Armando,
Sorry to be so long in replying, and apologies for the length.
I must say that I avoid using abbreviations for references
-Armando
I admit I sometimes do. Of course, the system isn't intended for that, but as triggers for expansion.
I wanted an even more simple system that would generate words which could never be confused with French words -- my main language.
The DOS word processor PC-Write had a suggestion that, in English, the letter "q" is fairly rare. So they suggested using it to end abbreviations with, e.g. "ltq=lieutenant." I don't know how that works in French, but you might be able to adapt the idea.
I actually find that something like KeePass with its ability to suggest different entries or templates depending on the context (the "save as" dialog brings up certain template suggestions, an MS Word document brings other suggestions, etc.), icons to help differentiating groups of tags, is quite good. But what's missing is the ability to use hotkeys or different shortcuts to quickly paste the text, and many other features you find in "clipboard enhancer" type of apps (like ClipMate, Clipboard Help + spell, etc.).
Your use of KeePass is more advanced than mine, and was a clever idea
You might go over to their forums, and put in a feature request for the hotkeys.
I've read that you use "ArsClip and CHS in tandem". May I ask what features you especially like in these?
Partly it's because I like software, and because I use the clipboard quite a lot and didn't want to lose anything, used two at a time. However, until about a couple of weeks ago I had a more powerful reason. The computer I was using then was quite old, and CHS was very slow at popping up. This is something I've noticed about Mouser's other applications, perhaps a Delphi defect. ArsClip was very fast at popping up. I've now had to move to a much newer computer where ArsClip is instant, but though CHS is much better, it's still noticeably sluggish by comparison (FARR is
much improved). For what it's worth, here's my list of comments on the two, mainly based on the old computer. They're both free, no-install, can refresh the clipboard chain, have permanent clips, can be set to ignore clips coming from certain programs e.g. KeePass, and the basic actions are easy to use. Please note I have less experience with ArsClip. In both cases, clipboard refresh often doesn't work on Win98.
CHSGood points:- Extremely reliable. Seems to catch all (text) clips you throw at it, however fast, and almost never crashes. That's why I tend to keep it loaded, even if I use something else as well.
- Very good features for deleting old notes - moves New to Old, Old to Trash, delete from trash, all on user-definable schedules.
- Extra features like spell check and user-definable tools (but see below)
Not-so-good points- Very sluggish at popping up
- Title list pane doesn't look quite Windows standard
- If you go into Trash and try marking the first item, then go to the last one and press Shift-Click to mark them all, then Delete, it doesn't seem to do it. It may delete some, and leave the rest, and you have to repeat the process. But, you can go into Configuration and get an instant delete of everything.
- In the spell-checker window, the formatting is sometimes screwed up. I think this is to do with whether the text was nicely word-wrapped before you clipped it. Going into user-tools seems to wrap it properly, but it shouldn't be necessary.
- I couldn't get the user-definable external tools to work, but it might have been owing to permissions set on my computer.
ArsClipGood points:- Very fast at popping up. This is the reason I stick with it.
- Small program (by comparison with CHS), so better for putting on a USB stick. Because it's small, it's the one I tend to use on my Win98 laptop at home, on the assumption that it takes less resources. Not sure I'm on solid ground here...
- Can clip graphics as well as text. I have not tried this. It's not the default, you have to enter Configuration and set it.
- Some other features I haven't tried: configuration options suggest it can keep and paste RichText, for example. Also has an option to paste as plain text.
Questionable points- Look and feel of the program, especially the configuration, differs a bit from ClipCache, CHS, Clipmagic, CLCL. It works perfectly well, though.
- It's detection of a break in the clipboard chain is too sensitive. Several times now it has reported that it thinks the clipboard chain has been broken by... ArsClip!
- It has several pasting methods. You need these, as sometimes the usual one doesn't work. I don't understand this, as most other clipboard enhancers only need one.
- The author has done himself a disservice by saying on his Web site that it holds 15 clips. That's only the default pop-up list. When they scroll off the pop-up, they are stored in separate individual files, with a user-definable number of files available.
- McAfee virus scanner often complained that ArsClip disk files were obfuscated HTML, and deleted them. Not really ArsClip's fault, but annoying.
Finally, about catching clips thrown at programs fast. I still use DOS programs, and when I want to send their contents to the clipboard, use Horst Schaeffer's 32-bit command-line program
ClipText. When several files are involved, I tend to use this from the command line:
for %a in (*.txt) do cliptext from %a
Usually there are four plain text files, and you can see why a clipboard enhancer is necessary, when you want to paste four different files into four different emails. My files are generally fairly small; 55K would be about the maximum. That means that new clips are being sent to the clipboard very rapidly. I haven't tried this on the new computer yet. On the old one, I found some clipboard enhancers, in some cases, wouldn't see all the files. I think they usually picked up the first and last, but ignored the middle two (maybe a faulty memory here). CHS
always picked up everything. So did the old freeware version of ClipCache. But ClipMagic didn't, and ArsClip didn't always, either. Clipmagic does have a feature I would dearly love to see the others emulate, the ability to save the URL a clip came from along with the clip.
HTH...