Storing Techtips

Mosaic made me think about this issue a little more & it is a good point to bring up.
How do you store the techtips that you have?
We might get some real good ideas here folks.
If you cant get online to get to your reference material & bookmarks what do you do?
Like I said in Mosaic's post, I use the win 3.1 cardfile. It works great.
Im curious about how others store their offline technical information to make it rapidy & easily accessible.
Remember, the question presupposes that you cannot get online & none of your bookmarks work. How do you store your technical information?
Just curious

Hi Folks,

A good topic to bounce around! I use the very cool, very handy Cliptrak to keep up with all sorts of such tidbits. Wouldn't be without it!

Limerick
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

Very good topic indeed. I have several books I keep within easy reach, and 4 loose leaf binders of info I've copied & pasted into a word processor and printed out, or just highlighted and printed straight off the webpages. Unfortunately, my laser jet printer decided to take an extended vacation until I can afford a fuser, which is very expensive, so I don't print much right now. Ink Jet cartridges don't last long the way I print out info and cost a bunch, comparatively...Guess I could copy & paste into Wordpad and transfer the info via floppy to the Win 3.11 machine...Cardfile sounds like a good idea too, but I bet I'm too lazy...hehehe

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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How come the gene pool has no lifeguard?

[This message has been edited by Paleo Pete (edited 08-04-2000).]

Thanks for your input Mosaic et al. Remember the post presupposes that you cannot get online at all.
Thats the point
I have a book that I keep also but its only for certain things.
Good posts, lets keep going. I really want to know what other people do. Just techtips & tidbits that are keepers, not tutorials.
How do you store your technical information totally offline?

Hi all,
Good topic.
I have a faithful old IBM Proprinter XL24E,with lots of extra ribbons. I print out techtips & tidbits, and keep them in loose leaf binders. Have binders for WIN; DOS; Drives; mother boards; exp-cards etc., etc.
It still is a task to hunt down a tip from time to time, I should put more tags in different places in the binders.
It is a wonder how fast those archives become ancient history. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ I was just in the stone tablets for DOS the other day.

My primary method is (with IE5) do File, Save. I use Lotusworks 1.0 which runs DBF format Databases. As I add pages to whats saved, I add the page location to the database. I can add a Subject field to oraganize by subject. With the Macros I can instantly create a updated web page to navigate to both files save to my hard drive and on line links.

Note that the IE5 saves the page and the pictures in a separate directory. This can add up to a lot of space.
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My
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
Dennis
Politalk

I really have not collected all of my 'Computer Favorites' offline. I must say though that they are all broken down into different folders, General, Win3.x,95,98,DOS,Networks etc.
Offline I rely on my DOS books and my Troubleshooting manuals I had as a tech with HP awhile back. And if all else fails...I have a back up PC with the same Bookmarks. And if that fails, I have my recovery CD!

I would also like to chime in with PC about Card File! What a great utility! I use it on all of my machines 3.11, 95, 98. It's easy to use, automatically alphabetizes, and doesn't take up alot of space. I use it for all my usernames and passwords and other tidbits I need when I am browsing. And for the UBB codes I use here. JUst copy and paste!

Dave https://discussions.virtualdr.com/



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Is V.Dr. a great site, or what??

Windows Tips *** Help others less fortunate.

Howdy Folks,

After seeing several of you sing the praises of the venerable old Cardfile program from the Win 3.1 days, I decided to give it a try. (I haven't even thought about that bad boy in a long time! https://discussions.virtualdr.com/) So I grabbed the needed files from an old Win 3.1 machine I have sitting over in the corner.

The problem that I encountered on the very first entry that I attempted to paste into it, was:

http://members.aol.com/maja100/cardfile.gif

Though I did successfully enter in a couple of URL's, I get this error on some pretty short text clips. Evidently, there is a fairly low limit to the number of characters that you can copy into it. FWIW, I can paste some really long text clips into the Cliptrak program that I mentioned above, with no such problems... Has anyone else ran into this? Thanks! https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

Limerick

Hi folks.

PCSolutions - I am wondering if you have somehow found a way to get around the limitations that cardfile has on win9x.

I like cardfile too, but use a similar PIM when using 9x.

You might find it interesting.

AZZ Cardfile

This link has a short description of it:

SoftSeek - AZZ Cardfile

You might also find this convoluted MS Cardfile conversion of interest:

Converting Cardfile Files to Outlook



[This message has been edited by rmbox (edited 08-06-2000).]

Rmbox no I havent
I use it for pretty rudimentary stuff. Text only
Checking the MS site I did not know that cardfile is included on the 98 cd.
I downloaded AZZ cardfile. It looks like it might actually do a better job, thanks!

Hey this is one slick little proggy! I ported over to it immediately

[This message has been edited by PCSolutions (edited 08-06-2000).]

Mosaic: Yes, the DOS editor will print its butt off, as long as your printer will work in DOS at all. Alt+F brings up the menus, P will print. Or you can load DOS mouse drivers and do the ol' point and click thing...The only way to fly!!

By the way...Winchester was the original point and click interface... https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

Had to say it...

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How come the gene pool has no lifeguard?

PCSolutions - I see by your "slick proggy" remark that you liked it.

I thought you might.
I actually use the old 1.6 freeware version that is no where near as good as the newest one.

key freeware - 1.6

You may find these other links interesting as well:


Converting Windows Cardfile Files to Text Format

Peter Horn's cardxlt2.zip

CardMate - convert cardfile format


It's been awhile since I have used these links, but they all tested OK. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

.

Hi Folks,

Looks like no one else has encountered the clipboard size limitation that I asked about above. So I'll nuke the old Cardfile program, withdraw my question and move on with other things. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

limerick

Its not that no one has encountered it but you answered your own question. Theres a fairly low limit to text that can be pasted into any card. It is limited to 52 bytes per card. This is not much
Cardfile is limited by one 64K memory segment. Cardfile uses 52 bytes for each card, resulting in a maximum of 1260 cards. Each card can hold 39 characters for the title and 11 lines of 40 characters each (a maximum of 440 characters) for the body of the card.
see http://support.microsoft.com/support...-US&SD=gn&FR=0

Mosaic1 - I just reread you suggestions above.

I seem to have organized things much the same way.
(and I still have it all pretty disorganized)

I also have a number of text files that I have pasted topics and urls to.

I find it useful to use the text editor search function.

(proggie link removed - no longer available)

[This message has been edited by rmbox (edited 08-08-2000).]

Thanks Mosaic, I like 'em too...I knew about the printing in DOS because I've done it with my XT and a Dot Matrix printer many times. (Desk Jet & Laser Jet work fine too in DOS.) I always install mouse drivers into autoexec.bat so I have it, even though I use keyboard as much as mouse in DOS.

I posted this tip in another forum, but thought it might be useful for the purposes of folks interested in this thread, so I'll put it here too:

I use notepad a lot, so I drop an icon on the quick launch bar for it. Here's how I do it:
Open a Notepad file, save it (empty) as notes.txt, in My Documents. Then create a shortcut, drag and drop it onto the quick launch bar. Leave the original shortcut in My Documents.

Now you have quick access to notepad without going all the way through the start menu. One click and it's open. Save any files you create or copy & paste with a different name, so the notes.txt file is always empty when you open it.

Limerick: I know Notepad has a 64K limit, but didn't know cardfile did...never used it...

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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How come the gene pool has no lifeguard?

Thanks mosaic, sounds good. I never put anything but the necessities on my desktop, I use the start menu for everything, except the programs I use a whole lot. anything I need I put on the quick launch bar, then I don't have to shrink 4 windows to access it. Plus I don't like a cluttered desktop. Think I have 9 icons right now...never have had more than about 12 or so.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

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How come the gene pool has no lifeguard?

Rmbox turned me on to AZZCard
I like it a LOT!
Its well worth the $12 registration!
I think its slick!
Thank You rmbox! Theres always a better way to do things!

Simple...

a simple indexed book, a scrappy ring binder, and an over used laptop with the best database you'll ever witness (4th dimension), put to its least beneficial use.

I also scramble useful info up, shovel it into my mind, spit out the good bits, and make an arse out of the leftovers.

You're welcome PCSolutions. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

I agree that it's well worth the small amount of money that they are asking.
I started using it when the 1.6 was the newest version.
I've been planning to upgrade to the newer much slicker 2.2.

I hope you got a chance to download the other proggie.
You may not use it a lot, but when needed, it can be a real time saver when placed in the SendTo.

.

Personally, I use Netscape Mail (i.e., simply mail the page to yourself) because its Search feature works so well. I can also access the raw-text files that Netscape stores them in using my favorite DOS-based utilities (like LIST, KWS, type|find etc.). There are currently 232 files full of all kinds of Tips in 72 directories totaling 505,346,388 bytes on my main system. A bit more, maybe another 100MB worth, is also available on other systems on my network. I've been gathering/maintaining this type of info since way back in '84 or so. Used to print everything out too but slowly learned that not only was it a heck of a lot cheaper, it was much faster to have a computer search for something than it was for me to try and find it by visually browsing through literally reams of paper.

I was just curious about others store offline techtips & info
I have gotten great input
Thank you all
Every one!
I think that the best thing is maybe the brain
Unfortunately the human mind forgets things.
Especially the really obscure things
I think this is a really good topic for further technical discusssion.
I posted it in the DOS forum because I thought of it & its a good topic
Thank you all yery much!
Very good ideas & input. That is the purpose of this forum!

This is how it went for me:
- Got the computer, got it up and running some 5 hours later
- Got on the internet
- Started having problems with computer and the internet
- Called tech support, oops can't call tech support...on line
- Turn off computer, call tech support
- Tech talks to me like I have two phone lines or two computers or something...geez!
- Turn computer back on, try fix suggested, doesn't work, turn off computer, call tech support again, get different tech have to explain problem again
- Turn off computer, oops I mean turn off phone, no wait, hang up phone, turn on computer, try fix....
- Get pissed, get frustrated, imagine what computer would look like as it smashed up against the wall, hmmmm new art form!?
- Don't wait for computer to power down, turn it off at switch (well, it's ALREADY BROKEN...GEEZ)go to bed.
- Call phone company next day, get another line.
- Go to library, all computer books ever written anywhere, in the world, on the problem you are having, are all checked out by the some kid in your neighborhood. And of course they won't tell you who it is (the privacy thing ya know)
-Try a thrift store....Yeah, RIGHT!
- Go to bookstore, see price tags, wonder if anyone would notice the big square lump under shirt.
- Picture pops into head of new roommate "Bubba", walk out door.
- Twelve year old friend of my twelve year old daughter, fixes my computer in 10.7 seconds flat ("oh, so you say that is a NEW world record...and any moron could do it?")
-You "kind of sort of" forget to move the bike parked strategically behind your SUV! ("Oops, oh I AM terribly sorry, and after you were so nice to help me fix my computer!")

I did try at one time, to print out all the tech tips I had been recieving and put them in a nice new shiny notebook. All cross-referenced and catergorized, stayed up all night doing that one. Went to find them and they were gone, vanished. Did the dog eat them?, Was I that tired I couldn't remember what I did with them? Did they get thrown out in the recycle bin with all the other paper? So now I use a voice activated recorder, I have different tapes with different OS's etc on them etc., so now I just pop in tape and there are all my tips about whatever I am working on. I got a phone call from that 12 year olds mom, she wanted to tell me how proud she was of her kid, who got extra credit in computer class for handing in a whole notebook on computer tech tips...imagine that!

This one is made to order. You store your text and links in a outline format. Steve Gibson uses and recommends it. Tight code (427k).
I've been using it for an hour,looks promising.
Its called Vault.
You can get the shareware version here: http://www.personalmicrocosms.com/html/32bit.html

Has a search feature, beats searching through a pile on your desk.

mrbreaker