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Surfulater Warning
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Posted by Cassius
May 7, 2013 at 12:58 AM
As I indicated in a recent post, I am winnowing my “stable” of PIM programs. Because I have seldom used Surfulater, I chose to uninstall it, after transferring the information I had entered into another accessible format. One of Surfulater’s export options is to export an entire Surfulater knowledgebase into a form that can be opened in a Web browser.
So I did that and then opened each of the exported versions (in FireFox) to make sure the exports worked properly. They did. So far, so good. Then I confidently uninstalled Surfulater. Being a “belt and suspenders” kind of guy, I decided to double check the exports. NONE OF THEM SHOWED ANY INFORMATION!!!
In other words, Surfulater exports (at least this type) may be opened in a Web browser, but ONLY IF the Surfulater program is present.
I guess this is a warning to all, that if one exports information from a PIM, make sure that it is readable in another program BEFORE deleting the original PIM. Probably the easiest way to do this (in Windows) is to go to C:\Program Files and rename the PIM program folder by adding
zzz in front of its name. The PIM will be temporarily disabled so you can test the export.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
May 7, 2013 at 11:23 AM
I have used the Surfulater knowledgebase export several times, with very complex files, and I can assure you that they do not need Surfulater installed to work. In particular, the export process (“Publish to Web KB”) provides the option to place the full export online so that anyone can view it from a browser even from non-Windows operating systems.
Surfulater’s exported KB functionality is one of the best I’ve seen. I have even used it for e-learning material.
However, you should be careful with local copies: the file structure supporting the web KB functionality is very complex. In the initial folder, you will find one folder which is the actual KB and one which is common to any KB in order to work. It is best to export from the start to the location where you intend to keep the files.
Posted by Cassius
May 7, 2013 at 01:10 PM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
I have used the Surfulater knowledgebase export several times, with very
>complex files, and I can assure you that they do not need Surfulater
>installed to work. In particular, the export process (“Publish to Web
>KB”) provides the option to place the full export online so that anyone
>can view it from a browser even from non-Windows operating systems.
>
>Surfulater’s exported KB functionality is one of the best I’ve seen. I
>have even used it for e-learning material.
>
>However, you should be careful with local copies: the file structure
>supporting the web KB functionality is very complex. In the initial
>folder, you will find one folder which is the actual KB and one which is
>common to any KB in order to work. It is best to export from the start
>to the location where you intend to keep the files.
————————————————————————————————————————————-
As I said, I stored the exports locally. I kept them in the folder in which they were originally created. They worked before I uninstalled Surfulater, but didn’t work after the uninstall.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
May 7, 2013 at 01:36 PM
Cassius wrote:
>As I said, I stored the exports locally. I kept them in the folder in
>which they were originally created. They worked before I uninstalled
>Surfulater, but didn’t work after the uninstall.
Are you opening the same .html file you used when the export worked? It would be something like 5501.html within a convoluted set of folders below the selected location.
Posted by Ken
May 7, 2013 at 02:22 PM
Cassius,
Have you contacted Neville? He seems like a very responsive author, and I know that he pops in here from time to time. I would imagine that he would want to assist you in figuring out what happened.
Good luck,
—Ken