Clairvaux wrote:I just see that when I try to open the .xml export in the software I use (word processors, browsers), I get nicely structured gibberish which is Chinese to me.
If it is gibberish you are probably looking at the attachments which come at the beginning and take most likely a larger part of the XML file. Scroll to the end (Ctrl-End) in whichever program that can display text files (like XML), and you'll find your notes pretty much human readable, like this:
<note uid="(identifier)" title="your title" created="" modified="" source="" link="" remarks="" tags="" section="0" plainText="1">
<![CDATA[this is your note]]>
</note>
I searched for "xml software" or somesuch, but could not find an obvious solution.
XML is just a format for organized text. Word 2003 saves the page properties, fonts and all the text in XML, and Cintanotes saves the notes in XML. Even the RSS-feed for this forum is in XML. You can open it here:
feed.php , right-click and 'View Source' to see what it looks like. But you can't import the feed into CN, just like you can't open a CN XML file in your feed reader.
What does one write a script for xml with ?
If for some reason you want to extract the Cintanotes XML and bend it to something different, for all I know, autohotkey... But you probably don't need to do that, but if you somehow need to in 20 years, you or someone else can get your notes out of the XML in many ways and it's not difficult.
And by the way, the sqlite .db file is an open format as well. About the encrypted .db files and the attachments, I just asked.
I have the installed version. Is it possible to switch to the portable version without losing one's notes ?
Well your notes are in a file that ends in .db. That is the file you need to locate and take good care of, and as long as you know where it is you can open it with any CN. For the installed version, the standard .db is probably somewhere in 'Application Data' somewhere, but you can quickly find with it Windows Search and if that doesn't work then you click Start, Run, and type 'cmd' enter 'cd c:\' enter 'dir/s/b *.db' enter, and have a list of all .db files.
Also with CN, there is no need to create an account first, you have your notes on your own computer. No calling home, no forced updates, no need for an internet connection and all that. So it is far away from being a closed shop. And many advantages over text files.