Idea - Paste utility...

[sicknero]

I don't know if I'm posting in the right place here... definitely don't know if this qualifies at all as a 'snack', but...

In Firefox, there's an add-on called 'Clippings', which lets you add text items to a context sub-menu for instant pasting into text areas. I know nothing about coding, but I'm wondering how possible/difficult would it be to have something like this that works globally across Windows? i.e. in Notepad, Open Office, Open/Save dialogs, etc?

[mouser]

Most clipboard tools, like my own Clipboard Help and Spell (which frankly may be overkill for what you are wanting), allow you to create favorite clips that you can bring up in a menu when you press a hotkey, to let you paste into any program.

[sicknero]

Thanks for your reply ... yes I have used Clipboard Help+Spell for several years, it's very good. But it's really the whole hotkey and seperate list thing, that I'd like to lose if possible, just for the purposes of quickly pasting particular snippets of text.

[barney]

You might consider a text replacement app.  tranglos created one (1) for DC's NANY 2012, Ethervane Echo.  I've been using something similar, ShortKeys for years.  Either of these works across nearly all Windows windows.

[sicknero]

Hi Barney thanks for your suggestion... I thought I'd tried all the freeware clipboard apps but Ethervane Echo is new to me so I'll try it today.
Shortkeys also looks v good, but ideally I'd like a solution that's entirely mouse-driven (most of my working day is spent with my mouse in one hand and a piece of paper or cuppa in the other). And also freeware if poss... not because I'm too tight to pay out for a good solution (honestly!), but because I don't use credit cards so actually paying for stuff can be difficult.

[rjbull]

Do you mean something that pops up with a series of pre-defined "fixed" texts, as it were?

If so, maybe TypeItIn?  It's $19.95, and I've suggested it on Bits du Jour in hope of a future discount.  The last free version is here: TypeItIn v2.0. 

Or, Ka Type In, which is freeware anyway, though getting a little old.  So are Solway's Cliptext (and limited to 10 clips) and Multi Clipboard.  In fact, I seem to remember I couldn't get either of those last two to work on Vista Home Premium.

You can do it with PowerPro too, if you can figure out how.  I used to use PowerPro (on XP) to make buttons that appeared on the title bar of TED Notepad only when it was editing a particular file: clicking them dropped down menus of text strings.

[Edit at UK time 2012-04-04, 22:34:-]
Afterthought; suggest you investigate the freeware Text Editor Anywhere which allows you to readily tranship text between Web text boxes and your favourite text editor, so you have all the power of your editor readily available.  I almost invariably use it for my forum posts.
[/Edit]

[sicknero]

Hi, some interesting suggestions there thank you.

I'm really liking Ka Type In, mostly because it can be triggered by mouse position and then just one more click pastes the item. Also it pastes the item without formatting so it's good with Open Office. And should I be feeling sufficiently energetic to use my keyboard, it also has an auto-complete capability. Nice.

Text Editor Anywhere, unrelated but very neat little app.

PowerPro lol. I remember downloading it years ago thinking "Wow this looks really really useful..!!". No prizes for guessing the end of that story  I'll have another look at it though, I'd like to think I've learned at least a little in the intervening years...

Anyway I'm uncomfortably aware that I'm probably way out of the area of coding snacks now. But ever the optimist, I'll just attach a couple of jpg's... mock-ups of my ideal paste extension. Doesn't have to attach to the actual "Paste" menu item of course, anywhere in the context menu is fine

[skwire]

FWIW, integrating your menu into an existing program's context menu would be VERY difficult, if not downright impossible.

[sicknero]

Hi yes, I think I remember asking you about this a few months back, in the context of AHK apps.

Time to draw a line under this one I think. I've been using 'Ka Type In' all day, and I think it's the closest I'm going to get. And it's excellent, even if it is relatively old now. I guess the reason that apps like this one work is that they don't try to integrate into existing menus. My understanding of the issues is very sketchy sorry.

A worthwhile thread though... it introduced me to a couple of really useful apps that I might not otherwise have found. So, many thanks everybody.

[TaoPhoenix]

Excel 2010 (earlier?) has rightclick/"select from dropdown list" which accumulates the info in a column above it into a drop down list that you can just "pick and paste". Not exactly what you're looking for, but it's cute so I decided to mention it.