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ClipBook V1.2 © 1994 Nick Portalski ======================================= Overview ======== I spent a couple of summers working on Macs writing documentation. One of the most useful tools was the Mac Scrapbook, which allows you to store any number of 'clips' (text and graphics) and then copy any one to the clipboard so you can paste it into applications. Items were placed in the scrapbook via the normal cut'n'paste keys. In fact, I liked it so much that I wrote this - Amiga Clipbook commodity. So, the Clipbook allows you to store text and graphics clips, scan through them and copy any of them to the standard Amiga clipboard. They can then be pasted into applications. To put something into the Clipbook you simply have to copy it from an application and paste it into the Clipbook. Because the Clipbook visually displays a clip you won't ever waste time by loading the wrong picture or needing to print them all out. This is useful for logos, 'standard' blocks of text, graphics you use often etc etc. If you use a particular graphics brush often then instead of having to load it (and remember the path!) each time you can simply store it in the clipboard and copy it out each time you need it. It is important to remember that this will only work with applications which use the standard Amiga Clipboard. (DPaint AGA, Ced, FinalWriter the SAS/C SE editor etc). Improvments since V1.0 ====================== You can now load a clip into the Clipbook from a file. This is useful if, say, your graphics program doesn't use the Amiga clipboard. The current clip number is held even when you close the window. This means you won't be taken to the first clip every time the window is opened. Proper FTXT handling (Especially useful for FinalWriter text.....) Extra info about non-standard clips displayed. Added in a few more keys 'cos someone asked me to. Improvements since V1.1 ======================= Added detection of D2RD clips. Hope to actually draw them soon.... Added AutoPaste. If this is turned on then Clipbook will monitor the clipboard. When something is pasted into the clipboard it will automatically be inserted into the Clipbook. Useful if you're trying to get a lot of clips into the Clipbook at once. You can now give name clips. The Paste menu item is now ghosted when there's nothing in the clipboard. You can now specify different viewers for ilbm/ftxt/other clips Fixed some enforcer hits! As far as I know there are no hits now! (All bug reports to e-mail at end.....) Distribution ============ All code is Copyright 1994 Nick Portalski. It may be copied and distributed so long as no commercial profit is made out of it. It may not be modified, sold, or included in any commercial distribution without my written permission. Public Domain vendors are not allowed to sell this program for more than the price of a regular disk, which should be no more than the equivalent of 5 Dollars. (It may be placed on CD-ROM collections costing more than this). The author takes no responsibility for any loss or damage resulting from the use of this program. This distribution should contain the following files: ClipBook1.2 ClipBook1.2.info ClipBook.doc ClipBook.doc.info ClipBook.guide ClipBook.guide.info iff.library Requirements ============ * Workbench 2.xx+ * The iff.library by Christian Weber (included in archive). * Although Clipbook will run happily from floppy it has been designed with hard drive users in mind. Installation ============ Clipbook is a commodity - so you can either copy it into the WBStartup directory or simply run it when you need it. As it uses tooltypes stored in the icon you must copy the .info file too. If you want to display ILBM pictures in the clipbook you must copy iff.library to your libs: directory. Clipbook should only be used from the Workbench. You should also decide where you want clips to be stored. I suggest you create a new directory. Specify the path to this directory in the icon's CLIPDIR tooltype. (See Options below). When you first run the Clipbook you will be asked "Can't find .cliprc. Create new one?" Answer "Yes" - this creates a control file required in the CLIPDIR. See Additional Notes for more information. Usage ===== Once run the Clipbook window will appear when you press the hotkey specified in the tooltype. (Or use the Commodity Exchange program to show its interface). By default it appears on the Workbench screen, but you can force it to appear on other screens. (See Options below). The main part of the window shows the current 'clip', with the rest being made up of gadgets. The slider gadget at the bottom allows you to move through all the clips in the clipbook. The text below the clip gives you information about the clips (i.e. what type it is) and how many clips there are in total. The 'View Scrap' button will launch the VIEWER program you have specified in the tooltypes (see Options below) for the current clip type. This is the best way to see a clip in full, as the window only displays a small portion. Also, the Clipbook will not try to work out the colours of ILBM clips, whereas a viewer such as Multiview will. You can specify different viewers for FTXT (text), ILBM (graphics) and other clips. See Options below. The 'Name' string allows you to enter up to 64 characters for a clip's name. This is extremely useful for clips which Clipbook can't display (e.g. FinalWriter grapics) as you can still identity them! To close the Clipbook click on the window's close gadget. The Clipbook will remain resident and can be displayed with the hotkey again. The 'Remove' button will close the Clipbook window *and* remove it from memory, whereas 'Hide' will simply close the window and leave Clipbook resident. There are 2 menus: The first is fairly straightforward: Project -> Next Clip : Moves to the next clip in the clipbook Project -> Previous Clip : Move to the previous clip in the clipbook Project -> AutoPaste : With this option turned on anything copied to the clipboard will automatically be inserted into the Clipbook. (EXCEPT items which are copied from the Clipbook itself) Project -> Load Clip From File : See below. Project -> Remove : Removes the Clipbook from memory Project -> Hide : Closes the Clipbook window, but leaves the program resident. Load Clip From File : Although text programs have used the Amiga clipboard for some time, a certain well-known graphics program has only just started using it. On earlier versions it was impossible to get graphics clips into the Clipbook. However, selecting this menu option will prompt you for a file. Select any IFF file (e.g. graphics) and it will load it and paste it into the Clipbook. This function does make some basic checks on the file to check it's IFF, but it is possible to fool it. The second menu is used to paste items into the Clipbook and to copy them out. This uses the standard Amiga Clipboard, and the menu shortcut keys are the ones you'd expect for Cut/Copy/Paste. In general, to place something into the Clipbook, 'Copy' it to the clipboard in an application, switch to the Clipbook and select 'Paste'. The item will be added to the Clipbook at the current position. (It *doesn't* overwrite anything). To get a clip from the Clipbook to an Application you have two choices. 'Copy' places a copy of the current clip in the Clipboard. You can then go to an application and choose Paste. Alternatively 'Cut' will remove the current clip from the Clipbook and place it in the Clipboard. Clear deletes the current clip without affecting the clipboard. However, to copy from or paste to an application that application must support the standard Amiga clipboard. Fortunately more and more are. Other Keys ========== As well as the menu short-cut keys there are 5 others: Cursor Left - Next Clip Cursor Right- Previous Clip Cursor Up Last Clip Cursor Down First clip Return Copy current clip to clipboard and close Clipbook window Combined with the hotkey these make getting a clip out of the Clipbook very quick and easy, as they're all one-key operations. Options ======= All options are given via the tooltypes of Clipbook's icon. If not present default values are used: CX_POPUP : If 'YES' the Clipbook Window will open when the program is run. Default = NO CX_POPKEY : Hotkey to open the Clipbook Window. Default is Control Left Alt s CLIPDIR : The name of the directory where clips are to be stored. If not present the Clipbook will default to CLIPS:, but this is usually assigned to RAM:, so clips will not be permanent. If the specified directory doesn't exist you'll be informed and the program will quit when you try to open the window. If there is no .cliprc file in the specified directory you will be asked if you want to create an (empty) one. Answering 'No' will quit the program as it can't run without a .cliprc! ILBM_VIEWER : The name of the graphics viewer to be run when the 'View Scrap' button is pressed and the current clip is ILBM. This should include the full path and any arguments to the viewer. For example, I use: 'sys:utilities/multiview SCREEN' Default is sys:utilities/multiview SCREEN TEXT_VIEWER : As ILBM_VIEWER but used to view FTXT clips. VIEWER : As above but used for any clips which aren't ILBM or FTXT. PUBLICSCREEN: The name of the Publicscreen the Clipbook is to open on. If this isn't specified or the specified screen doesn't exist Workbench is used. FORCETOFRONT: If this tooltype is present the Clipbook will always open on the frontmost screen when the hotkey is pressed - regardless of whether it's a publicscreen or not. Obviously this can be very useful but does carry dangers. The program which opened the screen may not be expecting a window to open and you must never try to quit the screen's program before closing the Clipbook window. I cannot guarantee correct operation of the Clipbook when forced to open on the frontmost screen. It does seem to work with Ced (with system scrolling routines), Devpac, FinalWriter, FinalCopy, ProPage and to some extent DPaint. Default is not to force to front. AUTOPASTE: This determines the initial state of the AutoPaste menu item. Clips Supported =============== You can actually paste any type of 'Clip' from the Amiga Clipboard into the Clipbook. However, it will currently only display two types. FTXT: This is standard text. ILBM: This is graphics. You'll need iff.library for this to work. SWRT: The type of clip is used by Softwood (e.g. FinalWriter). The Clipbook can store these but can't currently display them. So, for example, you can draw some structured graphics in FinalWriter, select them, select 'Copy' and then launch the Clipbook. You can now use 'Paste', and the clipbook will tell you it can't display it. You can copy/cut it later though and paste it back into FinalWriter. D2RD: This is the IFF structured drawing. Again, Clipbook doesn't currently display the clip. UNKN: The Clipbook doesn't recognise the clip, but can store it. NIFF: (Not IFF) You shouldn't see this type, as all clips must be IFF to be stored in the Amiga clipboard. It therefore indicates that something has gone wrong with a file in the CLIPDIR. In the UNKN case the Clipbook will display additional information. This information is the identifier of the first 'chunk' in the clip. This may help you remember which application it came from. There is an additional complication. When storing FTXT (text) in a clip an application such as FinalWriter needs to store additional information such as typeface, style etc. When you try and paste this into another application you may not get all the text. The Clipbook parses FTXT properly and displays all the text, but if it thinks there is additional information in the clip it will display something in brackets after the FTXT. For example, if I copy some text from FinalWriter to the Clipbook it shows: FTXT (FCCH) This tells you where it's come from and that other applications may not understand it. Additional Notes ================ Each clips stored in the clipbook is stored as a file. All these files are stored in the CLIPDIR (see Options below). A 'control' file called .cliprc is also stored in this directory, which keeps count of the total number of clips. If the program can't find this .cliprc file it will ask you if you want to create a new one with 0 entries. If the CLIPDIR is invalid the program will quit. You can alter the contents of the CLIPDIR and the .cliprc if you really want to - but I wouldn't suggest it. If for some reason the .cliprc file is deleted you can easily re-initialise it to the number of clips in the directory. Simply cd to the CLIPDIR and type: echo >.cliprc "X" Where X is the number of clips in the directory. Also, be aware that although I can force the Clipbook to open on the frontmost screen I can't force the viewer run with the 'View Scrap' button to do the same. If you think this isn't working try taking a look at the Workbench screen to see if the viewer's window has appeared there. (Although Multiview will autmoatically bring it's screen to the front). The History of ClipBook ======================== Version 1.0 First Public Release (14th June 94) Version 1.1 Made a buffer bigger due to bug in older versions of FGets() (27th June 94) Fixed bug when allocating bitmaps. (Probably only affects AGA machines) This was probably causing the bug I was blaming on DPaint! Added 'Load Clip from File'. The current clip number is now held even when you close the window. This means it starts where you left off. Improved FTXT handling. This now uses iffparse.library. FinalWriter FTXT clips (normal text) now display properly. However, other applications may not paste the whole clip as FinalWriter may store the text as many chunks in the file. I will add a 'Convert to simple FTXT' feature in future versions. Extra information about clips is now displayed, which is helpful especially for clips of type UNKN. Fixed bug when opening on a publicscreen. I was releasing the lock too early.... (Though the chances of this one ever occuring were tiny!). Made it use NewLookMenus under 3.0->. Added Cursor Left, Right, Up, Down and Return (Copy and Hide) Version 1.2 Added detection of D2RD clips. Hope to actually draw them soon.... (Sep-Oct '94) Added AutoPaste Added Naming Clips Paste menu item now ghosted when there's nothing in the clipboard Added ability to specify different viewers for ilbm/ftxt/other clips Fixed some enforcer hits! Known Bugs ========== The font adaptive routines (as generated by Gadtoolsbox) aren't great - and if you use strange fonts you may find some of the text overlapping the gadgets. I will try to sort this out in future versions. There are risks with opening windows on non-publicscreens. To be safe ONLY use the Clipbook when it's open on a non-publiscscreen; don't try and use the application owning the screen whilst the clipbook is open. Future of Clipbook ================== There are several things I want to do with Clipbook. The first is to be able to display Softwood clips (e.g. from FinalWriter). I also hope to add structured IFF drawings, EPSF displaying and an AREXX port so that utilities such as Snap can cut directly to the Clipbook. This means many screenshots could be captured to the Clipbook, which is useful if you're writing a manual. I want to have an index of names the user can look clips up in Make the window re-sizeable....... Oh yeah, if you've got over about 30 clips pasting a new one in can take a few seconds whilst the CLIPDIR is shuffled about. At some point I'll try to improve on this. Thanks To ========= * The authors of GadToolsBox. * Christian Weber for iff.library * Mark McPherson for the startup code. * Matt Jennings for the use of his A3000 (so I could run Enforcer). * Marcel Offermans for suggesting the functionality of the return key. Not Only But Also...... ======================== This version of Clipbook is free - although if you do use it I'd appreciate somthing to help encourage future updates! I would especially like to hear about any applications whose clips it doesn't recognise. Sending me an example clip would be very helpful - even the first page of the output from "type xxxx hex" would be good. I welcome all bug reports, comments and suggestions and can be contacted by any of the following means: e-mail: nick@ripple.demon.ac.uk snail-mail: Nick Portalski 24, Scotland Farm Road Ash Vale Aldershot Hants GU12 5JB I hope you find it useful! -- Nick Portalski November 1994