Hotlist Manager
Introduction
The hotlist manager is a powerful tool to edit and rearrange your
AWeb hotlist. It allows you to add, change
or delete entries, and combine entries in groups, where each entry can
be stored in more than one group. You
can easily find your entries again with the find,
match and where functions.
You open the hotlist manager by selecting the Hotlist /
Hotlist manager menu item, or clicking the Manager
button in the hotlist viewer window.
Overview
The hotlist manager window looks like this:
The components on the left side are directly related to the hotlist and
its subdivision in groups. The right side of the window contains items
related to the resources, these are the entries to include in the
hotlist groups. The middle set of gadgets contain functions that apply
to both sides of the window.
The bottom row can contain three different sets of text-entry fields,
depending on the find and match
button states.
In the hotlist manager window, the focus is that half (right or left) that
the cursor key functions apply to. Also, the exact meaning of some of the
middle column buttons, and the name and url
input fields depend on the current focus.
This button contains an arrow pointing to the half that has the focus.
Also the background of the list title in the window half that has the focus,
is changed to black.
Using one of the functions on each window half, automatically sets the
focus to that half. Click the button to switch the focus manually.
You can also use the left or right cursor keys to select the focus
by hand.
This left-hand list contains one of the following:
- An outline of all groups defined in the hotlist, without their
actual entries. From here you can select a group for further
processing.
- All entries within a group, including the names of the direct
subgroups.
- A list of group names, as the result of the where
function.
You can select from the list by clicking an entry. If you double-click
on a group name, this group is shown in detail. If you double-click
on a link, that page is loaded in the browser window.
Many functions support multiple selections. Drag the mouse or hold the
SHIFT key while you click to select more than one entry.
The cursor up and down keys move the selection. Holding the SHIFT
key with the cursor up and down enables multiple selection. The
Enter key has the same function as double-clicking.
The right-hand list contains the resources, the things you build your
groups from. It contains one of the following:
- All links that are not yet assigned to any group.
- All links, both unassigned and already assigned to a group.
Entries in italics are not yet assigned, items that are displayed
in normal text are links that are already assigned to one or
more groups.
- The groups at the root level.
Use the List type chooser to set the contents to one
of these three.
Amongst other functions, you can use the Move In
function to move selected entries to the group currently displayed
in the left-hand list.
Selecting and keyboard support is like that of the Hotlist
display.
General functions
This function adds the selected entry or entries from the right-hand
(resource) list to the left-hand (hotlist)
list. The left-hand list must display a group. The focus switches to
the left-hand list.
If one or more moved entries were already assigned to other groups,
they will stay assigned to those groups. Use the Move
function to move (not add) entries.
The SHIFT + cursor left key combination is an alternate
way to perform this function.
This function moves the selected entry or entries from the right-hand
(resource) list to the left-hand (hotlist)
list. The left-hand list must display a group. The focus switches to
the left-hand list. Use the Add In
function to add (not move) entries.
If one or more moved entries were already assigned to other groups,
they will be removed from those groups.
If the left-hand (hotlist) list contains the
details of a group, and you have selected one or more entries, this
function removes the selected entries from the group. The entry
details are not deleted.
The focus switches to the right-hand list.
The removed entries may appear in the right-hand (resource)
list. This depends on the current contents of the right-hand
list, and whether the removed entry is still assigned to another
group or not.
The SHIFT + cursor right key combination is an alternate
way to perform this function.
The delete function deletes selected entries from the list that has
the focus. All details of the selected entries are deleted. If you
delete a link that is also included in another group, it is deleted
from that other group too. If you delete a group, all entries in that
group are deleted also.
Use this function to locate the group or groups that contain a
certain link. The search operates on the selected entry in the
right-hand (resource) list. It must be
a single entry, multiple selection doesn't work for this function.
As a result, the left-hand (hotlist) list
will contain the details of the group that contains this link, and
the link that was searched fore becomes selected.
If the link is assigned to more than one group, the left-hand list will
show a list of all groups containing the link.
This function loads the selected link in the browser window. It
operates on a single link only, from the list that has the focus.
Double-clicking on a link in either list will do the same.
By default both lists contain the page titles only. Use this checkbox
to enable display of the URLs along with the titles.
Clicking this button reverts to the last saved version of the hotlist.
All changes made since last saving the list are lost.
Save the current hotlist. If you have made changes to the list, these
will be saved automatically when you quit AWeb. Use this button to save
the list immediately.
Functions in the left-hand half window
Use the up and down arrow buttons to move the selected entry up or down.
This works only for single items, multiple selection doesn't work.
Using the CTRL + cursor up or down key combination does
the same.
Sort the hotlist, or the currently displayed group. Subgroups are
sorted first in alphabetical order, then come the individual links,
also sorted alphabetically.
Add a new link entry to the currently displayed group. Use the
name and url input fields to change
its details.
Add a new group to the hotlist, or a new subgroup to the currently
displayed group. Use the name input field to change
its name.
Show an outline of all groups in the hotlist. The complete subgroup
hierarchy is displayed, but links are omitted.
When group details are displayed, this button switches to the parent
group. If there is no parent group, the hotlist outline is displayed.
The Backspace key performs the same function.
Functions in the right-hand half window
Add a new link entry. Use the name and url
input fields to change its details. Unlike the result of the
+ Entry button, the new entry is not assigned to a group.
Use this chooser to select from the three possible content types of
the right-hand list.
Rest shows a list of all links that are not yet assigned to any group.
All shows a list of all links.
Groups shows a list of groups at the root level. You can
move a group from the root level into another group too,
then the group becomes a subgroup.
Enable the find function. This button toggles, clicking it again
(or clicking the match button) disables the find function.
You can now type a search string in the entry field at the bottom.
After you hit Enter in the entry field, or click the Next
button, the string is located in the right-hand list. Clicking the
Next button again finds the next occurrence.
If URLs are displayed, these are searched for the string
too, otherwise only the titles are searched.
Enable the match function. This button toggles, clicking it again
(or clicking the find button) disables the match function.
You can now type a search string or pattern in the entry field at the bottom.
After you hit Enter in the entry field, all entries in the
right-hand list matching the string or pattern become selected.
If URLs are displayed, these are searched for the string
too, otherwise only the titles are searched.
The match function supports both plain search strings and patterns.
If the search string typed contains a DOS pattern matching character,
it uses pattern matching against the full entry titles (and optionally URLs).
Otherwise a search is made for any occurrence of the search string
within the titles (or URLs).
When URLs are searched with pattern matching, and the pattern does not
contain the addressing scheme part (the part like "http://"), then the
scheme part of every URL is ignored. So a pattern "foo.bar#?" matches URLs
"http://foo.bar/xyz.html" and "ftp://foo.bar/zoo".
This chooser determines the order in which the link entries in the right-hand
list are displayed. You can choose between sorted by title or sorted by
URL.
These fields contain the group name or link title, and the URL of
the currently selected item in the list that has the focus. The entry
fields allow you to change the name or the URL for any group or link by hand.
If you change the title or URL of a link from the right-hand
(resource) list, these details are changed for
every instance of this link, in any group.
If, on the other hand, you change the details of a link from the
left-hand (hotlist) list, these are only changed
for the entry in the current group. If another group contains the same
link, that entry is not affected.