Lesson 4: QuickPaste...

Tutorial > Lesson 4: QuickPaste...

QuickPaste lets you quickly access your most frequently-used Clips without having to leave the application that you're entering data into. Unlike PowerPaste, which is geared toward pasting a series of items (and is still the best tool for that), QuickPaste can be used in an ad-hoc fashion, letting you pick and choose the items that you want.

Let's say that you are going on an internet shopping spree, and you need to order from several online stores. You've made a collection with your name, address, phone numbers, E-Mail address, and of course, your credit card details. But to your dismay, you find that the various online stores ask for information in different sequences. Some ask for the shipping address first, some last. Some ask for your phone number, some ask for two phone numbers (day/night) and some don't ask for any phone numbers! PowerPaste isn't very useful here, as the format of the form doesn't match the sequence of the data items. But QuickPaste will handle this just fine!

Navigation Tip: QuickPaste is built on ClipMate Classic, so if you are in Explorer then there will be a lot of "flipping around". To minimize this distraction, it is wise to switch to ClipMate Classic if you have a lot of QuickPasting to do. Press Ctrl+E to switch from ClipMate Explorer to ClipMate Classic.

Copy these items into ClipMate:

(716) 555-1212

(716) 555-1234

1234123412341234

1203

5678567856785678

1204

John Doe

123 Main Street.

Anytown

12345

USA

mailto:Johndoe@anyisp.net

Now open Notepad, and type a few characters to make sure that the cursor is properly positioned.

Now press Ctrl+Shift+Q, and ClipMate comes up – in special "QuickPaste mode". Note the "bullseye" target icon in the status bar at the bottom - it should show you the title of the target application, in this case, "Notepad".

Now use your mouse or arrow keys to select the "John Doe" entry. This places that clip onto the clipboard, and all you have to do now is press ENTER, and the data is pasted right back into Notepad. You should now be IN Notepad as well, as QuickPaste returns you to where you were working. There - you've done a QuickPaste!

Try another. Let's pretend that you need the street address next. Press Ctrl+Shift+Q to get back into QuickPaste, and arrow down to the street address. Press Enter. There - another QuickPaste.

Press Ctrl+Shift+Q again, and select John's credit card number, and enter that. You can double-click the item with the mouse this time, if you'd like.

Go through the rest of the information, in a somewhat random order. Notice that every time that you bring up QuickPaste, the last item selected is already highlighted. Useful for repeat pasting, or when filling out a form which does happen to have some relationship to the order in which the items appear in ClipMate.

There is a LOT more to QuickPaste. You can configure it to show you TWO collections at once, so that you can tab back and forth. Great for pasting from your Safe, when you're capturing into InBox. You can also configure it to send special formatting strings to append the timestamp, title, or URL to a clip as it is pasted. Review the topics below, for full information.