OnTopReplica is the solution. The lightweight program can be used to create always on top snippets of open programs and windows in the Windows operating system.

It can for instance be used to track a lengthy software installation process by selecting the progress bar of the installation window, download progress, news feeds or other real time information, media contents like videos or parts of messaging programs.

ontopreplica

A transparent window is opened on startup. A right-click on the window displays a context menu with options to create a new always on top snippet.

Here is one example to see how it works. A search on Google for Football world cup live score displays live scores of world cup matches at the top of the search results.

A right-click on the OnTopReplica window afterwards opens the context menu. Select a window is used to specify an open window of which contents should be displays always on top of other windows and applications.

Selecting the Google Chrome window will display the entire window in the OnTopReplica window. It is now possible to use the select region option to draw a rectangle around a region containing the live scores.

The window will afterwards only display the live scores and nothing else. The application window stays on top all the time. It can be moved around on the desktop or resized to fit the individual needs of the computer user.

always on top

The program has options to automatically resize the application window and to position it in one of the corners of the computer screen.

Two restrictions are in place. The information in the always on top window can only be displayed if the source window continues to display it. This does mean for instance that it is not possible to use the same browser window to surf the Internet while information from it are displayed in the OnTopReplica window.

The other restriction are other always on top windows. Moving one of those windows will block the view of the OnTopReplica window.

Another interesting feature that has not been mentioned yet is Click forwarding which allows the user to interact with the source application by clicking on the OnTopReplica window.

The software program is available for download at the developer’s website as a setup and source. (Via Shell City)

In this article, I will introduce you to a different kind of text editor – Scribes. Upon finishing this article (and giving Scribes a try), you can judge for yourself whether or not Scribes can make you more productive or not.

Features

So what does Scribes offer feature-wise:

• Extensible with Python plugins.
• Remote editing.
• Snippets (more on this in a bit).
• Word completion.
• Auto pair completion.
• Smart insertion.
• Auto indent.
• Bookmarks and smart navigation.
• Document switcher.
• Syntax highlighting for over 30 languages.

For this article I want to focus specifically on one particular feature that is very unique to Scribes (and which does actually boost productivity). That feature is Snippets. But first, let’s make sure you have Scribes installed.

Installation

Installation is simple, because you will find Scribes in your distributions’ standard repositories. Follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool.
2. Search for “scribes” (no quotes).
3. Mark Scribes for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

That’s it!  Now you are ready to get productive.

Usage

Figure 1

You can start up Scribes from the menu or the command line. You will find Scribes in either the Applications > Accessories or Applications > Programming. If you don’t find it, you can always hit <Alt>F2 and then type scribes to start it up.

When you first open up Scribes you might be surprised to see how minimal the main window is (see Figure 1). It’s that way on purpose – to make you productive! As you can see there are few bells and whistles. You can toggle the find/replace bar, you can Undo/Redo, you can open documents, you can print, you can open up the options, and you can get help. What you don’t see, from the GUI is the most useful feature of Scribes – Snippets. Let’s see what this is all about.

Snippets

A snippet is basically like a permanent, expandable, highly useful clipboard. Imagine you are a programmer with a TON of functions or code pieces that you use frequently. Instead of having to open them and copy/paste them in, with Scribes you can just type a shortcut, hit the Tab button, and that snippet of code will automatically be added to your document. Let’s see how to create a snippet.

Figure 2

If you click on the drop-down associated with options (directly left of the help button), you will see the Template editor. When that window opens (see Figure 2) you will see a number of different languages listed that you can add templates for. In the example shown I have added a template for the sh language (shell scripting). To add a new template do the following:

1. Select the language for your template.
2. Click Add.
3. In the new window give your template a name, description, and then add the snippet in the Template section.
4. Click Save.

That’s it. Now let’s see how you can make use of that template.

In the main window if you type the word you used for the template name. When that word turns orange you know that Scribes is aware that is a template  and you can hit the Tab key. As soon as you hit the tab key that entire snippet of code will automatically be added to your document. Now that is productive!

Final thoughts

Although Scribes isn’t filled with bells and whistles, the features it does have will directly effect your productiveness. If you are a programmer you should really give Scribes a try. Sure there may be more complex, feature-rich programming editors available, but none of them will have you working as productively, with such a shallow learning curve, as Scribes.

TiddlyWiki is one such wiki, which you can download as a single file to your hard drive, or your can host it online using TiddlySpot. I recommend you visit the site and download a copy for yourself, there are easy to follow instructions, and no real set up is required.

To organize your notes you can use tags, and the whole database is easily searchable from the search box at the top. For example, I usually think up my designs as a single HTML page, without any PHP, just laying out the design. Depending on the general structure of the design I have a few templates at the ready, all in my trusty wiki. To get the one I use for a “content on the left, sidebar on the right” layout I just type “template sidebar right”, and the first note will be the one containing this layout, I can just copy paste the code into my file.

There are a number of other uses you can put your Wiki to of course. If you’re learning to code, you can simply copy the snippets you find and you want to study, and tag them by language, for future reference. You can also store some helpful links, ideas, project plans and so on.

You can use this is a regular notebook too, the real use of a Wiki is that it is very unobtrusive. You can use the same file for your personal notes, your diary and your coding organizer. Since you can use tags and search, you can display only the tiddlers (or notes) you want, so your coding stuff doesn’t have to get in the way of your other notes.

The see the power of a Wiki you really have to take a look yourself, so head on over to TiddlyWiki and grab yourself a copy. Wikis are not everyone’s cup of tea though, so you may not like it as much, but it is a bit different than most systems so give it a chance, try forcing yourself to use if for a week or two, you’ll definitely see the benefits.

If you’d like to get some more tips and tricks for web development and specific languages like HTML, CSS, PHP and the rest, head on down to Scriptastique for yumm coding treats!