FAQ

Contents

  1. How do I get rid of the splash screen?
  2. Can I replace Notepad with this editor?
  3. How can I get a print preview?
  4. When I save a document as FILENAME.EXT, it becomes FILENAME.EXT.TXT
  5. How do I specify a default directory for opening and saving files?
  6. How do I associate specific extensions with this editor?
  7. Why can’t I start the editor minimized or maximized?
  8. NoteTab does not load the whole file!
  9. My Word processor file looks funny in NoteTab and some text is lost!
  10. NoteTab Pro: where have all my fonts gone?
  11. How can I set attributes (bold, underline, …) for individual text elements?

1. How do I get rid of the splash screen?

You can disable the splash screen by unchecking the “Show Splash Screen” option in the Options dialog box.

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2. Can I replace Notepad with this editor?

Yes! If NoteTab is correctly installed, you will find a command called “Replace MS Notepad” under the Help menu. When you choose that command, NoteTab will first rename Notepad by adding the extension “.MS” to the program file. Then, it will copy a special little program called NOTEPAD.EXE to the Windows directory. Whenever this program is executed, it launches NoteTab instead of Notepad. If you want to restore MS Notepad after this operation, just use the command “Restore MS Notepad”, which is also available under the Help menu.

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3. How can I get a print preview?

NoteTab currently does not integrate a print-preview function. However, there are two excellent utilities we can recommend for this task. Both of them provide print preview and, if you want, let you print multiple pages per sheet so you can save a lot of paper. FinePrint, from Single Track Software, is the easiest to use and also the most flexible. This program is available as Shareware.

TxtPrint, from Örjan Råberg, is Freeware. Unlike FinePrint, it only handles text files. The easiest way to send NoteTab documents to it for printing is by using the TxtPrint Clipbook library (requires NoteTab Pro or Std), which you can unzip into your Libraries subdirectory.

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4. When I save a document as FILENAME.EXT, it becomes FILENAME.EXT.TXT

This behavior is controlled by Window 95 and NT4. If you use an extension that is not listed in the Save As dialog box, the first extension in the currently displayed “Save as type” field is added to the file name. To avoid this, type the name between doube quotes: “FILENAME.EXT”

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5. How do I specify a default directory for opening and saving files?

There is an option in the Options dialog box on the Files tab that lets you choose the default open/save directories.

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6. How do I associate specific extensions with this editor?

There is a tool in the Options dialog box on the Associations tab that makes it really easy to associate file extensions or undo associations. Add extensions to the list to create an association or delete an extension to undo the association.

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7. Why can’t I start the editor minimized or maximized?

By changing the properties of a program’s shortcut, you can instruct it to start minimized or maximized. This will also work with NoteTab. However, if the option “Save Position and Size” is set (see the Options dialog box), the program will ignore the shortcut or icon setting and the window will be restored according to the last saved position and size.

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8. NoteTab does not load the whole file!

The file probably contains one or more null characters. By default, NoteTab treats the first null character it encounters as the end of the text. To change this behavior, you can set the “Filter Binary Codes” option which you will find on the Files tab in the Options dialog box. When this option is set, any null character NoteTab encounters when loading a file is converted to the substitute character (also defined in the Options dialog box). You will be able to load the full content of any file when this feature is enabled.

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9. My Word processor file looks funny in NoteTab and some text is lost!

Files produced by word processors are usually not saved as plain text files. They contain all sorts of control codes that only the word processor that created them (or compatible programs) can understand. Word processors use those special control characters to store text formatting information (bold, italic, line spacing, paragraph alignment, etc.).

The NoteTab editor only understands plain text files (that’s why it is so fast compared to a word processor) and will display the special control characters as funny symbols or rectangles on the screen. Some of the control characters may be interpreted by NoteTab as signaling the end of a file. This explains why such files are rarely fully loaded in the editor.

Unless you really know what you are doing, you should not edit or save such files with NoteTab. Doing this may render them unreadable to your word processor!

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10. NoteTab Pro: where have all my fonts gone?

Unlike NoteTab Std/Light, NoteTab Pro cannot use variable-width fonts. It therefore limits your choice of fonts to those that are fixed-width. This design is imposed by the input control used in NoteTab Pro. The benefits are better performance and a choice of commands/configuration options that are not available in NoteTab Std/Light.

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11. How can I set attributes (bold, underline, …) for individual text elements?

This is not possible with NoteTab (or any “plain text” editor for that matter). This feature would require storing special control characters in the document. Since NoteTab is a “plain text” editor, it only saves documents as text without any control codes. Therefore all formatting information would be lost when you open the document again. If you want to format individual text elements, you will need a more sophisticated editor like a word processor.

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