[Goodie] CintaNotes Tips and Tricks

[Midas]

[...] Now the question about upgrading...

1. Backup your CintaNotes settings and database to a safe, backup folder. This is not strictly needed but we want to be safe. With backup I mean make a copy, so we leave the files in the original location, but we also have a copy in a safe place.

2. Make sure CintaNotes is *not* running, so if it's running exit it.

3. Download and unzip the new portable CintaNotes version to a temporary folder.

4. Replace, that is, copy from the temporary folder and overwrite the existing files/folders in the actual location you're using:
4.a cintanotes.exe
4.b The lang folder and its content
4.c The help folder and its content (not strictly needed in practice)
4.d The readme.txt file (non strictly needed in practice)

5. Done. Now the next time you start CintaNotes, on this first run of the new cintanotes.exe version, the existing cintanotes.settings file will be reused and the new parameters will be inserted automatically in it.

[Original post: http://cintanotes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3740#p3740]

[Midas]

I think that in most of cases we don't need the main window at all when we take a note (at least, that's a case with me). Usually, I select text in some web page, press hotkeys, edit the note, put tags etc. and click to OK at the end. After a note was taken the main window (which doesn't have any function in such case) still remains on the screen and I always must close it after the each note taking.

So, I ask an option for taking notes with hotkeys which will open only the editor.

[...] Actually this is already possible:

1) Turn Options/Clipping/Silent mode on.

2) Turn Options/Clipping/After Clipping/Open in editor on.

3) Minimize main window to tray.

4) Select text in any app and press the clipping hotkey.

[Original post: http://cintanotes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3885#p3885]

[Midas]

I currently have a simple system - a 'Notes' directory on my hard drive containing a bunch of txt files. It works, but I liked the idea of a single UI. [...] So I did what any good software developer would do, and I wrote myself a tool to do it for me. [...]

Right now, this just takes a directory of txt files and builds an XML file from them, using the files' created timestamps for the date. An export tool is planned, and I should have it for you guys soon. It was written in python, which for the record, I learned specifically to build this tool. For obvious reasons this will not work with a single text file created by CintaNotes, but it solved my problem and hopefully some others will find it helpful.

If you want to use it, [1.] install python and [2.] run this in the command line in the directory where you've got all your text files.

Code: Select all

#    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
#    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
#    (at your option) any later version.
#
#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#    GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

import os, time

xmlFile = open('notes.xml', 'w')
xmlFile.write("<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>\n<notebook>\n")

fileList = os.listdir('.')
fileList.sort()

for fileName in fileList:
     if(fileName.endswith(".txt")):
          fileText = open(fileName).read()
          fileStats = os.stat(fileName)
          fileDate = time.localtime(fileStats[8])
          fileDay = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d", fileDate)
          fileTime = time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", fileDate)
         
          note = "<note title=\"%s\" date=\"%s\" time=\"%s\" source=\"\" link=\"\" tags=\"\">\n  <![CDATA[%s]]>\n</note>\n" % (fileName, fileDay, fileTime, fileText)
          xmlFile.write(note)
         
xmlFile.write("</notebook>\n");


[Original post: http://cintanotes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4238#p4238]

[Midas]

[...] Issue seems to be solved by manually editing the cintanotes.settings file and setting the value of app.mainframe.notetextfont.face from the former chinese character string to the font's english name "SimSun".

-------------------------
[...]

I meet some trouble with font display. I've set the note text font to Simsun, the default chinese font on windows. There's no problem with chinese characters, of course. But everytime I append some roman letters into a new note, or edit a previously saved note, the trouble shows up. Not only roman letters, but also some trouble with digits and symbols, which seems a little bit more subtle.

Below are 2 screenshots to describe my problem:


Newly inputted Letters are not displayed in customized font.



After save&re-open, they are displayed correctly. The problem with digits and symbols is somewhat subtle...

[...]

[Original post: http://cintanotes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4227#p4227]

[Midas]

[...] I made this little program (requires macros + Excel or another spreadsheet program) to format my CintaNotes XML file. It's been very helpful, so I thought I'd share it with others. =)

Please note that this program will be updated occasionally, and I will notify you below.

Basically, it does the following:
(Latest Update: November 15, 2011)

• Splits tags into separate columns/tags (ie: "tag1 tag2" is now written as "tag1 | tag2")
• Can sort tags via a dropbox
• URLs are shortened (ie: http://www.google.com is now written as Link)
• Unnecessary columns are hidden (ex: "Time/Date"); the other columns are auto-adjusted
• Advanced text formatting (ie: you can use multiple colors and font styles at one time)
• Can cross-out (and sort) old/"used" notes (if you still want to keep them in your database)
• Supports up to 500 notes (for more notes, just create a new file/database)
• [NEW!] ComboBox now automatically updates; you don't have to manually do this anymore.
• [NEW!] Added a "Special Thanks" section; see "Instructions".
• [NEW!] Now formats the HTML tags from CintaNotes Version 1.5.1. (ie: Changes <u>This</u> to This, etc)

You can learn more by reading the "Instructions" worksheet included in the file.

(FYI: DON'T delete the "Instructions" worksheet; the Format XML button is on here and you need it to run the program.)

CintaNotes XML Formatter Author: just_bri (visit my website) Created: November 2011 Download Version 1.5.1 (works with CintaNotes version 1.5.1; updated) Download Version 1.4.3 (works with CintaNotes version 1.4.3; should also work for older versions, too; updated)

[Original post: http://cintanotes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4368#p4368]

[Midas]

[...] Unfortunately CN doesn't support the explicit saving paradigm. But you can come close with the following tweaks:

1) To make sure your data is safe even in case of a sudden system crash, change some values in the cintanotes.settings file. Set the value of sqlite.pragma.synchronous parameter to 'FULL'. This will make CN work slower - it will wait for every disk operation to fully complete. So it will work as if you'd pressed Ctrl+S after every change. This is generally not necessary on a normal stable system, but if your system (or power) is unstable this can be a real lifesaver.

2) In order to save the data in the open editor window, close it and reopen. The saving happens on closing.

3) You can get back the old version of your notes using the backup file which is created every hour. In future versions an Undo function will be implemented, so this will become a non-issue.

[Original post: http://cintanotes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3074#p3074]

[Midas]

Q:
How can I import all my existing .TXT note files into CN?

This seems to be a VERY frequent demand, so I've cooked a simple program to do just that: iterate over a folder, read all .TXT files and create a single XML file which is importable into CN.

Examples

You have a directory with .txt files, say it is D:\SNIPPETS. You download the file below and unpack it into D:\, then run:

Code: Select all

txtdir2xml D:\SNIPPETS  snippets.xml

If your text snippet directory contains subdirs with more .txt files, add the -r switch ("recurse"). If your text file encoding is not UTF-8 but UTF-16, then add the "-e utf-16" switch:

Code: Select all

txtdir2xml -e utf-16 -r D:\SNIPPETS  snippets.xml

After that you run CintaNotes and import the resulting XML file [snippets.xml in examples above]. Actually the program is self-explanatory, just run txtdir2xml.exe without any arguments.

Download txtdir2xml [http://cintanotes.com/forum/download/file.php?id=194]

[Original thread: http://cintanotes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1300]

[Midas]

Here I present to you a new command-line tool called "xml2txtdir".

Usage is very simple. Say you have an XML file with notes "D:\myexport.xml" (produced by CintaNotes XML export), and want to turn it into a bunch of txt files in the "D:\txt" directory. You go to the folder where this tool is located and issue the following command:

Code: Select all

xml2txtdir D:\myexport.xml D:\txt

By default the TXT files will have UTF-8 encoding, but you can specify a different encoding with the "-e" parameter, as follows:

Code: Select all

xml2txtdir D:\myexport.xml D:\txt -e utf-16

You can also use "ascii", "windows-1251" etc. encodings, but any non-representable characters will be turned into "?", so I recommend using either utf-8 or utf-16.

Known limitations: text formatting tags like <b> and <i> are not removed (also sometimes it can be of advantage).[...]

Download xml2txtdir

[Original thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1352]

[CintaNotes Developer]

To use CintaNotes as a diary, an XML with notes for every day:

-> Importable tree-tag based Calendar

Attached is a tag-tree based Calendar for 2012. It should be able to import directly into your CintaNotes file. I recommend making a backup of your database first, of course.

Each date tag is of the form yyyy/mm/WOM/dd

where yyyy is year, mm is month, WOM is week of month, and dd is day of month.

There is also a tag to indicate that the item is calendar related (_CAL) and that is a filler (_FILL) and not an actual event. My convention is to use an underscore for all tags that relate to dates (like _JNL for journal). This way I can find and delete all the filler (date-holders) if I think of a better arrangement for the calendar. I can also hide the _FILL tagged items when I just want to see the main calendar events. So be aware of those tags in case you are also using them.

The reason for the WOM section is to allow entire weeks to be viewed independently of the rest of the calendar. However, I haven't settled whether this is the best way to organize things.

The numbering for the WOM may be a little odd at the start and end of the year because weeks overlap from prior/future years. (thus there are 6 weeks in December 2012).

I'll probably do a 2013 if people like this.

This could probably go in the goodies thread once verified.

Thanks!
Mark

Edit: Revised version should sort better.

[Thomas Lohrum]

There are various options to recreate your data after your database file might have become corrupted.

Note: Always backup your existing database before trying to fix it.


Possible error messages you are seeing:

• SQLite Error 11 - database disk image is malformed
• SQLite Error 19 - foreign key constraint failed
• SQLite Error 19 - id not unique

Option 1: Import Data from old database (*.db)

• exit CintaNotes
• rename your old database
• start CintaNotes
• Import from your old (renamed) database
• optionally delete the duplicate main section
• recreate your search- and sort-options

Option 2: Export/Import via XML

• export your notes; you may need to export section by section
• exit CintaNotes
• rename/delete your old database file
• start CintaNotes
• import your notes; you may need to import section by section

Option 3: Export/Import via SQLite Shell

You will need the SQLite Shell; see section "SQLite Shell" below.

• for simplicity copy sqlite3.exe to your database folder
• exit cintanotes
• get user version "sqlite3 cintanotes.db "pragma user_version";"
  remember the result for later use
• export your data via "sqlite3.exe cintanotes.db .dump > cintanotes.sql"
• delete your old database file "del cintanotes.db"
  you can rename it, if you prefer
• create new database "sqlite3.exe cintanotes.db"
• import your data ".read cintanotes.sql"
• set user version "pragma user_version=iiii;"
  use the remembered value for the iiii placeholder
• exit shell ".quit"

Remark: You must not enter the surrounding double quotes.


SQLite Shell

• SQLite Download Page
  http://www.sqlite.org/download.html
• Command Line Shell For SQLite
  http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite.html
• Special commands to sqlite3 (.dump and .read)
  http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite.html
• check database integrity
  http://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_integrity_check
• drop index
  http://www.sqlite.org/lang_dropindex.html

kindly presented by

Thomas Lohrum

[EDIT 23.10.2015]minor corrections in the quide

[CintaNotes Developer]

How to clip text to CN using mouse gestures
(original topic)

Sometimes it's just more convenient to use only the mouse. Alas, CintaNotes yet doesn't support direct drag-and-drop from other applications.
However, there's an easy solution to this problem! If you follow the instructions below, you'll be able to clip selected text via holding right mouse button and drawing "<" !

1) Download a free utility called StrokesPlus from http://www.strokesplus.com
2) Install and run it
3) Right-click on its tray icon, select "Actions"
4) Add a new action called "Clip to CN"
5) Define a gesture for it (I used a gesture which resembles CN's logo, looking like "<", starting from top to bottom)
6) In the "Lua script" window, write:

Code: Select all

acSendKeys("^{F12}")

Note that this is for default clipping hotkey Ctrl+F12. If you have a different clipping hotkey, you need to change the parameter
accordingly. For example, I have acSendKeys("@q") for Win+Q.
7) Press OK and that's it - now you can select some text with the mouse, draw < while holding the Right mouse button, and the text will go straight to CN!

Enjoy!

[CintaNotes Developer]

I've griped about this enough that I thought I would share a solution. For years, I have used a word processor called Jarte. It is built on Word Pad, but is so much more feature rich: tabs, pasteboard, etc (the link above is to the feature set for the free version). I use the pro version mostly to support the work, but it has a few more good features like auto-outline, split screen, auto-cap, etc.

Others have suggested using something like TinySpell, ASpell, etc. I didn't like Tiny, nor do I like copy/paste, spell check, copy/paste. I was browsing the manual for something else and saw Jarte's Hot Connect feature. This is included in the free version.

With hot connect you activate it and then in any other program you hit alt-F7 (or define a different one) and Jarte copies the text, opens a new tab, you spell check and click save (or ctrl-s) and it copies it back to the original window (in this case Cintra).

If this were a forum on best word processors (like LifeHacker does) I would, and have, recommended Jarte. Even if you don't need something like Hot Connect, try it.

I will be using Cintra much more often as a primary notes DB now that I discovered Hot Connect.

(Standard disclaimer: not associated..affiliated..employed by, blah, blah, blah).

Source: http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/336 ... ent-930935

[CintaNotes Developer]

How to run CintaNotes in Linux under Wine, by Burrum:

I made editing work by providing wine with original windows dlls: riched20.dll and riched32.dll. See attached screenshots (right-click -> view image to enlarge).

My setup: Debian 8, wine-staging 1.9.5, CintaNotes 2.0.3, riched20.dll and riched32.dll from Windows XP, 32-bit .wine directory (WINEARCH=win32)

This is quite amazing and I can use CintaNotes now. I also set it to show terminal so I could watch any errors. Haven't tested much but the basics are working fine.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2070&p=11727#p11017

[Axel_H]

As of 07/2023 Cintanotes does not support tables in notes.

Here is a workaround to import tables into plain text format that Cintanotes accepts. The web-app linked below supports copy&paste of an existing table of various formats and 'translates' it into a plain-text-table.

https://www.tablesgenerator.com/text_tables

Copy your table from there and paste it into your Cintanote.