Adding a date column for current date

[Alarmguy]

I am new to this so please forgive any ignorance or stupidity on my part. I don't know anything about coding but I can follow instructions.I am trying to add a column that I can click on to add the current date to a file. this is to be used to mark when the file is sent to someone as an email attachment. Basically I want to be able to look at the folder and see what has been sent and when. I have tried many of the available presets with no result. Any help would be appreciated - Thanks

[RTT]

Start by creating a custom property that will hold that sent date value. To do this, run the manager.exe, select the property handler extension item add a new property, name it accordingly to the data that will save, and set its data type. Check first attached screenshot for details.

Now change to the "details pane items" named tab and set the new property to show on the Windows Explorer details panel. Now click the "apply changes" button to register the new property in the Windows property system. See second screenshot for details.

You can now set this property to show as a Windows Explorer column and view, edit and sort by, from various places, such as the Windows Explorer details pane, file properties details tab, etc.

[Alarmguy]

And I'm back.   This worked like a charm but only for one item . When I tried to add more the check mark would never stay when I applied changes. when I went back to the list the item would be there but not checked. Any ideas? - Thanks

[RTT]

Please attach to a forum reply a screenshot, as the first in my above reply, showing the custom properties you are defining.
Attach also a zipped backup of your settings. You create this backup from the manager bottom left "settings" named button, "backup" menu item.

[Alarmguy]

As requested - I hope it helps
Thanks

[RTT]

In the supposed zipped PDF-ShellTools settings backup I requested, you attached instead a zipped PDF document! A mistake or you misunderstood what I requested?
What I requested is a stsettings.dat file that is created when you create a backup of your PDF-ShellTools configuration, as explained in my previous reply.

Please run this PDF-ShellTools diagnostic tool.  It just grab the state of relevant keys from your Windows registry.
Run it, select all the text that will show up, paste it in a text editor, save it to a .txt file and attach that file to a forum reply.

PS: From what I can see from your first screenshot, but no relevant to the problem, take note that it is not a good practice to keep these generic property names (i.e. PDFCustom#) to name the properties. You should always give it a meaningful name, that defines the data that it will store.

[Alarmguy]

Hello again
I hope the attachment is what you are looking for. I will make the change in the names you suggested.
Thanks

[RTT]

Does these properties missing from the details pane show on the file properties dialog details tab (first attached screenshot)?

Let's check from where is the shell getting the PreviewDetails property list, using the Process Monitor tool.
Run it, set a filter as depicted in the second screenshot and configure it to show registry activity (toolbar button signaled in the screenshot).
Now run the PDF-ShellTools Manager.exe. You should now see some registry activity in the log. Take a screenshot of it, clearly showing the "Path" column, and attach it to a forum reply.

[Alarmguy]

Hello again
Sorry about the delay. I am unable to filter what you require - see screenshot - and can not find a log in the shell tools manager.
Thanks for your input.

[RTT]

You have to manually define the filter. In our case, from my above screenshot, you need to set two filter conditions:

  "Process name" "is" "Manager.exe"
and
  "Path" "ends with" "PreviewDetails"

So, from the first selector (top left of the filter dialog) you choose Process Name, in the second selector you choose is, and then type Manager.exe in the third selector/edit box. Now click the Add button

To add the second condition, set the first selector as Path, second selector as ends with, type PreviewDetails in the third box, and click the Add button.

Close the filter dialog and enable the "Show Registry Activity" tool button. You may also select the menu Filter>DropFilteredEvents" option.

Now run the Manager.exe.

Check this YouTube tutorial Process Monitor: Display and Capture Filtering. Not related to this problem, but may give you a better understanding of the tool.

[Alarmguy]

Hello again
Finally got some time for this. Attached is the screenshot of the log. I have also attached a screenshot of the files page.
Thanks - Alarmguy

[RTT]

Using the Windows registry editor, open the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\AcroExch.Document.7 and delete the PreviewDetails and FullDetails named values.
Check if the previously missing properties now show in the details pane.

[Alarmguy]

Hi
Deleted the values and now I have lost the sent colum that worked - Now what?  I attached a screenshot of the registry.

[RTT]

Check again with the process monitor tool from where the pdf PreviewDetails are being read now, as you have done yesterday.
Until the PDF PreviewDetails property list is not read from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\SystemFileAssociations\.pdf or, in your specific case,  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\RedlinePDFfile, you need to delete all the other sources.

Or, probably better, you may change the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf default value from the current RedlinePDFfile to AcroExch.Document, and set again the details pane properties from the manager.

After you added that "Sent" named property, you installed a new PDF reader that configured itself as the default reader, but then you have manually override the default reader back to Acrobat. Because of a bug in the manager, the PreviewDetails list is being saved to the newly installed reader keys, instead of the correct place of your current default PDF reader that is Acrobat.

[Alarmguy]

Hello
Now that my brain has stopped smoking  - It worked . I was and always have been very leery of going anywhere near the registry so it was with a great deal of angst I tried your instructions. Long story short it took many tries to get it right. I finally found that I had to right click to find modify and type in the new.
Many thanks for your knowledge and patience. I learned a lot in this.
Alarmguy