Optool Screenshots and Testing Version Changelog

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Screenshots of the new pop-up and the new improved settings - none of which are finalised. This is a special testing build, the normal test build sent to testers just says RC1.

optool02.jpg optool03.jpg

This is an interim changelog from the e-mail the testers recieved,

NEW STUFF - Long right clicks: Right-click for about half a second near the right edge (100 pixels) of the window to invoke Optool. The reason for the 100 pixel margin is that long right clicks would otherwise inhibit other special right-click handling such as mouse gestures in Opera and Mozilla/Firefox. With this margin you can still use mouse gestures, just don't start near the right edge! If you don't use mouse gestures and similar actions, you can disable the margin requirement in the Options dialog. You can also totally disable long right clicks.

- Close original browser:
If you press the Control key while selecting a browser from the popup menu, Optool will close the original browser before opening the new.
This can make the screen less cluttered. If you need this feature always, select it permanently from the Options. The Control key actually inverts the actions, so if you have enabled this, Optool will NOT close the original if you press Control!

- Custom window sized:
In the Options you can enter as many window sizes as your want for resizing instead of the four pre-defined.

- Make target browser same size and position as original:
If this Option is enabled, Optool will try to open the new browser "on top" of the original. I write "try" because some browsers may refuse to open in specific positions. They may also refuse to open maximized
(Opera!) unless they were maximized when you closed the program.

- Close all other browser APPLICATIONS:
This is just like the menu item "Close all other browser windows" except that it does not close windows belong to the current browser. Thus you can now close all other browsers but keep, say, all your Mozilla windows open (including mail windows).


IMPROVEMENTS
- The popup menu is always accessible:
If you used the option "Switch between primary and secondary browser"
and also had disabled the tray icon, it was difficult (well, sometimes
impossible!) to invoke the menu and and change the settings. Now, even if "Switch between" is enabled, the menu will still popup if the foreground window is not a browser since the switch doesn't make sense in this case anyway. Also, long right click does always show the menu regardless of the "Switch between" option. Finally, running Optool when it is already started will offer you to show the menu.

- Algorithm for determining URLs improved:
The algorithm for determining URLs is much more "intelligent" now which is why you can no longer define how URLs look like in the Options. This algorithm is mainly for clipboard handling where Optool must be able to recognize a URL on the clipboard. If a URL is open in a browser, Optool assumes it is valid!

- Clipboard handling:
When you disable clipboard handling it is now not only ignored, the clipboard hook chain is totally restored. Even when Optool's clipboard handling was disabled it could still in rare cases interfere with other clipboard handling programs because the chain was still intact. Now Optool totally unhooks (or don't hook in the first place if you restart the application) when it is disabled. This means that Optool should no longer interfere with other clipboard applications.


Lots of minor improvements:
A lot more functions has been more or less optimized.

BUG FIXES
- "Center resized windows" option was not always remembered. (Btw, this option is moved to the main Options dialog which is more logical).

- Problems with strange URLs: Sometimes Optool wouldn't recognize a URL if it had a strange format. This is fixed partly due to the improved algorithm mentioned before, and partly due to other corrections.

- Optool sometimes skipped the final "/" (slash) in URLs. Normally a URL such as www.mysite.dk is equivalent with www.mysite.dk/ - but not always. Optool will now keep the final slash.

- Browsers closed by Optool sometimes crashed. This was because Optool in some cases closed invisible helper window which made the browser crash or unstable. Now it will only close main windows. Furthermore, Optool will now also close browsers minimized to the system tray. BTW, remember that this feature is useful for all types of applications, like if you have opened a lot of Explorer or Notepad windows!

- Parent and Root URL sometimes opening in wrong windows. This is fixed and the algorithm improved.

- Many more bug fixes.

If you're interested in testing Optool, Martin's very nice and very responsive, and last I checked he was still looking for a new batch of testers. His Optool 2 page has an e-mail link if you want to ask.



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This page contains a single entry by subtitles published on May 2, 2005 12:53 PM.

Optool Dev Asks For More Testers was the previous entry in this blog.

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