Frequently Asked Questions

This section is where you can get answers to common questions. If you have a question and can't find the answer, open an issue on the Toolfish GitHub page or email toolfish@rtsoft.com.

Q. How much does Toolfish cost?

Nothing! Toolfish started life as a commercial program back in 2002, but it's now completely free and open source. You can download the latest version, browse the source code and report bugs at the Toolfish GitHub page.

Q. How can I add a web page to be watched?

This one is easy! Click Event Wizard and choose Web Compare. Cut and paste the URL of the page you want to watch. Click the Add It! button. You're done!

Q. It keeps saying a web page has been updated but I go look and it hasn't!

Due to banner ads, scripts, random quotes and such you may need to adjust the sensitivity. Edit the event and turn up the 'percent change' required to trigger notification.

Tip: If a page never seems to change or the size is smaller than expected, edit the Web Compare action in the event (use the Event Manager) and click "Test". If you see a message like "The content has moved to..." then cut and paste the new URL to your Web Compare event. Sometimes pages need an ending slash or something along those lines.

Advanced Tip: Some web-comic sites are tricky to monitor if only the LINK to the picture is changed yet other changes such as banner ads happen all the time too. In this case the only reliable way to monitor the page may be to set a "notify me if this word is missing" flag and for the word use the filename of the current comic. (comic-10-5.gif or whatever it is, you have to view the source)

Q. How can I edit the percent of change required for a web compare event I already made using the wizard?

Click the Event Manager. Double click the event you wish to edit. Double click "Web Compare of <some URL>" in the Actions list. Now you can change the settings, just be sure to click OK when you're done.

Q. How can I force it to check one or all my websites right now?

Click Event Manager. Select all the events (or folders of events) you wish to run. (You can use standard Windows shift/control clicks to highlight multiple events or folders)

Next click the Run Now button and watch the main dialog for the results.

Q. How do I make Toolfish tell me to feed my cat every day?

Click Event Wizard and choose "Recurrent Reminder", set the time, text message and click Add Event. That's it!

Q. Um, it's making a noise every time it checks a certain website. Why?

Edit the event. Make sure the Web Compare action is listed FIRST. Anything AFTER it will be run only if the content has changed.

Q. What happens if my computer is off when an event is supposed to run?

Toolfish will run it as soon as you turn your computer on. If the event is set to be rescheduled, it will reschedule it as if the event was run at the correct time.

If the computer was off for a week and missed running the event many times, it will only run the most recent one that it missed, at that point it will be 'caught up'.

Q. I copied Toolfish to another computer and it isn't working right.

Modern versions of Toolfish can be moved to a new computer simply by copying the Toolfish folder. If something acts odd, run the latest installer from the GitHub page and then copy your Events folder over. (Note: the latest installer supports Windows 7 and newer only)

Q. Can I use unicode fonts in my macros? Like Japanese kanji and such?

Yes you can. A caveat: You may need to set the font in the Say/Show Message action to the correct one to see the kanji. Also, when pasting, make sure the application has the correct font setup and can support unicode text.

Q. I want to add my own custom event. Is there an API I can use?

Not a plug-in API, but Toolfish is now open source, so you can add your own triggers and actions directly - pull requests are welcome at the Toolfish GitHub page.

Also don't forget that Toolfish can run your .EXE or a batch file if you need a specific custom action.

Q. How can I setup Toolfish to backup certain files daily or weekly? (advanced)

Click Event Manager. Click Add Event. Click Add Trigger then add a Time trigger. Set it to "auto reschedule" every day, or 7 days for a week.

Add a Run/Open Program action. Set it to run c:\important_data\makezip.bat. For the parameters, set it to $SHORT_DATE$.

Now make the batch file. Use notepad.exe to edit makezip.bat. Put something like "zip backup_%1.zip *.txt". This would zip all *.txt files to a file called backup_13-10.zip. (or whatever the current short date is)

Q. Didn't this program used to be called Toolfish: Web Compare?

Yes. But as time went by so many features were added that I felt it was time to change the title to something less specific, Toolfish Utility Suite better describes Toolfish in its current form today.

Q. When does Toolfish reset the 'percent changed' of a webpage?

Only after a page is 'triggered' as having been updated. At that point the new page is copied over Toolfish's cached one for all new compares to use. (in other words, it's ok to run the event as many times as you want, it won't hamper Toolfish's ability to figure out when it has changed)

Q. I set it up to check my POP3 email but it's not working!

Toolfish's POP3 email checking is a relic from the early 2000s and does not support SSL, which virtually all modern email providers now require. Consider this feature retired.