Rdex version 1.5.6


Rdex is a freeform database. Use it to store addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, online ids, recipes, or a million other pieces of miscellaneous information.

Rdex is also available for Java and Android and the database can be sync'd with Windows using Dropbox.
http://pnewman.com/rdex/


UPGRADING FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS

Upgrading from version 1.1: Before you run the installer, open your existing Rdex and note where the data file is stored. You can find the location of the data file from the Rdex window's title bar or from the menu "Help/About." Once you have installed Rdex 1.5 run it and use the menu "File/Open" to locate and open your data file.

Upgrading from version 1.4 or later: Rdex 1.5 should start up with the last .rdx file you were using.


NEW IN VERSION 1.5.6
 o Improved security of password handling for encrypted files
 o Added a timestamp (date) insertion menu item
 o Added an erase button for the search box
 o Added an option to open in List View
 o Display in browser function now accepts file: urls from the local file system
 o Organized preference items into a new options menu item
 o Added ctrl double-click to select an entire line
 o Added a portable memory stick capability that stores the rdex.ini file in the same folder as the program


NEW IN VERSION 1.5.5
 o Added an AES-128 encrypted file format
 o Made saving a backup copy of the file optional


NEW IN VERSION 1.5.4
 o Launch browser or mail client on double click of url or email address.


NEW IN VERSION 1.5.3
 o Autosave check every five minutes.
 o List all cards button
 o Option to sort list all cards alphabetically
 o If only a single card in list all cards just show card
 o First save to a temporary file, save original file as a backup copy then rename the temp file
 o Check if Rdex already running on startup 


NEW IN VERSION 1.5.2

o Wildcard search.
o Import from uncompressed AZZ cardfile format.


NEW IN VERSION 1.5.1

o Fixed bug in import from Microsoft Cardfile that sometimes caused Rdex to crash.


NEW IN VERSION 1.5

o Option to sort cards and insert them in alphabetical order
o Persistent state saved upon system shutdown as well as during program close
o Added new UTF-8 file format
o Import from Microsoft Cardfile file format
o Import from Quickdex file format


BRIEF INSTRUCTIONS

To create a new card, click on the "New Card" button, press <Ctrl+N>, or select "Card/New Card" from the menu. Just copy <Ctrl+C> and paste <Ctrl+V> or type text into the card. If you want to make the "List View" function meaningful, use the first line of the card as a title. Don't forget to press the "Save" button, press <Ctrl+S> or select "File/Save" from the menu when you are done.

You can delete a card by pressing the "Delete" button, pressing <Ctrl+D>, or selecting "Card/Delete Card" from the menu.

To find a card, type a string in the Search box and press <Enter>. Search strings are not case sensitive. Press <Enter> again to find the next occurrence or <Shift+Enter> to find the previous one. If the search string is blank, you simply jump to the next (or previous) card. You can also search for the next occurrence of a string by selecting it with the mouse and pressing <Ctrl+F>.

You can get a list of the first lines of all cards that contain the text in the Search box by pressing <Alt+Enter> or <Ctrl+Enter> or selecting <Card/List View> from the menu. The clipboard button, <Card/List All Cards> or <Ctrl+L> will simply list the first lines of all cards ignoring any text in the Search box. Clicking on an item in the list, or selecting an item (with the arrow keys) and pressing <Enter> displays the card.

Double click on a web link or an email address and Rdex will bring up the link in the default browser or bring up the address in the default email client. Rdex now supports file:/// links to display files in the local file system. This can be useful to display photos. Ctrl + double-click will select an entire line.

Wildcards can be used in a search. A single "?" matches any single character, two "??"s will match any two adjacent characters and so on. A "*" matches zero or more occurrences of any character up to a limit of 100 characters. Two consecutive "**"s will double the limit to 200 characters and so on. (To search for a literal "?" or "*" use "\?" or "\*" and use "\\" to match a literal "\".) Wildcard matching is not case sensitive and only works in forward search or list cards.

You can sort all of the cards alphabetically according to their first lines with "Card/Sort Cards a-z." The "Options" menu also allows you to select whether to add new cards in sorted order, to the end of the list of cards or after the most recently viewed card. There is an option "Options/Sort List View" to sort the "list all cards" <Ctrl+L> feature into alphabetical order. Mostly it does not matter what order the cards are stored in so insertion at the end of the list is fine. If you prefer some other structure it can be useful to select where in the list to insert a new card with the "insert after current card" option.

A card sequence number is displayed to the left of the status line at the bottom of the window. This is only a sequence number not a card identifier. If you add or delete a card the sequence numbers for the following cards will change. If you sort the cards all of the sequence numbers may change.

Normally Rdex will store preference information, the default password and recent filenames in a file called rdex.ini located in the user's AppData folder. If you would prefer Rdex to leave no trace, copy rdex.exe to a memory stick and create an empty text file in the same folder and name it rdex.ini. You can then run Rdex directly from the memory stick. (You can also enforce this behavior by starting Rdex from the command line with a -p flag: rdex.exe -p [filename].)


OPENING, SAVING & PRINTING FILES

To open a new file, press the "Open" button or select "File/Open..." from the menu. You can also open a file by selecting one from the "File/Open Recent" list.

If you make any changes don't forget to save your file by pressing the "Save" button or selecting "File/Save" from the menu. You will need to select a filename and location for your cardfile the first time you save. Once you have selected a filename Rdex will autosave every 5 minutes if there are any changes. File/Always Save Backup Copy is an option that on every save operation will also save a copy of the previous version of the file as a .bak file.

I save my cardfile on the Internet using Dropbox <www.dropbox.com>. That allows me to access the data from anywhere with Internet access. There's also an Android version of Rdex available for access via smart phone or tablet <http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pnewman.rdex>.

To start a whole new empty cardfile select "File/New Cardfile" from the menu. (Don't confuse "Card/New Card" with "File/New Cardfile." One is a new card within the current cardfile, the other begins a whole new empty cardfile.)

You can import a Quickdex for Windows cardfile (.qdx) a text-only cardfile in Microsoft Cardfile (.crd) format or an uncompressed AZZ Cardfile (.azzx). ("File/Save As" in AZZ Cardfile can save a file in uncompressed .azzx format.) In the "File/Open" dialog select "Quickdex for Windows," "Microsoft Cardfile" or "Uncompressed AZZ Cardfile" in the drop down box in the bottom right corner. Save the file as an Rdex file as soon as you have imported it. Rdex does not handle text formatting or images so these will be removed from imported files. Check to make sure the import is acceptable before using it.

You can export all the cards in a cardfile to a text (.txt) file or a comma separated values (.csv) file in the File/Save As menu (using the "Save as type" dropdown box). (Only ASCII files can be converted to csv format so first convert to Rdex ASCII format if necessary.) A .csv file can be used to transfer the cards in a cardfile to a spreadsheet such as MS Excel. Rdex can also import csv files using the File/Open menu.

To print a card choose "File/Print" from the menu. The print function is limited to a single card and a single page. If you wish to print more just export the cardfile to a text file and open it in notepad or a similar application and print from there.


FILE FORMATS

Two plain text file formats are available in Rdex, ASCII and UTF-8, and one AES-128 encrypted format.

The UTF-8 file format is preferred for plain text. UTF-8 is able to handle all symbols and characters in all writing systems. Characters will not get confused when shared across different computer systems (e.g. Windows and Android). However, Rdex UTF-8 format is not supported by versions of Rdex earlier than 1.5 for Windows or 2.4.7 for Android. Rdex ASCII format is supported by all versions of Rdex but it is limited to a locale dependent set of 256 characters. If you are only using English without any fancy symbols (e.g. currency symbols , ,  or fancy quotes) both formats are identical. Most Western European languages also work reasonably well in both formats.

You can select which format you want, or convert between formats, using the "Save as type" dropdown box at the bottom of the "File/Save As" dialog. Converting from ASCII to UTF-8 format will not loose any information. Converting from UTF-8 back to ASCII may loose information if there are any characters that cannot be represented by the default character set on your system. Rdex will warn you if this will occur.


ENCRYPTION

Rdex supports an AES-128 encrypted file format as of version 1.5.5 for Windows, 2.6.2 for Java and 2.4.17 for Android. A default passphrase option is available. This allows all encrypted files to use the same passphrase stored in the Rdex application data. It is convenient in that encrypted files can be opened without typing in the passphrase. However, it is not very secure. Use it for protecting data files stored in the cloud or backup copies of the data on a flash drive.

For the highest security do not use the default passphrase option. Use an unguessable passphrase specific to the file you are protecting. The level of security is directly related to the length of the passphrase and how easily it is guessed.

Rdex encryption is not intended for high value data such as bank account numbers and sensitive account login credentials. For these you should use a password safe. Keepass <keepass.info> is a free and popular password safe. A password safe encrypts each entry separately and only decrypts an entry when it is displayed. Rdex must decrypt the entire file so that the file can be searched. It remains decrypted in the memory while you are using it.

Set or clear the default passphrase using Options/Set Default Passphrase. Encrypt a file or change the passphrase using the "Save as type" dropdown box at the bottom of the "File/Save As" dialog. An option to use the default passphrase or type in a specific passphrase is given in the dialog. You can remove encryption by using the "Save as type" dropdown box to select UTF-8 plain text format.

Be careful using encryption. There is no way to recover a forgotten passphrase. Forget the passphrase and the data is lost. It is a good idea to save a plain text backup copy of the data in a safe place from time to time.


KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

The following keys and key combinations are supported:

    <Ctrl+A>  Select all of the text in the card and copy it to the clip board.
    <Ctrl+C>  Copy selected text to the clip board.
    <Ctrl+D>  Delete the current card.
    <Ctrl+E>  Erase text in search box.
    <Ctrl+F>  Find next occurrence of selected item.
    <Ctrl+L>  List all cards (ignoring any text in the Search box).
    <Ctrl+N>  Create a new, empty card. 
    <Ctrl+S>  Save any changes made to file.
    <Ctrl+T>  Insert timestamp (date).
    <Ctrl+V>  Paste from clip board. 
    <Ctrl+X>  Delete selected text and copy it to the clip board.
    <Ctrl+Z>  Undo the previous edit operation (if any).

    <Enter>       Display next card that contains the string in the search box.
                  In list view display selected card
    <Shift+Enter> Display previous card that contains the string in the search box.
    <Alt+Enter>   List all cards that contain the text in the Search box.
    <Ctrl+Enter>  Same as <Alt+Enter>.
    <Page Up>     Scroll up card or if at top display previous card.
    <Page Down>   Scroll down card or if at bottom display next card.
    <Home>        Scroll to top of card
    <Shift+Home>  Display first card.
    <Shift+Tab>   Toggle keyboard focus between edit window and search box.
    <F1>          Display this help information.
    <Esc>         Return to displaying card if displaying help information or in list view.
    <Up/Down Arrow>    Move cursor
                       In list view select next item.

If you find any bugs or other undesirable features, please send an email to <rdex@pnewman.com>.


LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details: <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Copyright  2006-2019 Peter Newman
