"Open in new instance"

[Spliff]

Perhaps, my problems with not automatic reload of databases which had been open when I closed down UR in the previous session, are bound (in part at least) to my settings, since in order to (rarely) view two databases side-on-side, I have Tools - Options - Misc - Allow opening multiple instances set to YES (default is NO).

Notwithstanding, I always get additional databases (^o for "open", then selection in the dialogue) as additional tabs within the current main window, which is the behavior wished for, but I had encountered problems to get that additional main window in the rare cases I had wanted it to appear; obviously (and discussed partly before), there is an interaction with the specific setting (3 variants there) in Tools - Options - General - Windows taskbar entries; I never got thru to the exact interaction of all this, spread over two setting windows.

So I tried to understand the "Open in new instance" help (in help "Options - Misc Options", there: "Exceptions (that will always open a new instance even if the above option is unchecked): (...) Choosing the Open in New Instance menu command." - "menu" being a link, to: "Item Menu (...) Open in New Instance -
Opens the selected item in a new instance of Ultra Recall.", which isn't that helpful.

So I looked into this from the GUI side:
- In the "Open" dialogue (^o), there is NO such check box or similar (which would come handy though)
- In the File menu, there is no such entry either (which would then open the ^o dialogue, but then open the selection in that dialogue within another window; this would come handy, too)
- There is no context menu entry to do this when right-clicking onto the respective button/tab in the database toolbar (understood that the database to be opened in its own main window is already open (as tab) in the current main window)
- There is no such context menu either when right-clicking on the source item of the tree to be displayed in its own (or second, for the same database) main window

BUT there is an entry in the Item menu (as could be expected from the short help indeed), and this then works independently of the selection within the tree in question, source item or any other item, in the latter case it just scrolls, in the new window for that tree, to that item indeed.

THUS, for most use cases (and if the user in question is not willing to dig far deeper into all this), it's probably advisable to leave both settings at their respective default: Options - General - Windows taskbar - one for all when database toolbar displayed // Options - Misc - Allow opening multiple instances NO (I hope these are the defaults though) (Here again, it's good to remember that all settings will be remembered from the last-closed database only...), and then:

Open all databases normally, into tabs into your main UR window. Then, when you exceptionally want one of the databases to appear in its own window, in order to have it side-by-side with another/others, create the "duplicate" of that database in its own window ("Item - Open in new instance" "copies", does not "move"), then go back to your first UR window and delete the database in question in that window; if you forget this step, you'll probably create havoc - in even rarer cases you will want to have the same database open in two windows=instances here: good luck!*

Just SHIFTING a database from the main window, to its own window, should be possible by a File (!) menu entry "Shift to its own window", and there should also be a File menu entry "Open in its own window..." (and perhaps with a +^o instead of the regular ^o shortcut).


* = The ideal solution to this problem, i.e. the need for opening the SAME database in two instances, would obviously be the implementation of a hoisting variant, where the hoisted part would not be hidden behind another hoist-tab, but be displayed in another window, dependent of the main window, but that does not seem to be easy to implement, cf. the absence of such a thing in other software, too - MyInfo 6 had implemented a non-editable (!) second content-pane by option, don't know about v. 7 over there...

[Spliff]

I would like to confirm that (exactly) with the above-described settings, my automatic re-opening of the databases from session to session is now absolutely stable, including the tab order.


I would like to suggest implementing manual sorting of the database tabs, by drag-n-drop, as it is quite "usual" in numerous other applications of all sorts providing tabs for different windows, etc.; currently, if you want to re-order the tabs, you have to close (!) one or several databases, then re-open them in the order you then wish them to appear in, in case even several such actions for a "simple" re-order, since any "new" database will not be put after the current tab but after the very last one in the row.

Such a manual re-ordering by drag-n-drop of the tab(s) in question seems all the more advisable since the commands "Next/Prev database" in the UR "Window" menu do not work onto the next/prev active database, but strictly onto the next/prev tab in the row, thus necessiting the "correct" order of the databases within the row if the user wants to switch forth and back between two databases: (s)he will place them next to each other, and then switch between them with the aforementioned commands.

As an alternative, the implementation of an additional command "go to previously used database" would be ace (and solve the biggest part at least of the described problem)!


I currently have to press the "Next" or "Prev" key several times for each such switch between just two databases (and if I didn't want to close and re-open the databases in question, in order to place them side-by-side), or then I go over the ^o dialogue, i.e. I "open" databases which are already open.


Also, in the Window menu, whilst the letters N and P are not available for possible database names anymore, since they are for "Next" and "Prev", even databases whose names start with letters except N or P, are not available but by their - aleatoric! - position in the row, by 1, 2...

This is easy on a technically level, but awkward for the user, since in/for every session (s)he must memorize the position of the databases, which, as explained above, will probably not be "fixed" between sessions, since, according to the tasks at hand, (s)he would want to have specific databases side-on-side, in order to easily switch between them, with "Next"/"Prev".

Thus, taking away the forced numbering within that menu would be more than welcome, from, I think, any user, and then, up to 24 databases, name-starting with a...z except for n... and p... (and even 10 more, name-starting with 0...9) could be easily be accessed by this menu, and that without (!) memorizing their respective, current position (which would not work for more than 9 anyway I suppose); switching to a specific, already open, database from that menu will need much less time than using the "open" dialogue indeed.

This suggestion would also apply after implementation of a "go previously-active database" command as described above, but would then and obviously be much less important.

[Spliff]

I would like to comment again on problems with multiple tabs; I've got about 30 UR db's currently, of which most of the time, about half a dozen are open; most of the time, I need to access these alternatively, but some I use concurrently, i.e. I have visible my "work" db (on the left), and some "reference" / "help" db for that work (on the right) at the same time, this latter UR db then being visible in turns with my web browser or other third-party software (dictionary, spreadsheet, or other); this might reflect a common scenario for many users.

Thus, in Options-General, I have set "Windows taskbar entries: Always one for each open database" and Options-Misc: "Allow multiple instances", since otherwise, I can't get, whenever I need it, one of my open UR db's visible concurrently (side-by-side).

1) "Go back to UR (from another application)"

Then, if I want to "go back" to UR (all UR db's stacked in the same place of the screen, from some other application, by taskbar, after clicking on the UR icon there, I then have to click on the SPECIFIC UR db icon, too, or I set the setting to "one for each", and then my taskbar is populated with the multiple UR icons; here again, just to "go back" to UR (i.e. to the "active" db there), I have to select the SPECIFIC UR db icon.

I have resolved this problem with a one-key-macro which "goes to UR":
if winexist("ahk_exe UltraRecall.exe")
winactivate
else
run, "C:\Program Files\UltraRecall\UltraRecall.exe"
and fortunately, Windows is smart enough to just "go back to UR", without asking me to which db I want to go; it's NOT the same result as for Alt-Tab in all situations, since the latter will not go to UR in a single step if I in-between have switched between several non-UR applications, so the above macro is very helpful.

2) "Go back to previous UR db (from within UR)"

As said in my post above, UR hasn't got yet a command for this.

You can do it with Alt-Tab (or some 1-key macro which triggers Alt-Tab) IF you directly before, you will have switched between UR db's, but, obviously, not whenever in-between, you will have been in any third-party application (browser, etc): Then, after Alt-Tab, you will have to look up the last-accessed UR db within the Windows Alt-Tab window.

Having "discovered" the alternative Windows shortcuts Alt-Esc and even Shift-Alt-Esc, I had thought for a moment those could help, at least "within" a switch between just several UR db's (i.e. if you do NOT access any third-party software in-between), the "interest" of these alternative Windows shortcuts being that they just switch, sparing you the (flashing of the) Alt-Tab Windows window; unfortunately, those shortkeys are both totally worthless for most users (and that's why the are more or less "unknown"); they are NOT "Alt-Tab without the window in-between" but take you to some "application access history" in which the previously-accessed application (or UR db) is NOT entered on top of the stack (as in Alt-Tab) but at the end or whatever; forget Alt-Esc (and Shift-Alt-Esc) for navigation between UR db's (or any other navigation to begin with).

Thus, in order to ("key-only") toggle between UR db's (and except the above Alt-Tab if you don't use anything else in-between), there currently is just one solution, i.e. a macro timer (!) which every 300 ms or so retrieves the current db name and checks / writes, in case, with/to a two system variables / array values "prevdb" and "currdb", and then, you can write another macro which runs the the "previous UR db", whatever it might be; this is not complicated at all, per se, BUT it will run an external timer all the time, and you will then need to decide if you possibly stop (and then switch it on again) while other macros / scriptlets run.

On the other hand, a native UR toggle would be very easy to implement, and with no such overhead for the user's system. (Instead of the timer, you could also implement the sysvars-updates for every possible command opening / switching between UR db's (^o, prev/next db, mouseclicks on the db tabs, and so on...).


THUS, problem 1 ("back to current UR db from the outside") can elegantly be resolved with some lines in almost any, even the tiniest / free, macro tool of your choice, but problem 2 ("go prev-accessed db within UR") could mainly be resolved by some 5 lines or so of code, accessed by another entry in the "Window" menu. ;-)


EDIT: And oh, I forgot, there's also Win-Tab: good heavens! I had had so much hope in Alt-Esc originally, but nothing quick-and-neat from the Windows side...