Custom Clip Library
Create a clip-book of often-used scraps (tip given to me by "MudGuard" -- best thing yet as a time-saver):
1. In the selection box for Clip Books, right click and click "New Book"
2. Save and Name the book per the dialog.
3. When you find a segment of text you want to save for re use; select it (remember spaces above and below, and edit for variables).
4. Open the Custom Clip Book
5. In the clip selection area, right click and click "Paste New Entry" and give it an easily recognized name per the dialog.
Use.
In the Old Days of computer typesetting we used to have the ability to save scraps like this as small files with the ability to insert them wherever needed and I had always missed the ability to do this on the computer. Now here it is. The only other thing that the typesetting machine could do that was even better was to be able to have multi-part scraps: text...click...fill in...click...text...click...fill in...etc.
Custom Clip Library
Moderators: AmigoJack, bbadmin, helios, Bob Hansen, MudGuard
Custom Clip Library
Thanks, Mo, for linking me to the detailed instructions on how to store a character string or clip in the Clip Library. I'm trying it but need a few more clues.
1. I don't find a Clip Books listing anywhere. I find a Clip Library in the View menu. Am I looking in the right place?
2. When I click the Clip Library, a left column opens next to the work space showing HTML characters. (A drop-down menu shows other listings, including ANSI characters and DOS characters.) When I right-click on that column, it automatically selects one of the listings, and the right-click menu actions pertain to applying that selection some way; I see no New Book selection. What am I doing wrong?
3. If I can succeed in storing my character string in a new book, is there some way to attach a keystroke that would insert it automatically? That would be much more efficient than opening the Clip Library, opening the correct book, finding the correct clip and clicking on it. In Word, such "clips" are stored in the template file normal.dot by default, so creating a storage place for them is not necessary (although possible). Assigning them to a keyboard shortcut is a separate action.
I appreciate the immediate response and look forward to mastering this tool.
Dale Mead
1. I don't find a Clip Books listing anywhere. I find a Clip Library in the View menu. Am I looking in the right place?
2. When I click the Clip Library, a left column opens next to the work space showing HTML characters. (A drop-down menu shows other listings, including ANSI characters and DOS characters.) When I right-click on that column, it automatically selects one of the listings, and the right-click menu actions pertain to applying that selection some way; I see no New Book selection. What am I doing wrong?
3. If I can succeed in storing my character string in a new book, is there some way to attach a keystroke that would insert it automatically? That would be much more efficient than opening the Clip Library, opening the correct book, finding the correct clip and clicking on it. In Word, such "clips" are stored in the template file normal.dot by default, so creating a storage place for them is not necessary (although possible). Assigning them to a keyboard shortcut is a separate action.
I appreciate the immediate response and look forward to mastering this tool.
Dale Mead
-
Bob Hansen
- Posts: 1517
- Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2003 8:15 pm
- Location: Salem, NH
- Contact:
You can import/copy/create your own Library clips. They will be regular text files named *.tcl. (See notes below from Help)
You can find the default path for the library clips under Configure, Preferences, Folders selections.
If you keep them in the folder Drive:Path\TextPad 4\User. then they will be there if you do an upgrade to TextPad.
By using a shared resource path on a network, this also makes these library clips available to all TextPad users.
=================================
from the Help section on Clip Library:
Clip Books are plain text files with the extension .TCL. If you are careful, you can use TextPad's main editor to create and maintain these files.
Each file consists of a header, followed by one or more clippings.
Header:
!TCL=<id>, <comment>
!TITLE=<title>
!SORT=<y|n>
!CHARSET=<charset>
where:
<id> is an identification number in the range 1-999 (numbers above that are reserved for our sample clip books). It must be unique for each clip book.
<comment> is any text, such as the author's name.
<title> is a short name that you will use to select this book.
<charset> is one of ANSI, ARABIC, BALTIC, CHINESEBIG5, DEFAULT, DOS, EASTEUROPE, GB2312, GREEK, HANGEUL, HANGUL, HEBREW, JOHAB, MAC, RUSSIAN, SHIFTJIS, SYMBOL, THAI, TURKISH, VIETNAMESE. If omitted, it defaults to ANSI. If set to DEFAULT, the default character set for Windows will be used. This value controls which font is used to display the list of clipping titles and will only have an effect if the corresponding code page is available in Windows.
Clippings:
!TEXT=<title>
<clipping>
!
where:
<title> is a short name that you will use to select this clipping, and to sort them, if required.
<clipping> is any text, except for an "!" in column 1. If your own text must start with "!", escape it using "\!". The characters \^ will be interpreted as the hot spot. If you need to use \^ literally, escape it using \\^.
! marks the end of a clipping. Precede it with a blank line, if you want the clipping to finish with a line break.
Notes:
When you have edited a .TCL file manually, you can make the changes visible by selecting the Refresh command on the Clip Library's context menu.
Do not edit the sample clip books in the Samples folder. Copy them to the Clip Library folder first (specified on the Folders page of the Preferences dialog box), or your changes will get lost when you next update TextPad.
The Clip Library searches for .TCL files in the Clip Library folder first, followed by the Samples folder. It uses the first one that it finds with a given identification number.
If you create any interesting clip books that you would like to contribute to our collection, please let us know. We will make them available from our web site, with full credit given to each author.
===================================
You can find the default path for the library clips under Configure, Preferences, Folders selections.
If you keep them in the folder Drive:Path\TextPad 4\User. then they will be there if you do an upgrade to TextPad.
By using a shared resource path on a network, this also makes these library clips available to all TextPad users.
=================================
from the Help section on Clip Library:
Clip Books are plain text files with the extension .TCL. If you are careful, you can use TextPad's main editor to create and maintain these files.
Each file consists of a header, followed by one or more clippings.
Header:
!TCL=<id>, <comment>
!TITLE=<title>
!SORT=<y|n>
!CHARSET=<charset>
where:
<id> is an identification number in the range 1-999 (numbers above that are reserved for our sample clip books). It must be unique for each clip book.
<comment> is any text, such as the author's name.
<title> is a short name that you will use to select this book.
<charset> is one of ANSI, ARABIC, BALTIC, CHINESEBIG5, DEFAULT, DOS, EASTEUROPE, GB2312, GREEK, HANGEUL, HANGUL, HEBREW, JOHAB, MAC, RUSSIAN, SHIFTJIS, SYMBOL, THAI, TURKISH, VIETNAMESE. If omitted, it defaults to ANSI. If set to DEFAULT, the default character set for Windows will be used. This value controls which font is used to display the list of clipping titles and will only have an effect if the corresponding code page is available in Windows.
Clippings:
!TEXT=<title>
<clipping>
!
where:
<title> is a short name that you will use to select this clipping, and to sort them, if required.
<clipping> is any text, except for an "!" in column 1. If your own text must start with "!", escape it using "\!". The characters \^ will be interpreted as the hot spot. If you need to use \^ literally, escape it using \\^.
! marks the end of a clipping. Precede it with a blank line, if you want the clipping to finish with a line break.
Notes:
When you have edited a .TCL file manually, you can make the changes visible by selecting the Refresh command on the Clip Library's context menu.
Do not edit the sample clip books in the Samples folder. Copy them to the Clip Library folder first (specified on the Folders page of the Preferences dialog box), or your changes will get lost when you next update TextPad.
The Clip Library searches for .TCL files in the Clip Library folder first, followed by the Samples folder. It uses the first one that it finds with a given identification number.
If you create any interesting clip books that you would like to contribute to our collection, please let us know. We will make them available from our web site, with full credit given to each author.
===================================