Announcing PpcSoft iKnow 2011
PpcSoft is proud to present PpcSoft iKnow 2011 (Press Release)!
PpcSoft iKnow will help you manage information overload and remember all the small details so that you can concentrate on the important stuff !
PpcSoft iKnow is a personal wiki and note-taker that will help you find what you need when you need it (and it is all stored on your computer, not in the cloud) !
What's new in PpcSoft iKnow 2011 ?
- Improved AutoPreview
- SplitView (note/image previews)
- Capture web pages
- Sharing and Syncing notes
- Dictionary (integrates with external Wordnet dictionary)
- Optimized for Linux (and OS X) using Wine emulation
...and lots of small improvements (in addition to all the existing features) !
PpcSoft iKnow 2011 is available in three editions: Home, Standard and Professional.
This upgrade is free for existing customers, and the registration code is the same. No uninstall necessary - simply install the updated version (or replace the exe-file). We have also simplified the installation to a single file for all editions.
More examples
Each note can have lots of images, and combined with the new SplitView this makes each note much more powerful (Click the images for large version).
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(Notice that in the last example there are 3 different instances of iKnow running at the same time using separate datafiles. By copying and renaming 'iKnow.exe' (in this example there are 'iKnow.exe', 'PpcSoft.exe' and 'iKnowJapan_ja_usb.exe') you get a completely 'independent' application with its own separate settings etc)
AutoPreview
PpcSoft iKnow 2010 already lets you AutoPreview notes and images.
In iKnow 2011, you can now preview any text file that you link to simply by moving your mouse over the hyperlink (or selecting it).
In addition, you can preview web pages and very simple PDFs by enabling it in the Options. If you enable web previews, iKnow will download a simplified version of the web page once, and then store a preview copy for instant access later.
PDF preview will try to analyze the PDF file and show the most basic text, but many PDFs are protected and complex, so the preview will only work for simple PDFs.
Splitview - images
The new SplitView is very powerful and very useful !
If you have any images in a note, the SplitView will show a preview of the images (default 9 (3x3), but you may view as many as 36 (6x6) by changing the option in the Image Browser).
PpcSoft iKnow creates hyperlinks to images when you paste them into iKnow (or drag-and-drop a link to an image). If you choose a name for the hyperlink that matches a note title, iKnow will automatically recognize this.
In the screenshot above, you'll notice that the statusbar says "Click to open note 'Japanese food'" - in this case the link is named 'Japanese food', and there is already a note matching this name.
Also notice that iKnow will extract and show the text close to the link to give you some more information. This may help you find the information you're looking for faster.
SplitView - text
In addition to showing images in a note, the SplitView can show a preview of the current note in QuickSearch (or selected in the list).
Often you won't even have to open a note to find the information you're looking for, as it is shown immediately in the preview.
In the example below, you'll find a phone number quickly by searching for the person (or moving the mouse over the list), without leaving the current note that you're working on. You can continue to work on your note while the preview is active, and you may even copy text from the preview if you want to.
Also notice that when you use QuickSearch to find notes, a small preview of the default (or first) image in the note is shown as well, to make it even easier to find the note and information you're looking for.
Linking images and notes
In addition to the Autolinks that connects your notes automatically, you may now also use images to link to other notes (as shown above in the 'japanese food' example).
When you paste an image into iKnow, the dialog will automatically tell you when your title matches an existing note as you type (as shown in the screenshot below).
You may change the hyperlink anytime, and the hyperlink dialog will also tell you if your title matches an existing note.
Image options and possibilities
Right-click an image in the SplitView to get a popup menu.
You may
- copy the image to the clipboard
- copy the preview (if the original is very large, it may be useful to copy the 'screen-sized' preview for e-mail etc)
- edit the image in iKnow (crop and rotate only)
- open the image using your default image viewer/editor
- use the image as background image.
Personalize PpcSoft iKnow by using your own images as background image. You can adjust the transparency in Ribbon/Options, and the color will be affected by your selected color scheme.
When you select 'Edit image in iKnow', you'll get a similar dialog to the 'Paste image' dialog shown above. You can then crop and/or rotate the image.
The image will also be copied to the clipboard. This enables you to paste it into a more advanced Image editor if you want to do more than crop/rotate.
When you have completed your editing, copy the edited image and press 'Reset' in the 'Edit Image' dialog in PpcSoft iKnow. This will automatically paste the edited image from the clipboard for maximum flexibility.
Capture web pages
Capture a web page both as text and a screenshot. The screenshot is able to capture multiple pages (autoscrolling), and the text capture is stored as a separate note.
The note is integrated into iKnow so you may edit it as any other note. As you can see from the screenshot, AutoLinks are also integrated so each red link is a link to an existing note.
The sceenshot is captured from the active browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome or Opera) - simply use shortcut Shift+PrintScr when browsing, or switch to iKnow from the browser and press Alt+C.
You may notice in the screenshot that the note has two images associated with it. The captured article included a hyperlink to a web page that was already captured previously, and a snapshot was associated with this hyperlink in iKnow.
If you insert the same hyperlink in other notes, they will all show the snapshot automatically.
Also note that each web capture is given a name based on this format:
'www number title'.
The 'www' makes it easy to find web captures using quicksearch (just hit 'w' three times).
The 'number' ensures that the latest web capture is shown at the top of the alphabetical list (the first you find).
The 'title' quickly gives you an idea of what the web capture is about.
Scroll captured web pages
If you capture a multi-page web article, you can scroll the preview using Shift+MouseWheel (or Arrow Up/Down).
Notice that the viewable preview area is highlighted in the SplitView image. For best results when capturing, run your browser in full-screen mode (F11).
Sharing and Syncing
Share
PpcSoft iKnow is primarily designed to help you with your personal knowledge.
However, sometimes you want to share some of your knowledge with your co-workers, and the new sharing functionality is simple and efficient.
Sharing notes is a two-step process:
1. Choose a shared network folder to store shared notes
2. Select the notes you want to share
Shared notes are monitored so that any changes are noticed immediately. You can also see if someone else is working on a note that you want to edit. Sharing will also synchronize any images that are pasted into the shared notes.
Sync
You can have as many as 100,000 notes in iKnow, and you can have thousands of images that are many megabytes each (in theory you can store more than a million images in iKnow as they are stored independently).
Synchronizing huge datafiles with your mobile devices can be slow, space-consuming and inefficient. It can also be very difficult (and slow) to find a specific piece of information among all the 'stuff'.
The Sync functionality is based on a very simple concept: You select the most important notes you want to have with you 'on the move', and use a 3rd party synchronization service like Dropbox, SugarSync or Jungle Disk etc to ensure reliable synchronization.
Your notes will be exported in a special plain text format which keeps the formatting and allows you to view and edit the notes in any standard text editor on any platform and device (Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android etc).
Thank you
Now go download PpcSoft iKnow 2011 and try it yourself :-)
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