NoteTab Version History

New features, improvements and bug fixes for every release since v5.

Click on a version number in the list below to jump to that section.

7.2 | 7.1 | 7.01 | 7.0 | 6.2 | 6.12 | 6.1 | 6.0 | 5.8 | 5.7b | 5.7 | 5.61 | 5.6 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.0

Version 7.2

  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest version (based on PCRE 8.36).
  • Added 10 new Clip commands.
  • Added new shortcut to insert « French quotation marks » around selected text: Ctrl+Alt+,
  • Added “Full Name in Title Bar” setting on General tab in Options dialog box. Check this option to display the current document name with the full folder path. Uncheck it to hide the folder path.
  • Added “Open All” command to File > Reopen submenu.
  • Added new shortcut to close a document tab and cancel the “Save changes” prompt: Ctrl + Middle Mouse Button click on tab.
  • When using the “Close All Documents” feature, the list of closed files is now automatically stored under the “Close All” Favorites category list. The warning prompt is now only displayed if more than 16 documents are about to be closed.
  • Removed the "Save Changes" prompt when closing a modified but empty document that has never been saved to disk.
  • Reintroduced the auto-complete feature in the search dialog combobox fields.
  • Improved Calculate Expression feature by increasing bracket limit from 40 to 100.
  • Improved Calculate Expression feature, which now supports the × and ÷ operators as equivalent to the * and / symbols. Example:
    4×7÷2=14
    works the same way as
    4*7/2=14
  • Improved font sharpness when run under Windows high DPI settings.
  • Improved setting file-type associations with NoteTab (note that associations set with previous versions may not show in Options).
  • Fixed several syntax highlighting issues in NoteTab Pro that occurred when text contained tab characters.
  • Fixed issue with “Match Directory” and “Use Default Directories” options.
  • Fixed infrequent issue that resulted in no selected document tab (usually after closing a document).
  • Several other minor improvements and fixes.
  • Updated documentation.

Version 7.1

  • Updated Bootstrap library to version 2.1.1.
  • When using Close All Documents, the confirmation prompt is now only displayed if you have more than five documents open.
  • Fixed occasional failure to scroll last line into view.
  • Fixed an issue with synchronizing the search-type option in Find and Replace dialogs after using the Search Disk feature.
  • Fixed UTF-8 character issues in Utilities.clb library.
  • Using Calculate Expression on a selected column of numbers no longer replaces the selection. The value is now displayed in a dialog.
  • Calculate Expression now analyses the expression to determine how to format digit grouping and how many decimals should be used in the answer.
  • Calculate Expression and ^$Calc now try to determine the decimal and digit grouping symbols from the expression. They will use the Windows default symbols if they can’t resolve the symbols. As a result, Calculate Expression and ^$Calc now work even when symbols don’t match your Windows defaults.
  • Calculate Expression and ^$Calc: with numbers under 10000, a digit grouping symbol is only inserted if it has a decimal symbol or if the source expression uses digit grouping on such numbers.
  • Fixed an error in formatting digit grouping in negative numbers when using Calculate Expression and ^$Calc.
  • Clip-code: ^$Calc no longer accepts defining invalid decimal and digit grouping symbols. Invalid symbols are ignored. If no decimal and digit grouping symbols are defined, NoteTab will try to determine them from the expression or use the Windows default symbols.
  • Clip-code: ^$GetDateFromInt now supports numbers with digit grouping symbols.
  • Clip-code: ^$IsNumber now supports an optional parameter to specify decimal and digit grouping symbols.
  • Clip-code: ^!If now correctly handles numbers with digit grouping symbols as well as real numbers (with decimals).
  • Several other minor issues fixed.

Version 7.01

  • You no longer need to use the /usb switch when running NoteTab from a USB flash drive (memory stick) under Windows XP or more recent.
  • Improved handling of Favorites feature when NoteTab is run from a USB flash drive.
  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest version.
  • Improved “Calculate Expression” feature. Works without first selecting expression when line contains other text. Simply place cursor at the end of the expression and press Ctrl+E to calculate the result. You can also do chained expressions 1+2=3 +3=6 +4=10. If the expression doesn’t end with an “=” sign, then NoteTab replaces the expression with its result.
  • The “Calculate Expression” feature and ^$Calc Clip function now assume the decimal and digit grouping symbols used in an expression correspond to the Windows region settings.
  • Improved smart quotes feature. Select text wrapped with straight quotes and NoteTab will replace them with smart quotes on pressing the Ctrl+, keys.
  • Improved the Match Brackets feature. Now also works with double quotes (smart and straight) and straight single quotes. When searching for "straight double and single quotes", place the cursor in the text between them.
  • Added minor improvements to several Clip libraries and templates.
  • Fixed issue with Wildcards setting that caused search dialog box to error in some situations when the search text was left blank.
  • Clip-code: Added optional parameter to ^$Calc function to specify decimal and digit grouping symbols to override the default Windows settings.
  • Clip-code: Added pre-defined variables with the decimal and digit grouping symbols defined in Windows: ^%DECIMAL_SYMB% and ^%THOUSAND_SYMB%.
  • Clip-code: Improved Clip error reporting when caused by a regular expression pattern error.
  • Clip-code: Fixed ^!Find and ^!Replace Clip commands so that they no longer change the settings of the standard search dialog boxes.
  • Clip-code: Fixed incorrect results returned by ^$StrPos, ^$StrPosRight and ^$StrPosMid.
  • Clip-code: Fixed incorrect results returned by ^$ExpandEnv when used with NoteTab tokens.

Version 7.0

  • Under Windows 32-bit with the /3GB option and Windows x64, NoteTab can now allocate resources past the 2GB address limit when needed (up to 4 GB).
  • NoteTab Pro: Added syntax highlighting for CSS files and improved HTML syntax highlighting with documents that contain PHP, ASP, and Javascript code.
  • Improved the Strip HTML Tags feature with better handling of documents that contain PHP, ASP, and Javascript code.
  • Added real-time word count feature, with a choice between two counting methods. The feature is controlled through the View | Word Count submenu and the word count is displayed in the status bar next to the Ins/Ovr info panel. Word-count is based either on selected text or the whole document (or topic with Outlines). This feature is not available in NoteTab Light (unless you enable trial mode).

    The MS Word method returns a count that should be a close match to the word-count result in Microsoft Word. The NoteTab method is more sophisticated and counts words using a more extensive set of word delimiters. MS Word mostly counts words delimited by space characters. In the following examples, MS Word counts one word per line whereas NoteTab counts three words in each:

    • info@fookes.com
    • https://fookes.com/
    • help-me-please
    • 2x10x250
  • When the real-time word-count feature is enabled, you can click on the corresponding panel in the status bar to see more detailed text statistics. This information is also displayed after you select a certain amount of text. You will see the word count based on the NoteTab method, the average number of characters per word, the number of sentences, and the average number of words per sentence. This information is particularly valuable to copywriters, bloggers and journalists.
  • In NoteTab Pro and Std, the Tools | Text Statistics feature is now based on the new NoteTab word-count method.
  • When the Text Statistics feature is used on an HTML file, NoteTab only counts visible page text (tags, CSS, scripts and commented blocks are ignored). Hold down the Shift key when selecting this menu command if you want to also count words in HTML tags and comments.
  • Simply select one character in the current document to see its decimal and hexadecimal value in the status bar.
  • New keyboard shortcuts to easily insert typographic characters:

    • Ctrl+. inserts the ellipsis character …
    • Ctrl+- inserts the n-dash character –
    • Ctrl+, inserts “smart quotes” around selected text or a proper apostrophe ’
  • You can now remove history items from drop-down lists in the Find and Replace dialog boxes. To remove an undesired item from the history list, first select it, close the drop-down list and then press the Shift + Delete keys. Or right-click in the field to open the popup menu and choose Delete from List; you can also delete the whole history by choosing Clear History.
  • The Find and Replace dialog boxes now show search results in a balloon (unless you are using Blind-User mode) instead of a message box. This speeds up you work as you no longer need to click on the message box OK button to close it.
  • Added support for wildcard searching in find/replace tools. This feature is not available in NoteTab Light (unless you enable trial mode).

    The following tokens are provided:

    • * = matches 0 or more word characters. Example: “jo*” matches “JO”, “John”, “Jody”, “joint”, “join_leave”.
    • # = matches 0 or more word characters, including HTML entity characters. Example: “na#” matches “naïve”, “naïve”, and “naïve”.
    • ** = matches 0 or more characters and can span across words within a line. Example: “click**link” matches “click link”, “click on link”, “clicking on link”, “Click on this link”, but not “click on links”.
    • ? = matches exactly one word character. Example: “jo?” matches “Job” and “jot”, but not “JO”, “John”, “Jody”, and “joint”.
    • ~ = matches 0 or one word characters. Example: “jo~” matches “JO”, “Job”, and “jot”, but not “John”, “Jody”, and “joint”.
    • & = matches exactly one word character or one HTML entity. Example: “caf&” matches “café”, “café”, and “café”.
    • Word characters include alphanumeric characters, all extended ANSI characters, as well as “_”.

    To search with wildcard tokens, select the Wildcards option in the Search drop-down list. Choose Standard for literal searching and Regular Exp. for searching with regular expressions.

  • Find and Replace dialog boxes: you can use keyboard shortcuts to change option in the Search drop-down lists. Simply press CTRL+ALT+{first letter of option name}. Example: CTRL+ALT+A sets the All option and CTRL+ALT+W sets the Wildcards option.
  • Added new Bootstrap library, Clipbar and templates. Bootstrap, from Twitter, is a fantastic collection of CSS and HTML for rapidly developing professional-looking web sites. For more information, visit the official Bootstrap website through this link: http://getbootstrap.com/
  • Added new HTML-CSS and HTML-AutoReplace libraries and Clipbar, which include support for HTML5 and CSS3. They replace the following outdated files (note that these are not uninstalled by NoteTab):

    • HTML.clb
    • HTML-ar.clb
    • CSS1.clb
    • HTML-1.ctb
    • HTML-2.ctb
    • CSS1.ctb
  • Added two new web page templates (Web page.tpl and Web page HTML5.tpl) to replace the following outdated files (note that these are not uninstalled by NoteTab):

    • HTML.tpl
    • CSS1.tpl
  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 8.31.
  • A confirmation dialog box is now displayed when the Close All menu command is used.
  • You can now use CTRL+ALT+V to paste Clipboard data in HTML format (if available).
  • The Search Disk.fvr Favorites file created after a Search Disk operation now removes the maximum limit of 65 files.
  • Added new program icon and splash screen. Note that you can still revert back to the old icon through the Options dialog box.
  • Program file is now code signed to reduce the risk of anti-virus false positives.
  • Fixed printing issue whereby last page or pages failed to print.
  • Fixed issue with Save Directory setting being ignored under the Use Default Directories option.
  • Fixed issue with Disk Files option in Quick List when Show Full Names option is turned off.
  • Fixed issue when pasting text with non-Windows line breaks into NoteTab Pro.
  • Partially fixed issue with disappearing Clip wizard labels under Windows 7 (though the problem does reappear if you hit the Alt key).
  • Fixed issue when comparing negative integer values in Clips.
  • Fixed issue in ^$GetDate(Date Mask;+/-days)$ function when using the +/-days parameter.
  • Fixed issue in ^$GetDateToInt[(Date;DateFilter)]$ function that failed when date filter did not exactly match date pattern. Example: ^$GetDateToInt(2012-3-27;yyyy-m-d)$
  • Fixed issue with ^$GetDocumentPath$ and the %NtbDocuments% token failing to use the user-defined default directories.
  • Fixed errors in the CRC32 algorithm used in the ^$GetCrcFile("Filename")$ and ^$GetCrcText("Text")$ Clip functions.
  • Fixed errors in the Clip Assistant.
  • Fixed issue in the Modify | Block | Cut feature that failed to work if only the last character column was selected.
  • Many other minor improvements and issues fixed.
  • Updated documentation.

Clip-code Additions

  • NoteTab Pro and Std: Added two new Clip functions.

    • ^$StrWordCount("Str"[;Method])$
      Method = MsWord or NoteTab
      To count the number of words in a string.
    • ^$StrWordList("Str")$
      To extract a word list (with duplicates removed).
  • Updated Clip functions to support regular expressions and wildcards:

    • ^$StrCount("SubStr";"Str";Options)$
    • ^$StrPos("SubStr";"Str";Options)$
    • ^$StrReplace("SubStr";"ReplaceStr";"Str";Options)$

    Options:

    • C: Searches for whole words only.
    • I: Ignores character case.
    • R: Specifies that the search criteria represents a regular expression.
    • *: Specifies that the search criteria uses wildcards. In NoteTab Light, this option is only recognized during trial mode.
    • A: Use to replace all matched occurrences with ^$StrReplace. When this option is not used, only the first match is replaced.

    Note that the old format for these Clip functions is still valid.

  • The ^!Find and ^!Replace Clip commands also support wildcard searching. Use “*” as an option parameter. The following example searches for words that end in “tab”:
    ^!FIND “*tab” C*
  • Added Clip command to delete the current selection:
    ^!DeleteSelection
  • Added two Clip functions to calculate a hash signature of specified data using the SHA-1 algorithm. SHA-1 was designed by the United States National Security Agency.

    • ^$GetSHA1File("Filename")$
      Returns the SHA-1 signature of the specified file. The result is produced in hexadecimal format. Example: ^$GetSHA1File("^$GetAppFileName$")$
    • ^$GetSHA1Text("Text")$
      Returns the SHA-1 signature of the specified text. The result is produced in hexadecimal format. Example: ^$GetSHA1Text("^$GetText$")$
  • Added Clips to control which type of data is pasted in a document (plain text or HTML if available):

    • ^!SetPasteHtml [TRUE|FALSE]
      When set to True and the Clipboard has data in HTML format, pasting its contents into a document inserts HTML code instead of plain text.
    • ^$GetPasteHtml$
      Returns 1 if the Paste Html option is set and 0 if it is not.

Version 6.2

  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 8.01 (Perl 5.10).
  • Now uses the Windows user-interface default font instead of MS Sans Serif.
  • Fixed an issue when saving Web pages that have a mismatch between their charset declaration (Unicode) and the actual file format (not Unicode).

Version 6.12

  • Added optional code page token support in template headers. The code page value is placed between parentheses and is preceded by the letters CP. The code page value should be one of the numeric values listed on the Microsoft Web site. This example creates a new UTF-8 document:
    = DocTemplate CP(65001)
  • Added three templates that you can use to easily create new Unicode documents.
  • Included sample plain text and HTML files containing text based on a variety of character sets (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, etc.) These files are stored in the Samples subfolder under the NoteTab program folder.
  • Added “Open Sample File” in SampleCode library. Use this Clip to open a plain text or HTML file containing text based on a non-Western character set (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, etc.) The purpose of these files is to demonstrate how NoteTab 6 handles text based on different Windows code pages.
  • Fixed the “Text Case” commands, which sometimes converted extended characters based on non-system code pages incorrectly. Note that the “Invert Case”, Capitalize, and Sentence commands do not correctly handle double-byte characters (DBCS) and so should only be used on parts of text with Latin-based characters.
  • Fixed the “Document to HTML” and “Characters to HTML” commands, which previously assumed source text was always based on the Western ANSI character set. This sometimes resulted in invalid HTML entities when processing text based on other code pages.
  • Fixed “String list does not allow duplicates” error that could sometimes occur when opening Unicode and UTF-8 documents.
  • Fixed a rare issue that caused NoteTab to misidentify certain ANSI documents as Unicode.
  • Fixed ^$GetFileText(FileName)$ Clip function, which failed to check the file format prior to loading text. Now correctly handles Unicode and UTF-8 files.
  • Updated Help.

Version 6.1

  • Added the Code Page submenu to the Tab-bar shortcut menu. This feature lets you reload a document using a different code page. Useful in cases when NoteTab doesn’t automatically select the most appropriate code page.
  • When opening files, NoteTab can now automatically detect the most appropriate code page to display Unicode and UTF-8 documents.
  • When saving Web files (those listed in Options), NoteTab automatically uses the appropriate encoding based on the defined charset value.
  • Improved Search Disk feature. It now correctly handles Unicode and UTF-8 files, as well as files with non-Windows line breaks. During find/replace operations, the searched file is loaded into memory and temporarily converted to ANSI with Windows line breaks (CRLF). If a replace operation has modified the data, NoteTab converts it back to its original format before saving it to disk.
  • Updated Export dialog box with UTF-8 and Unicode options.
  • Added new “Format-Search Limit” setting on Advanced tab in Options dialog box. See Help for details.
  • Included a new Clip-based Clip writing aid, “Clipcode Syntax” (courtesy Sheri Pierce). See the Clip Help file for details.
  • The “UTF-8 (no conversion)” code page option has been fixed and a new “System Code Page” option added in the File Open dialog box.
  • Fixed some issues with double-byte text and the rich-edit controls.
  • Fixed an issue in NoteTab Light and Std version 6, which affected the reliability of the Replace All feature under certain circumstances.
  • Updated Help, documentation, and data files.
  • Some other minor improvements and issues fixed.

Version 6.0

  • Improved support for Unicode and UTF-8 files, as well as documents based on alternative character code pages. Support for these new features appear in the File Open/Save dialog boxes as well as in Clip commands. Note that NoteTab is not a Unicode editor; characters that cannot be converted to the chosen ANSI code page are lost. Note also that Windows may substitute the document font with another that offers the appropriate character script. In NoteTab Pro this could result in a fixed-width font getting replaced with a variable-width font; when this happens, you may experience inconsistencies when selecting and editing text.
  • When you open a Web document without specifying a code page, NoteTab will search the file for a charset, encoding, or lang attribute value. If such a value is found and recognized, NoteTab will attempt to adjust the font to the appropriate font script in order to display the text faithfully.
  • The read-only document protection is now only set after opening a UTF-8 or Unicode file containing characters that failed to convert to ANSI.
  • NoteTab Pro: significantly improved handling of Double-Byte text (DBCS).
  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.9.
  • By default, unselected document tabs now use a less dark color.
  • Fixed failure to set read-only protection when opening UTF-8 Web files lacking BOM signature.
  • NoteTab Pro: fixed minor alignment issue in column ruler when line ruler is turned off.
  • Updated several file-handling Clip commands and functions to add support for the new code-page features.
  • Updated the SampleCode Clip library with two new commands for opening and saving documents. The Open Document command lets you specify a code page and the Save Document command lets you specify an ANSI, UTF-8, or Unicode encoding. You will find additional code page values listed on the Microsoft Web site.
  • Some other minor improvements and issues fixed.

Version 5.8

  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.8.
  • Added the /Close and /Exit command-line switches. Use either one to close a running instance of NoteTab.
  • Fixed an issue that under specific conditions when searching through all open documents can cause an Outline document to lose all its topics except the current one.
  • Fixed a display issue when minimizing/restoring NoteTab while the Find or Replace dialog is open.
  • Fixed issues with the “Go to Hyperlink” feature.
  • Fixed an issue with the ^$GetReSubStrings$ function, which failed to return a captured substring when only one subpattern was defined in the search criteria.
  • Some other minor improvements and issues fixed.

Version 5.7b

  • The /Temp command-line switch value is now automatically stored in NoteTab’s INI file. As a result
    you only need to use the switch again to change the last saved value or when the INI file has been reset. Use a blank value to use the default Windows temp folder (e.g., /temp="").
  • Fixed an issue with search hyperlinks, like when Ctrl+Double-clicking in [ NoteTab ], that appeared in version 5.7.
  • Fixed loss of icon from file types associated with NoteTab Light.

Version 5.7

  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.7.
  • Improved the Strip HTML Tags feature. Now correctly processes unordered lists, ordered lists, and definition lists. Also improved processing speed.
  • Added the Outline Tutorial shortcut under the Help menu to easily open the Readme.otl document.
  • Added support for a new type of “text” hyperlink. You can now open files in their associated application by using an exclamation character (!) at the start of the hyperlink text. The following example will open the GIF file in your associated image viewer: [!Samples\notetab.gif]. See the [Readme.otl::Hyperlinks] topic for more details (tip: to open the document, hold down the Ctrl key while you double-click on the text between the square brackets).
  • Opening a shortcut file (.lnk) in NoteTab now always opens its target file.
  • Added support for folder and file name tokens. These tokens represent either fully qualified folder names or system variables. See “Folder and File Name Tokens” topic in Help for more details on this feature.
  • Improved the /usb switch option. You now only need to use this command the first time you run NoteTab off a USB drive. NoteTab will store the option in its INI file on the USB drive. To cancel the option, run NoteTab with the /usb=false command-line switch.
  • Added keyboard shortcuts to combo-box and edit-box controls in dialogs: Ctrl+Z = undo; Ctrl+Backspace = delete word before cursor; Ctrl+Delete = delete from cursor till end of word.
  • NoteTab Pro: added Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down keyboard shortcut to extend selection range a paragraph at a time.
  • Fixed several issues affecting certain complex regular expression operations.
  • Fixed issue with AutoReplace feature failing to work when an Outline document is open.
  • Fixed issue when using keyboard shortcuts to open context menus.
  • Fixed several accessibility issues. Added configuration file for Window-Eyes, JAWS for Windows, and Dolphin Hal; these are stored in the Accessibility subfolder. Use the following command-line switch to install them in the appropriate folders:
    NoteTab.exe /acc=install
    or
    NotePro.exe /acc=install
  • The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), which describes how NoteTab conforms to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, is available from the VPAT page of this site.
  • Freeware and Trial versions of NoteTab are now protected with a different third-party product, which should significantly reduce compatibility issues.
  • Updated the spell-checker help file to the HTML Help format. Previous WinHelp format does not work on Windows Vista without installing extra support files.
  • Added new print shortcuts to the Utilities library and Clipbar.
  • Added many new Clip commands and functions.
  • Some other minor improvements and issues fixed.
  • Updated references to Fookes Software to reflect the new legal form of business company. Fookes Software is now a Limited (Ltd) company, which is owned by Fookes Holding Ltd.

Version 5.61

  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.6.
  • The PCRE regular expressions engine now defaults to the ANYCRLF option.

Version 5.6

  • Setup no longer requires administrative or “power user” privileges under Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.
  • Added option in Clipbook shortcut menu to Restore Default Library.
  • Paste-Board feature now resets NoteTab in Windows Clipboard chain when set. Useful when a misbehaved application breaks the chain.
  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.5.
  • Added /TEMP command-line switch. By default, NoteTab stores temporary files in the Windows Temp folder under the logon user folder. If the /USB switch is used, temporary files are now stored on the USB drive in the Temp folder. If the /USER switch is used, temporary files are now stored in the Temp subfolder of the specified folder. Use this switch to specify an alternative location for storing temporary files. The folder name can include system variables; example:
    NoteTab.exe /temp=%AllUsersProfile%\NoteTab\Temp
  • To avoid import/export issues with the main NoteTab distribution packages, encryption features are only available after you install the file ntb_enc.dll. You can download this file from the Encryption page.
  • Fixed issue causing incompatibility under Windows 95 and NT4. Download the new NoteTab Windows 95 and NT4 Compatibility Pack.
  • Fixed issue with backup creation during search-disk replace operations.
  • Fixed slow startup issue when NoteTab’s Reopen list contains inaccessible files.
  • Several other minor improvements and bug fixes.
  • Updated EULA and documentation, including Glossary.otl.

Version 5.5

  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.4. The \R newline sequence now matches either CRLF, or a lone CR, or a lone LF.
  • Changed method on Windows XP and Vista to determine default location of folder for user settings. Fixes issues on some systems that have corrupted registry keys.
  • Restored the MS-Office Sounds setting in the Options dialog box (View tab). This option is only available if you have installed the sounds on your system. Download details at the Microsoft web site.
  • Fixed a minor display issue on Windows Vista that caused toolbar button delimiters to draw incorrectly.
  • Fixed an issue on Windows Vista that caused some buttons and checkboxes in dialogs to disappear when pressing the “Alt Gr” button (special button available on some keyboards for accessing a third character on a key).
  • Fixed a text-flicker issue in NoteTab Pro when it is run on slower computers.
  • Fixed issue with incorrect total page count sometimes printed in Page Preview.
  • Fixed issue with Partial Loading option failing to work.
  • Fixed a weakness in the Clip parser.
  • Added new Clip command:
    ^!IfFileUnicode “FileName” GoToLabelTrue [ELSE GoToLabelFalse]
    Jumps to specified label if FileName is a Unicode text file or UTF-8 Web page.
  • Updated documentation.

Version 5.4

  • NoteTab Light now available as a version 5 release.
  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.3. For a list of improvements see the PCRE web site.
  • Added several new Clip syntax elements.
  • Several minor improvements and bug fixes.
  • Updated documentation.

Version 5.3

  • Improved “Replace Notepad” feature under Windows 2000, 2003, and XP. Feature not available under Windows Vista.
  • File Associations set through NoteTab now work under Windows XP with a user “Limited Account” and under Windows Vista.
  • Added /RESETWND command-line switch, which resets the NoteTab window position and size at startup. This switch is useful if the NoteTab window does not show up when you start the program.
  • Fixed issue with some system dialogs opening offscreen on multi-monitor systems.
  • Fixed issue with Clip-wizard labels not appearing under Windows Vista.
  • Fixed issue with header/footer text not always appearing when printing documents.
  • Fixed issue causing a long delay when opening a file from a shared drive (e.g. \\Vista-central\public\file.txt).
  • Fixed sorting issue with ^$GetFileFirst$ Clip function.
  • Fixed Vista compatibility issue with ^!Keyboard Clip command.
  • Updated the regular expressions engine to the latest release, which is based on PCRE 7.2. For a list of improvements see the PCRE web site.
  • Updated the print engine to the latest release.
  • Added ^$GetWinVersion$ function to return the version of Windows that is running NoteTab. Possible values are: Win95, Win98, WinME, NT4, WinXP, Win2000, Win2003, Vista, Longhorn, Unknown.
  • Improved ^!SetDebug Clip command. Now has the capability of storing debug information in a log file. Simply specify a filename as the parameter. If no pathname is specified, the log file is saved under the “Application Data\NoteTab\Libraries” folder. Example:
    ^!SetDebug Log.txt
  • Many other minor improvements and bug fixes.

Version 5.2

  • Updated the regex engine to PCRE version 7.
  • Added /usb command-line switch. Use it when you want to run NoteTab from a USB key.
  • Fixed misplaced warning and information dialog boxes when running NoteTab under multiple monitors.
  • Fixed several issues with ^$GetDocMatchAll Clip function.
  • NoteTab Std: fixed issues with ^$GetParagraph$ Clip function.
  • Many other minor improvements and bug fixes.
  • Updated documentation.

Version 5.1

  • The registered version is compatible with Windows Vista.
  • Added token for Header/Footer line separator on printed pages. Use an underscore character ( _ ) at the start of the Header and/or Footer field to insert a separator line on printed pages between the main document text and the header/footer text.
  • Added “Close All Other” command to documents tabbar shortcut menu.
  • Added method to print only selected text. Hold down the Shift key while you click on the Print or Print Preview command.
  • Added /USER=FolderName command-line switch. By default, NoteTab 5 stores per-user customization files under the Application Data folder: <systemdrive>\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data Use the /USER switch to specify a different location for the NoteTab customization files. This option is particularly useful if you work with sensitive data (point to a folder on an encrypted drive) or simply don’t want to leave files behind on the computer you’re using (point to a removable drive like a USB key). Example: NotePro.exe /USER="E:\NoteTab Data"
  • Only Template files with the .tpl extension are now interpreted. Earlier versions of NoteTab checked all files for the template header, irrespective of file extension. Some users felt this was a potential security issue and requested to limit this feature to files with the official template .tpl extension.
  • The Euro Clipbook was not part of the initial 5.0 package. Due to frequent requests, it is now included with NoteTab again.
  • Updated the code for ^!DirectPrint Clip command to improve compatibility under Windows XP and other NT versions.
  • Clip lines starting with a command (^!CommandName) are now automatically stripped of trailing blank characters before execution. This eliminates unexpected Clip errors due to stray blanks.
  • Fixed slow loading of Clipbars.
  • Fixed issue with modal dialogs sometimes ending up behind main NoteTab window, notably when receiving focus from another application. When this happened, NoteTab appeared to lock up.
  • Fixed issue opening files with wildcards from the command line when an instance of NoteTab is already running.
  • Fixed issue with “Open File at Cursor” that failed to open files when used on relative filenames.
  • Fixed several reference errors in the Utilities Clipbar.
  • Fixed issue loading Clipbooks and Clipbars that have dots in their name.
  • Fixed minor issues in ^$StrCapitalize()$ and ^$StrSplit()$ Clip functions.
  • Fixed an issue in NoteTab Std with the ^$GetLine$ Clip function which returned an extra character at the end of the line.
  • Fixed an issue in NoteTab Std with certain regex Replace All operations failing to work.
  • Fixed an issue in NoteTab Std with the Undo command after a Replace All operation.
  • Fixed an issue in NoteTab Pro with the line-number ruler not repainting properly after the program window is maximized/restored.
  • Several other minor glitches fixed.
  • Updated Glossary.otl file.
  • Updated Help files.

Version 5.0

  • The registered version is compatible with Windows Vista.
  • Added full support for running NoteTab under multi-user and network environments.
  • Can be run reliably from a user “Limited Account”.
  • Improved user-interface appearance under Windows XP.
  • Improved memory usage and processing speed.
  • Improved conversion between HTML and plain-text format.
  • Added new print engine with Print Preview tool.
  • NoteTab Pro now supports line lengths up to a theoretical limit of 2 GB.
  • Improved Undo feature in NoteTab Pro.
  • Improved opening files through the Windows Shell and Send To feature.
  • Replaced regex engine with a powerful new one that is based on PCRE (Perl 5 compatible).
  • All core libraries have been rewritten for improved reliability and compatibility.
  • Added support for IntelliComplete Server (www.intellicomplete.com).
  • Improved “Go to Hyperlink” function to support opening email addresses.
  • Removed redundant info box with Replace dialog when no more occurrences found.
  • Dot at start of filename is no longer treated as extension delimiter.
  • Fixed issue opening documents with very long fully qualified filenames through Windows Explorer.
  • Fixed issue with folder being locked (can’t rename or delete) after NoteTab opens a file from it.
  • Fixed issue opening HTML documents in Firefox.
  • Registered version succesfully tested under Wine.
  • Many other minor improvements and bug fixes.
  • Revised license pricing.
  • Updated documentation.

Clip-code additions and improvements:

  • New predefined Clip variable:
    ^%DOLLAR% = Dollar character ($)
  • ^!IfRegexOk Pattern GoToLabelTrue [ELSE GoToLabelFalse]
    Jumps to the specified label if the regex pattern is valid. If the pattern has mistakes and the optional ELSE keyword follows the first label name, execution jumps to the specified GoToLabelFalse label; or to the next instruction if the “ELSE” label is not used.
  • ^$GetRegexErrorMsg$
    Returns the error text if the previous regex pattern contained mistakes. If there was no error, the function returns an empty string.
  • ^$GetDocMatchAll("Pattern"[;SubPatternId])$
    Finds all matching strings based on the supplied regex pattern. Optionally specify a subpattern value between 1 and 65536. Use the ^!SetListDelimiter command to define how matches are separated in the resulting string.
    Example that collects all URLs in a Web page:
    ^!Set %NewVariable%=^$GetDocMatchAll("(?s)<a.+?href\s*?=\s*?"(.*?)"";1)$
  • ^$GetReSubStrings$
    The above function is best used together with ^!SetArray. It extracts all Substrings from a regex search after using ^!Find. Use the ^!SetListDelimiter command to define how matches are separated in the resulting string. Example:
    ^!SetArray %Array%=^$GetReSubStrings$
  • ^$IsOnline$
    Returns True if NoteTab detects a connection to the Internet.
  • ^$GetDataPath$
    Returns the folder where NoteTab stores user settings and data.
  • ^$GetLibraryFileName$
    Returns the fully qualified filename of the current Clipbook library.
  • ^$GetLibraryUserPath$
    Returns the folder where NoteTab stores user-modified libraries.
  • ^$GetLibraryPath(LibraryName)$
    Added support for optional parameter that causes the function to return the location of the specified library. The following example returns the location of the current library:
    ^$GetLibraryPath(^$GetLibraryName$)$
  • ^$StrSort supports two new values for the CaseSensitive parameter: ANSI to enforce a case sensitive dictionary-type sorting order and No_ANSI (or False_ANSI) to ignore character case during sorting. The ANSI option produces a sorting order that matches the result from the Modify/Lines/Sort menu command. Note, however, that sorting is much slower with the ANSI option.
  • ^$IsNumber(Value)$ improved to support negative and decimal values.
  • ^!Find and ^!Replace improved to support selection of regex subpatterns.

Syntax Changes from Previous Regex Engine

  • There are significant differences compared to the previous regex syntax used in earlier versions of NoteTab. The most notable ones are listed below:
  • \n for newline (hex 0A); before it was hex 0D 0A. Replace \n with \r\n
    \l and \p - no longer used
    \b and \B – now zero width assertions of word boundary and non-word boundary (except in a character class where \b is now a backspace character); before they represented blank and non-blank characters respectively
    \s – now means any whitespace character; before used for a space
  • Tagged Matches:
    Replace { } with ( )
  • Replace tokens:
    & no longer used; replace with $0
    \1 to \9 meaning changed; replace with $1 to $9