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InSight's features promote insight
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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.
Outliners.com Message ID: 3352
Posted by srdiamond15
2005-05-29 18:18:08
No one seemed to like the InSight pim. Nevertheless, I bought it.
I’m wondering what turned off anyone who looked at it. I’d appreciate your impressions, even if you only looked at it for a few seconds. Possible deterrents that I see are: no tree; text only; possibly price.
It’s name is not only good imo but also descriptive. The program has more features to help you get insight into the data than any other I have seen. Among the features useful for that purpose are: detachable windows, syncing windows, a find command that can supply all the lines on which the target appears.
The feature list that came with the program is better than any I found on the site. Here it is verbatim:
_________________
Here’s a list of some of the features you will find in InSight:
Multi-document tabbed interface.
Syntax highlighting already built-in for most languages ( HTML, Delphi Pascal, C++, Visual Basic, Perl, Assembly, and many others…). Users can easily add new highlighting as desired, as well as customize the ones included.
Automatic syntax highlighting Highlighting is automatically applied when files or topics are opened.
Columnar block selection and text tables allow selecting columns of text, organizing disarranged tables, sorting tables by column, aligning text in a specific column, and adding values by row or column; as well as cutting, copying and pasting column blocks.
Any number of files can be opened at the same time, as permitted by computer memory and resources. (Unlimited files and up to three catalogs in Trial Version.)
Font styles supported in topics. You can bold, italicize, underline or highlight text in catalog topics. And even apply a second font of your choice. There is no penalty: the files are still basically text files, with just a few small codes that do not affect legibility. **
Option to use Font styles also in text files
Files, topics, topic titles and paragraph length can be any length.
All types of text files supported (any extension, as far as it is a text file).
Catalog files (.cat) are compatible with NoteTabô outline (.otl) files.
Sync Window allows editing and comparing two files or topics side by side.
Floating windows. Documents and topics can be dragged out of the main window to any position on the screen and independently resized, allowing editing many files or topics at the same time.
Multiple text files and catalog topics can be visible at the same time, for compared editing. (You can have topics from different catalogs visible side by side.)
Compare files or topics*
Backup comparison. A feature no other Windows program has, allows comparing a file to its latest backup. You can see what’s changed since yesterday in a particular file—- or make sure it’s been correctly saved.*
Print Preview
Spell checking Classic spell checking using dialog box. Spelling dictionaries available for most western languages. (Registered Version.)
Live spell checking underlines misspelled words. Context menu to select possible correct spelling, as seen in the major office suites. Spelling dictionaries available for most western languages. (Registered Version.)
English thesaurus. (Other languages might be added in a future version. The component currently used only supports the English language.)
WordWeb support included. This outstanding third-party English dictionary and thesaurus comes in a freeware version available for download on the Internet.
Export to HTML allows exporting catalogs as web pages with a similar look and feel as in InSight, making it possible for users to share their catalogs with other people on the Internet.
Hyperlinks to files, topics, programs and Internet. Flexible Hyperlinks can be easily inserted in text, anywhere in your documents or catalogs, to open one or several files or catalog topics, launch programs, access one or more websites at once, and much more…
Powerful Favorites feature allows opening any combination of files, topics, URLs or programs at once.
Projects feature. Saves a whole working environment that can later be restored with a single click.
Automatic reopening of files from previous session at startup allows to continue working as if the program was never closed.
Flexible, intuitive and powerful text editing features. Most text operations can be accessed in many different ways, so you can select the method that best fits your style of working, and not the other way around.
Drag and drop text across files or topics.
Move or sort tab buttons for files, topics and catalogs.
Copy multiple selected topics from a catalog. You can also cut selected topics, or add from Clipboard a group of topics. This makes it possible to easily move whole sections to better organize topics and catalogs.
Copy multiple selected text files. Files, similarly to topics, can also be selected on the File List and copied as topics that can be inserted in a catalog.
Instantly find all topics matching a word or group of words. You can use words, partial words and wildcards, as well as indicate words to exclude, and whether the search should be done only on titles or include topic contents.—- All topics matching the text are retrieved at once on the Search List.
Browse previous topics in a catalog using the back and forth buttons, or access them from the Recent Topics drop-down button or the History List. Your choice.
Use the lists’ context-menus to act on several selected topics all at once. For example, to copy some (or all) topics returned by a search, or to just copy their titles, or to insert a link to those topics in the current file or topic…
Dig button feature lists all matches to a search in the current topic, allowing to quickly locate the lines of interest. The results can be further filtered by typing a new word in the dialog.
Topic Inspector While the dig button only inspects those lines matching a previous search, the Inspect Topic dialog allows searching for any word inside a topic or document, considering all the lines.
And much, much more…
Ecological features:
Uninstaller included.
Minimal use of Registry entries.
No files are installed in the Windows directory.
*) A third party file comparison utility that supports command-line parameters (not included) is needed for features that compare files or topics. Such applications are available on the Internet both as freeware and shareware. You can find some download links in the Help file.
**) Font styles should not be used in files containing executable code or scripts, since that could affect the functionality of those files.
———
Stephen R. Diamond