Ultra Recall 4 Beta

[Resurgam]

I've just installed the beta of version 4 but have immediately run up against the 1000 item limit which the beta imposes as virtually all my databases exceed this. I have reverted to version 3.5e as a result. Is it possible to run both versions on the same system, or will this just be storing up problems in the future?

Regards, Geoffrey

[kinook]

If you'd like to receive the beta announcement (which includes a temporary key removing the item limit), send a request to support@kinook.com. We don't recommend installing both versions at the same time. Thanks.

[DonMcKenzie]

Is there a method to report issues found in the beta?

[kinook]

Please send all bugs reports and other feedback regarding the beta to support@kinook.com (not on the forums).

[wordmuse]

so pleased to see dev continuing!

is the feature set frozen? or can we make suggestions still?

Regards,
Bal

[quant]

is it going to be a paid update?

[wocius]

Is it still possible for me to register as a beta tester for UR 4?

[kinook]

Yes and yes. Send your request to support@kinook.com. Thanks.

[Jon Polish]

To Quant:

Yup. I think Kinook made a statement to that effect. Besides, this is a version, not a point, upgrade.

To wocius:

Kinook takes requests at support@kinook.com (I think this is correct).

Jon

[quant]

Originally posted by Jon Polish
Yup. I think Kinook made a statement to that effect.

where?

[i]Besides, this is a version, not a point, upgrade.
[/B]
there was an unpaid update v1->v2 so it's nonconclusive
plus, as the list of new features doesn't contain anything significant (not saying they are not useful), I thought that this might be an unpaid update as well ...

I will update, but set of new features won't be the reason for that, sadly

[Jon Polish]

Originally posted by quant
where?


there was an unpaid update v1->v2 so it's nonconclusive

From an email that I received announcing the beta series. Seems clear enough.

Jon


"Ultra Recall v4 is a major upgrade. Per our upgrade policy
(http://www.kinook.com/order_policy.html), this will be a free upgrade for
all purchases within 60 days of the final release, and upgrade pricing will
be available for current Ultra Recall customers when the final build is
released."

[wordmuse]

Hi guys,

Once again, you've made me your happiest user!

I love the HTML export, the lock-and-go-tabs, and the marked text after searches. Looking forward to seeing the other cool goodies.

Thanks!

Regards,
Bal

[wordmuse]

Hi,

On the HTML export, is there any way that you could make it possible for me to set the case of all links? The server that I'd like to export to, uses all lower case folder and filenames. But URP4 exports to mixed case folders and filenames.

The effect is that I'm getting 404 not found messages.


Not a big deal on a very small tree - I can manually change them. But on a large nested tree, this would get tedious.

Thoughts?

Regards,
Bal

Addendum: after a little exploration, I see that it is only inside the TOC file that I need to alter the identified paths to make them all lower case. Global search and replace can accomplish this, so it's no longer anything urgent. Still, it would be nice if I could tell URP4 to create all paths in the TOC file as lower case and to have all folders created in the export process set to lower case as well.

[armsys]

Originally posted by wordmuse
so pleased to see dev continuing!

is the feature set frozen? or can we make suggestions still?

Regards,
Bal
Hi Bal,
What features do you wish to be added into UR4?
Armstrong

[LM7]

If the feature set isn't frozen, it would be extremely nice to have a calendar in UR 4.0 - although I suppose that this is EXTREMELY wishful thinking...

[wordmuse]

Hi Armstrong,

The features I'd like to see - with the most important-to-me items first:

- a calendar that when a date is selected shows, at my choice, items created on that date, those modified on that date, or those due on that date. For those due on that date, I'd like to be able to be able to hide those already completed.

- custom flags - letting me pick the colors and their meanings.

- lower case path and file names during export so that I don't have to sweat the letter casing during ftp operations.

- the ability to move tabs around.

- synchronization with MS Word and/or OpenOffice Text styles so that a style created in URP would be recognized by either of those programs and vice versa.

- more robust numbering such that if I have a numbered list and separate two items with text that elaborates on the first number, the latter number doesn't go back to 1.

- along this line, the ability to set the numbered list to have any start number I desire.

- the ability to index web documents. And if access to such documents required login, requiring me to log in for the index for the document to work.

- an online version of URP that works from my browser, similar to Evernote.

- lower case html throughout the exports, without touching the content of the text itself. So <b> and not <B>.

- the full set of windows colors for text and text backgrounds.

- having the text-background be recognized as a background by Word as distinct from a highlighting. They are very different, and I'd like URP to harness this difference.

- the ability to specify as an item attribute that any links to URLs (as distinct from internal linking) goes to either a new tab or an external browser.

Guess that's a good ambitious start. :)

Regards,
Bal

[wordmuse]

By the way - I love URP4beta. :)

I don't know if I was the only one with this difficulty, but in all versions of URP3, anytime pressing Ctrl+Home in the explorer pane required a screen change, URP3 froze on me. That doesn't happen at all in version 4! Wonderful. :)

Great job, Kinook.

Regards,
Bal

[hansvanmeteren]

Maybe it's a stupid question, but where can I find the Beta version?
Thanks
Hans

[$bill]

The answer to a similar question was posted in this thread...

You send a request to support@kinook.com...you will get a download link and a temporary registration code.

[hansvanmeteren]

Thanks $bill
sorry I didn't see that.
Hans

[wocius]

What I would really like to see is the ability to insert rows and/or columns into tables. Right now, AFAIK, the only way to add a row is by tabbing from the last cell, which adds a row at the bottom. I have not found a way to insert rows or columns into a table -- other than by copying the table into, say, Word, making my changes, and then copying it back into UR.

[quant]

Originally posted by wocius
What I would really like to see is the ability to insert rows and/or columns into tables. Right now, AFAIK, the only way to add a row is by tabbing from the last cell, which adds a row at the bottom. I have not found a way to insert rows or columns into a table -- other than by copying the table into, say, Word, making my changes, and then copying it back into UR.
hit CTRL+J to edit directly in word when you need some advanced editing features ...

[wocius]

True, but pretty kludgy, and nowhere near as good as being able to edit tables in a useful way in UR itself.

[wordmuse]

More on the features I'd like to see.

- Better calendar - click a date and see everything associated with that date - created on, accessed on, modified on. Swipe a range of dates and see the same thing for the range. Make it possible for me to have saved calendars.

- Styles that are either HTML/CSS and usable with a text editor or something like dreamweaver, or styles that are understood by MS Office and Open Office.

- Hyperlinks to bookmarks *within* an item. Especially useful for long items.

- Tag cloud to see at a glance the subjects I've got on hand.

- More robust tagging function - ability to see tags as a hover and to click the hover to add, edit or delete tags.

- Searches that understand punctuation marks, thus making #tag different from %tag which is also different from tag. As it is, I'm using numbers, like 3tag, 4tag, tag5, etc. It works, but I'd prefer being able to work with punctuation marks.

- multiple windows as well as multiple tabs.

- an option to create, hoist and lock a new tab in a single action.

[J-Mac]

I really should ask this before requesting the beta version:

Is the URp 4 beta in reasonable shape for every day use?

I ask because I've read here where Kinook advised against having both URp 3 and 4 installed at the same time. Also, since I have a lot of live data in URp (like most here ) and can't much afford to lose it, I want to find out if it is somewhat safe at this point.

All that notwithstanding, I do understand that a beta is a beta is a beta, and that I would need to be sure to backup often.

Thank you,

Jim

[armsys]

Hi Jim,
So far UR4 beta causes neither glitch nor surprise here. You won't notice the difference between UR 3 and UR4 beta.
Armstrong

[J-Mac]

Thank you Armstrong. Much appreciated!

Jim

[armsys]

Jim,
You're welcome. If you meant for crash, no, it didn't occur even once. This is one very rare beta I've ever tested before. It's solid and robust. Most other betas such as MindManager crashed constantly. I suspect UR4 beta is a final product. Anyway my UR4 beta will expire in 15 days.
Armstrong

[quant]

HTML export : items notes left out completely :(

could I suggest splitting the right pane horizontally and add item notes to the bottom? Thanks

[mikeg]

Originally posted by quant
is it going to be a paid update? Since UR version suddenly jumped from 3.5 up to 4.0, I'm guessing this is a way to fund additional development. Although $50 is a lot of money, I don't mind so much because UR has become essential to my computing life.

If you look at other software vendors moving to annual subscription fees--THAT would be worse than major version upgrade fee every few years. Kinook indicated some time ago there were not enough new UR customers to keep development going. Hopefully that will change in the future.

Meanwhile, I'll give up a couple "steak dinners" to upgrade a product this good and hope the door is open again for a few more items on the roadmap/request list (as others are excitedly dusting off and asking about here).

P.S. I think any ease-of-use or improved help enhancements have a double benefit of possibly bringing in more new customers who might otherwise be overwhelmed or simply ignorant of the power and flexibility of UR (I'm still learning what is possible after a few years).

[quant]

Originally posted by mikeg
Since UR version suddenly jumped from 3.5 up to 4.0, I'm guessing this is a way to fund additional development.
Hopefully. But I'm not sure it was the best strategy to employ, adding few smaller features instead of one big that alone would warrant an upgrade fee. I would think that Calendar was the most wanted feature for the next release, and it also had a good potential to bring new customers. Kinook could start threads about what features users wanted in the Calendar, this debate could liven up the forums and would hopefully result in the great Calendar feature that everyone would be happy to pay an upgrade fee for. Well, maybe the next version.

Originally posted by mikeg

P.S. I think any ease-of-use or improved help enhancements have a double benefit of possibly bringing in more new customers who might otherwise be overwhelmed or simply ignorant of the power and flexibility of UR (I'm still learning what is possible after a few years). [/B]
... yep, that's probably the "Achilles' heel" of UR ;-)
more video tutorials, better marketing ... I myself found UR only by chance ... most people still have no idea what PIM is.

[armsys]

Hi Quant,
With all due respect, may we know about your background? I bet, like most UR users, you're savvy in computer. I can appreciate the challenge Kinook confronts with UR marketing. UR represents a new idea and a new category in the software market. As such, unlike Microsoft Note, UR doesn't gain users' acceptance instantly. The only possible solution to UR marketing is hands-on training/demonstration roadshow.

Nonetheless, the upgrade price is unexpectedly steep.

Armstrong

[quant]

Originally posted by armsys
Hi Quant,
With all due respect, may we know about your background? I bet, like most UR users, you're savvy in computer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_analyst

Originally posted by armsys
I can appreciate the challenge Kinook confronts with UR marketing. UR represents a new idea and a new category in the software market. As such, unlike Microsoft Note, UR doesn't gain users' acceptance instantly. The only possible solution to UR marketing is hands-on training/demonstration roadshow.
PIM's are here for quite some time. I remember reading about Fisher Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_Black) who used Thinktank in the late 80s.

And there are many many things that could be done. This is what I'd do if I spent years programming sth. Create videos to each and every sample database that is installed, categorized by difficulty. Explain with example videos where and how it could be useful, at high school, uni, job, at home. Then I'd spend time creating sample databases that could be readily used for SAT tests, GRE tests, or some basic English tests. Distribute it wherever I could. I would contact universities and offered it free for students' end of year research projects. I would release the key for v2, and also create a free current version that would say not be able to create own templates or be limited by 1000 items (if you really gonna use it, you reach 1000 pretty fast, if not, you wouldn't pay for it $100 anyway but someone who sees you using it might). I would then try to bundle this free version to those computer magazines free DVDs. I would try to submit UR to various software review websites, try to participate in forums where this kind of software is discussed. I would run competitions for the best user video, best sample database, best idea on how to promote UR, etc ... for the start ;-)

[tfjern]

In this thread ("To Beat a Dead Horse")

http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?threadid=3684

I bemoaned the fact that UR lacks user-friendly videos that explain in easy English the various intricacies of kinook's fine program (I have already upgraded to 4.0, by the way).

I mentioned what many others have noted: the help file, albeit well-organized, is tedious to rummage around in, and as the cliche goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If even senior member / quantitative analyst quant can be persuaded that videos might, among other things, boost sales, I suggest we pester the daylights out of kinook to get them to condescend and finally post a few of them.

Just a thought.

[quant]

Originally posted by tfjern
Has quant finally changed his (her?) tune?
I haven't, citing myself from that thread: "More examples, online videos, etc. will certainly help ..." ;-)