Personal Notes File

NOTEFILE data files are stored as special files with NTF extension. The files with .bak and .bk* extensions are for backup purposes (in case you might want to revert to previously saved versions). It is sufficient to archive only the .ntf files. However, just for having more versions (the current one and any previously saved files) you can also back up the .bak and .bk* files.

You should also back up any customized TRANSLIT.TXT, PSCRIPT.TXT, and NOTEFILE.CMD files residing in the directory where the NOTEFILE executable is put.

The NOTEFILE executable itself can always be downloaded from its Web page.

1. Save both files in TXT format using the File | Save As... command, say FILE1.TXT and FILE2.TXT.
2. Go to the directory where you saved your TXT files and open a Command Prompt.
3. Use a Windows command like

   >COPY /B file1.txt+file2.txt merge.txt

   to merge the files FILE1.TXT and FILE2.TXT into a single file called MERGE.TXT.
4. Alternatively the following PowerShell command may be used:

   PS ...> Get-Content file1.txt, file2.txt | Set-Content merge.txt

5. Open the MERGE.TXT file with NOTEFILE. You will get a warning for any cards having the same index.
6. Save the new file in NTF format.

A similar procedure can be used in Linux also: After opening a Terminal and going to the directory where you saved the files, use the following command in the shell:

$ cat file1.txt file2.txt >merge.txt

1. Save your file in TXT format using the File | Save As... command.
2. Use a text editor that can save files in UTF-8 without BOM (for example, Notepad++ in Windows or a similar editor on Linux, such as notepadqq or geany) to open the TXT file.
3. Use the editor’s Cut and Paste commands to move some cards to another TXT file.
4. Open each TXT file in NOTEFILE and save it in NTF format.

Each time you save your notes file, the previous version is saved with the same name, but with a .bak (and possibly .bk*) extension. If you delete a card from your file and then save your file, you may rename a backup file (e.g., MYNOTES.BAK to MYNOTES_PREV.NTF, using a unique name with .ntf extension), open it in another instance of NOTEFILE, and copy the contents of the deleted card from it into a new card in your current notes file.

You may open multiple instances of the Personal Notes File program. Be careful not to open the same notes file multiple times, since this may cause some (un)predictable results.

Personal Notes File uses a combination of a standard and a proprietary encryption algorithm. The password you enter in the File Setup dialog box is used for both encrypting and decrypting the file. If you forget the password for a file, the only theoretical way to recover it is by trying every possible password combination, which is computationally infeasible for strong passwords. This process can be automated — a program could systematically try every possible character combination until the correct password is found, but the author has no intention to develop such a tool. For this reason, do not forget the file password.

If you cannot remember your password, consider the following:

1. Passwords are case-sensitive; be sure to type lowercase and uppercase letters correctly.
2. Be sure that CAPS LOCK is ON or OFF as appropriate.
3. If your password contains digits and you try to enter them via the numeric keypad, check that NUM LOCK is in the correct state.
4. Check that the correct keyboard layout in your operating system is active.
5. A password can only be changed from the File | Setup dialog box. If you recently changed your password from here, you may have typed it wrong in the first place. Please consider reverting to backup copies (including any .bak and .bk* files).
6. If you haven’t changed your password recently, but cannot remember it because of amnesia or something else, take a break. A few days later you may remember it, as it could still be stored somewhere in your memory.
7. Next time, consider storing your password securely in a password manager.

Personal Notes File does not automatically execute any code in the NTF or TXT data file, so it is not possible to create and spread viruses with Personal Notes File documents. However, please consider the following security risks:

• The manual command execution may be a security risk. So, you are advised to disable this option if you are not planning to use it. This can be done by using the Setup... command from the File menu.
• Another code execution facility is the Pascal scripting feature of the PScript Menu introduced with version 2.00 of NOTEFILE. This relies on the PSCRIPT.TXT file containing source code for scripts. If you do not want to use any Pascal scripting, you can remove the PSCRIPT.TXT file from the directory where the NOTEFILE executable resides or use the environment variable as described in the Security subsection of the Reload PScript Command help topic.
• Yet another code execution facility is the external command execution feature of the Tools Menu introduced with version 2.02 of NOTEFILE. This relies on the NOTEFILE.CMD file containing filtering code which is selected with an appropriate parameter. If you do not want to run external filters using this facility, you can remove the NOTEFILE.CMD file from the directory where the NOTEFILE executable resides or use the environment variable as described in the Security subsection of the Reload Commands List Command help topic.

See also the NOTEFILE Environment Variable help topic.

Most error messages that you may get during the use of NOTEFILE are described under the help topics of the related menu commands, like File Open..., File Save, etc. Other messages are described below.

Current card too long.

To prevent some problems, a limit of 500,000 characters per card is imposed. NOTEFILE will warn you when a card exceeds 500,000 characters. Note that end-of-line characters count as two characters on Windows and as one character on Linux. Note also that non-ASCII characters are more than one byte long, but NOTEFILE counts characters (actually codepoints), not bytes, for this limit. Avoid pasting extremely large text blocks into a single card.

Error reading translit data: System message

There was an IO error while reading the TRANSLIT.TXT file.

Translit. language must be selected in File Setup.

Look at the end of File | Setup... help topic.

Unknown help topic!

A help topic is not defined in NOTEFILE. Please contact the author for further investigation.

You are using version xx.xx. The latest available version is yy.yy. Please upgrade.

From time to time NOTEFILE will check whether you are using the latest version or not. You can also run this check manually by using the Check Version... command. You are strongly advised to download and upgrade as soon as possible after you see this warning.