Textify

Have you ever wanted to copy some text from a dialog box which doesn’t provide such functionality?
Textify was created to solve this problem: you can point your mouse over the text, click on the mouse shortcut (Shift + Middle click by default), and get a selectable view of the text.

Download

exe textify_setup.exe (593.16 kB, changelog)
Latest version: v1.10.4

Source code

https://github.com/m417z/Textify

Demonstration

Textify v1.6 Translation Demo

Translations

If you’d like to translate Textify to your language, please refer to this comment.

Posted in Releases, Software by Michael (Ramen Software) on March 5th, 2016.
Tags:

786 Responses to “Textify”

  1. Donatas says:

    Usually simply pressing ctrl+c in the dialog copies whole text which you can paste into text editor and copy just a part of it that you need.
    Although if one has to do that often I see how this util could be useful.

  2. Donatas says:

    Oooooh! That’s way more amazing than the original video only showing dialog boxes. Thanks for clarifying!

  3. Pedro says:

    Unfortunately Textify won’t run in Windows XP. I read about the program at Betanews and they assumed it did work. The linked download site (http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/34106-textify) also says it is compatible with XP. But under XP Pro x86 SP3 I get “not a valid Win32 application”. Should it work under XP?

  4. Peter says:

    Hi RaMMicHaeL!

    Two ideas :
    – Option to start ” Textify ” with the launch of Windows
    – Option to hide icons ” Textify ” in the taskbar

    Thanks

  5. Jamie says:

    When I run this, it also seems to globally steal the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+T which I use in other programs. Is this just me or is it a wider bug?

    • It’s a hidden feature. I’ve changed the default keyboard shortcut to Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T in a newer version, but didn’t release that version. You can change it yourself by editing the ini file.

      • Jamie says:

        Ah OK, thanks! I would suggest removing this feature (or adding it to the in-window config) in a future release. A popular example of this shortcut in other use is “Reopen the last tab that you closed” in Chrome. I had removed Textify, but have re-added it now that I know about the ini fix.

  6. man says:

    On Windows 10, Start menu, text boxes appear behind Start menu, so you have to close Start menu to see text boxes.
    The program and the idea behind it, is great. Thanks for developing it.

  7. Dennis Primm says:

    When I tried to run it in Windows 10 (Home Edition) 64-bit, it stated “Windows Protected Your PC. Smart Screen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app may put your PC at risk.”

    I really want to use this app. How can I get around this warning. I know it won’t hurt my PC. Can I turn off Smart Screen? If so, then how do I do it?

    Any help would certainly be appreciated, because I’ve been wanting something like this to help me copy text from dialog boxes for years!!!

    Thank you,

    Dennis B-)

  8. sl0j0n says:

    Hello, “RaMMicHaeL”.
    Thank You Ever So Much!
    I’ve been looking for something like this for a LONG time!
    I’ve had ABBYY Screenshot Reader, it’s a great program,
    but you have to take a screen capture,
    open it in Screenshot Reader, copy the output,
    & paste it into notepad, etc.
    This looks like a much simpler solution, & I commend you for it.
    Now, here’s an idea for you, one that could actually be very good I think.
    I’ve had a problem with eyestrain while using computers; I think most of us have. In fact, a UK company sells a device/program that is supposed to encourage blinking to help minimize computer eyestrain.
    I think a small program that blink the screen at an adjustable time period, say every 20 seconds, would probably be enough of a reminder to help computer users blink more often.
    If you would, please consider writing such program.
    I’d be glad to help beta test it. [Win7HP]
    Many thanks again.
    Sincerely,
    j

  9. Thomas says:

    Pretty cool lil’ tool. I second the function of a hide icon along with start minimized or something.. in the likes of taskbar tweaker..

    Good job as usual

  10. Aaron says:

    I put Textify into the Startup folder on XPSP3. However, it always starts by displaying the “Textify; Texify v1.2; Homepage; Mouse shortcut Ctrl-Alt-Shift; Middle mouse button; Apply” box, (to change the shortcut) [that’s the illustration at the top of your Comments page]. But I don’t need to change the shortcut any more.
    Thanks for this program.

  11. John says:

    Nice job! I once had a similar idea but didn’t know how to implement it. Definitely goes into my “most used” programs.
    What language was used to write it? Will you consider making the source code available?

  12. MosTaFa,AHMED says:

    The application of very cool

  13. Hassan El-Zayyat says:

    Avast! flags this as malware:
    URL: http://rammichael.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2016/03/Textify.zip|Textify.exe
    Infection: Win32:Malware-gen
    Process: C:\Program Files (x86)\Free Download Manager\fdm.exe
    False positive?

  14. James says:

    Hi….I tried this program on Windows 10 Home. When I tried to copy text, right after I click, with whatever combination I had chose, to execute, Windows 10 tells me “Textify Module as stopped working.”

    I tried using other compatibly modes but those modes didn’t work, either.

    If you can help, that would be great, thanks.

  15. James says:

    Log Name: Application
    Source: Application Error
    Date: 3/26/2016 4:16:45 PM
    Event ID: 1000
    Task Category: (100)
    Level: Error
    Keywords: Classic
    User: N/A
    Computer: James-HP
    Description:
    Faulting application name: Textify.exe, version: 1.3.0.0, time stamp: 0x56eaca20
    Faulting module name: Textify.exe, version: 1.3.0.0, time stamp: 0x56eaca20
    Exception code: 0xc0000005
    Fault offset: 0x00001156
    Faulting process id: 0x1aac
    Faulting application start time: 0x01d1879c60b5c7ef
    Faulting application path: C:\Users\James-StandardUser\Desktop\Textify\Textify.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\Users\James-StandardUser\Desktop\Textify\Textify.exe
    Report Id: 74d3da7b-4280-491f-bb20-0c4c93c47d87
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:
    Event Xml:

    1000
    2
    100
    0x80000000000000

    9797
    Application
    James-HP

    Textify.exe
    1.3.0.0
    56eaca20
    Textify.exe
    1.3.0.0
    56eaca20
    c0000005
    00001156
    1aac
    01d1879c60b5c7ef
    C:\Users\James-StandardUser\Desktop\Textify\Textify.exe
    C:\Users\James-StandardUser\Desktop\Textify\Textify.exe
    74d3da7b-4280-491f-bb20-0c4c93c47d87

  16. Jim says:

    Hello,
    i have downloaded and tested Textify in Windows Xp Sp2. It works fine. Thank’s a lot for this small program. I like small programs.
    A good solution for a little problem (why is it not possible to copy some texts ? it’s stupid, just like when other people want that you do not one thing or another, just decause they have decided it).
    Could you explain how it works ? just by curiosity, i am sure it will be interesting.

  17. John Wilkinson says:

    I have downloaded Textify, but can’t get it to work and I can’t get rid of it. It has fouled up ctl c. I would like to use it if I can get my problems straightened out.

  18. John Wilkinson says:

    Maybe the best idea would just tell me how to get Textify off my computer.

  19. Tan Doan says:

    What a great app!
    Could you upgrade it to copy a whole essay, not only 1 paragraph? Many thanks.
    Example:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3_yyhp_hEniaFJlcWZSLVJrMmM/view?usp=sharing

  20. Rasool says:

    when i press ctrl+shift+t in order to reopen the closed tab, textify will work instead of opening the tab (Chrome and Firefox). do you can fix this?

  21. rexswain says:

    Very nice utility!
    And thank you for not bloating it up with extraneous “features”.

  22. Ingrid says:

    Very Handy and simple,

    thank you 🙂

  23. Will says:

    I think that this tool could be very useful, but it has only worked on about 50% of the message boxes I have tried to copy. For example, when you download, install, and open “reprofiler2” for the first time, it gives you a message box warning you about xml registration issues present in windows 10 and how to avoid screwing up you pc. I would love to copy the text from this box, but textify is unable to make the text selectable. Under what context does it work vs not work?

  24. Michael says:

    Awesome. I love those neat little tools that makes you life so much easier.
    One thing, though. If would be great if the tool offered an option (via checkbox) to automatically copy the content into the clipboard once the text is revealed without having to ctrl+c it every time.

    Also. To make it perfect. Combine it with a password recoverer which is able to reveal the content of password textboxes.
    I know a few programs which can do that with certain kind of password textboxes. Not all of them though. I think WPF Apps do have some special hidden textboxes which can’t be revealed that easily for example.

    • an option (via checkbox) to automatically copy the content into the clipboard

      That’s a good idea. I have a couple of other ideas for the application, but I don’t think that I’m going to implement them soon – unfortunately I don’t have much spare time for it at the moment.

      Combine it with a password recoverer which is able to reveal the content of password textboxes.

      This is more complicated to implement, and is a less commonly used feature (for me, at least). So it probably won’t be implemented for Textify.

      • Michael says:

        So it probably won’t be implemented for Textify.

        I didn’t expect you to, but i still wanted to mention it just in case. 🙂

        Regarding the auto copy to clipboard feature.
        If you are implementing it, please make it so, that it copies the selected text into the clipboard in the closing event of the window. This way we can also select partial texts and just have to leave the window to copy it into the clipboard.

    • automatically copy the content into the clipboard once the text is revealed without having to ctrl+c it every time.

      I’ve implemented auto copy in v1.5. You can enable it by setting auto_copy_selection=1 in the ini file of Textify.

  25. Guilherme Lino says:

    WOW

  26. kk says:

    “Usually simply pressing ctrl+c in” but not always. Michi is cool!

  27. leminsc8 says:

    hwo i get v1.3 offical?
    http://www.chip.de/downloads/Textify_91661170

  28. Rafael Miranda Soares says:

    It’s good but sometimes does not work

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_lnHCnA4ozFdGNXMXZYcGY5R00

  29. Friedhelm Peters says:

    Hallo, the program did not works on my Computer with Windows 10. I want to copy something from Message of O&O Software, but nothing done. Why? It’s only for Windows messages

    Thanks for Help

    Friedhelm

  30. Art says:

    Your App was recommended on WPUniverse. This is the first time I am trying to use it.
    I am trying to copy the complete contents of a pop-up box.
        Perhaps I missed something. I
        downloaded the zip file.
        extracted all
        moved to the folder created by the extraction.
        ran the .exe as administrator.
        set the click to control right-click
        started WP 18.
        opened a document.
            This showed that 479 flags had been set and there was a long list.
        placed the cursor in the pop up box.
        
        moved to another document
        
        “(no text could be retrieved)” was in the new document.

    Thank you.

  31. Art says:

    WP 18 is WordPerfect version 18. Grammatik is the embedded grammar and style checker. If I recall correctly Grammatik seems the same as it was about 1990 so maybe it uses something that is too old.

    I tried to copy info from file explorer. I went to the Downloads\textify folder. I put the cursor on “textify.exe”

    I placed the cursor on “product version” highlighting it
    The textify popup appeared.
    I tried to re-highlight the product from left to right. the pop up box disappeared.

    I placed the cursor on “product version” highlighting it
    The textify popup appeared.
    I tried to re-highlight the product from right to left. the pop up box disappeared.

    Would you be so kind as to send me an example set of of instructions for something that should work?

    The person on the WP forum who recommended Textify said that he is able to get it to pick up a single line in the pop-up box.

  32. Art says:

    I am not able to get text into textify 1.2 or 1.3.
    I am running windows 10 home 64bit.

    A person who uses Textify 1.2 on windows 8.1 32bit
    went through this procedure. For him it works, but he can only pick up one line.
    In file explorer navigate to the folder with textify in it.
    highlight textify.exe

    the textify pop-up comes up.
    highlight “file version” the textify pop-up disappears for me but works for him.

    I get the same results with textify 1.2 and 1.3 with Alt-RightClick and Ctrl_RightClick.

    • Are you saying that the pop-up shows up, but when you try to select the text, it disappears?
      I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with this issue, and you’re the first user to report this problem.
      If you have an idea for a way to reproduce this behavior, let me know and I will look at it.

  33. Jörg Jenderek says:

    thanks for this nice tool. I missed this functionality in windows. In the past the snagit Utility does this work. But newest version of this tool becomes a software monster and the wanted function do no work correctly.
    So am i am glad about little well working textify.

    But it would be nice if an installer version would exist. I used textify on a friend of friend’s PC to grab some error messages when solving computer problems. Then months or years later somebody delete the program from the
    desktop or is wondering about exe file inside appdata directory. This could not happen if textify is installed inside the program files directory by windows package management.

    • Thank you for the feedback.

      But it would be nice if an installer version would exist.

      Done in v1.4, together with some fixes for high DPI environment.
      The setup installs Textify into the AppData folder by default, because it needs no administrator rights that way, and because Textify uses an .ini file, and requires write access to it (I might change it later, but it’s not a priority).

  34. Steven Stevenson says:

    Fantastic little app, so useful and easy to use! I like to document every change I make to my installation for future reference, and typing long Preferences etc. strings wasn’t doing much for my carpal tunnel. Thank you!!!

    • Ben says:

      Haha, I do that too, thought I was the only one. I have a “changes.txt” file pinned to Notepad in the Windows taskbar, for easy access.

      That sort of thing is just what I was thinking this tool is good for.

  35. Fatih Fırıncı says:

    Great idea. You are the cool man

  36. Andre says:

    I found, downloaded and installed the program a day or so before I actually needed to use it! Great coincidence.

    Now, MalWareBytes reports that the program has the Trojan.Zbot.REPS.IPH. Or at least its signature (my words).

    No one has talked about this and well… I just thought you should know.

    I uninstalled, not because I believe there is a trojan but because telling MalWareBytes to ignore could have further downstream consequences.

    I want to reinstall and use. Can you tweak the code to avoid the false positive, talk to the MalWareBytes people…

    Thanks,

    André

  37. Radoslav Nenchovski says:

    Ha, that’s an awesome program! 🙂 I just downloaded it to try it and I like how much it simplifies things. It will be particularly useful when you get a long gibberish Game or Windows error you know nothing about and you gotta send it to the developer. Certainly Textify now will make my life a lot easier when I can simply copy the error instead of having me to make a screenshot(s) which then is questionable whether the developer’s e-mail will accept or not.
    I never thought it would be possible to textify the messages on dialog windows.

  38. menace97 says:

    yeah i just wanted to confirm that malwarebytes anti-malware is reporting that textify is showing 3 threats detected (as false positives, i am sure of course)

    all 3 as a threat type:
    Trojan.Zbot.REPS.IPH

    thanks for the great utility, fantastic!

    • menace97 says:

      Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
      http://www.malwarebytes.org

      Scan Date: 2016-09-11
      Scan Time: 5:37 am
      Logfile: textify.txt
      Administrator: Yes

      Version: 0.0.0.0000
      Malware Database: v2016.09.11.06
      Rootkit Database: v2016.08.15.01
      License: Premium
      Malware Protection: Enabled
      Malicious Website Protection: Enabled
      Self-protection: Disabled

      OS: Windows 8.1
      CPU: x64
      File System: NTFS
      User: menace97

      Scan Type: Threat Scan
      Result: Completed
      Objects Scanned: 341877
      Time Elapsed: 2 min, 58 sec

      Memory: Enabled
      Startup: Enabled
      Filesystem: Enabled
      Archives: Enabled
      Rootkits: Disabled
      Heuristics: Enabled
      PUP: Enabled
      PUM: Enabled

      Processes: 1
      Trojan.Zbot.REPS.IPH, C:\Users\menace97\AppData\Roaming\Textify\Textify.exe, 4964, No Action By User, [479a6907f9a14aeca729b848d03045bb]

      Modules: 0
      (No malicious items detected)

      Registry Keys: 0
      (No malicious items detected)

      Registry Values: 1
      Trojan.Zbot.REPS.IPH, HKU\S-1-5-21-4088299662-2556368419-2513438349-1005\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\RUN|Textify, “C:\Users\menace97\AppData\Roaming\Textify\Textify.exe” -hidewnd, No Action By User, [479a6907f9a14aeca729b848d03045bb]

      Registry Data: 0
      (No malicious items detected)

      Folders: 0
      (No malicious items detected)

      Files: 1
      Trojan.Zbot.REPS.IPH, C:\Users\menace97\AppData\Roaming\Textify\Textify.exe, No Action By User, [479a6907f9a14aeca729b848d03045bb],

      Physical Sectors: 0
      (No malicious items detected)

      (end)

  39. Roland says:

    Thanks for writing and sharing the software!
    Very helpful.
    There appears to be a problem in RDP sessions: it does not show actual text there, instead “Input Capture Window” is always inside the box.

  40. Ajvar says:

    Malwarebytes treats textify as false positive. You can talk to them so that wouldn’t happen.

  41. M. Paquet says:

    Thank you for this great utility. Proof that simple things can sometimes provide great services. I commend you for your creativity. Best regards.

  42. v1.4.1 fixes a focusing issue on Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

  43. Martin Paquet says:

    I’ve changed a minor thing after Textify’s installation.

    Instead of having it autostart from:

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

    I’ve set it to autostart from:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

    So that it autostarts for any user login on the system. I see it as a better fit. What do think? Best regards and thanks again for your great utility.

    MP

  44. Hossein says:

    Thanks, I find your blog from Resource Hacker download page and now find this very nice tool 😉

  45. Patrick says:

    Hi Michael,

    Is there a portable version available?

    Patrick

  46. Vern says:

    This is my second request , & no answer yet :
    Is there a help file ?
    I can’t figure out how to use this thing ?
    Thanks

  47. NJ says:

    Good job. Another very useful utility.

    I have tried and failed to stop myself adding: in Linux one can always (or almost always) do this already.

  48. Paul says:

    Textify does not work in many programs for Windows 10 (eg Total Commander). If you run under Windows 8.1, text is fine copied.

    • Textify relies on UI Automation. There’s a tool from Microsoft called Inspect which shows automation-related information. It can be downloaded here.

      Please try it on the programs which Textify can’t handle, and let me know whether Inspect is able to extract the text.

      • Paul says:

        Most likely hurried with conclusions ) Textify performs the functions, but only with the rights of the administrator. Thank you very much!

        • You can also use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T, with programs that run as administrator, without running Textify as administrator.

          • Stamimail says:

            Why documentation is lacking? Command line options are also not documented? Please add “more info” linking to information like these.

            • Because it’s just a small tool, and the extra features are not polished as much as I’d want. For example, the keyboard shortcut can be changed by editing the .ini file, but it’s quite cumbersome. There are many ideas that can be applied for this tool, but for now, it’s not a priority for me.

  49. Hans Müller says:

    Something like that for android would be nice.

  50. OnceAgain says:

    FYI: the downloadlink for Textify is unfortunately blocked by FSecure as a damaging website.

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