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Snow Leopard nice touch: no more "Picture 1" files
I've always been a fan of ⌘-Shift-4 for taking quick and easy screenshots on my Mac, even with such level-up options as Jing, Skitch, GrabUp and LittleSnapper readily to hand. What I wasn't a fan of, however, was the proliferation of "Picture 1," "Picture 2,"... up to "Picture N" screenshot files on my desktop. Not only was it tricky to figure out which Picture file was which (a task made easier with Quick Look), it was also reasonably likely that at some point I'd overwrite a Picture 1 someplace that I wanted to keep with a brand-new Picture 1 I just snapped and copied off my desktop. It's certainly not one of the marquee features of Mac OS X 10.6, but there's one little Snow Leopard tweak that's already won my heart: no more Picture 1s! Screenshots to file created via the system key commands (⌘-Shift-3 or -4, add the Control key to capture to the Clipboard instead of to a file) now get a name that's quite a bit more descriptive, including the date and time of the capture. No more file name collisions, no more wondering which Picture is the one you took of that cryptic error message in the middle of the night. Viva Snow!
Manage your iPhone's clipboard with Snippets
The cut, copy, and paste features (finally) included in version 3.0 of the iPhone OS greatly improve the productivity of the iDevices. However, there is room for improvement. Enter Erich Bratton with his clipboard manager app, Snippets, available now in the iTunes App Store [iTunes link]. Snippets offers a way to organize bits of text that can be accessed quickly to paste into emails, text messages, notes, and other places. The clips can be categorized into a number of pre-determined or user-created folders as well. To help get new users comfortable, the app comes with a variety of canned responses and other text pieces, some of which are hysterical.The real power of Snippets lies in the ability to paste or create text in the app for later use. Think of it as boilerplates for your iPhone. If you find yourself writing similar things over and over, simply create an entry in Snippets. When you need to write that same text next time, visit the Snippets app first, view the desired text block (which automatically copies it to the clipboard), and then paste it into whatever app you'd like. It really couldn't be much simpler.The canned responses included with Snippets are worth its price of $.99 alone, in this blogger's opinion. But even if you are wittier than I and appreciate original pieces of text, Snippets is a great app with a very easy-to-use interface that I plan to use again and again. In fact, I might just start using it to write some generic paragraphs that I can use in every review. What a time-saver!
Unofficial copy / paste comes to the iPhone... again
There have been several efforts to bring some semblance of a clipboard to the iPhone since Apple has stubbornly, steadfastly refused to do so. So far, they've been somewhat meaningless and unhelpful (though totally well intentioned) largely because they've only worked with apps specifically designed to take advantage of them, when in reality, probably 80 percent of the stuff you want to copy from (or paste to) is in the iPhone's built-in apps. Enter Clippy, which attaches to the standard keyboard and adds true copy / paste to the out-of-the-box apps plus a smattering of third-party ones. The catch? It only works on jailbroken handsets -- this is about as far from making it to the App Store as anything you can imagine. It's still under development and bugs are still being ironed out, but for those of you who've gone ahead and pwned your phones, check Cydia for the goods.[Thanks, Cody]
Clips updated to 1.1
Clips is a relatively new application (designed by our friend Nicholas Penree and his cohorts at Conceited Software, who also sell Linkinus) designed to kick your clipboard into overdrive -- it'll let you keep track of any and all clips even across applications, Spaces, and even different Macs. The screencast gives a pretty good idea of just how capable it is, and while it seems just a tad bit too complicated for a user like me (I mostly just stick to the browser, and Quicksilver's shelf gives me pretty good access to all the reusable bits I need), it definitely seems like the kind of program that finds its way into your workflow: the more you use it, the more uses you'll find for it. Plus, they've just released Clips 1.1, with a bevy of new features -- Abbreviations are now live (they'll expand as you type them, like Text Expander), you can use hot corners to invoke the program, video URLs are now supported (along with Amazon and IMDb URLs), and you can rename clips through a contextual menu (that last one might sound boring, but have you tried it yet?). The application is $34.99 (though hurry to get that price -- it may go up on October 1st), and there's a 15-day free trial.And hey, if you don't want to buy it quite yet, just wait a bit -- Conceited has given TUAW a few giveaway copies to pass on to you readers, so stay tuned for your chance to pick it up right here.
OpenClip says iPhone firmware 2.1 breaks it
Anyone getting used to the cross-app clipboard framework for the iPhone wrought by OpenClip, heads up: your party might be drawing to an end. The organization says that apps no longer have access to the common storage areas of other apps in the latest beta of firmware 2.1, which basically puts the kibosh on the very reason OpenClip is able to do what it does. They're throwing around a couple ideas -- one of which would involve creating a funky-looking contact in your address book to marshal data between apps, while another would see data get pushed to a server, a move that Apple would effectively be unable to stop. Then again, with rumors still fresh that real copy / paste is coming in 2.1, maybe these guys want to hold off for just a bit to see what happens.[Via AppleInsider]
Third-party clipboard framework for iPhone in the works
Developers are mad as hell about the copy / paste situation on the iPhone, and they're not gonna take it anymore. Despite rumblings of the long-overdue feature making an appearance in version 2.1, a grass-roots effort has been started in the form of OpenClip.org to implement a totally independent, third-party clipboard solution that apparently manages to remain entirely within the bounds of Apple's airtight SDK agreement that significantly limits what App Store apps can and cannot do. Some eleven apps are already listed as having pledged support for the OpenClip standard, which will inevitably be wiped out if Apple decides to do something official -- which, let's be real, should've happened ages ago. Follow the break for a video demo of OpenClip in action.[Via MacRumors]
Copy / paste app for iPhone is meaningless, has no bearing on anything
What's the sound of a tree falling when no one's around to hear it? What's the sound of one hand clapping? And perhaps most importantly, what's the purpose of a clipboard when only one app can use it? Development shop Proximi is making a pretty big stink about its MagicPad app for the iPhone, touting its homegrown copy / paste functionality as part of a rich text-editing package to help shore up the handset's weak sauce (read: non-existent) office app suite. That's all well and good -- the app looks well-executed and provides a core function that should've been present across the entire iPhone to start -- but without buy-in from Apple, the clipboard's stuck in the MagicPad sandbox. Cool? Yes. Should Apple be paying attention? Yes. Useful? At this point, barely.[Via MacRumors]
Beta Beat: Corkboard is your clipboard's buddy
Sometimes Command-C and Command-V just aren't enough. You're working on a project and want to capture a bunch of text, pictures, or code, and then paste it into the project you're working on. Using the Mac clipboard, you're toggling between open applications, cutting and pasting like there's no tomorrow. Wouldn't it be nice to capture all of that information into one place, then pull it out when you're ready to use it? Corkboard (from Ayluro) does exactly this -- you press a hot key or click a menu bar icon, and a transparent "corkboard" appears. You can either paste or drag-and-drop items onto the corkboard, then hide it. If your machine crashes, or if you need to restart it, no problem -- the items that you've pinned to the corkboard are there. When you're ready to use those items (text, sound, pictures, etc..), just open Corkboard and drag them into the receiving app.Corkboard accepts many types of media, and Ayluro has created a framework so other applications can work seamlessly with Corkboard. It's currently a time-limited beta (download here) with an introductory price of $12.99. Developer Jonathan Grynspan expects the app to leave beta in early 2009. Give it a try!
Sharing your clipboard
Web Worker Daily's got a nice little roundup of apps that allow you to share your clipboard between multiple computers. There's tools for Windows, Mac and -- most useful -- cross-platform.Also, as a user points out in the comments for the post, there's cl1p.net, a web-based tool that lets you cut-and-paste and share text, files, images and URLs. It's even iPhone ready, which is nice, considering nobody seems to want to put an actual clipboard on the darn thing.These are all cool tools...but personally, if I need to copy text from one machine to another, I just email it to myself. How about you? Got any other easy tips for moving content across machines?[via Lifehacker]
Rock your clipboard with CopyPaste Pro
Described as "Time Machine for the clipboard," CopyPastePro takes your Mac's clipboard way beyond simple temporary storage. There's a multiple clipboard option of course, but CopyPaste Pro also lets you edit the contents of a given clipboard (or "clips" as they call them) with its built-in word processor, create an archive of previous clips and even review clips via a "clip browser," which resembles Mac OS X's application switcher.If you're one of those users who just can't live with the standard Mac OS clipboard, check out CopyPaste Pro.CopyPaste Pro requires Mac OS X version 10.4.x or 10.5.x. For a short time, users of CopyPaste can upgrade to CopyPaste Pro for $20US. On May 12th, the price will go up to $30US.
DragThing 5.9 with Leopard support and full dragabilty
DragThing, which could have my favorite Mac app name ever, is a launcher that will open up anything you (surprise!) drag to it, and can also work as a Dock alternative and a visual clipboard. The idea is that everything you need is just a click (or a hotkey press) away.And now, this thing has hit version 5.9, with full support for Leopard (an entire week early!), and a host of other updates. Actually I'm not sure how much a "host" is, but there's a lot-- a new look, icon reflections (optional, in case you don't want things too shiny), new themes, live previews, and the ability to insert and rearrange items in the Dock using just the eponymous dragging action. Very slick.DragThing is available over on the website-- a single license is $29, and you can get five and ten packs of licenses for $99 and $149. Trust me-- it's a real drag.[via DF]
PTHPasteboard Pro: multiple clipboards and text filtering
PTHPasteboard Pro is yet another multiple clipboard manager, but this one has a cool little trick up its sleeve: text filters. In addition to saving clipboard history like the many other clipboard manager out there, PTHPasteboard Pro allows you to use 40+ text filters to manipulate and transform the clipboard text. For instance, you can create filters that change the case, wrap and unwrap lines, use smart quotes, etc. Furthermore, you can apply these filters sequentially to achieve some complicated effects (check out the screencast to get a better sense for what you can do). Especially used in sequence these filters can be quite sophisticated, like a less powerful TextSoap or BBEdit Text Factory. The Pro version also offers clipboard syncing across different Macs on the same network.PTHPasteboard Pro is $19.95 and a demo is available. There is also a free version (minus the Pro) that offers just clipboard history without the text filters
Quicksilver Trigger, Strip Clipboard Formatting
Sometimes even the best intentions of developers can't account for user preference, and after speaking with many other Mac users, this certainly seems to be the case with OS X's habitual tendency to preserve the formatting of text copied to the clipboard. For example:I copy text from OmniWeb:Pasted text before running the trigger:Pasted text after running the trigger:Quicksilver maven Dan Dickinson has figured out a sneaky way to strip out this formatting, and has turned the method into a handy Trigger. The trick works by pasting the contents of the clipboard into a terminal shell (where it loses all formatting), and then re-copying the text to the clipboard. For the trigger to work, you must have the Terminal Plugin installed. A full how-to is available on Dan's website.
Clipboard Killer
We've all been there– intending to paste a link to that hot new social network but instead exposing your social security number. Indeed, the clipboard can be a fickle and unforgiving mistress. After an unfortunate incident last night (which he won't elaborate on), my buddy Emory decided to pull out of the dangerous game of clipboard copy/paste. He whipped up a neat little AppleScript by the name of Clipboard Killer which will wipe the contents of your clipboard every 25 seconds and replaces it with ...For those readers new to AppleScript, it's easy to turn this into a background application that you can set to launch on login. Simply open Script Editor (found in your Applications folder), copy and paste the code, and save the script as an application.
ShelfMenu - a menubar clipboard utility
ShelfMenu is a menubar clipboard app that can store just about anything you can copy to Mac OS X's clipboard; images, URLs, text snippets, etc. Your clippings are stored into folders which you can create, rename and move - all while preserving anything you've already clipped to them. ShelfMenu offers two input methods: a simple text editor window, and simply adding the last thing you copied to Mac OS X's clipboard.This looks like a handy utility for anyone on the hunt for a clipboard application, as it offers an out-of-the-way, yet accessible clipboard that can handle more than simple text snippets. I personally prefer the Quicksilver clipboard plugin, since we're such Quicksilver nuts here at TUAW, but I would probably give ShelfMenu a try if Quicksilver were ever to to be instantly erased from the internets and my Mac overnight.ShelfMenu is donationware and available from CeMacSoft. I can't track down any information as to whether it is a Tiger-only but it is a Universal Binary. Feel free to let us know in the comments.
iClip Lite 2 Dashboard widget released
iClip Lite, as we've mentioned in the past, is a free, widgetized version of the shareware iClip. The Lite widget version is "a multiple clipboard & scrapbook widget designed to improve your efficiency and productivity for most tasks you do on your computer". New in version 2 is: • universal binary • automatic Clipboard recording • smooth widget resizing • increased number of bins from 20 to 25 • all new, stylish designiClip Lite is free and available from Inventive.
Maximize your clipboard with CuteClips
Don't you just get aggravated when you accidentally overwrite an item you had previously copied to the clipboard? CuteClips by brink software eliminates the problem.CuteClips will remember the last twelve items you copied to the clipboard. Simply hit the designated key combination (mouse jockeys can click the menu bar item) to bring up a list of your most recently saved items. From there, just select the one you're after. Other features include previews of just about anything you've copied, an option to make files "sticky," meaning they won't be removed from your clipboard history until you opt to remove them, and the ability to paste saved items sequentially. We realize that the popular Quicksilver also manages a clipboard history, but we're also fans of a product that simply performs a single task well. A single license will cost you €5.00. I could not find system requirements.
