Fine-Tuning the Targeting

Introducing ClipMate 7 > Basic Operation > Pasting > QuickPaste > Fine-Tuning the Targeting

NOTE: This section applies to Auto-Targeting, and will have no effect if the targeting is "locked".

Auto-Targeting sometimes needs a little help.

When ClipMate is activated, it tries to look and see "where was the user working, just a second ago?"  This involves hunting through the "stack" of windows on the screen, trying to find likely candidates.  It usually gets it right, but sometimes ClipMate will find "hidden system windows" such as your antivirus scanner that may have (invisibly) risen to the top of the window stack.  Or will pick the right program, but the wrong window. Sometimes it'll be a window that you didn't even know was there, such as "IEXPLORE:Default IME" or "WINWORD:Print Preview", or something equally useless.

That's ok, you can "train" ClipMate to ignore the bad windows, and hunt for the good ones.

Good Targets and Bad Targets

ClipMate uses a filtering mechanism to help the Auto-Targeting avoid identifying invalid or unwanted targets.  There are two lists, both of which can be viewed/edited in the Options dialog box.  And you can quickly add to either list by right-clicking on the QuickPaste Toolbar.  Both lists consists of entries in the format of:  "app:classname".  The "app" is the application that owns the window (ex: Explorer, PowerPnt, FireFox, etc..), and the "classname" is the window class that the programmer used internally. It's more reliable than the "caption" or "title" of the window, which tend to change with various documents or language settings. The "classname" usually means "a certain type of window", and most apps have window classes that are worth pasting into, and those that should be ignored.  ClipMate tries to figure this out on its own, but will consult the good/bad lists to see if you have made any override decisions to guide its search.

So if  you see that Auto-Targeting has made a  bad choice, right-click on the text in the QuickPaste Toolbar and add to the bad list.  The next time that auto-targeting is used (when you switch to that same program and then back to ClipMate), this same app:classname will be searched for.

But how to add to the "good list"? If it had made a good decision in the first place, would you have any need to add it?   The key here, is to set a good example, and then train it to follow your lead.

Training

Here you show ClipMate which window within an application should be used for future targeting.  Use the  "old-style" quickpaste hot key to "grab" a window, which will then be loaded into the target selection (text area on the QuickPaste Toolbar).  The hot key approach has a big advantage in that it gets to look and see what is the "window with keyboard focus" before ClipMate is activated, instead of having to figure it out "which window had focus before ClipMate".

All you do, is go to the program where you want to paste. Press the QuickPaste Hotkey (default is Ctrl+Shift+Q).  Select a clip, and press ENTER.  Did it paste where you wanted? If so, let's train ClipMate to always look for that particular window, when pasting into that program.  Do the Ctrl+Shift+Q again, and this time, look for the application name in the QuickPaste Toolbar.  Right-click on it, and a menu should appear. Here you can add to the "GOOD" target list.

Important:  The QuickPaste hot key will "lock" the target. So if you see a green check mark over the target icon, click it again to turn it off, otherwise Auto-Targeting won't do anything at all.

Tip: If you find something that's good to add to either list, consider posting a message about it in our online forum. If it's a common program, we may consider building the rule right into the next release of ClipMate.