Easy clipboard sharing added to ClipAssist

Clipassist has had a bit of a makeover, it's now easier to manage those standard clips of text and organise them into folders. But it has a much more exciting new feature.

If, like me you like to run more than one mac then you very quickly feel the need to access a snippet of text on a different computer.

There are ways to achieve this, such as creating a text file and saving it to the other computer. As straightforward as that is, it's overkill if you have just an email address, so you type it on the other computer and risk a typo.

Copy and paste (cmd-C and cmd-V) are so fundamental to computing. We do it without thinking.

So why  shouldn't it be simple to just copy on one mac and paste on another? In fact in the past I've attempted to do this without realising I've switched computers.

I've found a way to share your 'copy' with other Macs on the local network, ready to just 'paste' at the other keyboard. Without any messy connecting / logging in.

Simply run ClipAssist v4 or higher on all Macs, set the send/receive preferences as appropriate and you're ready to go.

This applies to anything you copy to the general clipboard, not just within ClipAssist.

10.6 and upwards are supported, in line with our policy of supporting other fans of the beautiful Snow Leopard.

This is all new. You're welcome to download v4 and try it (please let me know how you get on) under the caveat that this is still beta.

http://peacockmedia.software/mac/clipassist/

Creating a FAQs web page using Clipassist

Clipassist version 3.4 has the ability to export a selected folder or all clips as a web page with expandable answers. A real-life example of this being used is here: http://peacockmedia.software/integrity_support.html

Here's how.

1. Organise yourself a folder containing the clips that you want to include. Give each a short name. Note that at present they're sorted alphabetically by the short name, so you can use a, b, c to order them. A future version will allow you to drag to re-order.

2. A new feature of Clipassist 3.4 is the 'Full question' field. This is what appears as the question on the web page. Access it with the 'reveal' button or View > Show Full Question

3. The text in the main pane will appear as the answer to the question.

4. Fill in meta data keywords to help you search for this item later on.

5. Choose File > Export Folder to HTML or File > Export All to HTML

6. The exported file will open and function as a web page in its own right but it is designed for you to be able to copy and and paste the questions and answers into your existing page. The Qs and As are tagged <h2> and <p> so they should pick up your existing styles, and they have a class ("faq") so that you can customise their style further.

7. Note that if you copy and paste the Qs and As, you'll need to include the jquery stuff and styles in the head of the exported page to your site.

Clipassist was originally designed to save time by giving you easy access to standard clips of text. Hit an F key and you've got a paragraph of text on your clipboard ready to paste without any styling problems.

It still does that. But recent (frequently-requested) improvements have made it useful as a powerful FAQ's / knowledge-base system.

It already allowed you to organise your clips of text in folders. A search box and meta tagging allow you to find the response to a question easily and quickly.

v3.4 is just out and includes the ability to export your FAQs for web. Pages on the peacockmedia site are now generated using this system; eg http://peacockmedia.software/integrity_support.html and http://peacockmedia.co.uk/organise/faqs.html

Less frequently-asked questions are also stored in the system for fast pasting into an email reply.

Version 3.4 is now available for download from http://peacockmedia.co.uk/clipassist/ and shortly on the Mac App Store.

An FAQs or Knowledge Base system

Clipassist has some powerful new features; a search box and the ability to meta-tag clips. These enable Clipassist to be used as an FAQs or Knowledge Base system.

 

To categorise your clips, switch to the folder view (the two buttons to switch between flat and folder views are at the bottom-right of the sidebar). Create folders with the [+Folder] button and name them. You can drag and drop your clips to move them to another folder.

From version 3.3, you can add tags, comments, search terms or misspellings to each clip. To show the tags field, use the little disclosure button at the bottom-left of the main text pane, or View > Show Meta Data or cmd-D.

To search by keyword you can simply type a keyword(s) into the search field.

As ever, you can copy the displayed clip using Edit > Copy, cmd-Alt-C or the toolbar button. Depending on your Preferences you can single-click or double-click the clip's name to copy the clip. 

Press release - OSX productivity app receives facelift

I'd like to introduce you to Clipassist.

It's not a clipboard history but easy access to frequently-used bits of text, which it handles as plain-text.

I wrote it for my own productivity. While using any other app I can simply hit an F key and cmd-V and in two keystrokes I've pasted a block of frequently-used text with no formatting issues.

It's been available to everyone else for a while for free. I've recently given it a facelift as well as some useful new features (eg searchbox, New from clipboard) and released version 3.2 to the web (still free) and to the App Store (a mere 1.99)