Personal Notes File

Open... File Command

Purpose

The Open command is used to load a notes file, a text file, or a Windows CardFile from disk into memory.

To open an old notes file

1. From the File menu, choose Open....
2. In the dialog box displayed give the file name to open. You can open NTF files (the default), CRD files, or TXT files. CRD files are created by the old Windows CARDFILE program. NOTEFILE can read CRD files, but cannot save data in CRD format. The loaded file needs to be saved in NTF or TXT format. NTF is recommended.

Notes:

• Windows CARDFILE (that is, the CRD format) allows you to have two or more cards with the same index value. This is not allowed in NOTEFILE. So, if this is the case on an input file, NOTEFILE appends a period to the end of the second card with the same index value encountered in the input file. You can then modify the index value of a card directly by editing the first line of the card data.
• CRD files are not encoded in UTF-8, so NOTEFILE assumes that they are encoded in code page CP1254 (Windows Turkish) and translates them to UTF-8 accordingly.

Opening CSV files

CSV files created by ADDRFILE (the previous major version of NOTEFILE) cannot be opened directly and will trigger a warning directing you to the file migration instructions. So, if you try to open a CSV file, you will get a warning instead of opening that file.

Other ways to open a file

• If you run NOTEFILE from the command line, you can specify the file to be opened by giving it as a parameter. For example:
  >NOTEFILE myfile.ntf
  or
  >NOTEFILE readme.txt
• Alternatively, you can run NOTEFILE, drag a file from Windows Explorer or any Linux File Manager, and drop it on a running NOTEFILE window to open it.

Note: NOTEFILE will use only the first command line parameter. If there is more than one parameter, the remaining parameters will be ignored with a warning message.

Opening password protected files

If you try to open an encrypted notes file, you will be prompted for the correct file password. Unless you give the correct password, you will not be able to open the file. Note that passwords are case sensitive.

Autosave files

The automatic save feature of NOTEFILE saves your notes file with a name having $$$ extension at a specified interval to disk to prevent loss of data in case of system or program crash. You can recover files saved by the automatic save feature when you try to open the original file. When you open a file, if there is a file with the same name, but with $$$ extension in the same directory, you will be given the option to open that file instead. This is called an autosave file. If you want to keep the contents of the autosave file, you must save it over the original or as a new file.

Keyboard shortcut

Ctrl+O

Error messages

Format error on key # number!
Internal error ...!
Unable to read card count!
Unable to read data for key # number!
Unable to read data length for key # number!
Unable to read key # number!

The CRD file you are trying to open has a format error. Please send this file to me for further investigation.

Header not recognized!

The CRD file you are trying to open does not have a recognizable header. NOTEFILE can only read Windows CARDFILE files having either the MGC or RRG magic header. Please send this file to me for further investigation.

Unable to read header!

The .crd or .ntf file you are trying to open is too short or starts with an incorrect header. Probably it is not in CARDFILE or NOTEFILE format.

Unable to read configuration header!
Wrong configuration record type!
Unable to read file configuration header!
Unable to read file configuration data!
Wrong data record type!
Unable to read card data header!
Unable to read card data!
Unable to read card configuration data!

The .ntf file you are trying to open has a format error. Please send this file to me for further investigation.

Error reading ...
Please check your password!

NOTEFILE was not able to read and process your encrypted .ntf file. Probably, the password you entered is wrong. Passwords are case sensitive, so check that CAPS LOCK is not on and retype your password. Note that, NOTEFILE has no way to determine whether your encrypted file is corrupted or the entered password is wrong.

Version of data file is xx.xx, which is newer than the version (02.03) of this program.

The data file you are trying to open was created with a newer version of NOTEFILE. Please download the latest version of NOTEFILE.

Unknown extension: .ext.

NOTEFILE can only open files having the extension NTF, CRD, or TXT. It will refuse to open a file with another extension. You may rename the file to one of the above extensions and try to open it.

CSV files need to be converted for NOTEFILE!

If you try to open a CSV file created by ADDRFILE (the previous major version of NOTEFILE), you will get this error message and you will be directed to the file migration topic.

Ignoring command line parameter(s) after the first one!

NOTEFILE can accept at most one command-line parameter. This is the data file name to be opened. If you tried to run NOTEFILE from command line, please be sure to give at most one parameter. If you tried to run NOTEFILE from a Windows shortcut or a Linux .desktop file, check the Target: field in the shortcut definition or the Exec= line in the .desktop file. If the parameter contains spaces, please enclose it in double quotes.

Number index corrections were made.

When you open a TXT or CRD file that has duplicate indexes, NOTEFILE will append a period to one of the cards with the same index value encountered in the input file. The total number of affected cards is given in this message.

There is an autosave file with the same name. Do you want to open the autosave file instead of your data file?

See Autosave files section above.