ShortCuts

Having access to thousands of previous clips is only a great thing if you can find the data that you're looking for, more easily than typing it again. Here is where ShortCuts come in. Similar in operation to QuickPick, ShortCuts are global "nicknames", (Mnemonics for you technical types) that you assign to clips that you need to access frequently. For years our users have been asking for the ability to assign "hotkeys" to individual clips. While we liked that idea (and did try it once), hotkeys are limited in number, are difficult to remember, and often conflict with keys used by other applications. The new ShortCut feature solves all of these problems as you can assign a shortcut to as many clips as you need to, they can be named and even structured to be easy to remember, and they won't cause conflicts or "steal keys" from other applications.

To use, first assign "nicknames" or meaningful codes to your clips. You can create a hierarchical structure with the "." (dot) character. The dot key is also used to enter the ShortCut mode. To assign a ShortCut, simply right-click on any clip, and select the "Change Title/ShortCut" menu option, or press Ctrl+R. You will be able to change the ShortCut and/or title. It is often useful to change both.

As soon as you press the "." key, ClipMate populates the top of the ClipList with all items that have a ShortCut. Similarly to QuickPick, the blue bar separates the ShortCut items from the regular items. But here, items can come from ANY collection or database. As you continue to type, the list is filtered so that only the matches remain. Hit the backspace to shorten the search string and relax the filtering.

In this example, I have associated nicknames with my credit card details. Since I have both a Visa and MasterCard, I have a structure in place to keep them separate. "cc" for "credit card", "v" or "m" for Visa or MasterCard (or Discover, Amex, Eurocard, etc.), and then the particular piece of data such as date, name, number, pin, etc..

So Now I've typed ".cc.v", and have pulled up the 3 pieces of Visa details.

Now I'm ready to QuickPaste the data into NetCaptor (a popular browser add-on), so NetCaptor appears as the QuickPaste target. So I would select the number, press ENTER, and it would be pasted into NetCaptor. If I QuickPaste again (for the Date, perhaps), my ShortCut selection is still in effect - I do NOT need to re-enter the ".cc.v" search string. The selection stays in place until I dismiss it with the ESCape key, or perform another search.