Karteset : The Right Tool For The Job

There's a huge array of tools out there in cyberspace. Some are immense and complicated application suites and some are small tools. Karteset, from Metalgrass Software, is one of those small tools. It's a lot like that set of "jeweler's" screwdrivers you have in a desk or workbench drawer: you don't use them to work on cars or a fleet of cars, but when you need to work on a watch, they're the perfect thing.

The product installation is just as no-frills as a screwdriver. Accept the EULA and pick where to tell the software where to set up shop and you're pretty much done. Starting the program unregistered reveals a standard shareware-type window that tells you how many days you have left in the evaluation period, a button so that you can enter a registration number, and one that lets you continue with the evaluation.

Poking that last button takes you straight to the program's main screen -




What you see on the main screen is a plain menu bar and a small toolbar with standard text formatting controls. What? Text formatting? Yes. The software handles plain text AND rich text RTF files. In today's very graphics-oriented world, that's an advantage. It also allows you to create cards reflecting different levels of importance, using colored or otherwise enchanced text. A big red headline can flag a card you won't soon forget! You ca also see that there are two panes on the laft sidebar. The top displays a tree view of the currently open file (if any). The bottom is for the list of cards in the currently selected folder.

Now lets go through the menu bar. Not a lot of options, as noted, but there's still everything you need there.

When you open up the File menu, you get the usual New, Open, Save, and Save As choices, but you also get a bump-out list of recent files and a choice that allows you to export the cards in a file in the form of a plain text file, instead of the program's internal .kar format. One last item lets you minimize the program to the system tray, in order to keep it handy.

A note here about general program design: The software is designed around the concept of a box full of file cards, much as the original Windows Cardfile was. Karteset goes beyond that by encouraging the use of categories. These are analagous to folders in Explorer. You can create sub- and sub-sub- folders, etc., so the similarity to Explorer folders is real.

Moving on to the View menu, you get some choices that are decidedly NOT standard. View really means "How do you want to view your cards?". The commands offered all relate to whatever file is currently open: All cards, Cards with no category, Search for cards, and a Recently opened card list (another bump-out).

Next comes the Edit menu. You get a choice of New Card, New Category, Font..., Insert Time/Date, and Preferences. Each one of them is pretty self-explanatory.

Last is the Help menu, which gives you access to a help file, Purchase, and About.

Summary

Karteset won't win prizes for the most features nor the prettiest interface, but it's useful in today's fast and cluttered world, and it delivers solid, speedy performance that could well land it in your list of Must Have utilities. Registration is a mere $15US and there is a 30 day return policy that ensures your satisfaction. Upgrades are free for life. The author assures me that some work on bells and whistles is in store, so those of you who depend on them will be covered :).

New Beginnings

The new beginning of something that can be great. What's so great about a new blog, you ask? Simply that this stands to be something unique.

Think about it: you do a Google search and you find maybe 2500 reviews of that new 'hot' software. You read the first half dozen or so and they all agree that it's hotter than sliced bread. BUT, will those reviews tell you that the new software, although it does the job ok, actually takes a PHD from MIT to operate? Will they tell you that you're going to pay once for the software, but pay nearly full price for the updates? And that updates happen about every 2 months? And then we get to the subject of support!

Then, how about hardware? Does the equipment operate well for the intended purpose? We've all seen those 'merchantability' exclusions and exceptions in the fine print. Will it do the job, be easy to configure, and operate without constant fiddling? Are the drivers solid? There's nothing worse than installing a wonderful new piece of hardware and finding that the drivers make your household toilets flush constantly.

Well, you catch the drift. This is going to be about the real nitty gritty of computing. No holds barred and since we don't have advertisers at all (outside of Google's idea of ads, which we support, but otherwise ignore), you can be very sure that we don't really care who we annoy IF there's a good reason.

There you have it. A simple idea that everyone else has managed to avoid like the plague. the others have to worry about annoying people so badly that no-one will talk to them. I don't. I run a number of networked systems here and they have a variety of new and old hardware and software. For many years, my setups have managed to break many software packages that passed all other tests. If it works here, it will work on most other people's setups.