Copyright: Copyright 1996 Richard Jones, A. S. Software
Citation: Copyright 1996 Richard Jones, A. S. Software


Description

ClipFile is a shell extension for Microsoft Windows® 95 that copies the paths of selected files and folders to the clipboard. This simple function has several uses, for example:

When you need to enter a path name in a file-open or file-save dialog, it can be tedious walking round the folders to get to where you want, especially if you already have the folder open on the desktop. With ClipFile you can copy the path from the folder, and paste it straight into the file dialog.

Sometimes you want to perform a task on several files, and a quick batch file is the easiest way. You can quickly boiler-plate the batch file by selecting the files, copying their paths, and pasting them into your favourite text editor, then adding the commands you want around them.

Explorer does not allow you to print listings of folders.  ClipFile makes it easy to paste a list into your text editor and print it out however you want.  Its advanced features provide a wide range of formatting options.  This includes the ability to save directly to a file instead of pasting to the clipboard.


Installing

To install ClipFile, extract the distributed files to a spare directory (don’t use one that has a long filename, something like “C:\Spare” or C:\Windows\Temp” is fine). Then use the right mouse button to display the popup menu for ClipFile.inf (the type description for .inf files is usually “Setup Information”) and select the install command. ClipFile will be installed.

If you already have a version of ClipFile installed you may be prompted to re-start the computer.  You can avoid this by uninstalling the previous version first.

When installation is complete the extracted files can be deleted.


Uninstalling

To uninstall ClipFile, use the Add/Remove programs applet in Control Panel, and select for the entry titled Copy Paths to Clipboard.  Press the Add/Remove button, which will remove ClipFile from your system.


Context Menu

When ClipFile is installed, the Context Menu for every file and folder includes the entry Copy Path(s).  Clicking on this entry will either copy the path(s) of the selected items to the clipboard directly, or present a sub-menu.

The exact behaviour depends on whether the item clicked on is a file, a shortcut, or a folder.

See also Multiple Selections


Files

The Context Menu entry for a file is just Copy Path (or Copy Paths if multiple files are selected).  Clicking this entry will copy the full paths of the selected items to the clipboard.

See also Short names & Quotes.


Shortcuts

The Context Menu entry for a shortcut leads to a sub-menu that offers a choice of the name of the shortcut itself, or the name of the target that the shortcut points to.

This choice is only offered for regular shortcuts (.lnk files), not for MS-DOS shortcuts (.pif files) nor Internet shortcuts (.url files).  It is also not offered if multiple items are selected.  In all these cases the name of the shortcut is copied.


Folders

The Context Menu entry for a folder leads to a sub-menu that offers a choice of the name of the folder itself, a list of the folder’s contents, or the Advanced option.  The list option provides a quick way of listing the contents of a folder without having to first select all the items in the folder.

Tip:	The Context Menu for an open folder can be displayed by right-clicking on the icon at the top left of the folder’s title bar.


Short names & Quotes

ClipFile normally copies the Windows 95 long file-names.  You can force it to copy the short (MS-DOS) names by holding down the Shift key while making the selection from the Context Menu.

Alternatively you can get long names enclosed in quotation marks (") by holding down the Ctrl key in the same way.


Multiple Selections

If you select multiple items in a folder, you may select a mixture of files and folders.  The type of Context Menu displayed depends on whether the cursor is actually over a file or folder when you click the right mouse button.


Advanced Dialog

The Context Menu for a folder offers the option Advanced.  This displays a dialog allowing you to create a listing of the folder’s contents, and to control the contents and layout.

The dialog is divided into the following sections:

Buttons

Sub-folders

Date & Time

Sizes

Attributes

Content

Names

Separators

Indenting

Sorting

When ClipFile is unregistered, the About window is first displayed.  Registered installations do not display this window.

See also Registration


Clip or File
Buttons

You can either copy the listing to the clipboard by pressing the Clip button, or write it to a file by pressing the File button.  If you choose File, a normal Windows Save-As style dialog is displayed.


Sub-folders

Checking Include all sub-folders will generate a recursive listing of everything below the selected folder.  If left unchecked only the folder’s immediate contents will be listed.

This option is not available when unregistered.

Tip:	Selecting all drives in “My Computer”, and copying all sub-folders will give you a full listing of all the files on your computer.  This can take up to a minute to complete, possibly more on very large disks and CDs.


Date & Time

If the include box is checked, the dates & times of files are listed.  The radio buttons provide the following choices:

Local	Formats the values according to the current regional settings.

Preset	Formats the values as yy/mm/dd and hh:mm.  This can be useful if you need to perform sorting on the result.

Created	Lists the date and time of file creation.

Modified	Lists the date and time of last change.

Accessed	Lists the date and time the file was last used.  In Windows 95, the local disk file-system only stores access dates;  access times will always appear as 00:00.

When unregistered, only Local and Modified are available.


Sizes

If the include box is checked, the sizes of files are listed.  The radio buttons provide the following choices:

Local	Formats the numbers according to the current regional settings.

Preset	Formats the numbers with no thousand separators and a period (.) decimal separator.

The size shown for a folder is the total size of the files listed within it, to the nearest Kb.  If Include all sub-folders is checked, this is a recursive total of all files within all sub-folders.  If not, it is just the total of the files in the current folder.

When unregistered, only Local is available.


Attributes

If the include box is checked, the file attributes are listed.  Each attribute present is represented by a single letter, using the same conventions as the DOS DIR command:

A	Archive bit

C	File is compressed (only applies to Windows NT file-systems)

S	System file

H	Hidden file

R	Read-only file

Attributes have no meaning on folders and are not shown.


Content

This sections allows you to choose whether to list just files, just folders, or both.

If you list folders only and also select sizes, you will still get the total size of files within the folders even though the files are not listed.  This is useful if you are trying to find which folders are using most of your disk space.

When unregistered, you can only list Folders & Files together.


Names

You can choose to list long file-names, DOS-style short names, or both.  When Date & Time, size, or attribute, information is included, the short names appear to the left and the long names to the right.  This is done in order to produce a more predictable layout of the results.

You can also choose to have long names enclosed in quotes ("), and to have path separators as the Unix-style “/” instead of the DOS-style “\”.  This is useful if you are creating a listing to be processed by a Unix or POSIX compatible shell.

Note that short names are never quoted;  there is no need as they cannot contain embedded spaces.

When unregistered, you cannot list both styles of name, nor use Unix separators.


Separators

This sections allows you to select the way in which the fields on each line of the list are separated.

The Default layout attempts to be as readable as possible by preserving vertical alignment.  If the output is to be loaded into another tool for further processing then the other choices may be useful.

Tab	Separates each column with a single ASCII tab code.

Character	Separates each column with the character typed into the adjacent box;  the initial value is a comma (,).

When unregistered, only Default and Tab are available.


Indenting

This section controls the way in which lines in the output are progressively indented to represent sub-folders.

The default style is to indent each level by one tab further than the previous level.  You can use spaces instead of tabs, and for either case choose how many to use for each further indent.

You may instead choose Full Paths, which puts the full path-name on each line instead of the simple name.  No indenting is supported in this mode, but you may enter a text string that will prepend every line, separated by a space.

This last feature is provided as a quick means of generating batch-file or script skeletons.  For example, by choosing Sub-folders, Files Only, Short names (or Quotes), Full Paths, & prefixed with “DEL”, the result will be a batch file that will delete all the files in a directory tree leaving the folders intact.

When unregistered, Full Paths are not available.


Sorting

By default all lists generated by ClipFile are sorted by name, even those not produced using the Advanced Dialog.

This sections allows you to sort the results by type, size, or date instead.  The normal ordering is ascending for name and type, descending for size and date.  Checking Reverse will invert this behaviour.

When unregistered, only Name-ascending is available.


Freshware

Freshware?	What’s Freshware?

FREe SHareWARE	That’s what!

So how can Shareware be Free?

Read on ...

Registration details

ClipFile has different levels of functionality.  At its simplest you can use it just to copy the paths of selected files to the clipboard.  At its most complex you can produce a detailed tree listing of all the disks on your computer.

When ClipFile is unregistered, you are able to use the simple functions, but some of the advanced functions are not available.  In addition, accessing the advanced functions always displays the “about” box.

If all you need are the simple functions, you do not need to register, you are free to use ClipFile as long as you like - you can treat it as Freeware.

If you want access to all the advanced functions (or just want to get rid of the “about” box) you must register.  You will receive a key code that enables all the functions on the Advanced Dialog.  In this sense it is Shareware.

The basic rule is that you are allowed to use anything you are able to use.  For full details see Terms.


Registration

The preferred method of registration is via Compuserve (GO SWREG).  The registration number is 11941, or search for CLIPFILE.  The registration fee is $19 US per computer.

When submitting your registration, you must provide the lock code for your computer.  To display the lock code select Advanced on the Copy Paths sub-menu, and in the “about” box click the Register button.  This will show you a window with the lock code and a space to type in your key code.

Every computer has a different code, so if you are registering several copies you must provide the lock codes for each computer.

IMPORTANT!

Compuserve’s online registration form does not provide space for information like lock codes.  Enter your lock code in the space for the telephone number  (we don’t need your phone number, email is better).  There is space for up to 2 codes, if you are registering more than two copies send us a separate email with your lock codes.

If you are unable to use the Compuserve registration service, please contact A. S. Software by email to arrange an alternative method.


Terms

You may install and use ClipFile on any computer without any obligation to pay a registration fee for its use.  However, without a key code not all of its features can be used.  A. S. Software will, on receipt of a valid lock code (as displayed in the “Registration” dialog) and the registration fee, (or, at its sole discretion, a lower fee or no fee) provide a key code that will enable all the features in ClipFile to be used on the computer that displayed the lock code provided.  Each lock code is unique to one installation of Windows® 95, and each key code is therefore valid for only one computer.

When a copy of ClipFile is registered using the Compuserve “Register Shareware” service, receipt of notification of registration by A. S. Software from Compuserve will be regarded as receipt of payment for the puposes of the previous paragraph.

Provision of a key code is A. S. Software’s only obligation in respect of the above.  No support is provided, but any errors that are reported will be corrected on a “best endeavour” basis.  Key codes will normally be sent by electronic mail only.  Lock and key codes will continue to be valid for future releases of ClipFile.

You may copy and distribute ClipFile to any extent you wish (you are encouraged to do so), provided that all the files described in the List of Files are distributed together, and not modified in any way.  You may not charge for ClipFile, except for a small reasonable charge to cover actual costs of media, copying, and distribution.

You may not reverse-engineer ClipFile, in particular any attempt to break or decode the lock and key code mechanism constitues a breach of copyright.

ClipFile is not public domain, and remains copyright software, see The Author.

ClipFile is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall A.S. Software be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if A.S. Software has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Installation and use of ClipFile on a computer implies acceptance of the above conditions.


Beware notepad!

If you select a long recursive list, e.g. a whole drive, the resulting data can easily exceed 64Kbytes.  This is more text than Windows Notepad can handle.  If you paste into Notepad it will tell you:

“Not enough memory - quit one or more applications and try again”

This message is totally misleading.  Quitting applications won’t make any difference, it’s just an internal limit of Notepad. In this situation use Wordpad, or a better text editor than Notepad if you have one.


List of Files

ClipFile version 1.0 consists of the following installable files:

ClipFile.inf
ClipFile.dll
CFAdvDlg.dll
CFAdvDlg.hlp
CFAdvDlg.cnt

All these files are copied to the System\Shellext subdirectory of the Windows directory when you install ClipFile.  In addition the distributed archive of ClipFile contains:

File_id.diz
ReadMe.txt
Install.reg

These files are not required on an installed system.


The Author

ClipFile is written by Richard Jones, Copyright 1996 Richard Jones, A. S. Software, Crowthorne, Berks, UK.  Please email any comments, criticisms, or suggestions to:

CIS:100716,1273 (Internet: 100716.1273@compuserve.com)

For information on the latest version of ClipFile and where to get it on the Internet, visit our home page at:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ASSoft


Windows NT

ClipFile has been written for and tested on Microsoft Windows® 95 only.  It may also work on Microsoft Windows® NT version 4.0 with the new shell user interface, but has not been tested.  I cannot make any statements about how well it may or may not work in practice.  In particular I do not know if the lock and key code system will work the same way so I cannot guarantee that registering will enable access to all the features.

I do intend to support ClipFile on Windows® NT version 4.0 when I have the resources to test it properly.  If any changes are required I will release an appropriate update.

In the meantime, if you use NT version 4.0 and have tried using ClipFile with it, I would be very interested to hear your comments.  Please email me, see The Author.


The popup menu displayed when you click the right mouse button on an icon in a folder or Explorer window.  You can also display the context menu for a selected item by pressing Shift + F10.


A seven-letter code that uniquely identifies a computer that ClipFile is running on.


A seven-letter code supplied by A. S. Software that enables all ClipFile’s features when entered against the corresponding lock code.