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 | | DOCUMENTATION
This documentation always refers to the newest released version only! No documentation is availble
for any older versions and you are encouraged to update to the newest version.
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Topics to cover:
License / fair use
We have always been huge fans of free and open source software so of course HovText is the same! :-) You are allowed to use HovText on as many computers as you want including your work computer, if you are allowed to use it there of course.
As any other developers, doing this in our spare time, then we of course could hope for a "fair use", which means that if you like HovText and you use it on a daily basis, then we would naturally appreciate a donation for whatever amount you find reasonable and fair. This would for sure motivate for continues support, if we see this is a tool that actually is used and liked by others :-) Use the Donate link in the left side menu, if you want to support us. Donations received will go to continues support for HovText - e.g. a code signing certificate, maybe new icons and who knows. We did not make HovText to earn profit from it and both of us have jobs in the IT industry, which is lucky for us as HovText will never be a golden goose - just view the Donators page, to put things in perspective.
HovText uses the GNU General Public License v3.0 - we do not want anyone to benefit economically from our work, so HovText and its code base is not to be sold, redistributed or repackaged in any way without full written agreement with us first! This is not fair, and we hope for your understanding of this.
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Your data and application internet connectivity
It is quite important for us to stress out that your data and history entries are not saved or stored anywhere! It resides in your computer's memory only, so the next time you close HovText or restart your computer, then it is gone for good. It also does not save or communicate your history to the internet in any way - no cloud or computer sharing connectivity! The only internet activity HovText does, is checking for a newer version, and it does this on each application startup only.
Unless you enable troubleshooting logging, then HovText does not save any files to the filesystem, but it does save configuration parameters in the registry - view Registry settings for details. In the troubleshooting logging it will not save any real content from the history either - only application configuration and behaviour is saved.
When HovText is checking for a new version then your IP address is stored in a database along with a timestamp, country and the actual version you are using. This is used for public fun facts graphs so it is possible to view peak periods of versions and how many users are using it - at no time will your IP address be revealed to others but it is used to get a simplistic measurement on unique users using HovText... this is something that is fun to know as a developer and I do hope you will allow for this (check out the fun facts page).
You can view in the tab Privacy exactly which data is stored on our server.
If you write an email to us via the Feedback tab or via the Contact page then we will use your email only for a response - it will not be redistributed or sold to anyone. YOU are actually not the product here! :-)
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Requirements
HovText will only be supported on Windows 10 (or newer) with .NET Framework 4.8 (or newer).
It should though work on older versions like Windows XP/7/8 etc. but this is too complicated to support, so I will not loose any sleep due to this old crap - so stay up-to-date ;-)
Some functionalities will not work on Windows XP - the Auto-install functionality requires Powershell and some commandline executables, which only is supported from Windows 7 and newer.
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False-positive antivirus scans
I will start by saying clearly that HovText does not contain any virus or malware when downloaded from its official home page!
There are however some antivirus or malware scanners that detects HovText as malicious. The below picture is just an example and is the result from a scan on VirusTotal.com with a freshly new built version of HovText:
3 of 70 scanners actually reported this as malicious, which is wrong but I will explain the reasoning behind the false-positive, as it makes sense for the scanners to be cautious about this.
HovText could be classified as malicious due to these reasons:
- It works with the system clipboard and saves information from there - could be considered dangerous if this was for some evil-minded purpose
- The "HovText.exe" has some DLL dependencies, but these DLLs are packaged into the one single executable file - some scanners could consider this as hiding information
- When auto-installing it downloads a new executable file from the internet, dynamically creates a batch file and run both this batch file and the new executable - this could be considered dangerous
So there are reasoning that some scanners could see this as malicious - but rest assured that HovText is not malicious. If you really do not trust that then you could review the source code on GitHub and compile your own executable - no hard feelings for doing so :-)
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Install and launch HovText
There is no installation required for HovText - just download the executable file, save it where you want and run the "HovText.exe" file.
For the first time you run the file then you will see the Microsoft SmartScreen warning - click the "More info" link:
This is perfectly normal and just shows that you should be observant, that this is a new file from an untrusted source. As the HovText executeable file is not signed with a trusted certificate then you will see this warning but just click "Run anyway" and then you will not see it again - at least until a new version is released.
Signing HovText is currently too expensive and actually not even possible. In Denmark we do not have any identification that has both picture and address - and this is a requirement to obtain an EV code signing certificate. I could get an official notary to vitnes, but then we are back at its being too expensive - so even though I actually do want to sign HovText, then currently I do not see this possible, but it may change in the future.
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How to use HovText
This is a very basic introduction on how to actually use HovText as it maybe can be a little weird, if you have no experience with these types of applications. The application tends towards usage from power-users (experienced users that do a lot of work on computers) as they are the ones typically wanting to optimize their daily work but it can for sure be used by everyone as long as you know how to.
When it starts up the very first time then it is active and it does its job behind the scene. Anytime you paste something from the system clipboard it will have the text formatting removed.
Basic first-step approach on how to use the application out-of-the-box - try it out:
- Launch HovText executable
- Copy a text that has some formatting (e.g. colors or italic) with CTRL + C
- Paste the clipboard to whereever you want with CTRL + V and enjoy the formatting has been removed
You can try-out the "Restore original formatting when disabling application" functionality too, by simply disabling HovText. In the tray area you should click once at the HovText icon - it should now turn red, which means it is inactive/disabled - then paste one more time and this will bring back the formatting to the text you just copied.
Basic first-step approach on how to use the clipboard manager - try it out:
- Launch HovText executable
- Copy a few texts and images with CTRL + C
- View the clipboard history by holding down ALT and press once at H (do still keep ALT pressed down)
- Press again once at H and see it goes one DOWN in the list
- Press once at SHIFT + H and see it goes one UP in the list
- Release ALT and it will now populate this clipboard entry to the system clipboard
- Paste the clipboard to whereever you want with CTRL + V and enjoy the text formatting has been removed
If you are in the list view then you can toggle if an entry should be marked as a favorite or not - use SPACE for that. If it is marked as a favorite then it will have a icon for it. You can then toggle to the "Favorites only" list view with Q and see only the favorite entries you have marked. You can toggle back again to the "All entries" with the same hotkey.
Favorites are not saved anywhere and cannot be reused after e.g. a computer restart. Only clipboard entries in the current session can be marked and used as a favorite.
You are urged to select whatever hotkey combination suits you. Just go to the Hotkeys tab and change that but do note that you cannot choose whatever key combination you want. HovText uses "global hotkeys" which means that specific modifier keys are unavailable - e.g. the Windows key is not possible to use as this is reserved for Windows but this will be clearly shown when you select that.
The "Toggle application on/off" hotkey is probably the most confusing key combination as it per default is set to CTRL + Oem5, which make no sense for the human eye when you see it in the list - and furthermore it is regionalized and dependent on your keyboard language and layout. As I am a Dane then I have taken the liberty to suggest this key combination for this feature.
Default hotkey for "Toggle application on/off":
E.g. US keyboard layout places this physical different on the keyboard - so choose your own hotkeys :-) You can get a reference for the (sometimes) weird names that the hotkey shows here, http://kbdlayout.info/
If you master the hotkeys then everything else is easy :-) Most of the settings can be tweaked but the default setup should probably be fine for the most.
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General
Start with Windows
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When checked then HovText will startup together with Windows.
It will start minimized when launched by Windows startup and you can see the HovText icon in the tray area.
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Check for updates online
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At application launch, it will automatically check if there is a difference between your version and the newest stable version available online. If there is, it will show a dialouge, where you can choose one of 3 options.
Auto-install replaces automatically the existing executable file with this new version.
"Auto-install" is an experimental update functionality and you may need to install this manually instead, if this fails to install.
Manual download will open the location of the current running executable and it will initiate a download for the new version. You must yourself close/exit HovText, replace the executable file and launch "HovText.exe" again.
Skip this version will mark this version as being "seen, but not interested". It will not show a dialouge again for this specific version.
The "Check for updates online" is a mandatory checkbox and it is shown as a courtesy to inform you, that it will do this check.
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Enable application
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Sometimes it can be useful to disable HovText, as there could be some problematic things you need to copy. If this is the case, then you can disable HovText and then it will act as if the application has not been started, except that it will still react on the "Toggle application on/off" hotkey or this checkbox. If HovText is disabled, then it will not process any clipboard changes or history entries nor will it remove any formatting.
You can enable/disable HovText by either clicking this checkbox, by using the "Toggle application on/off" hotkey or by clicking the HovText icon once in the tray area.
When you launch HovText then it will take the content from system clipboard (if "Use system clipboard" is enabled) and use this as its first entry in the clipboard history.
You can clearly see if the application is active or inactive - if the icon is red, then it is inactive/disabled.
Also view the "Restore original formatting when disabling application" functionality, as this is closely tied to this.
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Close minimizes application to tray
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When checked then it will not close/exit the HovText application when the "Close" (X) button is clicked, but instead it will minimize the application to tray.
The application will continue to run in the background and the first time you minimize it then you will get a notification that the application continues to run in the background. You will not see a notification if notifications in general have been disabled in Windows.
When HovText is minimized to tray then you can either double-click the tray icon for showing the "Settings" or right-click and choose an action.
If you cannot view the HovText icon in the tray, then you can unhide it from the tray area - search online for a solution.
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Restore original formatting when disabling application
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Together with the unformatted clear-text in the history then the original formatted text is also kept. If the application gets disabled then it will restore the clipboard with the original text formatting - or at least it will try. Due to technical limitations then not all clipboard content can be kept as-is, which means there can be situations where it cannot restore the exact original clipboard. If this is the case, it will probably act as if the clipboard is empty. If this is the case then please report it as an error and do send the troubleshoot logfile.
If this is not checked then no action will be done when disabling HovText and it will keep the unformatted clear-text content in the clipboard.
This feature is only available when the hotkey behaviour is set to the "Use system clipboard" mode.
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Enable clipboard history
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One of the key features is that HovText can remember the copied texts and images - it is a clipboard manager. You can restore any old entry by using the hotkeys for "Show older clipboard entry" or "Show newer clipboard entry" and then it will show the content of that specific history entry in the clipboard area.
There is no limitation on the number of history entries it remembers - it depends on your system memory (crash and burn?) :-)
When this is not checked then it will still remove the formatting from the copied text, but it will not act as a clipboard manager and you cannot get the history list.
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Include images in clipboard history
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HovText is focussed on removing formatting from any text but it does support keeping images also in the history. If you do not want to remember the images in history then you can deselect this option and it will act as a text-only clipboard manager.
You can of course still copy/paste images but these will not be stored in the history.
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Enable favorites
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A favorite is a quicker way of finding relevant entries. Sometimes the list of copied texts or images can be quite long and it can be difficult to know when you last used the entry, so as a quicker method then you can mark an entry as a "favorite". This should typically be done with the entries that you use the most throughout a normal working day.
A favorite can be set or cleared by using the "Toggle favorite entry" hotkey.
You can use the "Toggle list view" hotkey to toggle between the two views; "All entries" or "Favorites only".
The last view used will be set the next time the history opens.
Favorites are not saved anywhere and cannot be reused after e.g. a computer restart. Only clipboard entries in the current session can be marked and used as a favorite.
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Paste on clipboard selection
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When you select something from the history, it will automatically paste the content to the active window, if this is checked.
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Trim whitespaces and empty new-lines
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If the content you are copying is having new-lines or whitespaces in front or end of the text then it will be removed with this option.
Sometimes it is hard to see if there is copied an empty whitespace in front (happens very frequently) so this is a handy feature.
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Hotkeys
Use system clipboard
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Default behaviour is that HovText always will remove formatting from any text in the clipboard, which means that it will paste only the clear-text content from the clipboard. When pasting with standard Windows paste (e.g. CTRL + V or SHIFT + INSERT) then you will get the clear-text output only.
This is basically the same as pasting the formatted text to Notepad and then copy it from there again - just way easier :-)
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Paste only on hotkey
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It will keep the original formatting in the system clipboard and only paste the unformatted clear-text when pressing this hotkey.
Important - it will try to keep the original content in the clipboard, but due to technical limitations then not all clipboard content can be kept as-is, which means there can be situations where it cannot restore the exact original clipboard. If this is the case, it will probably act as if the clipboard is empty. If this is the case then please report it as an error and do send the troubleshoot logfile.
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Toggle application on/off
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Hotkey that will enable or disable the HovText application.
If enabled then HovText will remove formatting and save the clipboard to the history (if configured).
If disabled then HovText will not remove any formatting or keep any history. It will act as the application was not started except for the toggle on/off functionality, that still will be active.
As soon as any of the hotkey fields are activated then all the hotkeys will be removed temporarily to avoid conflicts. All hotkeys will be reactivated once clicking either "Apply" or "Cancel".
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Show older clipboard entry
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Show the history area and go back in time and show older history entries.
When reaching the oldest entry then it cannot go any further and the headline will flash.
Releasing all the modifier keys (ALT, SHIFT or CTRL) will select the active history entry.
As soon as any of the hotkey fields are activated then all the hotkeys will be removed temporarily to avoid conflicts. All hotkeys will be reactivated once clicking either "Apply" or "Cancel".
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Show newer clipboard entry
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Show the history area and go forward in time and show newer history entries.
When reaching the newest entry then it cannot go any further and the headline will flash.
Releasing all the modifier keys (ALT, SHIFT or CTRL) will select the active history entry.
As soon as any of the hotkey fields are activated then all the hotkeys will be removed temporarily to avoid conflicts. All hotkeys will be reactivated once clicking either "Apply" or "Cancel".
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Paste on hotkey
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This is the hotkey for the "paste only on hotkey" feature
As soon as any of the hotkey fields are activated then all the hotkeys will be removed temporarily to avoid conflicts. All hotkeys will be reactivated once clicking either "Apply" or "Cancel".
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Toggle favorite entry
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Hotkey for toggeling if the active history entry should be marked as a favorite or not.
If it is marked as a favorite then the box has a triangular red icon.
This can be done in both list views - both the "All entries" and in the "Favorites only" view.
Important - you must show the history area for this key to work and then you can press this single-key to activate it. You cannot select any modifier key - one key only.
As soon as any of the hotkey fields are activated then all the hotkeys will be removed temporarily to avoid conflicts. All hotkeys will be reactivated once clicking either "Apply" or "Cancel".
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Toggle list view
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Hotkey for toggeling which list view to show - either the "All entries" or "Favorites only" list.
You can determine in which list view you are by looking at the headline - if in "favorites only" view then this headline will have a triangular red icon.
If there are no favorites then it will display an empty view and you should toggle to the "all entries" view.
If you close the history area then it will start in the same list view the next time - e.g. if you last viewed the "Favorites only" then it will start in this view again.
Important - you must show the history area for this key to work and then you can press this single-key to activate it. You cannot select any modifier key - one key only.
As soon as any of the hotkey fields are activated then all the hotkeys will be removed temporarily to avoid conflicts. All hotkeys will be reactivated once clicking either "Apply" or "Cancel".
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Apply
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This will activate all the hotkeys again and set the new key combination.
If you get any text with "Unsupported" then that specific hotkey is either already taken or invalid and
you should select a new combination. E.g. the Windows key is not possible to use as that is reserved for Windows.
You can remove a hotkey by pressing DELETE or BACKSPACE. This will set the hotkey to "Not set" which means
it is not active.
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Cancel
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Will restore whatever hotkey combination was there previously.
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Hotkey conflict
At application startup it will check if there are any conflicts with any of the global hotkeys defined. If there is then it will notify on which hotkey is conflicting and you must either correct it in HovText or the other application where it conflicts.
You will be redirected to the Hotkeys tab.
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Layout
Visible elements
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The default setting will show 6 history elements, where you can walk up/down in the list of historic clipboard entries with the hotkeys. You can show anything from 1-30 elements in a list-view.
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Width
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Set the width, in percentage of the screen width, that the history area should consume.
Can span from 10%-100%
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Height
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Set the height, in percentage of the screen height, that the history area should consume.
Can span from 10%-100%
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Margin to edges
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Set the margin, in pixels, to the edges of the clipboard area.
Can span from 0-50px.
The slider will get disabled if "Width" or "Height" is bigger than 90%.
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Clipboard location
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You can select the location for the clipboard area on the screen.
It can be located in any of the corners or centered in the middle of the screen.
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Show clipboard on
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The default display to show the clipboard area will be the main/primary display but this can be changed if you have multiple monitors.
If you switch between setup with multiple displays, then it will remember each setup and show the clipboard area depending on the specific configuration.
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Style
Change font
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Set the font familiy and size for the history area.
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Thickness
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The border is shown on the active/selected entry and it can make it easier to see which entry is the active/selected one, when walking up/down in the list of historic clipboard entries.
If the size is set to "0px" or there is only 1 visible element then it will not show a border.
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Color theme
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You can set the color theme for the clipboard area - either select from one of the static color themes or set your own custom colors.
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Custom colors
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If the "Custom" color is selected as the theme, the custom color boxes will become active and you can set the colors for the clipboard area.
Click with the mouse in the colored boxes to select a new color.
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Icon sets
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Sometimes the look and feel for icons can be similar to other applications, so you have the possibility to change the icon set for HovText:
- "Round, modern" is the standard icon since version 3 in 2011
- "Square, Modern" is the newest set of icons and it was the idea that they could be an updated version of the old legacy icons
- "Square, Original" was the original icons used from its first version in 2004 and up until 2011, and they have been brought back for nostalgic reasons. Nowadays they look quite bulky and old
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Advanced
Enable troubleshoot logging
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If you experience any problems then you can enable the troubleshoot logging. This will create a file named "HovText-troubleshooting.txt" in the same folder as "HovText.exe" and the file will contain a lot of valuable information required for the developer, if you report a problem.
It is important to highlight that there will not be saved any content from the history or your computer and the logfile will have information about HovText configuratrion and behaviour only, including some required information like .NET Framework version and operating system etc. You are encouraged to review the file yourself before sending :-)
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Open logfile location
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This is a quick way to get to the logfile, where you can open it with your favorite text editor. The logfile will be highlighted/marked when opening the folder.
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Delete logfile
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At any time you can delete the logfile.
No confirmation asked.
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Open executable location
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This is a quick way to get to the location of the executable. The executable file will be highlighted/marked when opening the folder.
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Auto-install
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Auto-install replaces automatically the existing executable file with this development version.
The development version is intended for testers or people reporting problems, where they will be able to test the fix before a new public release.
"Auto-install" is an experimental update functionality and you may need to install this manually instead, if this fails to install.
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Download
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It will open the location of the current running executable and it will initiate a download for the development version. You must manually close/exit HovText, replace the executable file and launch "HovText.exe" again.
The development version is intended for testers or people reporting problems, where they will be able to test the fix before a new public release.
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Clean-up and exit
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This will do a "factory default" meaning that it will clean-up and delete all HovText configuration in the registry and the logfile - only the "HovText.exe" file will be kept.
You can use this functionalty if you want to "uninstall" HovText or if you want to reset the configuration settings.
This is the exact same thing as running "HovText.exe" with the commandline parameter --cleanup-and-exit
No confirmation asked.
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Feedback
Send feedback to the developers.
Email
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If you want to get any response back then you must give your email address but it is optional.
Your email address will not be used for anything else than replying back to the feedback you provide!
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Feedback
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Your feedback - both good and bad is of course welcome and if you have ideas then please feel free to provide your insights.
You can also report problems here (please do).
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Attach troubleshooting logfile
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You can easily attach the troubleshooting logfile, if this is checked.
The attached file must be smaller than 5MB.
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Send feedback
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Send your feedback to the developer.
Normally response is pretty fast :-)
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Privacy
In this tab you can see all the data that is being logged about you. As you can see, there is no unique identifier so it is not possible to pinpoint individuals. Our purpose for the timestamp, country and version data is to be able to do the public Fun facts page, which it pretty harmless - but fun and interesting for us (the developers) to watch over time :-)
The OS and CPU information will be used to determine a choise for a potential future version - if the 32bit support can be discontinued. My guess is there are only a minimum of installations running 32bit nowadays but as I am unsure, then I have for now accepted that I need this data gathering.
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About
It will show the specific version and some other borring stuff.
If you click the Donate link then you will be shown a PayPal donate page, where you can donate, if you feel you want to support for continues motivation and support, then please feel free :-)
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Clipboard area
Tray
In the tray area you will find one of the three icons (or from one of the other icon sets):
Green
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Hotkey behaviour is set to "Use system clipboard" and it will automatically remove any text formatting form the clipboard, which means if you paste with CTRL + V or SHIFT + INSERT then it will remove the text formatting from that.
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Red
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Application is currently set to "off" (disabled), which means it will not react on any new copy and it will nor remove formatting.
This is applicable in both hotkey behaviour modes (green or blue).
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Blue
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Hotkey behaviour is set to "Paste only on hotkey".
The normal system clipboard will not be altered, and only when you press the hotkey then it will paste to the active window/application.
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You may need to expand the tray area to be able to see the icon as it will be hidden by default.
If you right-click the icon then you get a context menu where you either can exit HovText, go to the General settings
or to the About tab.
If you click the tray icon once then it will toggle the application on/off (enable or disable).
If you double-click the icon then it will open the General settings tab.
Information for IT departments
As IT organizations do not have time to read through an entire product page for relevant information, then below is a summary for the most important details relevant for IT departments:
- HovText requires .NET Framework 4.8 or newer and can run on any 32/64bit Windows
- HovText does not require administrator privilegies - it runs with the privilegies as the current logged in user
- There is no installer - just one portable execuable
- If the user enables troubleshooting then it does require write access to the folder where the executable is located
- If using e.g. VirusTotal then there could be a couple of scanners that could indicate a problem with HovText - view explanation in False-positive antivirus scans
- HovText uses the GNU General Public License v3.0 license
- There is no cost and HovText can be used free of charge on any private or commercial computer
- Updating HovText programmatically is done by exiting HovText (with commandline option) and launch the new version with "HovText.exe". HovText will then update all registry settings and show the new user interface to the user
- Uninstalling HovText is done programatically with a commandline option - this will remove everything related to HovText except the "HovText.exe" file - this file should be deleted by yourself
- If users do an "Auto-install" it will download a new EXE file, dynamically create a batch file, unblock the batch file with Powershell and run it - the batch file will exit HovText, replace the EXE file and relaunch HovText
If we can help in any way for a smoother integration of HovText in your organization or if you have any questions, then please reach out via the Contact form. We are quite fast in response.
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Commandline parameters
When starting HovText from commandline there are 3 parameters to consider:
[--start-minimized]
Will launch HovText and directly minimize to the tray and not show any user interface on application startup.
This is how it is started up when enabling "Start with Windows".
[--exit]
If HovText is running, then it will close it. This could typically be used for updating HovText programmatically.
Do note that this option was introduced in the 2023-May-17 version and not available on older version.
[--cleanup-and-exit]
Will exit HovText and delete all files (except "HovText.exe") and related configuration in registry.
Do note that this option was introduced in the 2023-May-17 version and not available on older version.
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Registry settings
There are two places in registry where HovText operates.
It only does operate in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER space:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\HovText
- HovText configuration parameters
- Will have a few keys and a folder with screen configurations
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HovText
- Will startup HovText when Windows starts
Do not manually delete anything in the registry - use instead the "Clean-up and exit HovText" option in the Advanced tab or the commandline option for the same!
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Software used
HovText has been developed in Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
It uses a hotkey library named NHotkey.
The required hotkey DLL has been embedded in the executable file with Costura.
Also Newtonsoft.Json is used for handling JSON data.
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