History of TextMorph

OFFICIAL RELEASES

Version 1.0			Released January 9, 2004
Version 1.0 BETA		Released April 23, 2003

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*VERSION 1.0*
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BUG FIXES

Installation Bug Fix: Some Windows 95/98/ME computers that did not have a C:\WINDOWS folder would not install TextMorph. This bug was fixed on July 5, 2003 and was released under the same name as the then-current release of TextMorph 1.0 BETA.  Any official downloads of TextMorph since July 5, 2003 should have this bug fixed.  No changes were made to the actual TextMorph executable in this re-release; only the installation program was changed.

Installation Bug Fix: Installing this program from a CD-ROM or other non-writable media would fail. This bug was fixed on July 5, 2003 and was released under the same name as the then-current release of TextMorph 1.0 BETA. Any official downloads of TextMorph since July 5, 2003 should have this bug fixed. No changes were made to the actual TextMorph executable in this re-release; only the installation program was changed.

Installation Bug Fix: System files were not installed into the system folder. The 1.0 BETA installation program installed a few system files into the TextMorph program folder only.  On most systems this should not have presented a problem and was actually by design, however under certain circumstances problems may have occurred between components registered on your system and those in the TextMorph program folder.  The version 1.0 installation program, which is based on my SSE Setup program no longer has this problem.

Bug Fix: Problems with setting TextMorph as the default text editor.  Some issues with this have been fixed, however there are still some peculiarities which you should be aware of.  If you change the default Text editor from within TextMorph, then there is no problem.  If however you associate TextMorph with .txt files in Windows Explorer or by right-clicking on a .txt file and browsing, then you will also need to use Windows explorer or the right-click method to restore your setting to Notepad or your previous text editor if you choose to restore.  Once you have associated TextMorph with .txt files using Windows Explorer, using the option within TextMorph has no practical effect because the option in Windows Explorer overrides TextMorph's settings. This is by design.  It is easier and less confusing to only use TextMorph's built-in setting to make it the default text editor or to restore your previous editor.  Plus by using TextMorph's built-in setting, TextMorph automatically makes it so that the program splash screen is not shown each time you open a file. (this was not the case in version 1.0 BETA)

Bug Fix: TextMorph setting files duplicating themselves in different folders on your computer under some circumstances.

Bug Fix: Save/Save As Runtime error 75 under unusual circumstances (I think I fixed this one...I could not duplicate the problem reported to me but I did make some code changes which may have solved the problem)

Bug Fix: Backup folder manipulation error with Multiple File Morph.  This error would occasionally occur for no good reason and would sometimes mess up the backup files and folders.  I never did really figure out why, but I think I finally fixed this one.  I've tested it now numerous times with large numbers of files and it seems to be okay.  After your first 10 Multiple File Morph's, a brief delay (about 2 seconds) is added to each subsequent Multiple File Morph to ensure that your system has enough time to appropriately reorder the backup files.  Note that this error message may still occur for legitimate reasons (if for some reason you set the backup folders to be read-only for instance) but otherwise you should never see it!  Let's hope so!

Bug Fix: Bad File Mode error message when running a Multiple File Morph.  This occured when running a Multiple File Morph with a Custom Tool that contained the Convert to HTML tool with the option to show the settings window enabled.

Bug Fix: Closing the Undo Multiple File Morph file selection window using the Close "X" button may have caused problems. This may have produced anomalies the next time you selected to Undo a Multiple File Morph.

Bug Fix: Missing Undo Multiple File Morph operations. Under rare situations, the Undo a Multiple File Morph option might not have correctly shown the exact number of Multiple File Morph operations that existed and thus not allowed you to undo 1 or more operations.

Bug Fix: Undoing a Multiple File Morph operation did not remove any new files created with the morph.  If you used the Convert TO HTML tool or Convert FROM HTML tools, then most likely the file extension also changed which means that if your input file was a ".txt" file and you converted to HTML, then it was written with a ".html" extension.  Undoing a Multiple File Morph still restored the original ".txt" file even if it was not changed (this still works this way) but it did not also remove the ".html" file that was created.  Same thing with the opposite extensions for Converting FROM HTML.  Now, as long as you choose to undo ALL files (not selected files) then any new files that were created with the morph will also be removed!  Files to be removed will NOT show up in the file list.  On the other hand, if the files that these tools create already existed when the morph was run, then they will not be removed because the previous contents of those files are also backed up and can be restored and will appear in the file list of files to undo.

Bug Fix: Closing any of the Multiple File Morph wizard windows using the Close "X" button erased your settings.  It now matches the operation of the Cancel buttons which does not erase your settings (with 2 exceptions - if you cancel on the file selecting step and have selected files, that list is erased and also if you cancel on the last step and you've set a name for the Multiple File Morph, that name is also erased)

Bug Fix: Invalid file listing in Multiple File Morph. If you performed a Multiple File Morph and then subsequently the files in the folder that was last open in the Multiple File Morph file selection window were changed (either files were added or removed) then when you went to run another Multiple File Morph, these changes were not reflected in the list of files.

Bug Fix: Find/Find Next window occasionally hid some of the found text and sometimes started finding all over again.  This has now been fixed and the operation does work correctly now.  The find "window" of version 1.0 BETA no longer exists.  Now the find option appears at the bottom of the TextMorph interface when activated. Pressing CTRL+F shows/hides this find option.

Bug Fix Note: Version 1.0 BETA documentation stated that there was a known bug related to fonts changing in the middle of the text. In fact, this is not really a bug in the program per se - it is actually something that happens by design.  The default font that TextMorph uses is called "TERMINAL" - this font can only display lower-ASCII characters.  This means that if you open a file or paste text into TextMorph that has upper-ASCII characters then the program has to switch fonts in order to show you the text.  Sometimes running the Email tools or the Fix Odd-Looking Characters tool will solve this problem because they both remove certain upper-ASCII codes.  If this problem occurs for you frequently and you wish to permanently avoid this situation in the future, just change the default font to a different font such as Times New Roman.  You can easily do this in the Options menu.  


NEW FEATURES

New Feature: Undo/Redo text editing option on the edit menu.  In the previous version of TextMorph (1.0 BETA) you could actually undo/redo your text edits by pressing CTRL+Z (undo) or CTRL+Y (redo), but this was undocumented and it was only a single-level undo (meaning only the last mistake made could be undone).  Now there is a full multi-level undo/redo option thanks mostly to some code I came across by Sebastian Thomschke, who gave me his permission to utilize it in TextMorph.  You can still also use the CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y keys to access undo and redo respectively.  Read more about undo/redo here.

New Feature: Additional command-line switch: /VIEWHTML.  This switch tells TextMorph to open and go straight to viewing the specified file in HTML mode.  There are a few differences though: If you close the View HTML window, TextMorph will end.  If you click the special "Edit file" button than it will show you the actual file's code and you will be back in regular TextMorph mode.  Any subsequent viewing's in HTML mode will not close TextMorph when you close the view HTML window, but will only close the window.  The only switch /VIEWHTML can be used with is /NOSPLASH, which will not bring up the splash window before it shows you the HTML file.  Example command-line: TextMorph.exe abc.html /VIEWHTML /NOSPLASH

New Feature: Additional command-line switch: /EOF. The /EOF switch tells TextMorph to go right to the very end of the file specified in the command-line.  This switch can be used with the /NOSPLASH switch, but is untested with any other switches.  Example command-line: TextMorph.exe abc.txt /EOF


NEW CHANGES (made to existing features)

New Change: Splash screen not shown when opening files with TextMorph after using the Make TextMorph the Default Text Editor option. Now when you use this option to make TextMorph your default text editor, the program splash screen will not appear when you open text files with TextMorph.  The program splash screen will still appear if you open TextMorph by itself or by command-line.

New Change: Made the Undo Multiple File Morph option less prone to mistakes being made. Selecting all or only select files is an easier and less error-prone procedure and there is now a confirmation question before the undo operation actually takes place.

New Change: Naming of Multiple File Morph's now allowed.  You can now optionally name a Multiple File Morph operation to make it easier to identify in an UNDO operation.  Also if you run a Multiple File Morph from the command line it will say "Command Line Operation" for the name of the operation in the undo list.

New Change: Ability to undo a Multiple File Morph directly from the Multiple File Morph error window.  Now when most errors occur while running a Multiple File Morph, you have the option on the Multiple File Morph error window to immediately undo the entire Multiple File Morph or only the files which produced errors.

New Change: Ability to undo a Multiple File Morph directly from the cancel window. If you cancel a Multiple File Morph operation and at least 1 file was changed then you will have the option to undo the Multiple File Morph right on the cancel notification window.

New Change: Undoing a Multiple File Morph operation will also remove any new files that were created with the morph.  If you use the Convert TO HTML or Convert FROM HTML tools when you morph, then most likely another file is created (with a .html or .txt extension respectively)  Now when you undo a Multiple File Morph, as long as you select to undo ALL files, these new files that were created with the morph are removed as well. (they don't show in the file list)  If the files already existed when the Multiple File Morph was run then they will not be removed because the previous contents were backed up and can be restored (these files will appear in the file list)

New Change: The Find window has been replaced with a find option at the bottom of the TextMorph interface.  Selecting the find option (on the edit menu, right-clicking, or by pressing CTRL+F) brings up a find option at the bottom of the TextMorph interface allowing you to type your search word(s) and find all instances of it.  Once you have typed some search word(s) in the box, you can also use the Find Next option if you would like (on the edit menu, right-clicking, or by pressing CTRL+T) whether or not you have the find option still open at the bottom of your screen!  Also, another change is that now the Find/Find Next options will only search your selected text of a file if you select some text!

New Change: Added code for Fix Odd Looking Character/Email tools. Added ASCII character code 150, replaced with code 45 for the Fix Odd Looking Character/Email tools.

New Change: Several general error-code handling enhancements.

New Change: A myriad of documentation fixes and updates to the help file.

New Change: The installation and uninstallation of TextMorph now uses my SSE Setup installer/uninstaller programs.  I've actually turned what used to be a simple proprietary installation program for TextMorph into an installation program that any developer can easily modify to install their own programs.  Along the way I also made numerous enhancements to its code and capabilities, though it looks nearly identical to the installation program of version 1.0 BETA.


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*VERSION 1.0 BETA*
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Version 1.0 BETA was the first public release of TextMorph and it was released on April 23, 2003 after a little over 3 years of periodic development.  TextMorph was originally born out of a little program I created in 2000 called "ChangeCase" which had the original purpose of just changing a block of text to upper/lower/Sentence case.  Then I added the ability for the program to remove ">" signs in blocks of text.  The purpose for the program was to help me in converting emails I had received in all sorts of cases and with lots of ">" signs into straight, formatted text.  It wasn't long before I started adding more features and I changed the name to "TextMorph" (named after an unfinished 1998 DOS program of mine that was similar to the search and replace tool with a multiple file morph)

Within only a few months, TextMorph was actually quite a well-rounded program.  Many of the tools and features that now appear in TextMorph were programmed in these first few months.  In fact, I still have an executable of the program from late December 2000, which looks surprisingly similar to the current version.  It took me the next few years of off-and-on programming to really put the finishing touches on everything and make it ready for a public release.

TextMorph has proven to be a fairly stable program across all platforms (compared to many other programs, that is).  Because it took me over 3 years to get the program to a release state (periodic development during this time) and because I have continuously used TextMorph personally almost every day since it was first created in early 2000, it has undergone rigorous personal testing and most of the bugs that were encountered have been fixed long ago.
