Exploring QuicKeys for Windows Using QuicKeys Clipbook Actions

August 2004 Exploring QuicKeys Clipbook Actions (Windows)

The introduction, general description of the Clipbook shortcut, and some of its potential uses were covered in the August 2004 issue of TRIGGERED. This web page is meant to provide more detailed instructions on how to set up the shortcut itself. These instructions assume you are using QuicKeys for Windows version 2.5+ running on Windows 98 or newer.

Gather ye text clips while ye may...

As preparation for this tutorial, it will be beneficial for you to open the QuicKeys Editor and from the View menu select Options. If the box labeled "Always use Setup Wizards for editing" is checked, please uncheck this now. This will allow us to take some shorter paths in this article than using the Setup Wizards would allow.

Now let's just jump right in and look at the Clipbook shortcut setup window. Open QuicKeys editor and select System Tools -> QuicKeys Clipbook from the Create menu. The resulting window has the controls needed to make either a Gather/Collect clippings shortcut or a Retrieve/Insert clippings shortcut. Let's build our Gather/Copy shortcut first:

1. Since this is a Copy/Gather type of shortcut, set the pop-up menu in the bottom half of the window to "Copy selection to Clipbook." This means when you hit your hotkey for this shortcut, it will attempt to copy whatever you have selected/highlighted in your front window and save it into the Clipbook database. Leave the "Prompt for name" radio button checked, and optionally check "Beep after selection is copied" as you like.

2. The name of the shortcut will automatically change when you alter the Action pop-up menu, feel free to rename the action if you so desire.

3. Since this is a type of "copy" action, I chose Shift-Control-C as my hotkey. Assign whichever key combination makes sense to you.

Other Triggers for this shortcut could be assigned; placing it on a Toolbar might be a popular optional way to trigger it. If you have created your own custom toolbars, they will be visible in the Toolbars tab of this window.

While we're here, I'll mention that the Action Scope tab in this window is something you'll want to learn more about at some point, but it would not be beneficial to this tutorial. It is important that this shortcut be built under the Universal scope rather than some program-specific scope for it to be flexible and powerful.

Click the OK button to close and save the shortcut.

Get 'em while they're hot!

Now that we have a way to collect and store clips, we need a way to retrieve them as well. Again, let's just jump right in and take a look at a typical Clipbook shortcut window as set up for retrieval. Open QuicKeys Editor and select System Tools -> QuicKeys Clipbook from the Create menu.

1. Using the previous screen shot as a reference for this new shortcut, change the Action pop-up menu to read "Prompt for list of items to paste from Clipbook." There are other options in the Action pop-up which I'll touch on later.

2. You'll see that the name of the shortcut has automatically changed with your new selection from the Action pop-up menu. Feel free to rename the shortcut if so desired.

3. Since this is a Paste/Insert type action, I used Shift-Control-V as my hotkey; go ahead and choose a hotkey that makes sense to you, and add the action to a toolbar if you like.

Click OK to close it up, it's time to test these shortcuts!

Populating your Clips collection

We now have the bare essentials for a working clips storage and retrieval system in place, one shortcut to gather and store the clips, and one to retrieve them from the Clipbook system. Open your Notepad application so we can get started loading data into your Clipbook.

Type your name and mailing address in Notepad. Format it however you would normally format this information. Select/Highlight your name and mailing address with your mouse, and hit your Copy to Clipbook hotkey (I used Shift-Control-C for the hotkey in my example above). This should bring up the window to the right:

Give this clipping an appropriate name and click the OK button to save the clip. You should hear an acknowledging system beep when you do so, indicating that the clip was successfully stored in your Clipbook.

Type another name and address or some other useful bit of information into Notepad, hit your Copy to Clipbook hotkey again, name and save this second clipping into your Clipbook. Now that we have a couple of items stored, let's look at retrieving them.

Bring out your Clips!

Let's select everything in your Notepad document and delete it so we have a clean slate. Now hit your "Prompt for list of items to paste from Clipbook" hotkey trigger (I used Shift-Control-V in my example above), you'll see the following dialog:

1. There are two ways to choose the clip you'd like to insert. Obviously there is your mouse, but you can also use your keyboard. This window supports "Type-to" so any key you hit will jump the selected item to match that key. i.e. in the example image to the left, if I push my "H" key, the selected clip will jump to "Home."

If you happen to have more than one clip whose name starts with a specific letter, quickly typing two letters will jump you to the proper one. e.g. If I have a clip named "HomeAddress" and another one named "HaroldCarter," typing "HO" would jump my selection over HaroldCarter to HomeAddress. I can also use my up/down arrow keys to traverse the list.

2. After choosing the clip you want, just hit Enter or click the paste button. QuicKeys shoves that clip's data to the system clipboard which then pastes the data into Notepad.

Had enough yet?

Clips are quite powerful as you can see! There are several other Action options available when you create a Clipbook shortcut, you probably noticed them in the Action pop-up when creating our shortcuts above. The other significant option of which to take note, is "Open Clipbook Editor." This shortcut is something you'll want to build to allow you a way to easily maintain your clippings collection.

Go ahead and make a new Clipbook shortcut with "Open Clipbook Editor" as it's Action, and assign it a hotkey or put it on a toolbar or in your QuicKeys menu as a trigger. Click OK to save your Open Clipbook Editor shortcut, and then activate it with your hotkey or whatever trigger you assigned. You'll see the window to the right.

1. The lower section of this window will look familiar, it has the list of your saved clippings on the left which you can select and see the contents of those clips on the right. You can double-click any item on the left to rename it.

2. We have some added controls at the top of this window which will help you maintain your clippings. The 4 buttons at the top are, from left to right:

• Copy clip to clipboard - This copies the contents of your selected clipping into the system clipboard. I don't find this feature useful, but you may.
• Paste clipboard item into Clipbook - This copies the contents of your system clipboard (whatever you last copied with Window's Control-C or Control-X) into your Clipbook, giving the new clipping a name based on the contents of the clipping. You will likely want to rename the clip.
• Delete Clip - Deletes whichever clip you have selected in this window.
• Rename Clip - Allows you to rename whichever clip you have selected in this window.

That's the meat of this type of shortcut. The Clipbook is the lion to Type Text's house cat. Hopefully this tutorial has helped you better understand the power and convenience of using the Clipbook instead of, or in conjunction with, Type Text.

Good luck and have fun!