Information about fixed errors, changes (if any) and news (if any) made in the recent version can be found in "En_WhatIsNew.txt" file that's part of the installation ZIP-file.
Short description:
The Inverse Text Sort reads text from one or multiple plain-text file(s), cuts the text to words, removes given unwanted characters and words containing those unwanted characters, performs inverse sort of the words (see below) writing the output to a new plain-text file. Several output formats are provided - with or without frequency, justified left or right. Multiple text processing options are available, e.g. converting the text to lower cases prior to processing it, selecting which characters are word separators and which are unwanted, removing words longer than given number of characters, removing words with more than given number of hyphens, and more. Any number of text processing options collections can be saved and reused later in so called Text Options Sets. There are built-in tools (so far only one) to work with the sorted words. Supported code pages for the input text: Central European Windows (1250) and Western European Windows (1252).
What's an inverse sort of words? Normally, words are sorted from left to right, meaning the particular letters (generally characters) are compared from left to right, starting with the first letter of the words. Upon an inverse sort the particular letters (generally characters) are compared from right to left, starting with the last letter of the words.
Built-in tools: The only tool currently available is named "Word Endings Picker". It provides means to group words by their endings given either by a number of identical characters or by an explicit ending (e.g. "ing"). Frequencies at the group level are summed; selected or all groups can be exported to a plain-text file or into the Windows clipboard.
Inverse Text Sort's GUI is available in English only.
System requirements:
Processor and RAM: Inverse Text Sort runs on any computer capable of running Windows 9x, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista (it was never tested on Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 7). Using the program on lower end systems isn't guaranteed. Processing a small plain-text file (1.65 MB, 282,300 words) on a Pentium 150 MHz, 32 MB RAM, Windows 98 took 2:35 minutes. The faster the computer the better the program's performance.
Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher version must be installed.
Disk space: You need the disk space for the program itself (see the size of "InverseSort.exe" in the installation ZIP-file). Moreover, above all you need free space for processing the texts. The output file may be placed on any drive on your computer (or on a network if you like); be aware it may be larger than the input file, especially if frequencies are included in the output. Generally, the amount of free disk space needed depends on the texts to be processed. Some tasks create temporary files. It's recommended to have at least twice as much free disk space on your system drive as is the (total) size of the input file(s).
Installation instructions:
You need neither to copy nor to write down the instructions below; you find them in file
En_Installation_instructions.htm
that's included in the installation ZIP-file you download from this web-site.
If you already have a previous version of Inverse Text Sort:
Compare the latest version above to the version of Inverse Text Sort you actually use. Any newer version on the web is supposed to be worth of installing. For the beta versions that are actually released the program's version is included in the title bar of the program's main form. NOTE: The date in the title bar is formatted by the "Short Date" item of your Windows setting for date (see START | Settings | Control Panel | Regional and Language Options (Regional Options only in some versions of Windows).
It's recommended that you delete your current "InverseSort.exe" and install the new version to the folder in which you had the older one.
If you've already made some settings of your own then it's strongly recommended that you do NOT delete your "InverseSort.ini" user setting file.
How to install the program:
Download the installation ZIP-file to any location of your choice. (As long as you've got access to the Inverse Text Sort web-site there's no need to store the installation ZIP-file on your computer. In case you need to reinstall the program you can download the installation ZIP-file again.)
Create a new or select an existing folder.
Extract "InverseSort.exe" from the installation ZIP-file to the folder created or selected in the previous step.
If you don't have one or if you still use the default (unmodified) user setting INI-file extract "InverseSort.ini" from the installation ZIP-file to the same folder as you've placed "InverseSort.exe".
If you're installing Inverse Text Sort for the first time it's a good idea to create a shortcut for "InverseSort.exe" and place it on your desktop or in your START menu.
Optionally: Delete the downloaded installation ZIP-file.
How to start the program:
If you've created a shortcut just use the shortcut.
Locate "InverseSort.exe" in Windows Explorer (or My Computer) and launch it by double-clicking its icon.
You can also use the Run item in your START menu. (NOTE: Some administrators may hide the Run item.)
How to uninstall Inverse Text Sort:
Inverse Text Sort is easy to get rid of. Simply delete "InverseSort.exe" and any "InverseSort.ini" file(s) you've created. No garbage is left in your Windows Registry since Inverse Text Sort makes no records in it.