PK Tip: Dragging Text into Personal Knowbase

You can drag whole blocks of text from most other Windows applications directly into Personal Knowbase's Index Window to create a new article.

PK Tip: Importing HTML (Or Other Formatted) Files as Text

A recent tip explained how to export a Personal Knowbase article as an HTML code snippet. What if you want to go in the other direction and import a snippet of HTML code from an HTML file to save in PK for future use as HTML code?

If you import the file as an HTML file, PK removes the HTML code and converts the formatting to its internal rich-text formatting. You end up with just the text without the HTML code.

PK Tip: Exporting HTML Code Snippets

One common use for Personal Knowbase is to store code snippets, specifically in this case HTML code snippets.

However, if you try to export an article containing HTML using the export file type HTML Files, you end up with garbage. For example, let's say you have an article containing this text:

PK Tip: Using the Compact Command for Maintenance and Repair

In these days of large, cheap hard drives, most of us don't feel any need to compact a database file to save disk space.

But Personal Knowbase's Compact command does more than reduce your data file to its minimum size. Here are three additional tasks Compact can help you with:

PK Tip: Copying Articles from One Knowbase File to Another

Sometimes you may find it useful to copy (or move) articles from one Knowbase data file to another. You may want to break a data file into two smaller files, or to create a new file containing only a small subset of the articles in a larger file (for example, to share those articles with a friend or colleague). Or you may want to move old, obsolete articles to an "archive" data file.

PK Tip: Avoiding Changing a Data File

When browsing a Personal Knowbase data file — opening and closing articles while checking or looking for something — you can easily make changes accidentally.

If you realize you've made a change to an article that you didn't want to change, you can immediately return the article to its last saved state. While the article window is still open, select the Undo Article Changes command from the Edit menu.

But if you know that you don't want to make changes to a file before you open it, it's safer to open the file in Read-Only mode to start with. In Read-Only mode, you have no risk of making unwanted changes. You will not be able to modify existing articles or create new ones.

PK Tip: Typing in the Index Column

In Personal Knowbase, normally we locate keywords in the Index column by clicking them with the mouse. But we can also locate keywords using the keyboard. Typing to locate keywords can save you from constant scrolling in long lists of keywords.

When the highlighted cursor focus (when the highlight has a dotted outline) is in the Index column, you can type the first few letters of a keyword to move the highlight to that keyword in the list. So, for example, if you type "sm", the highlight will move to the first keyword starting with "sm".

PK Tips for Portable Mode Installation

If you need to carry your notes between computers, you can use Personal Knowbase's portability feature to install the software on a USB thumb drive or other removable media. If you're having trouble getting PK to install in portable mode, here are a couple things to check.

PK Tip: Quick Email Address Book

If you use Personal Knowbase to keep track of contacts, try inserting each person's email addresses in the Attachments field to create a quick email address book.

PK Tip: Printing a List of Articles

A recent tip talked about how to make a text list of selected article titles for using in another software application or putting into its own Personal Knowbase article.