Adding Line Numbers Microsoft Word
Adding Line Numbers Microsoft Word
Need to Find Some Words? Grep for Windows!
Unix, Linux and Macintosh users all enjoy the availability of a search tool that is lacking in Microsoft Windows. A wonderful command line utility called Grep is taken for granted by those users.
Grep has it’s origins in Unix and as I mentioned it is a command line utility that does a great job of searching for text strings in files. Basically you type the word grep followed by any text or text string you want to search for and grep returns a list of every file containing that string. Sample:
grep banana
This would return a list of every file containing the word banana.
Over the years many variations of this command have emerged and features such as listing the line numbers and or displaying the line of a file that contained the text string have been added. Now there are options in many of the GUI based variants that allow you to do a search and replace. This lets you search every file on a disk or in a folder for the text string and replace it.
Now my earlier example is not very “real world” but if you think about it there are many instances where this replace ability would come in handy. Have you ever moved? Did you need to change your address in a lot of documents? Have you ever noticed a typo in a web page heading that is on every page? (This was my immediate need.) Another great use for this tool is the ability to find something you wrote when you have forgotten the file name. Just enter a word or phrase that you remember from the file and let the Grep program list every file it is in.
Many of us, jealous of this simple tool, have sought out equivalent programs for our Windows based computers. The search in Windows has never been all that useful and compared to many of these grep and “grep like” programs it is intolerably slow. Not to mention the fact that it only list the file names and not where it found what you were looking for in the file. These grep programs usually list the line number and display the lines that it found so you can quickly confirm that the file is the one you are looking for.
The other day I again found myself looking for a way to make the same changes to multiple files and I once again started searching for a good grep program. I found several right off that bat that were listed commercially. Unfortunately many of these were listed at a cost of as much as $149.00
Determined to meet my immediate need and to look for a grep like program to use in the future I began looking deeper for programs that were either free or low cost. In searching for working samples I wasted a lot of time downloading trial versions from websites only to find out that the trial was handicapped in one way or another. I don’t mind trial versions that expire, but disabling the most useful features really does not give a person a chance to “really” try the software out. Realizing that my abilities to locate usable software on the net are better than average I determined that many people must be having an even worse time locating a decent grep or grep like program with search and replace capabilities.
I found two that were “real” trials, had the replace capability that I needed and the purchase price after the trial expired was reasonable. I am linking them here for you to check out if you like.
The first one is Windows Grep by Huw Millington
www.wingrep.com
The second program is AJC Grep offered by AJC Software.
www.ajcsoft.com
Both programs do a good job, are fast and offer features like not modifying the original file. They differed mostly in style. The WindowsGrep program presented you with easy to follow dialogue boxes asking you questions for each step of the process. The AJCGrep program opens with an easy to follow screen containing most of the options for doing a search and or replace.
I have “played” with both programs and tested for all the criteria I was looking for. Here is an example of an experiment I conducted with both.
I had a typo in the heading of several web documents so I tested the search and replace against the entire directory. I had each program search for GIZIZMO and replace the instances with Gizmo. The search in each program returned a list of 77 to 99 files out of 526 files searched. (Both programs had options for searching text or binary files so the number of matches differed according to the settings I specified.)
Both programs made the replace in a matter of a few seconds and both programs had an option to write the changes to the original files or to a new file. In the case of Windows Grep, the program wrote the changes to duplicate files with a .new extension added to the end. The AJC Grep program had an option for saving the original with a .bak extention.
Both programs offered several additional features such as saving the search criteria for later use and printing out the results of a search or saving it to a file.
Another reason you should probably look at these two programs is that both had decent help files and I used the contact information posted on both websites and got responses almost immediately.
Well there you have it. Check them out and happy greping!
About the Author
Lee Brannon is an experienced Systems Administrator, technical writer and I.T. professional. He currently operates a help and information sight for computers, cell phones, video games and gadgets at Gizgadmo.com
Add Line Numbers to Word docs
The Guy On The Tech Support Line Asked Me My Version Number- What Does He Mean?
What version software are you using the nice fellow on the tech support line asks. Have you ever been asked this question and where absolutely clueless what the person on the other side of the world, in India, was talking about. Speak English you think you yourself. What does all of this mean and what does it matter. I just want my new powerful Microsoft Vista computer to work.
You are not imaging your quandary. Amazingly enough there is not one simple answer to this question or even a consistent naming system to the whole process. Software is inconsistent when it comes to vision numbers but there are general rules that software manufactures tend to follow.
If there is absolutely no version number available what this means is the is probably the products first release. Common sense (often uncommon in the history of the computer hardware and software industry) the first time a computer software product is released it is not likely and indeed unlikely to have a version number beside it. Similarly computer games often lack version numbers at all and are known simply the title of the specific game.
Next there are major version numbers, minor version numbers of software and patch level (or update) versions of computer software. Generally the first digit in the naming of the software product (say for example software version 2.1.3), stands for the major version release of the software. This means that the software product has undergone a major revision from version 1.0. The program) will have new features and will have undergone a major rewrite of its computer code. Hopefully (for your hard earned money and time spent installing the "new" computer software) the program will have added functionality, features and increased speed.
The second digit (the digit) 1 (as in version 2.1.3), stand for the minor version upgrade or update. The minor version update number designates an incremental update on the initial update. New features may have been added but the product has not undergone a major revision. An incremental update so to speak. For example a company may additional fonts to a word-processing program.
Lastly the digit 3 in the above example is called a "patch level" or "update "version number. Companies generally release a product with a new patch number when customers have complained about bugs in a product or a major new operating system update (say the release of Microsoft XP Service Pack 2) or the release of the new long awaited advanced Microsoft Operating System Vista are released and cause nothing but problems with the preexisting software out in the field.
Lastly to throw a bug in the ointment is "Beta" Versions of software. Most of the times the letter will be will a b which stands for a beta (or trial version). Companies do not always make their beta visions of computer software available to the wholesale general public. Often they will make a beta trial of the software available to a limited amount of customers and die hard computer guinea pigs. Beta versions are often available for download on the internet after an application for the product and the signing of legal non disclosure, non distribution documents. Software products, like pharmaceuticals can never really be tested and assessed until placed in large scale, real world use. However the standard computer industry joke has always been that in actuality most Microsoft products are in essence Beta versions waiting for their customers to field test and report back of any problems found in order that the software product can be patched and updated to solve bugs.
Hopefully now you will in a better position of understanding to answer the question on that tech support 800 toll free number phone call to that question of "What version of software of product x are you using on your computer ?"
About the Author
Maxwell A. . Rubin -
Vintage Computer Manuals
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