Question for Quick Pasters..

[mouser]

so i'm getting ready to write the quick-paste functionality for CHS.

i don't personally ever use this feature of clipboard tools so i'm looking for some feedback.
the traditional approach is to have a hotkey bring up a small menu of recent clips, you select one and its pasted.

i had a slightly different idea i wanted to run past you guys.

what if quick paste brough up the main window, at a smaller size, and switched to a Preset called QuickPaste,
which by *default* would only show the grid view, with only 1 column (excerpts), and open to QuickPaste group node (which by default shows all clips from the last day), sorted by recency.

you would then double click on an item to have it pasted into your current application.

the advantages of this would be pretty substantial:
users could completely customize what and how their quickpaste views looked.
for those who like to quickpaste but would like to be able to search and roam around a little before quick pasting, this would allow them to customize their QuickPaste preset for example, to show a preview of selected clip, or let them select different groups, show more columns, etc.

here are the drawbacks:
1) youd have to double-click to paste in a clip and dismiss the window, compared to single click with normal quickpaste tools.
2) the quick paste menu would be bigger than most in terms of screen space used (mostly vertical space, used by menubars, etc.)

opinions?

ps. you can see how this would look, just drag off and close the group and memo views, hit the column customizing button (far left header of grid and turn off all columns except excerpy).

[kfitting]

It's worth a look-see.  The major complaint I would have is the time needed to bring the window up.  If it's fast, it should work fine.  One further thing is keyboard control.  Could this be made so that you could hit the hotkey, choose clips with the up/down arrows and hit enter to paste the clip?

Other than these two things, I think it's a reasonable idea.  Once you get the base functionality there we can work on the quick/paste workflow.  One thing that would be kind of cool, and it's probably already there, is if the quick-find would be available from this view.  Perhaps you could choose to display only a certain number of clips (ie the 10 or 30 most recent clips), but if you used quick-find it would search through ALL clips.  This way you could choose to be overwhelmed or not.  BUt, this last idea is very very very trivial. 

Kevin

[mouser]

you'd hit a hotkey, window would come up, with cursor on last clip.  you could use arrows and hit enter to paste.
as for speed, i think it should be (almost) as fast as a normal menu.

yes, things like the filter/search would be an advantage of this approach, as it would be available.

[kfitting]

I figured the quick-search would be in there... just making sure ! 

Kevin

[AbteriX]

At least i found this thread
and i post again my experience with CLCL:

Just a few suggestions what *could* be, IMHO
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- the pop-up window should be as small as possible, no borders, no menu,...
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- i want to see my last clips.
User should choose how many, 10, 20, 30...
Maybe show them in 2 or 3 columns would be nifty ?
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- i also wanna see my favorite clips
- the favorites i want to store in sub folders too
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- the pop-up could appear on the caret, on the pointer position and from the tray
From the Tray the user didn't must remember an hotkey, just click on the icon.

For the hotkey i already posted the CLCL way wich use the WIN-key too
and also recognizes pressing two times the SHIFT or the CTRL or the ALT key
to popup the QuickPaste window.

- with CLCL i had created  two QuickPaste pop-ups
with two different hotkeys:

* WIN+V for the recent clips
* Shift+Shift for my templates (Favorites)

but both, recent and favorites could appear with one pop-up too, the user choose.

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- i only want to see the first few words of the clips   (maybe addjustable the width)
( respectively the name i would give them clip )

and a yellow balloon for the rest of the clip if the mouse hoovers over the items
No creation Date, no Application- or title name,... (besides the are in the balloon, what *could* be an aid ?)
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- i want an item to open the CHS window for the hole goodies
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- i want separators (a simple line) for between recent clips, favorites and maybe ext apps
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- CLCL puts numbers or chars bevor every clip
so one could choose the clip by this prefix
but till i see what prefix is for what clip
iam quicker with the arrow keys and ENTER
or with the mouse and the LMB 

Maybe only for the first nine clips
it could be handy to choose them by numbers.
If i know i want the second last clip
i could press my hotkey and than the '2'
to past the clip.

Especially if we get from mouser
the feature to choose the first nine clips
each by an own hotkey
like WIN+F1 for the last recent,
WIN+F2 for the second last,...
or something like that,
would be handy 

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- Further, not only for the QuickPast pop-up but general,
it would be nice to have items for to launch external apps, URLs ...
But i post that already.

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- after i choose an clip to past
this clip should be pasted immediately into the active document
and the QuickPaste window should disapears till i press the hotkey again

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Or could it be an aid the have an header on this QuickPaste pop-up
to drag it out the way and let stay it open with an switch "Stay on top"
for to paste some more items ???
Just now i don't need this, 'cus i don't have the possibility yet 

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I think i need no search in the QP
'cus i have only the last few clips in it.
For an search i would open the CHS window, thought.

[mouser]

some very good points -
there is definitely a hard decision to make about whether to use a very small simple popup,
or a bigger more full pop up with search functions,etc.  i have to think a bit more about it, but i understand the idea that if one wanted full window one would launch full window, so maybe a tiny menu like clcl is a good idea..  still have to think about this one..

[kfitting]

I go both ways on this question.  One point that I feel supports a more full featured popup is the fact that CHS captures EVERYTHING that is copied.  To make good use of this a search feature could be real handy, even for quick pasting.  But, like I said, I think either will do...

Kevin