Useful Software Thread

Forgot to say this ages ago, but I took up your suggestion, and 7zip has done wonders for me!

In other news, I've finally decided to look into picking an IRC client. What do you guys recommend?

A bit meta because it involves This Very Wiki... :-)

Really love this browser extension that shows the Laconic of a trope when your mouse pointer is over a link to a trope.

• Chrome/Chromium version: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laconic-hover/ignndocldlheghlflchdbokagecncgmm
• Firefox version: https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/laconic-hover/

Very useful and works well (if a trope page doesn't have a Laconic, it simply shows "No Laconic page".)

I need a program that can enact the same change to Word documents en masse, especially hyperlinks (e.g. changing every TV Tropes link in a large number of documents so that "http:" is replaced with "https:"^note Yeah, it's largely motivated by the recent overhaul making the entire site run on HTTPS.). This page provides a list of such programs, but I've become confused over which is best-suited for my purposes, especially since the first one seemed to be a perfect fit but is a proprietary program rather than freeware. Anyone familiar with these programs around here?

If they were plain-text documents I'd suggest Notepad++, which can do mass search and replace within specified files or folders.

Don't you already have a word processor? I know Word itself can do that (Ctrl + H, more options, and you have the same sort of filtering options as Notepad++ and a "replace all" button), so I'd expect the free software alternatives to be no further behind.

You're basically asking me to find each of those dozens or even hundreds of files, open them one by one, and manually fix everything. Nevermind that "find and replace" is useless for fixing hyperlinks unless they're all the exact same text with the exact same links within each document — which is not the case at all for the vast majority of the links in question.

Edited by MarqFJA on Jul 6th 2018 at 4:01:47 PM

I don't think that Word offers a batch search-and-replace function within multiple files simultaneously. That's the question being asked. Now, if they were in .docx format, they should be saved as XML, so it might be possible for a plain-text editor to do a pattern search-and-replace without screwing up the files, but I'd back them up before running it just to be safe.

Ah, missed that part.

Yeah, it's all an XML document in the end, but I don't think that's going to be of much use, because it's actually a zipped file directory containing multiple XML documents.

The two free/shareware options don't work on .docx. Advanced Find and Replace has a free trial (I didn't realise it wasn't unlimited) which does, and can work on multiple files and replace all instances of http: with https: (I checked). Presumably either of the proprietary options will work, albeit for a limited time without paying; I don't know of any free utilities to do it and the docx format doesn't lend itself to being easily opened and edited like that, which is probably why.

Edited by RainehDaze on Jul 6th 2018 at 2:32:33 PM

I guess I'll just use the trial version of Advanced Find and Replace, then; it's highly unlikely I'll need such a powerful tool again in the foreseeable future, so being locked out of it after the trial period is an acceptable drawback. I'm not opposed to buying the full version, but I prefer to do that with my own money (which I have precious little of, given I'm still unemployed) rather than put it on my mom's credit card's tab.

Edited by MarqFJA on Jul 6th 2018 at 4:45:53 PM

Worst case scenario, if you ever need it again after uninstalling, it's probably just left a registry entry somewhere that can be deleted/altered to reinstate the free trial.

Is there a way to update Microsoft Word's inventory of Unicode characters? I just discovered that the Unicode inventory of my laptop's Word 2007 (yes, I know, anciently obsolete) is at least pre-5.1.

I would expect such files to be contained in the general updates released by Microsoft for their products. Make sure that your computer has both Windows Update and Microsoft Update enabled. MS has discontinued support for Office 2007 effective October 10, 2017, but any updates up to that point should still be available.

I also wonder if the Unicode database is Office-specific or part of Windows' common data. You'd think it would be universal, as part of the system font library. I don't have time to research it, unfortunately.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 29th 2019 at 4:45:23 AM

I need an alternative to Agent Ransack that can search through EPUB files.

Has anyone mentioned Telegram yet? It's said to be one of the most secure IRC clients these days. Identifies you by your cellphone number. No complicated account creation required. Lets you control everything you ever sent through it. After a half-year of inactivity it completely wipes your chat history.

Edited by sohibil on Jun 15th 2021 at 9:26:47 PM