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A word on Surfulater (today on Bits du Jour)
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Posted by Wes Perdue
May 23, 2007 at 01:10 AM
Cassius,
You wrote:
>Well, I’ve tried the Surfulater trial again. It would not allow me to create a new
>article, nor even paste clipboard contents into an existing article. In both cases it
>told me that these are disabled in the trial version.
It sounds as if your demo went into read-only mode. This short thread on the Surfulater forum seems to describe a similar problem and the resolution:
Soft As It Gets Forums - Surfulator Crashes loose free trial
http://www.softasitgets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1261
I picked it up at the discounted price today; it’s a really good deal. I hope you can complete your trial.
Regards,
Wes
Posted by Neville Franks
May 23, 2007 at 02:40 AM
Stephen,
Surfulater must be running in Free Reader mode, not as a Free Trial. This will happen if you’ve previously installed Surfulater on this PC and your free trial period is over.
To start a fresh free trial period you need to UnInstall Surfulater and Delete the My Documents\My Surfulater folder. It is also adviseable to use Start|Run|Regedit and Delete: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Soft As It Gets\Surfulater.
Free Reader mode enables you to share content with people that don’t own a copy of Surfulater. ie. It works like Adobe Reader.
If anyone has a problem or suggestion for Surfulater I would urge you to either contact me directly or post on our support forums. Details for both can be found at: http://www.surfulater.com/contact.html
Thanks to everyone for the feedback on Surfulater.
Neville Franks
Cassius wrote:
>Well, I’ve tried the Surfulater trial again. It would not allow me to create a new
>article, nor even paste clipboard contents into an existing article. In both cases it
>told me that these are disabled in the trial version. NOT MUCH OF A TRIAL IF ONE CANNOT
>TEST IT!!!
>
>From Surfulator’s help file, I learned that Surfulator saves Web pages
>as Attachments that one has to open in an external browser. But the single supplied
>file, “Knowledge Base” has 0 (ZERO) attachment, so I couldn’t even try
>that..
>
>MyBase+WebCollect can save Web pages and display the saved pages
>automatically within MyBase. One can have more than one database open at the same
>time. Corresponding to each tree node is both a display of a saved Web page and a display
>of an RTF editor screen which displays clippings. One uses taps or CTRL-TAB to switch
>between them.
>
>It can also edit the saved Web page and has full RTF editing
>capabilities. It also has indexed search, file compression, a “local” recycle
>capability (which can be cleared), file size optimization, and,a pop-up window that
>allows one to paste a copied (CTRL-C) selection into a MyBase file in a number of
>ways.
>
>UNLESS SOMEONE CAN TELL ME HOW TO GET THE SURFULATOR TRIAL VERSION TO ACTUALLY
>ALLOW ME
>TO TRY IT, I’LL STICK WITH myBase.
>
>-cassius
Posted by Bob Mackreth
May 23, 2007 at 03:06 AM
That’s another good thing about Surfulater- an active and accessible author, who pays attention to user feedback.
But I do have to agree with Cassius to a certain extent: if I recall correctly, the demo version I downloaded would not allow me to create a new knowledge base, and trial users are locked out of several of the support forums.
If you’re going to time-limit a demo version, then why cripple it? Some of us like to put a program through its paces to see if it’s going to work for our needs.
And keeping trial users out of support forums seems downright counter-productive.
Nonetheless, I was quite content to buy Surfulater at full price, and told a whole bunch of friends when I saw it available for a paltry 17.5 USD today. A real bargain.
Posted by Cassius
May 23, 2007 at 03:52 AM
Wes,
Thanks for the info. I followed the instructions and was able to actually get the trial to work! With the very limited time I had to test Surfulater, it appears that:
1. Surfulater does a better job of copying highlighted text+images from a Web page into Surfulater than does myBase. With mB one has to paste images separately.
2. Since Microsoft revised Hotmail, mB can no longer save entire Hotmail email pages from either Firefox or IE7. Surfulater apparently can, but it has to open them in an external browser.
3. mB can edit saved Web pages in its internal browser. Surfulater cannot since it opens saved pages in an external browser. As a workaround, one apparently can highlight all of a Web page, copy it to the clipboard, and then save it to Surfulater. The saved clipping can then be edited in Surfulator.
4. Thus, in mB one immediately sees a saved Web page. In Surfulater, one only sees it after it is opened in an external browser, or if one has copied it to the clipboard and thence to Surfulater. Both allow one to see the current, possibly changed, version of the page.
5 mB has more formatting features than Surfulater.
6. mB saves pages virtually instantly; Surfulater sometimes takes what seems like several seconds.
7.In mB, one can have more than one database open at the same time. One selects which by using tabs or CTRL-TAB. It appears that one can only have one Surfulater database open at a time.
8.mB has indexed file search and the ability to remove “recycle” (i.e. “undo”) items. I did not see these in Surfulater.
9.One can optimize the mB file size. I don’t know if Surfulater can do this. I could not compare file sizes because the Surfulater trial version does not permit the creation of new files.
10. Both programs have some “ease-of-use” features, but each has some that the others lack. The same is true for some advanced features.
11. I am about to suggest to Bits du Jour that it also offer mB in the near future.
12. I did take`advantage of the BdJ discount, and will further test the full version of Surfulater as time permits.
-Cassius
===========(see below)
Wes Perdue wrote:
>Cassius,
>
>You wrote:
>>Well, I’ve tried the Surfulater trial again. It would not
>allow me to create a new
>>article, nor even paste clipboard contents into an existing
>article. In both cases it
>>told me that these are disabled in the trial version.
>
>It
>sounds as if your demo went into read-only mode. This short thread on the Surfulater
>forum seems to describe a similar problem and the resolution:
>
>Soft As It Gets Forums
>- Surfulator Crashes loose free
>trial
>http://www.softasitgets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1261
>
>I picked
>it up at the discounted price today; it’s a really good deal. I hope you can complete
>your trial.
>
>Regards,
>Wes
Posted by Wes Perdue
May 23, 2007 at 03:41 PM
Cassius,
Thanks for your detailed analysis.
You wrote:
>7.In mB, one can have more than one database open at
>the same time. One selects which by using tabs or CTRL-TAB. It appears that one can only
>have one Surfulater database open at a time.
Surfulator has tabbed multiple databases as well. It’s not as apparent in the demo version since, as you mentioned, new DBs can’t be created.
As an aside, I’d like to add my voice to Bob’s: time-limited demos should not be crippled. They don’t show a product in its best light, and can cause misconceptions.
>11. I am about to suggest to Bits du Jour that it also offer mB in the near
>future.
That would be cool; I’ll reconsider it at that time. BDJ has been the deciding factor on a number of applications for me recently.
>12. I did take`advantage of the BdJ discount, and will further test the full
>version of Surfulater as time permits.
Excellent!
Regards,
Wes