Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category

I’ve tried every major code editor out there (and a few text editors) and none of them let you tab through the code completion hints.

I’ve tried the following:

• Adobe Dreamweaver
• NetBeans
• NuSphere PhpED
• Zend Studio
• PHP Studio
• phpDesigner
• Code Lobster
• EngInSite PHP Editor
• Rapid PHP Editor
• Komodo Edit
• PHPEdit
• PDT (PHP Development Tools)
• PhpStorm
• WebStorm
• E Text Editor
• Bluefish Editor
• UEStudio
• Notepad++

None of them support this! The only editor that ever did support this was Aptana and they gave up on PHP.

Why do I have to move my hand from where I am typing to the arrow keys or to my mouse and select an option. Why not let us tab through the list of choices? This is clearly a better approach to UX (user experience). Firefox and IE both allow you to do this from the URL box. And I wrote about how to configure Opera to allow tabbing through the URL bar. Unfortunately Google Chrome and Safari don’t support it.

When installing PDFCreator I told it not to install what I thought was the Yahoo! Toolbar. However, when I launched my internet browser I noticed a new toolbar appeared. So I uninstalled PDFCreator and the PDFforge Toolbar (as it’s called here) from Windows’ Set Program Access and Defaults.

I decided to reinstall it and see how it snuck by. It seems to be mentioned in the license agreement, but its buried in all that text.

On the screen I thought was for a Yahoo! Toolbar, I find out its actually for setting up Yahoo! as my default search engine, yet why put the image of a toolbar on that page? Not only that but the title of that screen says PDFCreator Browser Add On, but not only that it specifically says, “Install the PDFCreator Browser Add On and” then some bullet points and a toolbar image followed by “Set Yahoo! as my default search engine and notify me of changes.”

Therefore, I assume that it will install the toolbar and set Yahoo! as the default search engine. But then below that it says “IMPORTANT: If you don’t want to install the PDFCreator Browser Add On, then please unselect it on the next screen.” But why even mention it or give it the name of that screen if we have to select it on the next screen.

Here is that next screen

I like PDFCreator for creating PDFs from other programs, but I think I’ll be on the lookout for a replacement after this. And it should go without saying when you install programs always do the Advanced Install because they will often sneak things in by default and don’t blindly click next.

Ever have a bunch of files that you needed updated. For instance, perhaps you have a script or program that generates a bunch of incremental files or maybe you need to fix files that were not named with your naming convention. Rename Master is the free tool that will help you get this done. You can change the case sensitivity, add numbers to the end, replace just part of the name or some letters and more. You can also edit file properties such as MP3 tags, JPEG JFIF and EXIF tags. It also gives you a preview of what your changes will look like, before you implement them. It can be installed or run as a standalone app, so you can put it on a USB flash drive and add it to your arsenal of tools.