Part of what makes a Macintosh easy to use is the fact that you can work with many kinds of information in many different applications. Helping make this work smoothly is the ability to cut or copy information from a document in one application and paste it right into a document of a different application. Every time you do this, the information gets put on the Macintosh's clipboard. The clipboard is the part of your Macintosh whose sole purpose is to keep track of what you cut or copy.
Many applications let you view the current clipboard contents. By selecting “Show Clipboard” in the Finder you get to observe what is on the clipboard right now, but if you cut or copy something else the old information is lost. Often it would be nice to have a lot more information available to you on the clipboard. For example, if you need something you copied 10 copies ago, or perhaps need to move a lot of information between applications, this is where Clipfolio comes in.
Clipfolio watches your work and every time you cut or copy information to the clipboard, Clipfolio copies that information. Your information is saved and you can come back later to use it over and over while you continue copying new stuff (which is also being saved). Clipfolio will save up to 20 of your most recent cuts or copies. Automatically! All you need to do is install Clipfolio to take advantage of power like this.
GETTING STARTED
Clipfolio is a control panel, and therefore it needs to be kept in the Control Panels folder in the System Folder. To install Clipfolio, simply drag the correct version (PowerPC or 680x0) to the System Folder. Make sure only one of the Clipfolio control panels is installed on your system. You can then restart and immediately begin using Clipfolio, or open the Clipfolio control panel and adjust some of Clipfolio’s settings.
USING THE CLIPFOLIO CONTROL PANEL
How Many to Save?
When you have the Clipfolio control panel open, at the top of the window is a pop-up menu that lets you choose how many cuts or copies you want Clipfolio to remember. There are four choices: 5, 10, 15, or 20. You can change this number whenever you like, but contents of the data file will be erased if this value is changed.
This feature is the heart of what makes Clipfolio useful. You can set it to what fits your work style the best. If you frequently move a lot of data between your applications you might want to set this value all the way up to 20. The default is five.
Special Applications
Below the cut/copy menu is a Special Applications list. Some applications behave a little differently when it comes to cutting or copying data. Applications that belong on this list do not use the standard clipboard unless they have to (such as when you switch to another application). These applications use their own private clipboards. Clipfolio cannot access this private information unless the application puts it onto the standard clipboard. If Clipfolio is not saving what you cut or copy with a particular application try adding the application to the list.
By adding applications to this list, Clipfolio will force the applications to put their information on the clipboard. After adding an application to this list you may notice that they “blink” when you cut or copy data. This is Clipfolio working with these programs and it is normal.
Some applications will not even use the standard clipboard unless you tell them to by changing a “preference”. Adobe Photoshop is such a an application. You have to tell it to ‘Export Clipboard’ in the General Preferences. If Clipfolio is still not saving what you cut or copy with an application despite being on the special application list, check to see if it has any preferences such as this.
Here is a list of some of the known applications that require having Special Applications turned on and have to be added to the list for Clipfolio to work with them:
• Microsoft Word
• Adobe Photoshop
• Eudora
• ColorIt, by MicroFrontier
• Sticky Memos (System 7.5)
• Resorcerer, by Mathemæsthetics
• eWorld
• ClarisWorks 3.0 and later
The "Special Applications" box must be checked to use the list and to add an application. You can have up to 25 applications in this list. The default is off.
Special Features
Below the Special Applications list are some useful options for Clipfolio. These modify Clipfolio’s behavior, but are not necessary for Clipfolio to do its regular job.
• Show startup icon: When this is checked Clipfolio will draw its icon on the screen when you start up your Macintosh. The default is on.
• Restore clipboard at startup: Normally when you turn on your Macintosh the clipboard is empty. The last thing you cut or copied before shutting down or restarting is gone. If this option is checked the last thing cut or copied is restored at startup and is ready to use again right away. The default is on.
• Automatically paste selected item: If this is checked you can have Clipfolio paste what you selected in its display window. Use of this option with some applications will require that the application be put on the Special Applications list described above. The default is off.
On, Off, About
The On and Off buttons, of course, turn Clipfolio on or off. If Clipfolio was not installed at startup the On button will say "On after restart". Turning Clipfolio off while it is installed will prevent saving any cuts or copies. You will not be able to display any of the old information Clipfolio had saved until you turn Clipfolio back on. Clipfolio will not install at startup if it is turned off. The default is on.
If you click the About button you will see important information regarding Clipfolio.
Once you have Clipfolio set up the way you prefer you can close the control panel window and your changes will be saved. Any changes made in the control panel will not take effect until you close the control panel window.
USING CLIPFOLIO
Now that you have Clipfolio set up you can begin using it. Clipfolio adds an item to the bottom of the Edit menu of each application. Selecting Clipfolio from the Edit menu will open Clipfolio. If Clipfolio does not show up or is disabled in the Edit menu, hold down the option key before clicking in the Edit menu; Clipfolio will now show up in place of Paste in the Edit menu. Alternately, one can type option-shift-C to show the Clipfolio display.
When Clipfolio is open you can see all of the past data that has been copied or cut. If there are not as many items displayed as you have selected in the control panel, that means Clipfolio has not yet saved that many. You can scroll through the list using the scroll bar or the arrow keys. If you have cut or copied sounds you can play them by selecting them and then clicking Play or typing cmd-P. If you double click on an item, or select it and click OK, that item will be put on the clipboard for use by an application. If you do not want to put anything on the clipboard you can click Cancel or type cmd-. (period).
If "Automatically paste selected item" is checked in the control panel, there will not be an OK button. Instead there will be a Paste button. Selecting an item and clicking "Paste," or double clicking on an item, will put the item on the clipboard and attempt to paste it into the current application. Hold down the option key if you want to just put a selected item on the clipboard and not automatically paste it. This will change the Paste button into an OK button until you release the option key. If "Automatically paste selected item" is NOT checked you can get Clipfolio to paste a selected item by holding option. This will change the OK button into a Paste button until you release the option key. You can also press option and double click an item for the same results.
People that use special utility software may copy information that is not a standard type and the information will not be recognizable to Clipfolio. If an item is unrecognizable to Clipfolio, its four letter data type will be listed and a question mark will be displayed.
Sometimes you may copy more than one type of data at a time and this becomes a group. Only one item of a group can be displayed to represent the group. Recognizable types will be displayed in the following order if any or all of these types are in the group: Text, Picture, Movie, Sound. Groups with both recognizable and unrecognizable data types will only have the recognizable types listed and displayed. Groups that contain all unrecognizable data types will be represented with a question mark and all of the data types will be listed.
CLIPFOLIO AND CERTAIN APPLICATIONS
Clipfolio does a lot of things behind the scenes in the Macintosh operating system, and we at SingleTrac Software have discovered some things that do not behave the way a user might expect them to. Here is a list of known quirks that we have been unable to resolve, and ways to work around these quirks.
• If you use Microsoft Word version 6: Unfortunately, Clipfolio does not work with Word 6 due to Microsoft's non-standard menu routines. Since SingleTrac presently does not have access to this product, we cannot comment on whether it is possible to be compatible in the future. A future version of Clipfolio will allow you to customize its behavior with respect to specific applications, including whether or not to modify the Edit menu. Until then, however, we really cannot do anything to Clipfolio 1.1 (short of hard-coding allowances for noncompliant pieces of software, which is a horrible programming practice) that would resolve the conflict. Turning Clipfolio off in its control panel while using Word will circumvent the problem in the meantime.
• If you have System 7.5: If you use the "Stickies" program, be aware that when that program quits, it puts two more copies of whatever is on the clipboard back onto the clipboard. You will notice duplicate items in Clipfolio when this happens.
• If you use Adobe Photoshop: Clipfolio has a problem with Adobe Photoshop when typing cmd-x to cut part of an image. Although selecting "Cut" from the edit menu works correctly, Clipfolio is not able to capture an image that was cut if the keyboard shortcut is used. We believe it is a quirk with Photoshop and not Clipfolio, since Photoshop is the only application we have found that exhibits this behavior. If you want to cut an image from Photoshop, either use the menu or type cmd-C before cmd-X.
• If you use SoundEdit Pro: SE Pro interferes with Clipfolio when Clipfolio tries to show the captured clipboards. The outline of the Clipfolio window will be dimmed, but Clipfolio will still function properly.
• If you use ResEdit or Resorcerer: With ResEdit you can copy multiple types of resources at the same time, however ResEdit will only put the first resource alphabetically that you copy on the clipboard. This is a problem with ResEdit and Clipfolio cannot work around it. This is not a problem with Resorcerer.
When using ResEdit or Resorcerer you are able to copy multiple resources of the same type at the same time, however Clipfolio cannot handle multiple resources of the same type. Only one resource will be saved if multiples of the same type are copied at the same time.
• International Users: With version 1.1.2, Clipfolio's international support is seamless, requiring no action from the user to work with all applications.
VERSION HISTORY
1.1.2
-Added some more conditions for which to check when examining the data file at startup, and fixed an occasional error at startup time that would cause Clipfolio to crash if it contained some large clippings.
-Fixed some of the background monitoring done in the PowerPC version. This should make Clipfolio more stable on PowerPC Macintoshes, and fix the problem previously seen with Global Village fax software.
-Vastly improved the display/scrolling speed in the Clipfolio window. Due to the way this was done, Clipfolio may behave strangely on black-and-white Macintoshes. If you experience any problems on a Mac Plus/Classic/SE/PowerBook100, please let us know!
-Improved the way the data file is handled. This should lead to less frequent corruption of the "Clipfolio data" file.
-Changed the text of Clipfolio's item in the Edit menu to "Clipfolio…", to more accurately represent the result of selecting this item.
-Improved the documentation and added notes for other special applications.
-Removed some of the static strings into the resource fork as 'STR ' resources. This should reduce Clipfolio's memory footprint, as well as allow localization for those with ResEdit.
-Made the international support seamless. No more specification of the "Edit" menu title is required.
1.1.1
-Created a PowerPC native version of Clipfolio, which can use the same preferences and data files as the 680x0 version. The 680x0 version can still be used on a Power Macintosh, but this may change as Apple continues to upgrade the system software. For PowerPC-based Macintoshes, Apple recommends installing "fat patches," wherein toolbox patches are implemented as both PowerPC and 680x0 code, but doing this would have caused Clipfolio's resident memory usage to increase by a factor of between 2 and 2.5. Since this pretty much negates our continuous improvements in memory efficiency, we decided to provide a seperate version for PowerPC with completely native code.
-Fixed some problems with the Control Panel recognizing and displaying the registration information, especially if a company name is entered. This bug seems to have been introduced in version 1.1.
-Continued the tireless quest for faster operation and less memory usage.
1.1
-Changed the contact information in the about box to reflect the new ownership.
-Added extended error checking at startup to detect corrupt data files and inform the user.
-Added a keyboard shortcut to invoke Clipfolio (option-shift-C).
-Added rudimentary international support.
1.0.4
-Fixed a bug that would cause a system hang sometimes if Clipfolio was full.
-Fixed a problem with the auto-paste feature that would only allow it to work with special applications.
1.0.3
-Fixed a bug that would crash programs that have only one menu (hence, no Edit menu).
-Solved a problem that was causing some random system errors, including when using the PrintMonitor.
-Generally sped things up and reduced the memory footprint.
-Ported the code to MetroWerks CodeWarrior.
1.0.2
-Fixed a bug on black and white Macintoshes which would put part of the Clipfolio window off the screen.
-Reworked part of the program that generally slowed down the System. The slow-down is now eliminated.
-Added support for much larger clippings.
-Fixed a bug that would leave a view window emtpy if a picture could not fit into available memory.
1.0.1
-Changed the trial period from 4 uses per session to 15 days of unlimited use.
THANKS
We at SingleTrac Software wish to express a heartfelt thanks to you, our users, for trying Clipfolio and helping us build a better product. Many hours over many months have gone into the development of Clipfolio to bring you a quality, useful program. Here are the people that helped bring Clipfolio to life…
Concept, Development, Authors:
Eric Stadtherr
Eric “Rocky” Roccasecca
Constructive Criticism Team:
Christopher Jagger
Melody Sanders
In addition we would like to thank…
Metrowerks Inc. for CodeWarrior, and Symantec for Think Reference.
Volkswagen for the Jetta, the company car.
ParkPre and Paramount mountain bikes because we gotta relax sometimes.
And last, but definitely not least, Apple Computer, Inc. for making such a wonderful computer as our beloved Macintoshes (PowerMac 7200, Quadra 605, PowerBook 520C, Q660AV, and a little, old Plus).
We appreciate you trying Clipfolio. As a reminder, Clipfolio is shareware and the shareware fee is $15. You will find in the "Clipfolio Registration" file all registration and legal notices and a registration form. Please read this as it informs you of your rights and legal obligations.
