Program: CLCL

Author: (Nakashima Tomoaki)

link

CLCL is a tool (100 KB download and no installation - unzip and run) that lets you monitor your clipboard and automatically save all the data transferred through it. It supports all clipboard formats, from as simple as plain text to images and OLE objects. It actually consists of two applications: the monitor itself, which resides in the system tray and lets you view the last few items right from the context menu, and the configuration utility.

>> I tried installing the extra tools, or what they are.

>> Very confusing.

Yes, the tools are indeed confusing when you first try to use them. The only way to figure out what the different options do is to tinker around with the options, and check to see what has changed.

>> And the utl dll, what is that for? What formats should it be installed

>> for?

> Trying to reply to myself. Probably for all formats. (?)

No, "tool_utl.dll" is not for all formats. Let me explain a bit, in tutorial format, for the benefit of all :)

There are 2 types of plugin DLLs that can be used with CLCL, Format plugins, and Tool plugins.

Format Plugins

Format plugins enable CLCL to capture and store additional clipboard formats. Examples are "fmt_metafile.dll" and "fmt_rtf.dll", which allow for Metafile and RTF clipboard support, respectively.

These format plugin DLLs can be configured as follows:

1) Download the additional Format plugins that you wish to use, from http://nakka.com/soft/clcl/index_eng.html . These are listed right at the bottom of the page. Currently 3 plugins to support Unicode (fmt_unicode.dll), RTF (fmt_rtf.dll), and Metafiles (fmt_metafile.dll) are available.

2) Left-click once on the CLCL system tray icon.

3) This will open the CLCL "Viewer" window. Click "View" on the menu bar, and select "Options".

4) The "CLCL - Options" dialog opens. Click to activate the "Format" tab.

5) Click the "Add..." button.

6) The "Edit of Clipboard Format" dialog box opens. Click the "Browse..." button.

7) Browse to the path containing the DLLs that you downloaded in Step 1. Select the plugin DLL (e.g fmt_metafile.dll), and click "Open".

8) The "Select function header" dialog box opens. Click OK.

9) Click "OK" to close the "CLCL - Options" dialog box.

Your selected format plugin is now configured, and this format will be picked up and stored whenever it is available on the clipboard.

Note that you can only select 1 plugin DLL in step 7 from the Open dialog box. So, steps 5 to 8 need to be repeated for each format plugin DLL that you wish to add.

Tool Plugins

The second category of CLCL plugins can be thought of as a set of tiny utilities, called "tools" that perform one or more functions. A single Tool plugin DLL can contain one or more tools, and each tool performs one specific task, such as "Clear Clipboard" or "Clear History". The steps to configure tool plugins, and a description of what the different tools do is given below.

1) Download the Tool plugins that you wish to use, from http://nakka.com/soft/clcl/index_eng.html . These are listed right at the bottom of the page. Currently 2 plugins DLLs containing text manipulation functions (tool_text.dll), and utilitity tools (tool_utl.dll) are available.

2) Left-click once on the CLCL system tray icon.

3) This will open the CLCL "Viewer" window. Click "View" on the menu bar, and select "Options".

4) The "CLCL - Options" dialog opens. Click to activate the "Tool" tab. Note that Tool plugins are configured on the "Tool" tab, while Format plugins are configured on the "Format" tab.

5) Click the "Add..." button.

6) The "Edit of Tool" dialog is displayed. Click the "Browse..." button.

7) Browse to the path containing the DLLs that you downloaded in Step 1. Select the plugin DLL (e.g tool_text.dll), and click "Open".

8) The "Select Tool" dialog opens up. This dialog displays all the tools contained in the selected DLL. Select a tool and click OK. Note that you cannot select multiple tools in this dialog.

9) Click OK to close the "Edit of Tool" dialog.

10) Repeat steps 5 to 9 to add more tools.

Unfortunately, you can select only a single tool in Step 8, so you will have to repeat steps 5 to 8 to configure multiple tools even if they are all contained in the same DLL.

Many of these tools operate on the currently selected History item (or items) in the Viewer. This means that when you select Tools -> ToolName, you must make sure that the appropriate History item is first selected, since the tool will perform its action on the currently selected item(s).

Here is a small explanation of what each tool does.

Tools in "tool_text.dll"

1) To &Lower – Converts the text in the selected item(s) to lowercase.

2) To &Upper - Converts the text in the selected item(s) to uppercase.

3) &Quotation – Brings up a dialog where you can enter a quotation character (default character is >). When you enter the character and click OK, each line of text in the selected item(s) will be prefixed by the quotation character. For example, if the quotation character entered is >> , the text :

will turn into

4) U&n Quotation - Brings up a dialog where you can enter a quotation character (default character is >). When you enter the character and click OK, the quotation character at the beginning of each line of text in the selected item(s) will be removed (if it exists). For example, if the quotation character entered is >> , the text :

will turn into

This feature is especially useful to strip the quotation characters from the text in forwarded emails / quoted newsgroup posts.

5) <&TAG> </TAG> - Brings up a dialog where you can enter a start and end tag to wrap the text in the selected item(s) with. For example, if you enter <B> for the "Start character" and </B> for the "End character", the text

will turn into

6) Delete C&RLF - Removes any line breaks from the text in the selected item(s). For example, the text

will turn into

7) C&onnection of text - This tool concatenates (or "connects", hence the name of the tool) the text in all selected items, and copies them to the clipboard. For example, if the following 3 History items are selected :

i) United

ii) we

iii) stand

running this tool will copy the following text to the clipboard :

United we stand

8) &Word Wrap - This tool brings up a dialog where you can enter a number that is the column width (number of characters) to wrap the text in the selected items into.

Tools in "tool_utl.dll"

1) Clear &History - This tool will delete all History items.

2) Clear &Clipboard - This tool will empty the clipboard of its current contents.

3) Save of &more items - This tool will save the text in each selected item into its own text file. You can choose the folder where these files will be saved, and also specify the naming convention of the saved files.

4) Always on &Top - This will set the CLCL Viewer window to "Always on top", which means that the Viewer window will remain in front of all other windows even when some other window is active.

5) &Un Top - This will remove the "Always on top" attribute of the Viewer window, if it was previously set using the "Always on &Top" tool.

6) &Play Sound - This tool will play a wav file of your choice when a user-specified event occurs. To configure the wav file, select View->Options in the Viewer. Click on the "Tool" tab. Select "&Play Sound" from the list of tools, and click the "Properties..." button. The "Open" dialog pops up, and you can select the desired wav file and click OK. To configure the event when this wav sound is played, select "&Play Sound" from the list of tools, and click the "Edit..." button. The "Edit of tool" dialog opens up, and you can select the event in the "Call Type" section. For example, checking "When data is added to h&istory" will play the wav sound, whenever a new item is added to CLCL's list of History items.

In addition to the normal menu which you invoke by default via Alt + C, you can also create extra user - defined menus in CLCL. These menus can be configured to be displayed when you press a specific hotkey (among other ways) , and each item on the menu can be bound to an application that is launched when you click on that item.

You can do this from the 'Action' tab of the Options dialog.

Click on the 'Add' button, and in the 'Edit of Action' dialog that pops up, select 'Menu' from the 'Actions' combo box.

To start adding menu items click on 'New content', and select 'External Application' from the 'Content' combo box.

Click on the '...' button next to 'Path' to select the application to launch for this menu item. You can assign whatever text you want to appear for this menu item in the 'Title' textbox, and also specify an icon. Similarly you can add more menu items. An item can also be a pop - up menu, that is, clicking on it will display another sub - menu of items. To create a pop - up menu select 'Pop-up Menu' from 'Content'.

You have many options with which you can invoke the menus you create. This is controlled via the 'Call type' option. You can choose from one of the following :

1) Hot key - Menu is displayed when you press a global hotkey. Hotkey can be specified in the 'Hotkey' box just below the 'Call type' combo.

2) Ctrl + Ctrl - Menu is displayed when you tap the 'Ctrl' key twice quickly in succession.

3) Shift + Shift - Menu is displayed when you tap the 'Shift' key twice quickly in succession.

4) Alt + Alt - Menu is displayed when you tap the 'Alt' key twice quickly in succession.

5) Click on left for system tray - Menu is displayed when you left click on the CLCL system tray icon.

6) Double click on left for system tray - Menu is displayed when you double click using the left mouse button on the CLCL system tray icon.

7) Click on right for system tray - Menu is displayed when you right click on the CLCL system tray icon.

6) Double click on right for system tray - Menu is displayed when you double click using the right mouse button on the CLCL system tray icon.

Snippets from various ACF posts. . .

CLCL has a feature which I have not seen mentioned in the present discussion: you can make menus in it, e.g. for launching programmes. I have encyclopedias and dictionaries under left_alt-e (alt-d is reserved for something else) and other frequently used software under left_alt-s. I wish it had a help file or manual though, as it takes a while to figure out all the undocumented features.

You can actually use CLCL as a full - blown application launcher. Hit a hotkey, and bring up a list of programs neatly organized into their own categories, nested upto any level. Very cool !

Er, it doesn't do screen caps. It merely accepts the clipboard content when the PrintScreen key is pressed.

And it is also a good app launcher. The default of Alt+T brings up a configurable app launch menu.

COMMENTS: All clipboard formats are supported including images, text, folders etc. Stores screen caps when the PrintScreen key is pressed. Plugins extend funtionality to include quote stripping, case changing, etc. Clipboard cache can be accessed by mouse or hot key. CLCL can also be configured as an app launcher, with a hotkey bringing up a launch menu wherever the cursor is positioned.

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