Help needed for new Mac user :-((

[unwire...@gmail.com]

Hi,

I've been a PC user for more years than I care to admit to but have
recently bought a mac (10 days ago) and am already missing a very
important app I use in my work, rest and play. Namely, a text editor
that I can leave running in the background and have it automatically
grab whatever I copy to the clipboard (the PC app is NoteTabPro).

I was wondering if anyone knows of a similar app for OS X. Thanks

Regards,

Tim

[Jan Erik Moström]

There are several, they often some other functionality, the ones I have are:

NoteBook - a notebook application

DEVONthink - a freeform database application (simplified description)

OmniOutliner - an outlining application

BBEdit - a text editor

However, they don't use the clipboard but either the contextual menu or Services
--
Jan Erik Moström, mos...@gmail.com

[Jimmy Montano]

You can also try iSnip wich captures anything you put on the clipboard
and makes it available to any application in the system , plus is free

[Andy J. W. Affleck]

The clipboard is already available to all applications... or do you
mean it stores multiple items in addition to the standard
most-recent-item?

I use and like ClipboardSharing and QuickSilver (both of which have
multi-clipboard tools). Clipboard Sharing is nice because it will
automatically share the clipboard across multiple macs on the same
network via Rendezvous (soon to be called Bonjour). I use this all of
the time at home to move snippets between two computers.

For snippet managers, I suggest a stroll through TidBITS. Matt Neuberg
has been doing a steady run of testing various ways of collecting
information and storing it for later use. He has written many articles
about various products.

Finally, look at Sticky Brain. The latest version is VERY nice and has
a nice system-wide snippet grabber which works very well. I also use
DEVONThink and like it very much as well but use it for longer things
versus small things which I put into StickyBrain.

(All tools mentioned here can be found at macupdate.com)

-A

--
Andy J. Williams Affleck
http://www.raggedcastle.com/webcrumbs/ (Site/Weblog)
http://www.podcrumbs.com/ (Podcast)

[Jimmy Montano]

You're right, I realized that right after sending my mail.

Yes, it storess multiple items from the clipboard. and lets you also
have predefined text snippets you can paste on any application. I'm
actually also using it as an stickies replacement

[unwire...@gmail.com]

Thanks for all the pointers to different packages to look at. I will
spend the weekend having a look at them.

In the meantime, if I could just explain a little more precisely what I
do at present on the PC perhaps you'd be kind enough to help me narrow
it down a bit if you can.

I run NoteTabPro, begin a new document then declare that as an
automatic recipient of anything copied to the clipboard. It grabs
anything I highlight and copy, converts it to plain text, puts in the
document and waits for the next item. I believe it also appends a
carriage return as well to every entry.

The beauty for me is that I don't have to think about it, whether I'm
clipping something from an email, a Word doc, web page or a PDF - as it
changes everything to plain text I don't end up with graphics, URLs or
tabular layouts - and with a ten minute auto-save turned on it makes my
job very easy, simple and quick.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Regards,

Tim

[Andy J. W. Affleck]

StickyBrain, DEVONThink, OmniOutliner (I believe) and others all do
this. In the case of StickyBrain, you define any number of different
documents to capture to and assign each their own key combo. When you
select text in any application and hit that combo, the text goes right
to the document in question.

One of the most powerful and under-used features of OSX is the
services which allows such things to happen. I wish I used them more.
:)

-A

[Jeffrey Windsor]

Yes, but no. StickyBrain and DEVONthink (both of which I own) will
indeed take selected text (from *most* applications) and toss it into
their databases. But both need to be called specifically and
separately from a copy (or cut) operation. It's not a bad solution,
but it's not exactly what unwirednomad is looking for.

Multiple clipboards is also a handy thing to have (and built-in to
Quicksilver as well as other apps), but is, again, something
different.

Which I think is a good idea. Kind of. It's sort of like a massive
inbox which *must* be processed every day, else you'll have a big ole
mess of a file. It's a mental-state thing. If I know that everything I
copy will be also saved separately, I might just copy things (random,
little things) like addresses, etc. for consideration when I process
later. Some of it I'll simply chuck upon further review, and what's
worthwhile I'll actually use.

The more I think about it, the more I like it, actually.

--jw

[Jeffrey C.Long]

Using the services menu isn't really all that functionally different
from the clipboard. There are key commands that let you create a new
rich text note in Devonthink from a copied text in an open app.

Jeffrey
je...@jeffreyclong.com
http://www.jeffreyclong.com
http://del.icio.us/jeffreyclong

"The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided
by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an
interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will
of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big,
warm, sweet, interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is,
the more he is convinced of his own infallibility." - Thomas Merton
(from, Seeds of Contemplation)

[Jeffrey Windsor]

Yes, but using copy + the services menu is two operations instead of
just one, and it requires an extra thought process. You need to think
"I need to copy this information" and "I wonder if it's something I'll
need again someday?"

Consider it like this: I use the multiple clipboard functionality in
Quicksilver. Sometimes I need it; most of the time I do not. I like
that it's always there, storing the last ten copies, ready for when I
do. In the same vein, I'd like to have that same information be saved
to disk as well. So when I discover that I need the spelling of the
word I copied, say, twenty copies ago, I'd know it was saved in the
all-copy-file.

I'm not saying it's crucial, but it might be interesting. I think I'd
keep it running in the background, if such an app existed.

--jw

[Samuel DeVore]

Humm, maybe I'll play around with this idea... So what you might be
looking for is an application that might sit in the background and
watches for changes to the clipboard and if there is a text based
content that is new, append it to a text file. Optional timestamping?

sam d

[Penny]

I use DevonThink for research. For personal work and fun, I use
Aquaminds' NoteTaker.

[Jan Erik Moström]

> The beauty for me is that I don't have to think about it, whether I'm
> clipping something from an email, a Word doc, web page or a PDF - as it
> changes everything to plain text I don't end up with graphics, URLs or
> tabular layouts - and with a ten minute auto-save turned on it makes my
> job very easy, simple and quick.

If you want to be able to include pictures, styled text, etc then I
would say NoteBook or DEVONthink.

[Todd]

>So what you might be looking for is an application that might sit in
the
>background and watches for changes to the clipboard and if there is a
>text based content that is new, append it to a text file.

I think this is a great idea. I can't believe there is no mac
application yet that can do this precisely (i.e., one step instead of
two). This app can probably be created easily for someone with good
programming skills.

[Jeffrey Windsor]

time stamping: excellent idea.

--jw

[Samuel DeVore]

If people are interested in playing with an early demo tomorrow send me an email

sde...@gmail.com

[Rob Donoghue]

Nothing practical to add beyond sympathy for the OP. I'm a happy Mac
Convert, but oh lord I miss Note Tab Pro.

-Rob D.

[Chris Lott]

ClipMate on the PC is a similar app... but instead of logging to an
open app like NoteTab, it *is* the app, resides in the systray, keeps
a looong clip history and can do all kids of magic on the history
items (joining URLS that were broken in the original text, stores
images, past sequentially through past clips, etc)...

If there isn't something similar for OS X, someone should write it now!

c
--
Chris Lott

[unwire...@gmail.com]

Well I put everything on hold today after starting this thread and have
downloaded a lot of demos and freeware apps to try and find something
that will work the same way as Note Tab and so far .........

Nothing. Not even close. I'm too much of a Mac virgin to really hack
around with services yet, but from what I've seen that doesn't hold out
much hope for me. I'm sure I'm wrong but it strikes me that a lot of
apps are happy to open up new files but when it comes to appending then
to an already open file nothing seems to want to play.

The closest editor to Note Tab I've come across so far is Jedit, it's a
bit clunky and slow running but at least it looks like familiar
territory. And, as far as I can tell, it's missing the all important
function of grabbing/appending clipboard data.

Although my main use for being able to clip stuff easily is work,
having, as someone else called it, large inbox permanently there is
very effective for GTD. I have two (usually) files open in Note Tab
-only one of which is activelly grabbing the contents of the clipboard.
One file is for work related stuff I have to collate the other is for
anything personally interesting I stumble across.

To switch from one file to the other I simply go into Note Tab,
highlight the appropriate file tab, press Shift Ctrl P and that file is
then grabbing any copy (ctrl +c or edit/c) function I do from any
source material. It just doesn't get any easier; surely something like
this exists on the mac.

[Samuel DeVore]

I have a functioning version now :) Should a basic version ready for
some testing by morning. Sign up for the list for this new app at
http://xs2.teachesme.com/mailman/listinfo/newapptest

Sam D

[bighai...@gmail.com]

Is it possible to set up a Quicksilver trigger to append the selected
text to a file? It seems like it should be, but I couldn't quite makeit
happen.

[Ian H]

Notational Velocity does exactly what you want I think. The only
difference is you have to hit shift-command-V instead of command-C. But
whatever you've highlighted goes straight to the program as a new note.
It will save URLs and paths to files (as links). If you have the
program window minimised to the dock, it won't pop up each time either.

Best of all it's free.

http://pubweb.nwu.edu/~zps869/nv.html

Ian

[Jeffrey C.Long]

Devonthink will append a rich text, or text note from services, and has
a key command that will do it after highlighting the text in a services
enabled app.

On Mar 29, 2005, at 3:20 PM, unwire...@gmail.com wrote:

> I'm sure I'm wrong but it strikes me that a lot of
> apps are happy to open up new files but when it comes to appending then
> to an already open file nothing seems to want to play.

My website is currently down. I'm in the process of getting it fixed.
In the meantime, a broken version of it is available at
http://jeffreyclong.typepad.com

Jeffrey
http://jeffreyclong.typepad.com
je...@jeffreyclong.com
http://del.icio.us/jeffreyclong

[Shiloh]

Thanks for pointing out NoteTab to me! I have to use Windows at work
and this little piece of freeware has saved me oodles of time and
effort this week. Someone needs to make a page for it on the wiki.

[eliz...@circusponies.com]

NoteBook's Clipping Services run in the background so that you can clip
from whatever app you're in without having an annoying window pop up or
any other interruption. Just control-click and clip directly into the
page with the Clipping Service.

I'm not sure I understand the requirement about using the Clipboard.

Elizabeth

[Chris Lott]

> I'm not sure I understand the requirement about using the Clipboard.

I assume they mean they want it to integrate with the clipboard and
not demand cutting/pasting with a special keystroke to have the
content logged. Clipmate, for instance, basically hijacks the normal
copy and paste and logs/stores the items so you don't have to think
"do I want to save this or not"--

c
--
Chris Lott

[Chris Lott]

> I'm not sure I understand the requirement about using the Clipboard.