Release Note (Version 5.1)


STGuru 5.1 (December 2013)

1. [Unicode conversion: Fixed the bug that some Unicode-specific characters couldn't be properly converted] Fixed the bug that some Unicode-specific characters couldn't be properly converted during conversions between UTF-8/Unicode/Unicode BE.

2. [Documentation updates] Various updates of documentation.

3. [Word Adjustment Engine: cumulative update of the word adjustment libraries] The word adjustment libraries have been relatively complete. However, we are still improving them in details gradually.
 

STGuru 5.0.1 (November 2013)

1. [UTF-8 CHS-CHT Conversion: Set whether to use BOM file header when the output code is UTF-8] Now when converting a file or a directory, if the target file encoding is UTF-8, you can set whether the BOM file header is used.  You can set it in the Unicode tab of the Options dialog box. Options are (1) Use BOM header, (2) Do not use BOM header, and (3) Same as source (only in conversion from UTF-8 to UTF-8).

2. [Bug fixes in various functions] Fixed quite a few bugs, such as the following, in various functions.

    a) Find/Replace: If the find word appears multiple times in the same paragraph, not all of them were counted when you clicked the "Find Count" button.

    b) Handle Redundant Lines: After you have removed redundant lines, the status of the current file opened in the edit area was not marked as "changed", so the "Save" function could not be activated. If you exit at this time, the file would exit directly with no changes saved.

    c) Software Activation: STGuru could not be activated through regular procedure in certain Windows 7 systems (especially some workstations in a corporate network). A workaround is provided for this situation.

    d) Directory Conversion: In a directory conversion, if the source and destination codes are both Unicode/Unicode BE, source files in Unicode/Unicode BE would be copied as is to the destination directory, rather than being converted as expected.

3. [Trial Editions: Character count/file size limit doubled in clipboard conversion and file conversion] Within the 30-day trial period of the trial editions, the original character count limit for one-time conversion was 40 KB for all conversions. It was noticed the size of XML version exported from Word files involving some specific formatting can easily exceed 40 KB, even when there are just a few words. Since this version, within the 30-day trial period, the trial editions will keep the one-time conversion characters limit on edit area conversion as 40 KB, but in clipboard conversion and file/directory conversion, the limits will be doubled, so 80 KB for each clipboard conversion and also 80 KB for each file in file/directory conversion.

4. [Clipboard conversion: Dialog box could be optionally kept after conversion is complete] For convenience of frequent clipboard conversion users, now a "Close dialog box when conversion is complete" check box is provided in the Clipboard Conversion dialog box.  You can decide whether to close the dialog box when conversion is complete. If the check box is checked, the dialog box will not exit when conversion is complete, so you can perform the next clipboard conversion directly and conveniently.

5. [Clipboard conversion: Optionally lock Windows clipboard and prompt accordingly during clipboard conversion] By default, the Windows has only one system clipboard shared by all clipboard operations in the whole system all the time. To avoid interference and conflicts between the clipboard conversion you have started and any other clipboard operations, such as the cut, copy, and paste of text, graphics, files, etc. during the conversion, now STGuru provides a "Lock Windows clipboard during clipboard conversion" option. You can find it in the Conversion tab of the Options dialog box. It is enabled by default. For time-consuming clipboard conversions, you will see eye-catching flashing text that prompts you about this during the conversion. The text is different when this option is enabled or disabled.

6. [Word Adjustment Engine: cumulative update of the word adjustment libraries] Cumulative update and perfection of word adjustment details.
7. [Installation package: Unicode encoding is employed for better compatibility] Unicode encoding is employed in installation package to better suit various operating systems. Now the installation packages of the two Traditional Chinese Editions (trial and full - their installation language and documentation language are Traditional Chinese, while UI languages are Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English) can be properly installed in Windows in Simplified Chinese or English. In such cases, however, the working UI language is still the language of respective operating system. Though the Simplified Chinese Editions can also be properly installed in other language versions of Windows, they can only be used properly in Simplified Chinese Windows. This is the design.
8. [Other updates, revisions and perfection] Other miscellaneous updates, revisions and perfection on programming, interface and documentation.

Taobao (Alipay) payment options (January 2013)

Taobao (Alipay) payment options for STGuru has been updated. Now RMB payers can use them to order or update licenses!

 

STGuru 4.5.2 (January 2013)

1. [File/Folder Batch Conversion: bug fix] Fixed the bug that an error occurred when adding or editing an entry.

2. [Word Adjustment Engine: cumulative update of the word adjustment libraries] Cumulative update and perfection of word adjustment details.

3. [Word Adjustment Engine: Correcting Repeating Items] Expanded the Correcting Repeating Items dialog box. If the "Before Adjustment" part of more than one entry is identical due to reasons such as manual editing of a library file, after the library is loaded and upon its self-verification, this dialog box will pop up.

 

STGuru 4.5.1 (December 2012)

1. [Code Detection: Improved the speed of detecting large files] The speed of code detection on large files has been improved. As this feature is integrated in dialogs/modules such as File/Web Page/Directory/Site Conversion, File/Folder Character/Word Count and Open from Explorer, this improvement has in turn improved the fluency of these modules when manipulating big files.

2. [File/Web Page/Directory/Site Conversion: Integrated the function of file/folder statistics] Two Count It buttons were added, one to the right of source path and another to the right of the destination path. When the path points to a text file or a folder, you can retrieve its character/word/line details with such a button.

 

STGuru 4.5 (December 2012)

1. [Keep the original character in CHS-CHT conversions between two Unicode-family (UTF-8/Unicode/Unicode BE) code types if there is no valid conversion result] The core code set for Simplified Chinese is GBK and the core code set for Traditional Chinese is Big5. Some very rare Chinese characters may only appear in the GBK code set or only in the Big5 code set and have no counterpart in the other set. Previously, such a character will be converted to a box (□) during a CHS-CHT conversion to indicate that it has no valid counterpart in the other Chinese variation. From this version on, however, if the source and target codes are both Unicode-family (UTF-8/Unicode/Unicode BE) codes, the original character will be kept as the conversion result. This is possible because all Chinese characters are included in the Unicode code set, so Unicode could be used to process and display all Chinese characters. In other cases (the source or the target code is GBK or Big5), because no counterpart exists in the other code set, or because of different conversion mechanism, such a character will still be converted to a box (□). If you do not like this feature, you can disable it in the Options dialog box (menu: Tools > Options > Conversion).

2. [Word Adjustment Engine: cumulative update of the word adjustment libraries] The word adjustment libraries have been relatively complete since 2010. However, we are still improving them in details gradually.
3. [Word Adjustment Engine: word adjustment mode and glossary mode] The word adjustment system could also be used as a glossary management system. When you select "Glossary mode" in the word adjustment interface, the instruction text in the UI will change accordingly to as "Term" and "Explanation and Notes". By default, when you change a library to glossary mode, its status of being applied will be canceled (because glossaries are not supposed to participate in word adjustment); when you switch to word adjustment mode, you will be prompted to apply this library (again).
4. [Word Adjustment Engine: maximum number of final fix libraries changes from three to six] So the user can use three of them in building project glossaries (glossaries are not supposed to be applied so they can avoid participating in word adjustment), and the other three will be used in final fix.
5. [Word Adjustment Engine: improved system word adjustment packs] Added the Basic pack and the Hong Kong Traditional Chinese pack. So now eight system word adjustment packs are provided in the software's installation package. The Basic pack enables users to convert individual Chinese characters properly without converting words composed of multiple characters, so it can properly convert 面 in 面包 and 面对, but will not convert 软件 to 軟體. The Hong Kong Traditional Chinese pack contains only a few items. It is a pilot pack provided as a container only and we have no plan to expand it recently. Interested and experienced Hong Kong Traditional Chinese users can expand the pack by themselves if they wish. Names and descriptions in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English are provided for each of the 8 system packs (Default, Basic, Science/Tech, IT, Windows, Hong Kong Traditional Chinese, Literary and History/Geography), the proper one displayed upon corresponding UI language.
6. [Word Adjustment Engine: other improvements] Expanded the UI of Word Adjustment Pack Manager. Now the UI's size and the proportion of the upper and lower areas (word adjustment pack list area and pack description area) can be tuned at any time.  Fixed the bugs that when the "Before Adjustment" part of an entry is only one English character long or starts with an English semicolon ";", this entry could not be saved.
7. ["Baidu Post Assistant" renamed to "Chinese Characters to Decimal/Hexadecimal Unicode Codes"] The original function was used to post on Baidu Tieba in Traditional Chinese. Baidu canceled the mechanism later, and the function by STGuru was also canceled. However, some users may still need to convert Chinese characters from GBK/Big5/Unicode to Unicode in decimal/hexadecimal codes, so we kept the module and renamed it to the current name after necessary reform and improvements.
8. [Batch Replace] The two system macros "Page Cleaning for Simplified Chinese (GBK)" and "Page Cleaning for Traditional Chinese (Big5)" have been optimized with regular expressions. Now they have less instructions, but are faster and more powerful.
9. [Documentation updates] Documentation updates that reflect recent software updates.
10. [Other revisions] Some other minor bug fixes and improvements.
11. [Other important revisions] In progress...

 

Significant price drops in the RMB prices of STGuru Standard and Golden Editions in Chinese mainland (June 2010)

CPI remains high in Chinese mainland in recent years. However, to encourage local and international users in mainland to use STGuru Standard Edition - the edition of STGuru specially designed to run in various language environments, we decided to buck the trend and benefit our users by significantly reducing the RMB prices of STGuru Standard Edition series licenses - Standard License, Golden License and so on!

 

Past and Future

STGuru keeps improving. There will be new minor update every 1-2 months, or less, and major update 1-2 times a year. Please visit STGuru Homepage for the most recent version of this product regularly. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to write us:

 

service@speedy7.com

 

History

If you like to know the history of this product, please read:

 

History of STGuru

 

Recent Plan

1. Further update for word adjustment engine so it can be better and up to time.

2. Code conversion related technical improvements.

3. STGuru is both a conversion tool and a text editor, more professional features as a text editor will be added in future editions.

4. More conversion options, especially Unicode-related conversions.

5. Improvement on user interfaces so it can look better and can be used more fluently and comfortably.

6. Improvement of the whole program so it can be more stable, smoother and more intelligent -- Though user may not find it on the first sight, we believe there are still many minor hidden bugs to be fixed, and many minor functions can be improved, so the program can be used more comfortably - more stable, smoother and more intelligent..

7. Your suggestions and bug reports - any suggestions and bug reports are welcome. Please send it to:

 

service@speedy7.com