PowerPaste
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PowerPaste |
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Introducing ClipMate 7 > Basic Operation > Pasting > PowerPaste This very POWERFUL feature allows you to rapidly paste a series of items into an application. Once you have a series of items copied into ClipMate, simply select the starting clip, activate PowerPaste, switch back to the target application, and start pasting. As you paste each item, PowerPaste advances to the next Clip Item in your collection. The PowerPaste has two "Modes", corresponding to the two modes of PowerPaste. The button can be found on the far left side of the ClipMate toolbar (either Classic or Explorer). From a given starting item, PowerPaste can either work its way up toward the top of the Collection, or down toward the bottom. So you will notice that the icon has an arrow that either points UP, or DOWN, depending on the direction of travel. If it is pointing the wrong way, simply click it again and it should "flip". Then it should remember your preferred direction for the next time you use it. Starting PowerPaste To start PowerPaste, first you want to pick the first clip in the series. For example, if you need to paste some records into a database, such as first name, middle initial, last name, etc., you'd start with the clip containing the "first name". Then you click the PowerPaste button. Click it once, and an arrow should light up on the button, like this: To Cancel PowerPaste, just click the button until no arrow appears. Note: The direction of PowerPaste determines whether you get the data in the order that you copied, or in reverse order. This special mode allows you to PowerPaste individual lines, words, or other "fragments" of a clip. Let's say you have some data like this (as one big clip): January, 31 February, 28 March, 31 April, 30 May, 31 June, 30 And you need to paste into an application, as separate fields. I.e. paste January, then paste 31, then paste February, and so on. With standard PowerPaste, you'd have to copy each "fragment" as a separate clip. Not so with "Exploding" PowerPaste. Just copy the data as one big chunk. Turn on the "Explode Into Fragments" option under the Edit menu, and start pasting. PowerPaste will break the data into "fragments", giving you January, then 31, followed by February, etc., as you keep pasting the same clip repeatedly. It'll remove the commas for you, and strip the leading/trailing spaces. In the above example, you would paste 12 times to get all of the data, pasted as individual fields. This is great for working with comma delimited data from spreadsheets! To configure how PowerPaste "explodes" the data, see the Pasting page of the Options dialog. Sometimes you would like PowerPaste to "loop" when it reaches the end of the collection (or extended selection). Turn the "PowerPaste Loop" option on under the Edit menu, and PowerPaste will "loop" back again after it reaches the end (you will hear the "PowerPaste complete sound play twice). So you can paste the same series of data, over and over. Simply click the PowerPaste button to turn it "off", when you finally are finished pasting. Extended Selections Like many operations, PowerPaste can operate on Extended Selections, where you have chosen multiple clips by holding down SHIFT or CTRL, as you click in the Cliplist. If you have made such a selection, then PowerPaste will act on those selected clips. Otherwise, it will assume that it is running from the selected clip to the end of the collection. Real-Life PowerPaste Example At Thornsoft, we use PowerPaste every time that we receive an order from our web site. As customers order ClipMate, we need to enter the orders into our in-house order-entry system so that we can create shipping labels, receipts, etc. The order information coming out of the web site isn't in the right format for our order entry system, so we use PowerPaste to automate the conversion of web orders into our system. We simply copy the individual fields from the report (Name, Company, Street1, Street2, City, State, Zip, Country, Quantity, ID) into ClipMate. We do all of the orders at once, so there could be a lot of data (the more, the better!) To set our starting point, we pull down the Clip Item Selection List to select the first item of data that we want to paste (the customer name of the first order). Next, we press the PowerPaste Up button, as we want to paste the items in sequence from oldest to newest. Then, we go to the order-entry screen and tab to the "Customer Name" field. Paste the data, tab to "Company Name" field. Paste the data, and tab to the next field. Paste and tab, until the whole order is done. Begin a new order, and repeat the paste-tab process. As you can see, this is much easier than switching back and forth to ClipMate in order to retrieve the data. And compared to keying-in all of this data, it is fantastic! Arrow Behavior: The first time you click the button, the arrow will indicate the direction that you used last time. If you paste some data, and click the button, the PowerPaste will simply turn off, and the arrow disappears. However, if you click the button without having pasted anything, then the arrow will flip, so that you can paste in the other direction. So, if you PowerPaste in the same direction every time, it will remember the correct orientation, and you will only have to click it once to turn it on, and then once to turn it off. About the new button: Previous versions of ClipMate used a "split" button, which looked like an electrical outlet. With ClipMate's new "space saving" toolbar, the split design didn't work out, and the button was confusing. The new button design contains "gears", which are meant to imply "automation". The arrow provides "direction". We think you'll like the new button. Alternate Access: PowerPaste Up/Down from Edit Menu, and SysTray Menu. For more information see:
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. This indicates that PowerPaste is active, in the "UP" Direction. This means that PowerPaste will work its way UP the Cliplist. Click it again, and the arrow reverses. Use whichever direction suits the arrangement of the data in the Cliplist. Usually, you'll pick the oldest clip in the series, and PowerPaste UP the list, until you hit the top and run out of data, and then PowerPaste will terminate with a "beep"