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Efficient Sticky Notes question

(10 posts) (4 voices)

Started 4 months ago by Acarolinensis
Latest reply from mikiem2

Acarolinensis
Member

In theory Efficient Sticky Notes Pro 5.60 was last available as a giveaway on August 5, 2019. I have been using it on & off since then. Now I want to use more of its features.

The main program shows Groups (~folders) on the left and the contents (notes) of a selected Group on the right. Across the right, column headers show the value of individual fields within each note (record), e.g., Attachment, Importance, Content, (various) Times, etc.

Categories shows no content for any notes. I can see nothing in Help or trying various menu options or right-clicking all over that would access this feature. Efficient Software appears to be out of business or re-branded into something else. A couple of brief YouTube videos never get close to mentioning details like this.

Note Name appears in the same wilderness except Tools -> Custom Fields opens a Custom Field Management window that shows one field Titled: Note Name of Field Type: Text.

If that line is selected, buttons [Add], [Edit...], [Delete] & [Close] come out of grayed out-dom. Clicking [Edit] brings up a Edit Custom Field window. Three inputs are offered but two (Info Type: Desktop Notes and Field Type: Text are grayed out. They both have drop-down menus but I suspect have no other options than what is shown.

However, a third input Field Title: is bright. It has a fill-in box for text entry currently containing "Note Name" which can be changed.

I know that the chances of anyone here having much experience with ESN of actually seeing this post is pretty small but here's hoping somebody knows how to access these features. Thank you regardless.

Posted 4 months ago #
ChrisS
Administrator

I downloaded the portable shareware version ( download.cnet.com/Efficient-Sticky-Notes-Pro-Portable/3000-2072_4-75693074.html ) which according to "Help | About" is Build 556 of version 5.60.

To utilize "Categories" you need to add the note to a "Category" first. Open the note, select "Edit | Belong to Categories..." then pick the Category, or Categories, to which the note will be assigned. Create new categories by clicking "Category List". Category appears to be an upper level sorting field since you already have the option of adding sub-groups.

Tools -> Custom Fields allows you to add a new field to the note database. I don't see any way to add data to that field through the program using the portable version. You'd have to externally access the database to utilize the new field. I suspect that "Note Name" was added in error (it doesn't show up in the portable version) and you should either delete it or simply deselect it in the View Options. Your notes are stored in a database, they don't have a user specified "Note Name".

Posted 4 months ago #
Acarolinensis
Member

Wow! Thank you! Build numbers match. I looked at but did not see Belong to Categories... It works like a champ. This really helps.

I poked around in Program Files (X86) & Appdata Roaming and found two files of interest:

zyceffsn.dat - is this the database? Any idea of how it works, how to access it or what it is native to? Opened it up with notepad but the contents looked pretty cryptic. I remember ESN was part of a larger ecosystem but don't remember much about the other products that it may have interacted with. Do you use any of them?

EfficientStickyNotesPro.ini - In contrast this looked pretty rich with options. Probably should make a backup copy before even thinking of messing with it. Have you tried making any changes there?

Your notes are stored in a database, they don't have a user specified "Note Name".

I was thinking "Note Name" was simply a user defined field that could have had any reasonable text for a name. How is it related to an individual user?

No doubt the GOTD version can't be reinstalled. If things go really south it would be nice to know ESN could be reinstalled. The CNET.com version says "FREE TO TRY". Will the portable version default to a free version if it doesn't get a registration code?

Looking forward to hearing more - thank you again.

Posted 4 months ago #
ChrisS
Administrator

In the portable version, the notes are stored in \documents\MyStickyNotes.esnw with backup copies under \autobackup. The installed version likely has a similar structure.

MyStickyNotes.esnw appears to be a Firebird database (version 11.2 - the current version is 13.0).

The portable version is a 30-day trial. I don't know what will happen at the end of the 30 days but I suspect that the software will quit working.

The over-arching problem with this software, and all Personal Information Managers (PIM), is getting your data out if you need to make a change in software. Efficient Sticky Notes does not provide the functionality to export the notes database to a format that is readily imported by other software. You might be able to link to MyStickyNotes.esnw with a Firebird ODBC driver, extract the data, and then import it to your new software but that can be time consuming. You really don't want to be in a situation where your data is held hostage by software.

I can't recommend a PIM that might be a better choice, I use my email program since it's open anyway and it can be exported/imported easily.

Posted 4 months ago #
gergn
Member

Via Tools/Export you can export your notes. You have two options:CSV and html.
The newest version is from 2017. So the giveaway from 2019 is still up-to-date.
I just tested my backup of the installer on a virtual W7. I could still activate it.

I have two PIMs: Treepad Professional and AllMyNotes. Treepad is no longer supported, but via the Internet Archive I could download the installer for my newest laptop. AllMyNotes looks much nicer, but I am used to Treepad. Until I bought a licence for Sticky Password, I used Treepad daily to store my passwords and activation codes.

Treepad runs under Linux WINE. I also used it to generate my web sites. Nowadays I use it mostly to read old notes. And once a year to keep track of sent and received Christmas cards.

For those who use their email programme to store notes, I recommend MailStore as a read-only searchable backup database. It is free for home users.

You could also check out CherryTree. At PortableApps there is a portable version, that is updated regularly. See https://opensource.com/article/19/5/cherrytree-notetaking

Posted 4 months ago #
ChrisS
Administrator

Via Tools/Export you can export your notes

Yes, the menu says you can.

I apologize for failing to specify that I tried the export function and it doesn't work in the portable version. Maybe it works in the installed, or non-trial, versions but it won't export my massive database of 3 records and renders the program non-responsive. I allowed it 10 minutes, it is 3 records after all, before I used Task Manager to shut the program down.

Posted 4 months ago #
gergn
Member

Like you, I downloaded the portable from download.cnet.com/Efficient-Sticky-Notes-Pro-Portable/3000-2072_4-75693074.html. I activated it with the key of the 2019 giveaway. First, I had to save a new, empty database. Then I could write three desktop notes. I saved them as csv-files in a jiffy. The result is:

Importance,"Show on Desktop",Content,"Creation Time","Last Modification Time",Group
Normal,Yes,"This is the third note","8/11/2022 09:36:16","8/11/2022 09:36:16","Default Group"
Normal,Yes,"This is the second note","8/11/2022 09:35:59","8/11/2022 09:35:59","Default Group"
Normal,Yes,"This is the first note","8/11/2022 09:35:45","8/11/2022 09:35:45","Default Group"

So, it is a readable csv-file, but it has its own formatting, making it more difficult to open in another PIM.

Posted 4 months ago #
gergn
Member

Re "Categories shows no content for any notes. I can see nothing in Help or trying various menu options or right-clicking all over that would access this feature."

If you start a new note, or edit an existing one, Choose Edit/Belong to Categories. Initially, there are no categories. You must define them yourself. Click left below, on Category List, to define them. Enter the name of the first category under New category: and click on Add. You can change the name of a category via Edit on the right. Next, enter the name of the second category, etc. Click on OK if you are done.

Once you have entered the categories you want to use, you can assign the note you are editing to the category/categories it belongs to. Just by clicking on their names in the list Available categories:'

In the main window, click on All Desktop Notes to see the categories of every note. If you have notes belonging to more than one category, you might want to widen the column Categories.
When you click on the name of a group, you see the notes belonging to that group, without their categories.

When you export to a CSV-file, the categories are not exported, only the groups. I exported some notes with categories from a group to a CSC-file, deleted them, and imported the CSV-file into the empty group. And - as was to be expected - none of the imported notes had a category. So, this part of the programme is buggy, or incomplete. The Help function does not mention categories.
If you save the full database, close the programme, and reopen it, you will see the categories back. So, if you want to use categories, you should not use the CSV-export function. I have only tried the portable version.

As far as I can see, the programme is no longer supported.

Posted 4 months ago #
Acarolinensis
Member

Thank you for more information.

@ChrisS Actually my use of ESN is pretty ephemeral much like its paper counterparts. If it all disappeared it would be frustrating but the content pretty much exists in other previous to-do list locations. For PIMs I use ~2006 versions of ACT!, Eudora and ClipMate on Windows 7.

Yes, I need to update, but still am looking for a new laptop to replace my 10 year old T520 that is solid and supported. From here it looks like Dell & HP have gone downhill on supporting even their business class machines.

@gergn Need to retry exporting using your info - thank you for all your added research. Also for recapping what ChrisS said previously about using categories.

Posted 4 months ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

... still am looking for a new laptop to replace my 10 year old T520 that is solid and supported. From here it looks like Dell & HP have gone downhill on supporting even their business class machines.

Well, now is the best time of the year price-wise. I *suspect* that Win11's hardware requirements & 3 years to Win10's EOL will depress prices [may be depressing prices now] for refurb laptops that just miss the cutoff, say a 7th generation Intel CPU. Personally I don't like any company's support when it comes to laptops & tablets, because they try to restrict you to Only use drivers etc. from their site. Those are delayed quite a bit for internal testing, then after a year or so no further updates are ever issued. You can often get around that by using drivers from the component manufacturer, but forget about it for any specialty components that aren't in widespread use, and it can involve some trial & error if the OEM customized the way a component works, which happens.

Posted 4 months ago #

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