I just downloaded TextPad 5, to see if there were any useful improvements. (I haven't found any so far - not even a macro editor.)
The install installed TextPad in \Program Files\TextPad 5 (the old one was in TextPad 4). It deleted the old program, but it failed to update the shortcut buttons in my windows toolbars to the new path.
It also failed to update my Internet Explorer setting to use TextPad.
In the end, I had to search the registry to find (nearly) all occurrences of "TextPad 4" and change them to "TextPad 5". There were hundreds of them!
Plus, it failed to include a TCL clip library I had created.
And, whenever I open a workspace saved with the old version, there are lots of complaints about missing .SYN files (on the old path).
This is an excellent way to put off once loyal users
Before installing TextPad 5.X.X, did you first entirely uninstall TextPad 4.X.X?
Once, I tried to install 4.7.2 alongside 4.5, because I didn't want to lose 4.5's preferences and reinstall 4.5 if 4.7.2 turned out to be something other than what I wanted--or something like that.
Strange behavior ensued, to say the least, and I had to uninstall both--along with all of my beloved preferences--in order to get a working 4.7.2.
I now keep ALL of my preferences safely documented in a text file, so that I can uninstall the old, install the new, manually set all preferences, and live happily ever after, without even having to think about the registry. It's a great system because--though it takes a little longer--it keeps me in touch with TextPad's beautiful interface.
I came in on 4.5 in 2001, moved to 4.7.2 in 2004, moved to 4.7.3 in 2007, moved to 5.4 in 2010, and am excited about 2013. I've said it many times before, and I'll say it many times again: "I love this program."
Why on earth would I want to uninstall my working TextPad in order to upgrade it to the new version? I wanted to keep my settings (which the install routine failed to do properly).
And I have been using TextPad as my main editor for years - it is the best one I have ever seen. But the upgrade install routine is terrible, and needs to be fixed if they don't want to drive customers away.
nikki wrote:Why on earth would I want to uninstall my working TextPad in order to upgrade it to the new version? I wanted to keep my settings (which the install routine failed to do properly).
And I have been using TextPad as my main editor for years - it is the best one I have ever seen. But the upgrade install routine is terrible, and needs to be fixed if they don't want to drive customers away.
I have seen several posts on this board already about issues related to the upgrade so it's easy to find if you do a search in thie forum. I did as most users probably would recommand which is a uninstall and then reinstall latest version. It also might be a good idea to delete some keys from registry as well before the reinstall. I'm pretty sure "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Helios" and "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Helios" should be enough to delete and the previous Textpad installation directory.
I think a lot of people agree that the upgrade routine isn't very good, but this is a working solution for most people. You will probably spend more time fixing stuff if you do a upgrade. I agree it's a bit annoying, but doesn't take very long to setup textpad again so not a huge problem. If you really like textpad i guess it's a minor issue that you have to spend 10 minutes extra.
Once again i agree that the upgrade should have been much better (so don't kill the messenger) and i'm just a textpad user like you, but even if you don't feel like uninstall 4.x this is the best solution to get it working properly. A upgrade that doesn't work very good is hardly enough to drive customers away as long as the product is good. You could add a post under "Enhancement Suggestions" and maybe the developers will do something about it in a later release. This is a problem related to a upgrade from 4.x to 5.x and shouldn't see those problems upgrading to new 5.x releases.
The more I use TextPad 5, the more things I found it has broken. For instance, I no longer have a TextPad menu option on my Windows Explorer right-click menu.
It took me quite a while to get TextPad 4 working the way I wanted it - lots of key mappings, File Associations, etc. I don't even have an accurate record of the changes I made.
Looks like my best option from here is to uninstall TextPad 5, reinstall TextPad 4, and restore the TextPad registry entries to what they were before.
Pity, really, I don't like to get too many versions behind, but 5 seems to have nothing to offer me (I don't want tabs - the only improvement I am really looking for is editable macros), aside from completely breaking the way I have worked for years.
I take it I should not expect the courtesy of a reply from anyone at TextPad?
nikki wrote:The more I use TextPad 5, the more things I found it has broken. For instance, I no longer have a TextPad menu option on my Windows Explorer right-click menu.
That should be easy to fix and searching in this forum should tell you how to fix it since some others had the same problem.
nikki wrote:It took me quite a while to get TextPad 4 working the way I wanted it - lots of key mappings, File Associations, etc. I don't even have an accurate record of the changes I made.
Well if you have a lot of settings it could take some time especially with key mappings. I do believe you can export the settings from registry, edit to make a few changes and then import again to keep the settings for version 5. Instead of a few keys named "Textpad 4" it should be changed to "Textpad 5" before reimport. This should be easy even if it shouldn't be necessary to do it this way.
nikki wrote:Pity, really, I don't like to get too many versions behind, but 5 seems to have nothing to offer me (I don't want tabs - the only improvement I am really looking for is editable macros), aside from completely breaking the way I have worked for years.
Well there isn't many new features in version 5....most of them is cosmetic. Tabs isn't a new feature in version 5 since 4.7.3 already had tabs and 5 does not have the option to edit macros either. Not sure if the "edit macro" feature will ever be implemented. So unless the cosmetic change is important for you 4.7.3 is basically the same editor.....maybe even better then version 5 since some feature is actually removed in version 5.
I'm not sure if you can expect an answer from Helios, but hopefully they will reply with some good news.
nikki wrote:
Pity, really, I don't like to get too many versions behind, but 5 seems to have nothing to offer me (I don't want tabs - the only improvement I am really looking for is editable macros), aside from completely breaking the way I have worked for years.
Well there isn't many new features in version 5....most of them is cosmetic. Tabs isn't a new feature in version 5 since 4.7.3 already had tabs and 5 does not have the option to edit macros either. Not sure if the "edit macro" feature will ever be implemented. So unless the cosmetic change is important for you 4.7.3 is basically the same editor.....maybe even better then version 5 since some feature is actually removed in version 5.
I would tend to agree and actually went back to 4.73 for a while after 5.0 was released. With the release of 5.2 I feel that things are back to 'business as usual' i.e. none of the new features affect me, I can live without the missing features and there is nothing I consider to be worse any more (tool and search output window for example).
If this is the case for you I would recommend moving to 5.2 as this will form the basis for any future updates. The 4.XX route is now a dead end but that does not mean you have to 'upgrade' if it still works for you.
Running TextPad 5.4 on Windows XP SP3 and on OS X 10.7 under VMWare or Crossover.
I have been using TextPad since 2000, and absolutely love it. I'm a Mac user at home, and I find that TextPad, especially the way I have customized it, has the best, (most Mac-like) UI of any Windows text editor.
That said, today I came across a problem with TextPad 4.7.3. A new javascript library that I'm evaluating has such long lines that many regex searches in TextPad fail with a stack-overflow error. I checked out textpad.com to see if there have been any updates, and find that 5.2 is now available!
Unfortunately, the update experience from 4.7.3 to 5.2 was so bad, that I reverted back to 4.7.3 after only about 5 minutes. My many dozens of macros were lost in the upgrade, and I'm too busy here at work to spend hours re-creating all that work.
Before I installed 5.2, I zipped up a copy of my TextPad 4 folder, so reverting was just a matter of removing the new TextPad 5 folder and un-zipping the TextPad 4 archive.
Now I just have to figure out what to do about that javascript library with the long lines...
I liked the auto hide for the document selector, and explorer might come in useful sometime (but I know it doesn;t show all directories/files). But apart from that, I turned anything else new, off. I'd rather have upgrades for better search facilities, than "fun" bells & whistles.
I do something similar to that in a periodic .bat backup in case (when) my hard disk dies.
Don't forget to back up workspaces too, syntax files, and for those pesky times TP corrupts your workspace-file, a periodic snapshot copy of each workspace.
Last edited by Cloink on Thu May 15, 2008 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
