Chapter 1 - Powermarks User Guide

Introduction
Chapter 1

Thank you for purchasing or evaluating Powermarks, a powerful and easy to use bookmarking tool with an innovative search facility that makes even large collections of bookmarks manageable and accessible. In addition to making bookmarks easier to use, Powermarks can check the status of bookmarks. This will determine if they have changed since last visited and even identify bookmarks that are no longer valid.

1.1 Privacy and Network Traffic

Kaylon Technologies respects the privacy of Powermarks users. Powermarks does not send any information to us in any manner. Powermarks only generates network traffic in the following situations:

Status checking or Fetching of bookmarks (select Pause Checking in Tools menu to disable)

Detecting if network connection exists (disable in Status Checking section of Options dialog)

Checking for new version (must be manually invoked)

NetSync (must be manually invoked)

All personal information remains private and we do not share or sell any such information. You will not get junk mail because of us.

More information can be found in the NetSync and Frequently Asked Questions chapters.

1.2 Features

System Tray Icons to Add and Fast Add bookmarks have been added
Netscape 7.0 support has been added to Powermarks
Powermarks now interacts with Mozilla 1.0
Support for NetCaptor has been added
Ability to open links in new windows by default
Close Powermarks to the System Tray
NetSync allows storing, synchronizing and backing up bookmarks on the Internet
Rating field for each bookmark
Color code bookmarks based on rating
Powermarks tracks the number of times a page is visited so viewing your most popular sites is easy
Dictionary viewer to browse and access the keyword dictionary
User defined bookmark field for application specific information
Status Check authenticated pages
Automatically create a new browser window when viewing a bookmark
Opera support added to Import Wizard
Improved loading, searching and sorting speed
Proxy exceptions - do not use proxy on specified sites
Better support of read-only files
Improved Internet Explorer integration
Add bookmarks from any running browser

Open bookmarks new browser windows

Super fast search technology - nothing is faster, easier to use or more convenient.
Intelligent status checking of web pages, ignores advertising banners and other extraneous tags
Proxy support including authentication
Powermarks integration with System Tray
Dictionary dialog for easy viewing and editing of keywords
Multiple export formats

HTML formatted for printing
Rich Text Format
ASCII Text
Delimited ASCII

Open bookmarks in any installed browser at the click of a button
Status Checking Schedules to automatic bookmark status checking
Automatic saves
Macros
Global Hotkeys

Activating the Powermarks program
Adding bookmarks
Pasting from clipboard

Copy and paste bookmarks to clipboard
Undo
Powerful status checking
Import Netscape Bookmarks and Internet Explorer Favorites
Import Opera 3 Hotlist files
New status checking engine - can always check status
HTTP 1.1 support

Improved error information from status checking
Detects when you are off-line and suspends status checking

Add bookmarks from clipboard - automatically extracts URL and then contacts site to get title, description and keywords for URL.
Extensive browser support including Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera
Faster operation for large collections of bookmarks. Powermarks can easily handle collections in excess of 30,000 bookmarks.
Fetch command to automatically retrieve name, description and keywords of page given a URL.
Customizable bookmark viewer
Copy Keyword Dictionary to clipboard
Keyword Browser for easy viewing of keywords
Easy synchronization with browser bookmarks
Drag and drop files from Windows Explorer and use Powermarks to track them. Works for any type of file, such as Office documents.

1.3 How Powermarks Works

Powermarks does not store bookmarks in folders, instead, they are stored in a flat, nonhierarchical list. As a replacement for folders, Powermarks uses keywords and an instantaneous search facility. Searching occurs as each character is typed so only a few keystrokes are needed to locate any bookmark.

To access groups of bookmarks, common keywords can be added to related bookmarks. For example, you may add the keyword "search" to all the Internet search engine bookmarks. Then you only need to type "search" to display all the search engine bookmarks.

The Powermarks search facility is always active, just type in the search field located in the toolbar. Powermarks offers advanced search options such as Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), exact string searching and incremental searching. See Section 5.1, Searching, for details.

Leaving out the hierarchy of folders was an intentional design choice on our part. The problems with hierarchies are:

They are slow to traverse, typically done by scrolling and mouse clicking
They have to be carefully maintained to be useful. If bookmarks are not added to the correct folders, they are effectively useless as you cannot locate them without searching.
Bookmarks do not always fit into predetermined hierarchies: they may fit into multiple folders or not fit into any.
Arbitrary groups of bookmarks cannot be displayed, the only way to view bookmarks is by the folder categorization.

Powermarks works independently of the web browser. However, it will communicate with the browser to add bookmarks or view bookmarked pages. Many users find Powermarks so convenient that they cease using the browser's native bookmarking system.

1.4 Terminology

Active Browser: If a computer has multiple browsers installed, the active browser is the one that Powermarks attempts to use by default. The Active Browser setting is only valid in Powermarks (it does not affect other programs) and is set in the Options dialog.
Browser: A program used to access the World Wide Web. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are the most popular browsers, but Powermarks also supports the Opera browser.
Configuring Browser: The process of configuring Powermarks to work with a specific browser.
Dialog Window: A window for user input directed at a specific task. After making changes in a dialog box, you usually need to press OK to accept the changes or Cancel to ignore any changes made. Also known as a dialog box.
Favorite: Microsoft's term for a bookmark.
Field: Used in this manual to indicate a location that you may type text into. In Windows parlance, this is technically known as an "edit control."
Focus: The window that keyboard input is directed to. This is usually indicated by either a blinking cursor or by a dashed rectangle (such as in a list box).
FTP: File Transfer Protocol, a method for transferring files over the Internet.
Grayed Out: Indicates that a control is disabled and the option is not currently available.
Keywords: Words that are associated with a bookmark and are used with the keyword search.
Left Click: To click the left most mouse button. Left clicking on an object normally executes a command.
NetSync: A new feature in Powermarks 3.5 that synchronizes bookmark collections between multiple locations. NetSync is also useful to backup your bookmarks.
Right Click: To click the right most mouse button. Right clicking on an object normally displays a popup menu.
Search Field: An "edit control" located in the toolbar that is used to enter search expressions.
System Tray: The small recessed area normally in the bottom right of the screen.
Tabbed Dialog Window: A Dialog Window that allows users to "tab" between multiple "pages."
Taskbar: The bar normally at the bottom of the screen that contains buttons for each running program.
Toolbar: The list of buttons across the top of the Powermarks window. The Search Field is also located in the toolbar.
URL: Universal Resource Locator, a browser address for a web page or file.