini file may be easily edited
saves in ascii

Mike,

Agreed! Very interesting little program.

It doesn't really have a tree structure, which is not really a negative to
me since I prefer to SEARCH for my info. It's much quicker than navigating a
tree structure anyway.

I hope you keep us posted on future betas.

Bob

Remove "kins" from address to reply.

 

[omega]

http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/img/memp.jpg

It doesn't really have a tree structure,

Since it does not support recursed sub-nodes. I have several programs that
have an interface like that. A loaded file is composed of a list of nodes,
single level, on the left side; and then the pane for the active node on
the right. I don't know of any language to describe that layout. Now, if
only I had good familiarity with plantlife, then maybe I could come up
with something, not a tree, that is structured like Mempad and similar...

 

[Susan Bugher]

Bob Adkins <[email protected]>:

http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/img/memp.jpg



Since it does not support recursed sub-nodes. I have several programs that
have an interface like that. A loaded file is composed of a list of nodes,
single level, on the left side; and then the pane for the active node on
the right. I don't know of any language to describe that layout. Now, if
only I had good familiarity with plantlife, then maybe I could come up
with something, not a tree, that is structured like Mempad and similar...

a branch structure? hmmmmm - still too complex. . . twigs?

Susan

 

[omega]

a branch structure? hmmmmm - still too complex. . . twigs?

Twigs... Heh. You know, that would make for a catchy program name. It's
at once humble, and memorable.

 

[Bob Adkins]

only I had good familiarity with plantlife, then maybe I could come up
with something, not a tree, that is structured like Mempad and similar...

Flat?

Normal? (not nested, no hierarchical structure)

I really like the program. Wish there were a way to keep the search dialog
always open.

Bob

Remove "kins" from address to reply.

 

[Meow Mix]

It has been my experience under Windows 98 that third-party minimize to
tray utilities needlessly use up limited system resources and not
infrequently cause applications to crash.

--Mike

 

[Meow Mix]

A fern structure?

--Mike

Since it does not support recursed sub-nodes. I have several programs
that have an interface like that. A loaded file is composed of a list
of nodes, single level, on the left side; and then the pane for the
active node on the right. I don't know of any language to describe
that layout. Now, if only I had good familiarity with plantlife, then
maybe I could come up with something, not a tree, that is structured
like Mempad and similar...

 

[Alastair Smeaton]

It has been my experience under Windows 98 that third-party minimize to
tray utilities needlessly use up limited system resources and not
infrequently cause applications to crash.

--Mike

have you tried the wonderful icon ?

www.wonderfulicon.com I think

does lots of stuff, and very stable on XP (I know you said win98)

 

[digitalMOSQUITO]

have you tried the wonderful icon ?

www.wonderfulicon.com I think

does lots of stuff, and very stable on XP (I know you said win98)

Maybe this one
http://www.thewonderfulicon.com/pages/features.htm

The front page www.thewonderfulicon.com is flash only page, so if one
doesn't have it one is stuck.

A description from their page:
"TWI has lots of wonderful features. With it, you can:

* Assign hotkeys for common tasks such as minimize windows, restart
Windows, etc.
* Automatically change your system's sound-effect files every few
minutes or every few seconds if you want!
* Minimize programs onto the taskbar tray instead of just onto the
taskbar, either by a keystroke or by right-clicking a window's Minimize
button with your mouse
* Configure a menu of easily-accessible commands
* Increase or decrease speaker volume with the press of a button
* Automatically run programs at start-up, and hide them, minimize
them to the taskbar tray, etc.
* Lots more!
* Oh yeah, and it's free!"

dM

 

[|3iff //ullins]

The front page www.thewonderfulicon.com is flash only page, so if one
doesn't have it one is stuck.

the oversensitive and just downright paranoid "ones" that they are...

--
__________________________
| \\ My other .sig
| | -------- \\ is a Porsche
| |3iff's Tuna | | \\ \\
| Truck | --------- \\__________
| ___ | ~ | ___ I
| /@@@\\ | | /@@@\\ I
--|@ @|--------------------|-|@ @|--I
@ @ @ @
@@@ @@@

 

[Meow Mix]

Thanks, guys. I'll check it out.

--Mike

Maybe this one
http://www.thewonderfulicon.com/pages/features.htm

The front page www.thewonderfulicon.com is flash only page, so if one
doesn't have it one is stuck.

A description from their page:
"TWI has lots of wonderful features. With it, you can:

* Assign hotkeys for common tasks such as minimize windows, restart
Windows, etc.
* Automatically change your system's sound-effect files every few
minutes or every few seconds if you want!
* Minimize programs onto the taskbar tray instead of just onto the
taskbar, either by a keystroke or by right-clicking a window's Minimize
button with your mouse
* Configure a menu of easily-accessible commands
* Increase or decrease speaker volume with the press of a button
* Automatically run programs at start-up, and hide them, minimize
them to the taskbar tray, etc.
* Lots more!
* Oh yeah, and it's free!"

dM

 

[omega]

It has been my experience under Windows 98 that third-party minimize to
tray utilities needlessly use up limited system resources and not

I have no idea what tray utility you could have found that uses up
any detectable amount of system resources. The ones I have used, the
resources use is so very tiny -- that it is not even measurable. That
is, resource monitors show the system/user/gdi counts to be the same
both before, and after, the tray util is loaded. Perhaps I could measure
a difference if there were a resource monitor that displays in small
fractions of a percent, instead of whole numbers, but then that would
sort of pointless...

infrequently cause applications to crash.

For more than four years, on every windows session, I've had loaded a
minimize-to-tray utility. That's windows 98. That's having minimized to
tray, what, a thousand or more different program windows. No problems
whatsoever. (The single (trivial) issue is that I need to turn off a
prog's own tray option feature, to avoid getting duplicate tray icons
when using my utility's function to minimize it.)

The one I used over most of this period had been PCMag's Traymin. I don't
have reason to believe it is any better or more stable than the others.
There are recurrent threads in ACF about minimize-to-tray programs, and
folks always speak happily with their (variant) choices. Never have I seen
anyone report these to be problematic in any way. Some tray utilities are
distributed with source code...and I'd even bet a programmer might say they
use perfectly standard API calls.

I have no guess how to explain your unusual bad luck. Maybe it could be
something difficult to diagnose, such as a corrupt or wrong-version DLL
in your system directory. Or perhaps, your experience was with a bad apple
or two from somewhere in that category of minimize-to-tray utilities.

I suggest you give it another go...

I can recommend the one that I'd eventually switched to, after long use of
PCMag's TrayMin. That's RBTRay. It is similar. Uses the right-click on the
minimize button. It further can minimize 16-bit windows (Traymin only did
32-bit).

http://rbtray.narod.ru/rbtray.zip
About 40k, and distributed with source

Or, for more features, the one that was recommended already in this thread.
The Wonderful Icon. I don't happen to have experience with that one - but
have confidence in all the folks who praise it regularly here.

 

[omega]

A fern structure?

Fern, yeah. That'd probably make for the closest visual. Definitely more
apt than tree.

I am pretty sure most would get something of the picture if we invoke the
word fern. Since I think they grow in many parts of the world... (In putting
forth that last statement, I admit how convenient it is to tap Google for
covering lapses in one's knowledge.)

 

[Meow Mix]

The offending application is 4t Tray Minimizer, which is distributed in an
amazingly large 700K zip file. The problem, I think, is that it not only
minimizes to the tray but also (1) ads a minimize-to-tray icon to the
app window title bar and (2) groups all instances of a program à la Win XT.
It wreaked particular havoc with the GIMP.

Thanks for the link. I've downloaded it and will give it a whirl.

--Mike

 

[Meow Mix]

Well, considering how evolutionarilly primitive ferns are (they really are
living fossils), going back to the days of Pangaea, I imagine that they
grow just about everywhere.

--Mike