Creating and Editing Text Clippings
You can quickly create a new text clipping by clicking an empty bin. Doing so opens a dialog that enables you to type the text of the clipping.
creating a text clipping
You can edit an existing clipping by choosing Edit Clip Text… from the Action button next to a text clipping.
Copying Text from All Clip Bins
You can conveniently copy the text from all the clip bins in the current clip set to the Clipboard. To do so, choose Copy Text from All Bins from the Edit menu. Each copied clipping will be on a separate line. A handy shortcut for doing this is to press the Shift and Option keys while clicking any enabled Paste button.
Please note that only the plain text content of each clipping will be copied — any formatting that the clippings have will be ignored. Also, the text will only be copied to the Clipboard and not automatically pasted to the current application.
Pasting Text to Multiple Clip Bins
Similar to copying text from all clip bins, you can also paste a block of text from the Clipboard to multiple clip bins. To do so, choose Paste Text to Multiple Bins from the Edit menu. Each individual line of the text will be put into a separate clip bin starting with the next bin after the last occupied bin. Clip bins will be added to the current clip set if there aren't enough to hold all the clippings.
You can also paste text to multiple clip bins by pressing the Shift and Option keys while clicking any enabled Copy button. Using this method, the clip bins will be filled starting with the bin that the clicked Copy button is associated with. The contents of that clip bin and any after it may potentially be replaced by using this method.
Please note that only the plain text content of the clipping will be pasted — any formatting that the clipping has will be ignored. Also, the text will only be pasted from the Clipboard and not automatically copied from the current application.
Sharing Clippings (Export, Import)
You can save either single Clippings or entire Clip Sets to disk using the Export commands. This allows you to archive specific clippings or even share them with other users or computers.
- To export a single Clipping choose Export to Disk… from the bin's Action button. This creates a package file with the name ending in ".iclipping".
- To export a Clip Set choose Export Clip Set… from the Edit menu. This creates a package file with the name ending in ".iclipset" containing all clippings of the current clip set.
These so-called package files are actually folders, and you can look inside them by ctrl-clicking on them, then choosing Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. This is especially useful for the Clip Set packages, allowing you to pick single items out of them. Alternatively, you may rename the file by removing the .iclipset extension from it to treat it as a normal folder.
To re-import these saved clippings and clip sets you have several options:
- Double clicking a ".iclipset" files creates a new clip set from it.
- Double clicking one or more ".iclipping" files adds them to the end of the current clip set. If the clip set is full, the clippings get added to a "Overflow" clip set, which will be created as needed. However, if the current clip set is the Recorder, the clippings will simply be inserted at the front of the Recorder's clip set, as if they were newly recorded clipboards.
- Single ".iclipping" files can be dragged from the Finder and dropped into a clip bin.
- One or more ".iclipping" files can also be dragged onto the Add Clip Bin button (+) button at the end of the iClip window. This has the same effect as opening the files in the Finder (e.g. by double clicking them).
A note for the curious: When looking into ".iclipping" packages, you'll find the various representations of clipboard data as separate files inside. For instance, a clipping of a Safari web page will show the web page content in many forms, e.g. as a Webarchive, RTF and plain text.
Shortcuts and Power User Functions
Copying and Pasting
If you hold the Shift key while clicking the up or down buttons in the Clip Sets Pop-up Menu, iClip will switch to the first or last clip set respectively.
If you hold the Option key while clicking a Copy button, iClip simply retrieves the current Clipboard contents into the clip bin, without copying from the current application first.
If you hold the Option key while clicking a Paste button, iClip places the contents of the clip bin into the Clipboard, without pasting to the current application afterward.
If you hold the Command key while clicking a Paste button, iClip paste the bin contents as plain text, i.e. it removes any formatting from it.
Dragging from or into Bins
When dragging a clipping from a bin to another bin, in order to duplicate the dragged clipping, hold down the Option key.
When dragging a clipping from an application into a bin, in order to keep a previously set name for the bin intact, hold down the Option key right before dropping the dragged content into the bin.
When dragging a clipping containing text from a bin to an application, in order to drag only the plain text portion of the clipping, hold down the Command key at the start of the drag operation, then let go of the key.
When dragging a text clipping from a bin to the Finder, in order to create a text file (.txt or .rtf) instead of a .textClipping file, hold down the Option key at the start of the drag operation, then let go of the key.
Adding or removing Bins
You can add or remove multiple clip bins by pressing Option while clicking the Add Clip Bin or Remove Clip Bin buttons. Doing so opens a dialog that allows you to choose the number of clip bins to add or remove.
Editing Clippings
When editing a clipping's name, pressing the Tab key toggles the Show name checkbox on and off.
Accessing Original Files
If the Option key is held down when the bin's action menu is opened, the Open Original File With menu will show the full paths of every app that appears in the menu list.
When an app is selected from the Open Original File With menu with the Command key held down, the file is not opened with the app but instead the app gets revealed in the Finder.
Editing a Smart Search
Holding down the Option key changes the Save button to Save As…, allowing you to save a copy of the search under a new name.