The beta version of PageFour containing the new Search feature is now available for download from the PageFour web-site. Please be aware that it is a beta, so it may contain a bug or two.
Before installing, existing PageFour users should take a backup of their current Notebooks. This is the first beta and does not contain all the features or changes that will form part of the next release. My intention is to release a series of betas as the changes are carried out, before the final release version which is still some time away.
The accompanying help file does not yet carry descriptions of the changes, but a full description of the new Search options can be found in the post below. Having said that, how to use the new features should be self-evident.
Any suggestions or comments, please or leave a comment. I’m interested in hearing opinions on which aspects of the new Search you feel work well, which you’re unhappy with, anything I may have left out or missed, and of course, any bugs that may be found.
The current version of PageFour implements a standard Search feature common to all word processors. Searching for text across folders and Notebooks however is not possible, making it necessary to perform either a Page by Page search within PageFour, or to use the awkward Windows Search.
The new Search feature gives you the option of selecting where to look for text, pages or folders. You choose from the currently open Page (the default), the current Notebook, or all Notebooks and Pages. Results from the more extensive searches are then displayed in a list, making it a simple process to find the exact Page you are looking for. Double clicking any item in the list immediately opens the Page and highlights the first occurrence of the specified text. It is then simply a case of using the Find Next (F3) option to jump to each successive occurrence on the Page.
As the new Search may lead to a long list of results, the old Search dialog has been abandoned in favour of incorporating the Search directly into PageFour’s main Window. The interface initially appears similar to the Find feature in the Firefox browser, popping up at the bottom of the window when Find or Ctrl+F is selected.
The results list appears below the search options as the detailed search is being carried out. If all you are doing is searching within the current page, no list is displayed and only a small amount of screen space used.
When you begin an extensive search across Notebooks, you may be asked to enter your password. This will only occur if a password protected Page lies within the scope of the search. Choosing not to enter your password will not cancel the search, it simply means that any protected Pages will be bypassed during the search.
The old ‘Find Folder or Pages‘ option has been changed to work in a similar way to text searching across Notebooks. Where the old version uses icons in the Notebooks list to highlight Notebooks that contain the specified Page or folder, the new version displays a list and allows you to immediately double click on the Page or folder you are searching for. Double clicking on a Page opens the Page, whereas double clicking on a folder opens the relevant Notebook and selects the folder in the display.
Use of shortcut keys make the new Search simple and easy to use. The Search menu remains, with Find (Ctrl+F), Find Folder or Page (Ctrl+G), and Replace (Ctrl+H) each opening a different window in the Search bar. The Find Next (F3) option now only works for text searches in the currently open Page, as the list make it unnecessary when searching for Pages or folders. The Close Search option closes the search bar, as does the Escape shortcut key.
Opening a page from the list is simply a case of double clicking or pressing the Enter key on a selected item. The list itself can be enlarged - making it easier to browse a long set of results - by dragging the splitter above the search bar upwards.
Results of extensive searches are NOT lost when the search bar is closed or if you do another search in a single Page. They are only overwritten when another extensive Notebook search is performed. This makes it possible to do a search and carry out work on the resulting Pages without ever needing to rerun the initial search.
While working on these new features, there was a temptation to add an almost identical feature for the Replace All option, which would carry out a global replace of text across all Notebooks. Though not difficult to implement, I decided that this feature would simply be too dangerous. Performing an obvious replace such as “Gandalf” to “Dumbledore” across all pages may be very useful, but allowing this would also mean allowing someone to change “the” to “for“, or “a” to “e“, which would destroy or seriously damage every Page in every Notebook. At the moment, the Replace All works only within the currently open Page. I’d be interested in feedback on this particular issue.
Suggestions and comments on the new Search are very welcome. Either leave a comment, or drop me an .
It’s been some time now since the last major update of PageFour, but work IS ongoing on the next version. Though a final release is still some time away, a series of betas will be available over the coming weeks as features are completed. This should allow plenty of time for feedback and any changes or corrections that may become necessary.
The first beta will be released later on today or early tomorrow, and will contain the new Search feature. The inability to search for text across folders and Notebooks has been one of the weakest areas of PageFour since day one. Implementing this feature has also allowed me to integrate the search and replace more fully with the main PageFour window, eliminating the floating search dialog in the process.
I welcome all feedback on the new features, especially while they are still in beta, as this is the point at which changes can most easily be made.
A full description of the new Search capability, along with a download link will be posted shortly.
I’m interested in hearing from anyone running PageFour - whether the Free Edition or the licensed version - under Windows Vista. There are a couple of known bugs when running with Vista, but most users should not encounter them as they only manifest under unusual circumstances.
The issues all relate to changing the Location of Notebook Pages to a folder where you do not have full write access - one of the areas that Vista has ‘improved‘ on XP.
I never thought I’d be looking back on XP as a model Operating System, but there you go. Halcyon days, and all that.
So, if you are experiencing any issues running PageFour under Vista, or even if it’s running perfectly well for you, I’d appreciate an . I’m trying to get a picture of the proportion of Vista users who are having issues, and if they are for the same reasons.
