Eccoext improves Ecco in two main ways. It fixes old irritations, and adds wholly new features.

First, a table of bugs/ annoyances which have been fixed.



Ecco Limitation

Eccoext Improvement
Mouse scroll wheels didn't work
 They do now
Recurring dates failed after the year 2000
 They don't now
Sorting sub items in outlines was limited
 All levels can now be easily sorted
Searching was a little clumsy
 It is now quick and easy to jump to the next occurence of selected text
Lists could only be numbered up to 999 items
 You can have up to 64,000 now
Multi Folder columns had to be edited in a cramped and inconvenient window
 You can now see as many as you want
Some Ecco entries might get lost ("become orphans") if their parent folders vanished
 This no longer happens: all orphan items now have their own folder
Copying information in and out of Ecco was difficult
 Eccoext handles more formats (html, rtf ...) for getting text out of Ecco and makes copying text into it slicker and easier

Then there are the Features that no one imagined Ecco might be missing.

[(Each of these could use a page of explanation. Please feel free to write it.)]

  1. You can assign most any hotkey to most any ecco function. EASILY! (just like in Word... ;)
  2. You can see how many items are in each and every folder...
  3. You can Control the display color of text items via the folder rules. Here's how.
  4. You can copy from an Ecco Outline in HTML format and then paste into notepad or some other text editor to get *instant html!!!*
  5. You can make items dependent upon other items. For instance, you can make an item change to a 'to-do' only when another item has been completed.
  6. You can fill in value of Field based on lookup of value of item text of field of another linked item.
  7. You can run EccoPro from a USB memory without Admin priv.
  8. You can lock items so that you don't accidently erase them.
  9. You can start minimized to tray/Close to tray/Minimize to tray
  10. Tooltips now show context/folder/depends information
  11. Some other programs have gained a "Send selected text to Ecco" right click menu: very quick and simple. This doesn't work with MS Office or Firefox, though. You can use a global hotkey with them. [needs explanation]
  12. You can now write programs in many languages (perl, Python, JScript, VBScript and LUA) the are activated upon item/folder changes and access built in Ecco commands (such as create item, collect values from folders, etc.) and Ecco variables (such as currently selected item) and run them directly from inside Ecco upon trigger of event, or using the Launch menu. To access Python or perl, need installed on your system the language's "active" installation. LUA is built into the extension, and JScript and VBScript are built into most modern Windows systems.
  13. Copying and pasting have been improved
    1. You can copy without subitem/Paste Block(Reduce global pointer/items)
    2. You can copy with column/Paste with column(Exchange data with Excel freely)
    3. You can copy/Paste RTF

Extended Key Assignments

Programming (Auto-assignment and scripting)
This feature gives extensive abilities to the program to assign values to folders, extract information, or do simple calculations on folders. With the ability to deal with Parent, Child, dependent, folders or items the program is very versatile. SUPER POWER AUTO-ASSIGNMENT RULES... including LUA syntax and REGEX matching...
  1. AUTO ASSIGNMENT CAN BE BASED ON:
    1. Other folder values
    2. Item Text
    3. Parent's folder values or item text
    4. Children's folder values or item text
    5. Linked item's folder values or item text
    6. Dates and times in the text of an item
  2. Assign calculated values.. (not just checkmarks).