QuickPad

This document contains the following sections:
Description | Installation | Quick Start
Pages | Shortcuts | Options | Note Files | Command Line Options
Revisions | Legal Notes | Contact

Description

QuickPad is a small and very fast Notepad-like application, which serves mainly for keeping temporary notes. It can be always running without being in your way, saves your notes automatically, is fully controllable through keyboard shortcuts and - as a special feature - divides (text) files virtually into several pages.

Installation

Unzip all the files into any folder and run Setup.exe. Some shortcuts will be created in the Start Menu. If you want QuickPad to be running all the time, copy QuickPad's shortcut into the StartUp folder.

Note: On Windows NT, 2000 and XP the installation procedure can fail due to permission restrictions. In this case, just copy QuickPad.exe into any folder and run it from there.

Note: QuickPad "TinyApp" Edition ships without setup routine as its uninstallation consists only of deleting the files it creates.

Quick Start

Setting it up:

Run QuickPad, press [Alt]+[Enter] to get to the Options dialog, check the options "Top-align the window" and "System-wide hot key" and press "OK". Then drag QuickPad into one of the screen's top edges (so that the title bar disappears).

Using it:

[Win]+[Q] will now activate QuickPad from wherever you are. Editing text is done as in Notepad... ;-)

In order to use QuickPad's advantages best, have a look at the Pages, Shortcuts and Options sections below.

Note: To access QuickPad's menu right-click on its title bar or press [Alt]+[Space]!

Pages

A page is a text block of the size of QuickPad's window and begins at a line whose number is a multiple of the number of visible lines. In other words: a page is more or less the currently visible part of your notes. QuickPad can also be used like a normal text editor, however working with pages will allow a better organization of your notes.

The commands for page handling are located in the Page submenu:

"Fill" - [Ctrl]+[Enter]

Fills a page with blank lines (from the cursor position downward) and displays the next page

"Select" - [Ctrl]+[D]

Selects the current page (for easier copying / deleting)

"Previous" - [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Tab] and "Next" - [Ctrl]+[Tab]

Moves the cursor to the top of the previous, resp. the next page

"Go To..." - [Ctrl]+[G]

Allows you to indicate which page you want to jump to (in this dialog, you'll have the option "Go to blank line" which corresponds to the "Blank Line" command listed below)

"From Cursor" - [Ctrl]+[E]

Displays the entire page that the cursor is at

"Blank Line" - [Ctrl]+[Q]

Moves the cursor to the first blank line at the bottom of a page (and back to its top if used a second time)

"Insert Line" - [Ctrl]+[I] and "Delete Line" - [Ctrl]+[K]

Inserts, resp. deletes a line without altering the other pages

"Adjust Length" - [Ctrl]+[L]

Adjusts the length of a page by inserting or removing blank lines at its bottom (this will be necessary whenever you resize QuickPad)

The following keyboard shortcuts don't have a corresponding menu item:

[Alt]+[PgUp] and [Alt]+[PgDn]

Scrolls one page up, resp. down

[Ctrl]+[1] to [Ctrl]+[0]

Moves directly to the indicated page ([0] = 10) (the behavior of these shortcuts depends on the option "Go to blank line" in the "Go To..." dialog)

Note: "Select", "Insert Line", "Delete Line" and "Adjust Length" work only, if an entire page is visible. In order to display a page entirely use any of the other commands or shortcuts.

Shortcuts

QuickPad can be fully controlled by using the keyboard: As you can see in QuickPad's menu, almost every item has a shortcut assigned. The commands should be quite self-explaining, just note the comments to the following ones:

[Alt]+[X] (and [Shift]+[Esc]) - "Hide"

Hides QuickPad in the system tray (near the clock) (this item isn't visible if the option "Close to system tray" is set)

[Ctrl]+[N] (and [Ctrl]+[O]) - "New/Open..."

Saves the current file and displays the "New/Open File" dialog. If you select an existing file, the file is opened. However, if you manually enter a filename, the file is created (as in the "Save File As" dialog).

[Alt]+[O] - "Open In Notepad"

Opens the current file in Notepad (which application should be run as Notepad can be indicated in the Options dialog) (Note: QuickPad won't be available as long as Notepad is running!)

[Ctrl]+[R] - "Run Selection"

Runs the selected text as if entered in Windows' Run dialog - use it for filenames and hyperlinks (sometimes [Ctrl]+[Space], [Ctrl]+[R] may be even faster than a double click)

[Alt]+[C] - "Toggle Case"

Toggles the the selected text between lower case, Title Case and UPPER CASE (if you want to convert directly, use the context menu or the corresponding shortcuts: [Alt]+[L] for lower case, [Alt]+[T] for Title Case, [Alt]+[U] for UPPER CASE, [Alt]+[S] for Sentence case and [Alt]+[I] for iNVERTED cASE)

The following shortcuts aren't assigned to a menu item:

[Ctrl]+[Up] and [Ctrl]+[Down]

Move the cursor to the beginning, resp. the end of the previous, the current or the next text block

[Ctrl]+[PgUp] and [Ctrl]+[PgDn]

Move the cursor to the beginning, resp. the end of the visible text

[Alt]+[Up] and [Alt]+[Down]

Scroll one line up, resp. down

[Alt]+[Left] and [Alt]+[Right]

Scroll one window width left, resp. right (if the "Word wrap" option is not set)

[Ctrl]+[W]

Toggles the "Word wrap" option

[Shift]+[F3] and [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[F3]

Finds the search string, resp. the current selection upwards

[Esc]

Minimizes QuickPad

If you activate the "System-wide hot key" option, QuickPad can be activated from anywhere:

[Win]+[Q]

Displays QuickPad (resp. hides it, if it is the active window)

Note: Many of the shortcuts have been inspired by metapad (a very recommendable Notepad replacement, by the way).

Options

In the Options dialog, you can adapt QuickPad to your preferences:

• Word wrap splits overlong lines into several lines so that you don't have to scroll horizontally.
• Top-align the window allows to hide QuickPad's title bar at the screen's top border. To hide it, just drag it somewhat out of the screen.
• Close to system tray will hide QuickPad in the system tray instead of closing it. If this option is set, you can quit QuickPad only through the tray icon's menu.
• System-wide hot key registers the hot key [Win]+[Q] for QuickPad. Now, whenever you press those keys and QuickPad isn't the active window, it will pop up (as long as it is running) ([Win] = Windows key).
• Hide QuickPad's taskbar entry makes QuickPad always stay in the system tray (if this option is set, minimizing has the same effect as hiding).
• Save only at hide and quit prevents QuickPad from accessing the (hard) disk too often (additionally "New/Open..." always saves the current file before closing it).
• If you don't like the default font settings, simply change them through the Change font dialog.
• Additionally you can set your own Font and Window colors instead of using the System colors.
• Under Windows 2000/XP you can also adjust the window's Transparency factor.
• And if you indicate the path to your preferred Notepad, QuickPad will use it (for the commands "Open In Notepad" and "Launch Notepad" in the File menu).

Note: Modifying the "Font" and "Color" options will empty the undo buffer!

Note Files

Per default, QuickPad uses one file to save all your notes to: QuickPad.qpn, located in your personal "My Documents" folder. Of course, you can create/open any file you like and QuickPad will then use that file.

Your notes will be saved automatically whenever you minimize, hide or quit QuickPad and even when you activate another application, when you open a different file or at least every 5 minutes. Like that you shouldn't be able to lose a single note (as long as you don't delete them yourself - if you did so by accident and "Undo" doesn't work, maybe hitting "Refresh/Revert" does). If you don't like your notes saved that often, check the option "Save only at hide and quit".

Command Line Options

The command line syntax for QuickPad is the following:

    QuickPad [ /f ] [ /p:# ] [ /s:# ] [ /e ] [ /d | <filename> ]

/f

The options apply only if QuickPad is not already running

/p:#

Jumps to page # (positive numbers are page numbers, 0 is the top of the file and -1 the bottom)

/s:#

Sets QuickPad's display state (0 = display; 1 = hide; 2 = toggle state; -1 = exit)

/e

The normal text edit component is used instead of Microsoft's RichEdit component

/d

Opens the default file in your "My Documents" folder

Note: There can only be one instance of QuickPad at the same time. If you run QuickPad a second time, the already running instance will pop up instead (displaying the indicated file)!

Revisions

up to v3.92

• Added a Find dialog and the possibility to search for other occurrences of the current selection ("Find...", "Find Next" and "Find Selection", available in the Edit menu)
• Added a warning before emptying the undo buffer during font or color changes
• Bug fix: Saving to hidden files caused an access error
• QuickPad is now also available as "TinyApp" Edition which doesn't mess around with your file system and Registry
• Bug fix: Leaked resources when hiding in the system tray
• Minor improvements and bug fix

up to v3.85

• Bug fix: "Toggle Case" could very rarely crash the program
• Bug fix: File drag&drop didn't work after changing the font or window color options
• Bug fix: "Run Selection" sometimes tried to run the text following the selection
• Bug fix: The [Home] key was disabled when not using the RichEdit component in v3.80
• Bug fix: Auto-indentation and "Select Word" didn't work correctly when faced with some few non-ASCII characters
• Bug fix: Running a selection of more than 256 characters could crash QuickPad
• Bug fix: When using the RichEdit component, performing operations with the end-of-document marker selected could result in undefined behavior
• QuickPad.exe is no longer compressed with UPX
• Minor improvements and bug fix

[show all]

Legal Notes

QuickPad is released as freeware in the hope that it may serve others as well as it serves myself. You are hereby licensed to do anything with this software, as long as you don't modify it or make money out of it.

This software is provided as is and without warranty of any kind. The author cannot be blamed for any consequence resulting of its use.

Contact

For comments, bug reports and suggestions write to: Simon Bünzli <zeniko@gmx.ch>.

For the current version of this program and for other programs of the same author visit: zeniko's webspace.

Copyleft © 1997 - 2005  Simon Bünzli
Product of zeniko's software.