PK Tips for Protecting Your Data in Portable Mode

If you're using Personal Knowbase's portability mode to carry your notes with you on removable media such as a USB drive, you have extra security risks. Here are tips for protecting your data.

Computer Basics: Fixing Lost File Associations

Every file in Windows has a file type, also called a file extension. If you double-click directly on a file name in Windows Explorer, Windows uses that file type to decide what program to launch to read that file. The program associated with the file type is the file type association.

For example, the file type JPG is usually associated with your graphics editing software. So clicking on the name of a JPG file should launch your graphics software with that file already opened.

PK Tip: Merging Keywords

Occasionally, you may discover that you have two (or more) keywords in your Personal Knowbase data file that are redundant. Plurals, alternate spellings, and abbreviations are common culprits.

Reading Personal Knowbase Files over a Network

If you need multiple users to be able to read the same Personal Knowbase data file (KNO file), you may find it useful to place the data file on a network. A centrally located data file on a network allows any user with a computer connected to the network to read the data.

Productivity Tip: Bridging Between Sessions

Often the hardest part of making progress on a project is... getting started. Or re-started after a break. When you sit down to start a writing session, you're facing a blank page. When you set up your easel to paint, you face a blank canvas. When you start a planning effort, it's a blank calendar. When you're cleaning the garage, it's the opposite: complete overwhelm.

Whatever type of project you're working on, getting yourself going on each session can be a challenge.

PK Tip: Suppressing the Warning Message for Saving Articles

When you first start using Personal Knowbase, the software always asks you to verify that you want to save an article when you close it. As you become more familiar with the software, you may find these verification dialog boxes unnecessary, perhaps annoying.

The dialog box itself gives you the option to stop showing it for the rest of the current PK session. However, the next time you start up PK again, the warning dialogs will be back.

If you find yourself always disabling these dialog boxes, you may want to turn them off permanently and never see them again.

Computer Basics: Spring Cleaning Your Computer

As the weather warms up in the spring, it's traditional to open your windows and clean out the house. Clear up the clutter, sweep out the garage, and donate your old clothes.

While you're in the mood, consider cleaning up your computer too.

Here are 10 ideas for Spring Cleaning your computer:

PK Tip: Finding Text across Multiple Knowbase Data Files

Personal Knowbase has no built-in way to search for a text string across multiple data files.

However, within a single PK session, the Find dialog box remembers its settings, even after you've opened a different file. So you can search for the same string using the same range and search settings by opening each data file consecutively and re-running Find without changing the settings.

Using Personal Knowbase for Contact Management

A common use for Personal Knowbase is to store contact and address information. Create a Personal Knowbase "index card" file for your contacts.

In Personal Knowbase's terminology, we refer to each "index card" as an "article". Make an article for each contact containing all information and notes about that person, company, or organization. You can easily sort, print, search, index, and filter the list of entries.

PK Tip: Opening a File Automatically at Startup

Did you know that you can make Personal Knowbase automatically open a specific data file whenever it starts up?

To specify a file to open at startup: