_____________________________ __| |__ \ | AlomWare Toolbox Change Log | / / |_____________________________| \ /____) (____\ Please carefully read any "Change" and "Removed" items, as these may need your manual correction of actions using those changes/removals. +----------------------------+ | v0.999e Beta (15 Sep 2023) | +----------------------------+ Bug fix: For typing repeated keys with the "Keyboard" and "Macro" steps. Bug fix: Typewriter keyboard sounds, when enabled in Settings, weren't playing for the numpad keys. Bug fix: The "Work Overview" window now detects more specific window types that weren't being detected before. Bug fix: Pressing the Delete key when the screenshot list is NOT selected in that tab, no longer shows a warning prompt about deletion. Bug fix: For the "Window: Restore size from max/min" step, so that borders of specific window styles don't appear corrupt after restoring. New typing tweak option in Settings called "Auto-close pairs when typing these keys", which relates to: " ( { [ For example, if you type ( then () will appear so you don't need to type the closing bracket as well. New step: "Computer: Show windows with", which minimizes all open windows and then shows only the windows with the specified text or app name, making it a handy way to switch between groups of like windows. Apps need to end with ".exe" when being specified. For example, specifying "winword.exe" will minimize everything except Word documents, and specifying "- Notepad" will minimize everything except Notepad windows. Specify "explorer.exe" to show only folders. New default actions: "Computer\Show only Notepad windows" and "Computer\Show only Word documents" to demonstrate the new step above. You may need to click the Action Wizard button (wand icon) in the Automation tab to add these new default actions. +----------------------------+ | v0.999d Beta (27 Aug 2023) | +----------------------------+ Update: The Help manual has been updated with some further information, but is still nowhere near complete. Bug fix: For the "String: Assign from date" step, and now allows 0 to be specified for today. Bug fix: For the "Window: Close" step. Change: The "Window: Add border" step has been renamed to "Window: Border", and is now used with Win32 exe windows (not Win10+ app windows) to add, remove, or toggle the border of the assigned window. Change with enhancement: Saving a window state, and using the "Opening windows states" list, now has the app/exe name of saved windows shown for better identification of each window in the list. Unfortunately, this means all your old saved window states (but not PC states) won't work anymore, so you'll need to re-create and re-save them. We apologize for this inconvenience. New step: "String: Assign from clipboard history", which assigns the string from the text found in AlomWare Toolbox's clipboard history (in the Clipboard tab). Specify the history index number from 0 to 99; with 0 being the top session item, 1 being the most recent cut or copied text, 2 being the second most recent cut or copied text, etc. +----------------------------+ | v0.999c Beta (18 Aug 2023) | +----------------------------+ Bug fix: The app would crash (but auto-restart itself) whenever "explorer.exe" in Windows crashed. This was due to some buggy system tray icon code that v0.997 introduced, which has now been reverted back to the working v0.996 code. Bug fix: When restoring a PC state from the app's system tray icon and Toolbox's window wasn't shown, the window doesn't accidentally show after restoration. Bug fix: Macro recording now includes mouse wheel movements again, and is less prone to miss keystrokes and mouse clicks due to newer and tighter code. Bug fix: Clicking the title/executable name of a thumbnail in the "Work Overview" window now toggles between those text types again. +----------------------------+ | v0.999b Beta (24 Jul 2023) | +----------------------------+ Bug fix: For clicking list headers when filtering (got broken in the last update, sorry!). +----------------------------+ | v0.999a Beta (22 Jul 2023) | +----------------------------+ Bug fix: For setting a saved window back to open how the OS determines. Bug fix: Syntax coloring in action step descriptions is now present again. Bug fix: The dock now shows correctly with multiple monitors due to supporting the "Use only the main monitor" setting in the app. Bug fix: The "Window\Save to desktop as an image" default action had a renamed step that was overlooked, and is now corrected. +---------------------------+ | v0.999 Beta (25 Jun 2023) | +---------------------------+ Change: Removed the default hotkeys for all default "Window" actions (except for "Show the Power menu") as they were clashing with default hotkeys used by other apps. The onus is now on the user to specify the hotkeys that they wish to use. Bug fix: For saved window states where folders are the target executable. Bug fix: For the "String: Get middle of" step, which could miss some text in complex strings. Enhancement: For the "Folder: Sort files into sub-folders by" step, and also for the "PC Tweaks -> Sort desktop files" menu item. Files that have sub-folder names ending in "_files" will no longer be moved, as these are usually file and folder pairs that must always remain together. Now only single standalone files will be sorted/moved. +---------------------------+ | v0.998 Beta (10 Jun 2023) | +---------------------------+ Bug fix: Some internal code that needed extra checks. Nothing damaging; just some better error-checking. Reversion: Due to negative feedback, the system tray icon is now always visible again. Just remember that it won't respond while the app has a open dialog/message/window waiting for your input. Enhancement: When filtering the clipboard, notes, and screenshots lists and only one match is found, that single item is now auto-selected for immediate viewing. +---------------------------+ | v0.997 Beta (28 May 2023) | +---------------------------+ Change: The app's system tray icon is now only shown when the app's main window is hidden. You can still press the app's main hotkey to show the window at any time. Bug fix: The Power menu with a middle-mouse click now works with different size window icons; and also now works with a triple-tap acting as the middle mouse button on PCs with a touchpad. Bug fix: The app no longer shows "ghosted" windows on the desktop when Taskbar transparency is enabled in the app. Preventative fix: The default action called "Window: Show the Power menu" no longer shows an error if a window isn't active. Enhancement: Right-clicking an action step item that has a file for its value (such as "c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe") now has a menu option to open the file's folder and select the file. +---------------------------+ | v0.996 Beta (13 May 2023) | +---------------------------+ Bug fix: When using AlomWare Toolbox for the first time on PCs with multiple monitors, the app's window could appear off-screen (and thus be unreachable). It now opens correctly on the center of the main monitor. Preventative fix: The app now saves its Settings when the PC is logging off or shutting down (in case the Settings window was still open at the time and thus hadn't saved any changes). Enhancement: Bulk file renaming now lets you specify these variables as part of the new name: "old$" which inserts the old file name at that text, "date$" which inserts today's date as "yyyy-mm-dd" at that text, and "time$" which inserts the current time as "hh-mm-ss" at that text. New step: "Window: Use main monitor", for when using the "Window: Move to desktop position" and "Window: Resize to" steps. It makes the assigned window use only the main monitor (or not) on PCs with multiple monitors. +---------------------------+ | v0.995a Beta (6 May 2023) | +---------------------------+ Bug fix: The Power menu item for creating new folders with free text now works correctly again. Bug fix: The "Log: Add text" step sometimes didn't put the action name inside its title box correctly. Bug fix: The "String: Assign from file [...]" steps will no longer show an error if the string is blank. Bug fix: Opening websites with the "Visit website" menu option for actions now works with all sites (doesn't make the URL lower-case anymore). Cosmetic fix: The "Alert: Ask for two texts" step now shows a text icon instead of search icon in its window. Enhancement: The app's window no longer closes automatically when you double-click a website screenshot to visit the website. Enhancement: The "Folder: Create" step now creates nested folders if assigned that way (such as "parent\child\grandchild"). Enhancement: The Power menu for new folder creation now lets you create multiple new folders from lines of text in the clipboard, and also from lines of text in a file that you select. +--------------------------+ | v0.995 Beta (1 May 2023) | +--------------------------+ Change: New versions of the "Files\Bulk rename files in this folder" and "Files\Bulk replace text in text files" default actions, to cater for the new "Alert: Ask for two texts" step mentioned below. Bug fix: Right-clicking a clipboard text item and selecting "Action" wasn't always copying the selected text to the clipboard (resulting in the wrong text being actioned). Bug fix: Double-clicking an action that needs a hotkey to run when a hotkey was already set for it, will no longer prompt you for a hotkey after showing its error message. Bug fix: When the user had two or more text prompts open in the app (or from an action), the text entered wasn't separate for each prompt, leading to the wrong data being used and/or the app crashing. Cosmetic fixes, corrections, and clarifications: For many text items in the app, such as action step descriptions and app messages. Powerful addition: New PC tweak called "Drag windows when holding down Alt + Left Mouse button", which is something Linux users have enjoyed for years. Now do it on Windows with AlomWare Toolbox! Powerful addition: New PC tweak called "Sort desktop files", which moves all desktop files (not folders) into their own sub-folders by file type. For example, all desktop JPG and PNG images will go into a new desktop folder called 'Toolbox Sorted Files\Images', and then further into their own 'JPG' and 'PNG' sub-folders. De-clutter and sort your desktop with just a couple of mouse clicks! Protection addition: Added some more checks to assigned folders so you can't accidentally delete or modify system folders with your automated actions. Note that it's not possible to catch all system folders, though, so please ensure you only work with non-system folders when assigning them. System folders as defined by AlomWare Toolbox are the following (and their sub-folders): "C:\", "C:\Boot", "C:\ProgramData", "C:\Program Files", "C:\Program Files (x86)", "C:\Users", and "C:\Windows". Enhancement: The "Keyboard: Type to other window" step will now auto-select the other window when it's the only valid window to type to. New default action in the "Clipboard" group called "Clipboard: Speak the text", so you can listen to the clipboard text being spoken. New automated action: "Folder: Sort files into sub-folders by", which works the same as the new PC tweak mentioned above, but for whichever assigned folder you specify. This step supports two values: "ext" or "group", so you can sort the moved files by group as explained above, or just into their own extension folders alone. New step: "Alert: Ask for two texts", so the user can enter two separate lines or blocks of text to be used with an action, such as old/new data to be used for text replacement in strings, or to rename files with old/new names, etc. This removes the current hack method of needing to use the "String: Get left and right of" step to separate a single line of text into two parts. +----------------------------+ | v0.994b Beta (25 Apr 2023) | +----------------------------+ Bug fix: The app was accidentally preventing the PC going to sleep when the OS was set to do so. Enhancement: The "Window: Save image as" step now appends ".png" to the filename if omitted. +----------------------------+ | v0.994a Beta (17 Apr 2023) | +----------------------------+ Quick bug fix for yesterday's release: When using the app for the first time and adding a new step to a new action, the step chooser splitter was at the top of the window instead of the middle. Addition: Put in a new blank default action so you can quickly create a new action when using the app for the first time. +---------------------------+ | v0.994 Beta (16 Apr 2023) | +---------------------------+ Change: The "Window: Save image to" step has been renamed to "Window: Save image as" for consistency. Bug fix: The "String: Line into art" step with the "scroll" value no longer has spaces at the end of some lines. Bug fix: For "String: Save as ID" being limited to single lines. Now it accepts multi-line strings as was meant to be. Bug fix: For "String: Swap variables" being limited to single lines. Now it accepts multi-line strings as was meant to be. Preventative fix: The "Window: Close forcibly" step will no longer permit AlomWare Toolbox itself to be closed forcibly. Workaround: The "String: Assign" steps now work correctly with Microsoft Edge window titles when assigning. This was not technically a bug because Edge composes its titles in an unorthodox way. Powerful addition: Taking screenshots now saves OCR text from them, so you can filter/search screenshots by the text they contain. The OCR text depends on how well Windows (the OS) gets the information. To filter such screenshots by OCR text, click the list header and specify the filter in this format: "ocr=text". Powerful addition: When right-clicking an old screenshot and selecting "Copy text", the OCR'ed text is now also added to the screenshot's data so that it can be searched with the new "ocr=" filter option mentioned above. Addition: New Setting to specify process names that are to be killed whenever PrintScreen is pressed to take a screenshot. The default is "screenwings.exe", which is an app that prevents screenshots being taken on your PC. AlomWare Toolbox can now kill that app before taking a screenshot. Note that AlomWare Toolbox may need to be run as admin for killing some processes. Addition: New step called "String: Assign URL from active browser", which uses internal keystroke automation to get the URL from the address bar of a supported web browser that is active. Supported web browsers are: Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera. Enhancement: The "Computer: Save screenshot as" and "Window: Save image as" steps now use the process-killing feature mentioned above, so anti-screenshot apps like "ScreenWings" can't stop a screenshot being taken. +---------------------------+ | v0.993 Beta (10 Apr 2023) | +---------------------------+ Bug fix: The "Action: Abort if not from hotkey" step now works if an action is double-clicked in the action list, and also when Enter is pressed on an action in the action list. Bug fix: The "String: Assign from file image" step didn't update the string's variables after OCR'ing the image. Change: The "Toolbox: Hide its window" step has been renamed to "Toolbox: Visible", and now supports "0" for no, "1" for yes, and "toggle". Powerful addition: New step called "String: Assign from desktop text", which uses Windows OCR technology to grab all text on the desktop and assign it to the string. You could then test that string to see if it contains text of interest to you, and then do something based on whether such text was found. See the new default action called "Computer\Is Notepad's title visible" for an example. Addition: New step variable called "space$", which is just a space character as a word, as an option for better readability in your actions when needed. Addition: New step called "Computer: Delete desktop icons layout", which deletes the desktop icons layout that was previously saved with the "Computer: Save desktop icons as" step. This step does NOT delete any actual icons from your desktop. Addition: New step called "String: Remove repeats", so you can remove repeated text in the assigned string; such as to remove double spaces in text, or remove multiple slashes in file and folder names, etc. Addition: New step called "Wait: For desktop text to appear", so the action pauses until the specified text is found anywhere on the desktop. Enhancement: The assigned "File" and "Folder" steps now auto-remove multiple slashes in the path (so "C:\\Hi\\\\\There" becomes "C:\Hi\There\", etc). Enhancement: Modified the OCR code so that small images now get recognized properly and don't show an error about no OCR text found. Of course, if no text can actually be found then you'll still get the error. :) Enhancement: Right-clicking an image in the Screenshot list now has a "Properties" menu item at the bottom, which shows the size, width, height, orientation, and aspect ratio of the screenshot. Enhancement: Scheduled tasks/reminders now let you specify a message to be verbally spoken by your PC, such as "Hey dude, it's time to take a screen break!". Enhancement: You can now right-click an action and select "Enable" to enable or disable it, without having to do it with a rename. (The rename option is still there). +--------------------------+ | v0.992 Beta (1 Apr 2023) | +--------------------------+ Bug fix: The action "Debugger" window now remembers which item is selected in each of its tabs, so switching its tabs doesn't mistakenly show the previous item text from a previous tab. Bug fix: For the "String: Get middle of" step. Powerful addition: You can now hold down the Ctrl key when clicking AlomWare Toolbox's system tray icon, and this shows it after centering it on the desktop and putting it on top of all other windows. Handy for emergencies when your PC gets out of control and you need guaranteed access to AlomWare Toolbox to fix things. Powerful addition: New step called "Computer: Say", which lets your PC speak the text you specify (up to 700 words at a time). This means you can now make actions that actually speak to you, such as alerts, reminders, etc. The system default voice is used and can't be changed at this time. This step may require the Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1 to be installed (it normally is by default on Windows 7 and later), so if speech isn't happening then you'll need to install the SDK from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10121 Addition: New default action: "Computer\Say the current time" to demonstrate the new speech ability of AlomWare Toolbox. Addition: New default action: "Web\Check AlomWare Toolbox version" to demonstrate how to get the text of a website and parse it. Addition: Two new Power menu options for actions to take when a window closes. The first is to make your PC speak a message when it closes, and the second is to add a message in the Log tab when it closes. Enhancement: The "Alert: Show [...] message" steps are now shown on top so they always appear in front of the current window, and thus not be missed. You don't have to acknowledge them immediately (they're not modal) and won't stop you continuing to work in your current window. Enhancement: The "File: Assign" step now lets you specify "target", so that an assigned file of shortcut type (".lnk" file) will be reassigned as the shortcut's actual target file instead. Enhancement: The "Window: Resize to" step now lets you specify a percentage to resize to (has to be 1% or more). Anything under 100% will reduce it, and anything over 100% will increase it. For example, specify 50% to reduce the window size by half, or 200% to increase it by double. +---------------------------+ | v0.991 Beta (24 Mar 2023) | +---------------------------+ Change: For the "Action: [...] if" steps, when testing with a keypress you must now put literal keys in braces (like you would for special keys like Ctrl). So to test for an A keypress you specify {A} instead of A. Change: The "Clipboard: Assign from screenshot" step has been removed. Use "Image: Assign" with "screenshot" as the value, and then "Image: Copy to clipboard" instead. This has the added benefit of using the other "Image" steps before copying it to the clipboard, such as resizing it first. Change: The "Image: Assign" step now uses "clip" and "window" instead of "clip$" and "window$" (the "$" incorrectly referred to text and not an image); and now also lets you specify "screenshot" to assign an image of your desktop. Bug fix: The app now properly redraws itself after a window snap move (Win+Left and Win+Right hotkeys). Bug fix: The Power menu was failing on borderless windows when middle-clicking their icon area. Bug fix: Incorrect parsing of the "Action: [...] if" steps so they now recognise string$ and other variables in all situations. Bug fix: Renaming an action now shows the new name in the Status Bar (instead of the old name continuing to be seen there). Addition: New default action: "Computer\Is Notepad running", to show how to check if a process is running. Addition: New default action: "Computer\Restore desktop icons after game", to show how to save your desktop icons layout before running a game and then restore the layout after the game quits. Addition: New default action: "Files\Bulk replace text in text files", where you can replace old text with new text in a folder of plain text files. For use with a hotkey when a folder is active. Addition: New step called "Alert: Set the default text to", which sets the default text shown for the 'Alert: Ask for a block | line of text' and 'Alert: Ask for a password' steps. If this step has been used before in the same action and you now want it to be blank, then specify blank$ to clear it. Addition: New step called "Alert: Show an error message", which displays the specified text with an error icon in the message box. Addition: New step called "Keyboard: Type keys", which is just as a fallback for newbies to find easily. The superior and preferred way to type keys is with the existing "Macro: Type keys or use mouse" step. Addition: New step called "String: Assign from assigned image", to get the text (if any) found in the assigned image; using Windows 10 (and later) OCR technology. Enhancement: Added error-checking to the "Files: Bulk rename files in this folder" default action. Enhancement: Favoriting a tab (either in the Settings or by right-clicking it) now shows a heart icon on the tab. Enhancement: Modified the "Show 1 USD to AUD" action to use the Australian Reserve Bank's RSS feed, to provide better reliability (don't need to worry that a commercial website will change its data format). You'll need to restore the default actions from the Action Wizard to get this new version. Enhancement: Right-clicking the clipboard images box now lets you toggle the sorting by date or name. The default is also now by date, so the most recent copied images appear first in the box. Enhancement: Right-clicking an action's step value now has menu options to run/open/visit the value if it's an app/exe, document, folder, or website. Enhancement: The "Image: Resize to" step now lets you specify a percentage to resize to (has to be 1% or more). Anything under 100% will reduce it, and anything over 100% will increase it. For example, specify 50% to reduce the image by half, or 200% to increase it by double. +---------------------------+ | v0.990 Beta (18 Mar 2023) | +---------------------------+ Bug fix: For auto-completion of text typing with some keyboard keys. Bug fix: Choosing a custom toast notification in Settings would get the prompt stuck behind the Settings window. Bug fix: "Properties" windows opened from a Toolbox search result will now be centered if that option is ticked in Settings. Bug fix: Renaming a screenshot would accidentally show the image filename when a website URL was meant to be shown instead. Bug fix: Toggling a new scheduled task between time/date and duration could sometimes show incorrect duration/repeat fields. Change: Renamed the automation action step "Wait: For the mouse to move to" to "Wait: For the mouse to be", so you can now specify either: an exact X/Y position, "clicked", "leftclicked", "middleclicked", "rightclicked", "moved", "above Y", "below Y", "before X", and "after X". Enhancement: The Power menu for a document now shows the document name (with folder) under "Properties". Enhancement: Added more info under the mouse when desktop zooming: the item's X position, Y position, width, and height; and the window's X position, Y position, width, and height. New step: "Computer: Show the Task View", for Windows 10 or later. Shows the Task View screen that you get when pressing the Win+Tab hotkey. +---------------------------+ | v0.983 Beta (11 Mar 2023) | +---------------------------+ Change: Free mode has changed from five repeatable hours per session to until midnight on the day of each session. Just re-enter the free unlock code every day to use it free all day again. Change: Per user feedback, the "PC Overview" feature has been renamed to "Work Overview" to better reflect what it does (as opposed to being an overview of your PC itself, such as its hardware). Any settings you changed for this feature will need to be redone (sorry). Preventative fix: Action hotkeys using Shift with Numpad numbers on the numeric keypad are no longer permitted, due to a Windows limitation (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040906-00/?p=37953). Bug fix: The Settings window would cover some prompts when they appeared. Bug fix: If being viewed, renaming a screenshot now correctly shows the new name above the screenshot. Bug fix: The "Window: Resize to" step now works correctly with multi-monitor displays. Bug fix: Using the "/old" filter on clips and shots now correctly uses the modified date, rather than the created date. Bug fix: PC state restoring now works with partial window titles again (was a regression in a previous version). Bug fix: For PC states where a missing file could cause the restoration to go into an infinite wait loop. The app now does a pre-check of a state's files and won't try to restore it if an app or document is missing. Addition: When resizing Toolbox's main window, it now purposely doesn't update all items in real-time until the mouse is released. This was needed due to feedback from users on lower-end PCs, and makes resizing a lot smoother/fluid as a result. Enhancement: You can now manually add extra apps and folders to a saved PC state that didn't get included when the snapshot was done. Enhancement: Apps that are minimized to the system tray (such as "qBitTorrent.exe" or "Winamp.exe") are now included in PC state snapshots. Enhancement: The "File: Add text to end" step now supports the option of prefixing the text with a plus (+) so that the text is literally added to the file's end, instead of being added on its own new line. +---------------------------+ | v0.982 Beta (26 Jan 2023) | +---------------------------+ Bug fix: Some apps were not included in PC states due to their child windows not being detected. Bug fixes for rolled-up windows: (1) The roll-down button could sometimes get covered when the window didn't have the focus, and (2) These windows are no longer included in the Work Overview (no point). Work Overview updates: Some windows would actually hide themselves when their minimize button was clicked, instead of actually minimizing; so the Work Overview now takes this unorthodox behavior into account and not include them. Addition: New default action in the "Clipboard" group to make multi-line text in the clipboard become a single line. +---------------------------+ | v0.981 Beta (15 Jan 2023) | +---------------------------+ Bug fixes for the "Work Overview" window: (1) It would incorrectly horizontally stretch the thumbnails of each window too wide when more than one monitor is in use; (2) It would sometimes incorrectly assess a normal window as being a child window, and therefore not show it unless the Setting to show child windows in the overview was enabled; (3) It would "flash" (update itself) when the user moved it by dragging its title bar, when it really shouldn't actually do so. Bug fix for the window roll-up feature: Icons that are larger than 16x16 pixels (such as Task Manager) now get resized to 16x16 for correct displaying on the roll-up bar. Enhancement: Better positive detection for the window opening state feature, BUT this means you'll need to delete all your existing opening states and redo them (sorry!). This is done from the "General -> Opening window states" menu. Select all and then delete them. Next time the windows open, use the Power menu to set up and re-save them with this new enhanced detection. Enhancement: The opening window manager now shows icons for the saved windows, so you can more easily see your windows in the list. Enhancement: New app Setting called "Use only the main monitor for window/notification positions", so that a window or notification that is set to open in the center of the desktop can be either literally the center position on a multi-monitor setup, or just centered on your actual main monitor. +-------------------------+ | v0.98 Beta (8 Jan 2023) | +-------------------------+ Happy New Year! :) Change: Re-did the hotkey selection window to use longer and better-identifiable key descriptions. You may need to redo your hotkeys for your actions as a result. Change: Removed the "Calendar" tab's "End of financial Year" and "Easter" date calculations, as these are different in various countries. You can manually add your country's correct date in the "Annual Events" area instead. Change: Creating a new note no longer inserts the date/time as the default text. You can press F5 to insert the date/time instead (like Windows Notepad). The date/time format can now also be changed in Settings. Bug fixes: Several fixes for macro recordings (blank action steps, mouse wheel issues, and final mouse click). Bug fix: Aborting a PC state save when an app/task is busy could make subsequent saves not start. Bug fix: Putting encryption marks on a note or step without a password set first, would make the note non-editable and the step have incorrect text. Enhancement: Better window opening state detection, so that your saved windows will open in the state you save them with the app. One new enhancement for this is a checkbox for "Delay is needed" for windows that take a short moment to be ready for use, such as a movie opening in "Media Player Classic". Ticking this new checkbox for that app will try for up to 10 seconds to match the opened window before giving up. Enhancement: The step values for actions can be be either fully or partially encrypted (just like Notes). Enhancement: Recording macros has been changed to use fewer resources and also to keep the automation steps smaller. Enhancement: The "Calendar" tab now shows the date for 5 and 10 working days ahead, for instant reference for businesses that need to know these dates quickly. Enhancement: The "Misc" tab has two new sub-tabs: "Desktop Zoom" and "Font Browser", as these were together before and thus too small to be useful on high-DPI displays. Enhancement: The "Desktop Zoom" function now ranges from 2x to 64x magnification (was 1x to 32x before), for better zooming on high-DPI displays. Enhancement: The "Notes" tab now has a "New note" button at the top-left of the Notes list. Enhancement: The "A" to "Z" index buttons on the "Note" tab will now ignore any characters that do not start with a letter. For example, if your note starts with "(Hello)", then clicking the "H" index button will now list that note. Addition: New clipboard Setting to optionally always force cut/copied text to be as plain text instead of rich text. Addition: There is now a checkbox to enable "Desktop Zoom" in the "Misc" tab, for users on laptops without an easy-to-access Scroll Lock key. Addition: You can now right-click any app tab to make it a favorite (so its shown whenever the app's window opens), and to access Settings relating to that tab. Addition: There is a new Power menu option called "Roll up to title", so you can show only the window's title; but has an added bonus of a unique 32x32 real-time thumbnail of the window itself. New step: "Window: Roll up to title", which does the same thing as the new aforementioned Power menu function. This step can also unroll a rolled window. New step: "Toolbox: Hide its window". Renamed from an old step called "Action: Hide Toolbox's window". New step: "Toolbox: Show the tab named", so you can open Toolbox at a specific tab with a hotkey or other trigger. +---------------------------+ | v0.971 Beta (18 Dec 2022) | +---------------------------+ Bug fix: Using automation to center some windows vertically would sometimes fail, depending on the desktop's taskbar state. Bug fix: Copying a file rename script item would crash the app. Cutting them was safe, though. Change: The file rename mod named "Partial CRC32" is now called "CRC32" and does the whole file hash, but only if the file's size is up to a limit you specify in Settings. Change: The file rename mod named "Partial MD5" is now called "MD5" and does the whole file hash, but only if the file's size is up to a limit you specify in Settings. Addition: New file rename mod named "From the text file X" to rename the files in order from a sequential list in a text file. Addition: New file rename mod named "Letters and numbers" to keep only the letters and numbers of a filename. +--------------------------+ | v0.97 Beta (12 Dec 2022) | +--------------------------+ Minor fix: Re-worded some in-app text that didn't fit properly in their fields on PCs with 125% or higher DPI. Bug fix: The "PC Tweaks -> Center all windows" menu option no longer affects the desktop wallpaper, and now also works correctly on multi-monitor setups. Bug fix: The "Computer: Monitor power" step had to be changed due to the way Windows 10 now switches on/off a monitor's power. This step is now able to turn the monitor back on again. Change: Removed the "Active window border" feature, as user feedback was negative about the border showing on top of other windows that were partially covering the active window. Change: The Power menu option to freeze the window focus now shows the abovementioned colored border around the frozen window instead, which makes better sense from a user experience point-of-view. Change: Renamed the "Computer: Re-open the last closed folder" step to "Folder: Re-open the last used", to better explain what it does and keep it with the other folder steps. Change: Renamed the "Computer: Restore the last clipboard text" step to "Clipboard: Restore the previous text" to keep it with the other clipboard steps. Addition: Added a new Setting called "Tweaks for your PC -> Windows -> Choose the border color for surrounding frozen windows", for use with the amended focus-freeze feature. Addition: Added a Power menu option to re-apply a window's saved opening state (if not opened where the OS determines). Useful when you've moved/changed a window but then want to re-apply its saved opening state again. Addition: Added a Power menu option called "Keep locked here" so that a window's position and size can't be changed. Useful to keep a window where it is, even if the user or the OS tries to move/resize it. Addition: New step called "Window: Lock in place", which locks a window's position and size so that it can't be changed. Same thing as the new Power menu feature above. Enhancement: The Power menu option to open a window in a specific way has been extended to lock a window into a position and size, so that it can't be moved or size after it opens there. Enhancement: The Power menu option to open a window in a specific way has been extended to minimizing any opening window to the system tray, even if the window's app doesn't support that. Enhancement: When choosing the setting to open all windows at a default position, you can now choose whether or not to include or exclude child windows of the main window, such as file open/save dialogs. Enhancement: The "Brave" web browser has been added to the supported web browsers used by Toolbox (like when taking a screenshot of an active browser window). +--------------------------+ | v0.961 Beta (9 Dec 2022) | +--------------------------+ Quick Bug fix: To make auto-opening window states work better for troublesome apps. If this still doesn't work for certain windows (which can happen due to technical limitations), then you can set a hotkey with an action to manually set the window's position and attributes (on-top, etc) instead. It's the Power menu option named "Opening state -> Create a hotkey action to set this state instead". +-------------------------+ | v0.96 Beta (7 Dec 2022) | +-------------------------+ Bug fix: Setting new windows to open to other than where the OS decides, has been fixed so these windows don't move again after you manually move them to another position. Enhancement: Added a new Setting to auto-save your Toolbox notes every minute while they're being edited, to keep your notes safe if your laptop battery dies or if your PC closes down/restarts for whatever reason. Addition: Using the middle mouse button to open the Power menu on the new tabbed folders of Windows 11 no longer works, as Microsoft now uses that mouse button to close a folder tab (or the folder itself if only one tab exists). The mouse button still works for pre-Win 11 machines, but we've added a new automation step called "Window: Show the Power menu" so you can set a hotkey to open it as well. This step is designed to work with the assigned window. Addition: Added a new default action called "Window\Show the Power menu" (related to the above addition), so you just need to set a hotkey for it. You can add the default steps from the Wand icon the Automation tab. Addition: Added a Privacy Declaration to the "Privacy" Settings area, at the request of a user who wanted an in-app statement about the app and how it affects their privacy. +--------------------------+ | v0.95 Beta (27 Nov 2022) | +--------------------------+ Bug fix: Renaming an action now updates the name above the Step list. Bug fix: The "Image: Make grayscale" and "Image: Make negative" steps now work correctly again. Preventative fix: The "Computer: Lock with overlay" step now shows a timed message on too many incorrect tries, instead of a static message box. This means you can't get accidentally locked out if the message box loses the focus. Change: "Image: Assign" now lets you specify the clipboard, a file, a website image, or an assigned window. This means the following steps are no longer available: "Image: Assign from clipboard" and "Image: Assign from window". Addition: This Change Log is now accessible from within the app via the "Help -> View Toolbox's Change Log" menu; and is now also auto-shown (once) whenever you run a different version of the app from your last version. +--------------------------+ | v0.94 Beta (12 Nov 2022) | +--------------------------+ Bug fix: PC state restoring now won't conflict with existing windows when relaunching an app or folder. Bug fix: Saving a window position to auto-open at a corner of the desktop at 150% DPI will now re-open correctly there if your desktop is later using 100% DPI. +--------------------------+ | v0.93 Beta (29 Oct 2022) | +--------------------------+ Change: The app's icon has been altered in design (but still the same general look) to now scale properly with different Explorer icon sizes. Bug fix: The app now auto-sets compatibility with high-DPI displays to ensure its items aren't cropped, blurry, or positioned out of view. This fix also makes the desktop zoom (in the "Misc" tab) work correctly on high-DPI displays. Bug fix: Restarting the app as admin from the "General" menu now works again. Bug fix: The drop-down list of action groups wasn't parsed correctly for first-time use. Redone: The PC states feature has been redone from scratch to produce a more seamless restoration effect, and also fixes some bugs that couldn't be done with the old code (namely: saving some states could fail, and some rare window styles can now be restored correctly). Removed: PC states no longer save/restore the desktop wallpaper due to some users having a daily wallpaper in use and don't want it removed when restoring a state. Addition: Due to popular request, a new system tweak to mute the sound volume while the computer is locked has been added. Addition: New system tweak to change the Task Manager's "Details" tab to use compact view, making it perfect to see more processes without scrolling. Addition: The "Files -> Backup" tab now lets you right-click the files and versions list, to perform functions on the selected files/backups. Addition: New step called "Computer: Save the current PC state", for users whose keyboards do not have 2 x Shift and 2 x Ctrl keys to invoke the save. Just assign your own hotkey to it, or double-click it in the Action list to invoke it. There is now also a button in the "States" tab to save a PC state without using any keys. +--------------------------+ | v0.92 Beta (25 Sep 2022) | +--------------------------+ Change: Free mode now runs in repeatable five-hour sessions instead of just two hours, giving you a lot more time to enjoy or evaluate the app before re-entering another free unlock code. Change: Saving a window's opening state now only allows a choice of "Opening" or "Ready" window titles, and not of "Custom" type. This was regrettably necessary due to too many false matches. The upside is that better matching of windows is possible, leading more accurate and faster auto-positioning of your favorite everyday windows. Bug fix: Deleting a window's opening state could sometimes delete all other opening states by mistake. Bug fix: Adding or editing an action step no longer opens the step prompt at the top-left of the desktop. Sorry for this regressive bug that was accidentally reintroduced! Bug fix: Trying to select a Dock action to run while an action is currently being edited, will no longer repeatedly flash the edited action's prompt. Bug fix: Trying to select a Dock action for editing with a right-click in the Dock, while an action is currently being edited, is no longer permitted. Bug fix: The "Work Overview" window has been fixed to position itself properly in all situations (including now when the Windows taskbar is auto-hidden), and also works with custom positions. Enhancement: Modified the way restoring PC states works to be more reliable. As noted before, this feature will never be able to 100% restore all open apps, but we tweak it when we discover more incompatibilities. +--------------------------+ | v0.91 Beta (28 Aug 2022) | +--------------------------+ Security Change: The "Email: Password" step now shows passwords in the Value column in the format of "(Encrypted as: p4bme4yug7yCNprO7qLkDA)", so that it doesn't mislead you (or to others lurking) into thinking that the gibberish text is the actual password. This means you'll need to re-enter the password for this step in all your actions to re-register the password in this new format. Remember, your email passwords are stored locally on your PC in encrypted form and are NOT sent outside your PC or visible to AlomWare at any time. Bug fix: The opening window state feature has been overhauled for better unique window detection, and now also works better with "busy" windows. Unfortunately, this means all your old saved window states (and PC states) won't work anymore, so you'll need to re-create and re-save them. We apologize for this inconvenience, but this fix was necessary during the beta period for better functionality and fewer false-positives when window matching. Bug fix: Editing a PC state no longer opens the state editor window at the top-left of the desktop. Bug fix: Saving a PC state now includes minimized windows (but unfortunately not windows minimized to the System Tray). Bug fix: Restoring a PC state will now correctly restore the wallpaper (sometimes it missed it due to a certain situation). You'll need to restore and then re-save the state to capture it correctly, though. Bug fix: The "Work Overview" window introduced in the last beta no longer auto-closes after a short time; it now stays open until you close it yourself. Bug fix: The "Alert: Show a message" and "Alert: Show a warning message" steps no longer crash the app if not acknowledged immediately. Bug fix: Docking windows could fail in certain circumstances, causing both windows to fly off the desktop. Addition: Put back the "All Tasks window" option in the "PC Tweaks" menu. Addition: Put back the local CHM help file (albeit still not done, due to the app being in beta) instead of using a web-based online help manual. Needed due to user feedback that their workplace doesn't allow AlomWare.com to be accessed for online help. Addition: Added a Power menu option to add/remove the taskbar button for a window. Enhancement: Added a Power menu option to always open a window in a minimized state. Enhancement: Taking a tutorial screenshot will no longer flash the current window that has the focus. Enhancement: Added more hotkey options for actions. The new available keys are: [ ] / \ ; ' , . Enhancement: You can now press Ctrl+Z immediately after adding an incorrect step to an action from the step chooser window. Enhancement: You can now right-click individual steps of an action and run them separately. This is handy for testing just parts of actions without running the entire action (that don't rely on any unselected steps). Enhanced steps: "Action: Do next step if" and "Action: Do this block if" can now test if an executable/process is running, by testing the exe name with 1 (yes) or 0 (no). Enhanced step: "Computer: Show Work Overview" has been changed to "Computer: Show Work Overview for", which still opens the Work Overview but now with an optional filter that you specify (or no filter at all). This means you can create hotkeys that open the Work Overview to show only the windows that match the filter. Enhanced step: "Window: Move to end of taskbar" no longer flickers the window when moving it. Renamed the step "Clipboard: Set text" to "Clipboard: Assign text" to make its name more consistent with other steps. If you enter "clipfix" in the Command bar at the top of the window, it will convert all your existing actions to use this new step name. Renamed the step "Clipboard: Set from screenshot" to "Clipboard: Assign from screenshot" to make its name more consistent with other steps. If you enter "clipfix" in the Command bar at the top of the window, it will convert all your existing actions to use this new step name. Renamed the step "Computer: Lock" to "Computer: Lock normally", due to adding a new computer lock option (see below). New step: "Action: Abort if no clipboard text", which alerts you if an action that needs clipboard text is missing text. New step: "Computer: Lock with overlay", which locks your PC with a glass-like overlay until a specified password is typed. Don't forget the password! The overlay means you can still see what's happening on your PC, but you will be unable to use it while locked. Similar to the official Windows lock screen but still allowing you to see your PC. New step: "Computer: Use window", which selects the next window above, below, left, or right of the current active window. It purposely does not select windows that are maximized or minimized, and is intended for use with hotkeys. This means you can jump around different app windows on your desktop with directional hotkeys and not need Alt+Tab! New step: "Keyboard: Paste app path", which pastes the path of the current app into the active item, such as into an open/save file dialog box. New step: "Keyboard: Type to other window", which lets you type a line of keystrokes/text to another window without switching to it with the mouse or Alt+Tab, and without losing the current window focus. It shows a pop-up list of all open windows and a field to type your line of text. Select a window with the up/down arrow keys, and then press the Tab key to specify your keystrokes. When typed, press the Enter key to send the keys. Your current window will then get the focus back again so you can continue working where you were. New step: "String: Line into art", which automatically transforms single lines of text into ASCII art: big letters, boxed (like the date boxes in this Change log), ribbon (like the heading of this Change log), and scroll (like a parchment). New step: "String: Remove line breaks", to convert a multi-line block of text into a single long line. If you specify this step with "1" as the value, then a space is added after each removed line break so that the new single-line string becomes "separated like this" instead of "bunchedlikethis". New step: "Wait: For the minute to change", to pause the action until the minute of the time of day changes. +-------------------------+ | v0.90 Beta (5 Jun 2022) | +-------------------------+ Change due to a preventative Bug fix: Adding backup files to the "Protected files" list would not back up the files if their original folder path was over 260 characters long. This is a rare and uncommon situation and this function has now been amended to use a different backup technique to allow for this, but the new method is (regrettably) incompatible with your existing backups. This means you'll need to delete all your existing backups and start them afresh. Sorry, but this does make them future-proof to prevent such issues again. Preventative fix: If a maximized window is set to always be on top, then opening Toolbox's window might not be shown and you might falsely conclude that its hotkey to show it isn't working. Now, it forces itself on top so you can always see it when invoking it. Bug fix: Increased the timeout for saved window opening states to make it more successful on windows that take longer to update their titles. Major new feature: There is now a menu option (and Automation step) to open a "Work Overview" window, which is basically a strip of live thumbnails of all open windows for viewing, that you can also click to bring to the front. Think of it as like taskbar buttons but with a real-time live view of each window. No longer do you need to constantly switch to a different window to see what it's doing - see them all at a glance; all the time! Don't forget to check the app's "Settings" window to change how the Work Overview is displayed, such as including open folders, the default overview position, etc. Major enhancement: You can now use the Power menu (middle-click a window's icon area) to dock that window to the right/left/top/bottom of another window on an ad-hoc basis, without needing to create an action to do it. There is now also no limit to how many windows can be docked to each other. Enhancement: You can now undo changes to file rename scripts with Ctrl+Z. Enhancement: You can now cut/copy/paste parts of file rename scripts with Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. New step: "Computer: Stash desktop items", which moves all your desktop items (icons, files, folders, shortcuts) into a temporary single folder on the desktop (named 'Toolbox Stashed Items') to make it easy to identify newly-added items; such as when testing a new app which adds its own icons/files to the desktop, or when unzipping an archive of new files to the desktop and don't want them mixed in with your existing desktop files. For your data's safety, any desktop items with the same name that are already stashed (or unstashed) will NOT be overwitten. Is it important that you do not stash desktop items that are currently in use, such as files that are currently being downloaded to the desktop. New step: "Keyboard: Paste with tabs", which pastes the text content of the clipboard to the active text field, but replaces any new lines in the text with Tab keypresses. This is useful when you copy multi-line text and need to paste each line into consecutive data fields of a form. +------------------------------------------+ | First official public beta (26 Mar 2022) | +------------------------------------------+ New step: "Window: Use icon" to change the icon (top-left corner) of the assigned window. Specify "original" to change it back to its original icon. Added as a request in Reddit so that the user can more easily find different window buttons in the taskbar. +---------------------------+ | 1 Jan 2020 to 25 Mar 2022 | +---------------------------+ No private beta updates were published online during this time. +---------------------------------+ | First private beta (1 Jan 2020) | +---------------------------------+ Non-public version for private beta-testers only. +-----+ | End | +-----+