Mea Culpa

Rename Master has had a problem that's probably existed for a decade. When processing a long list of files, it's possible to click on things that will cause problems. The majority of the time, the program finishes too fast for this to be discovered. This situation is something that has just never been tested. The current official release only fixes part of the problem.

For the next Public Beta, this is being addressed. Certain features will be disabled when refreshing the fileslist and the entire form will be disabled from input during a Rename operation. The program will also show a progress dialog when a rename operation may requires some time to finish.

The auto-preview function will work smarter by being easy to interrupt. This makes it much more compatible with large sets of files. Most features will remain accessible during this process. By default, auto-preview will attempt to start again once it detects a pause in user input.


EDIT: I had to rush a quick-fix for a critical sorting bug. These changes are in the current official version.

Preparing v4.20 for Release

The beta is now in feature freeze. No new features will be added and a preliminary changelog has been created.

The changes for this version are the new Clip Menu and expanded Macro support. The bug fixes are thankfully uninteresting. While the audience for the changes are mostly geared towards advanced/hardcore users, there are some niceties for getting started.

The Custom Menu list is not empty by default. Three example macros are already added to the list that show how to: edit the Popup Clip list, format a clip for pasting, and perform actions while keeping the Popup open. The 'New' button also supports creating more pre-defined macros, like 'Append Clipboard' and 'Google'. The idea is to support common routines by default and to allow advanced users to customize their own routines.

Another Good DIY Example

I've had requests before from users wanting to combine several clips into one. My usual course of action was to point them to the Permanent Clip/Macros or to the 'Paste Selected Text' window. Both methods are OK to do if you only perform the task infrequently.

The Popup is the main menu of the program, so it makes sense to be able to use it for these tasks. With the Custom Menu macros, the following is now possible to use to append a clip to the current clipboard:

[STAYOPEN][CLIPBOARDONLY][INDEX=$i][CLIPBRD][POPUPITEM=$i]

NOTE: This macro does not work in Test 11, but is fixed for the next test version.

This is what it looks like in action. The fourth command inserts the state of the clipboard as plaintext, before starting the macro. The last command inserts the Popup Clip state as plain text, before starting the macro.

The program automatically combines text and insert commands when the insert command is known before running the macro. The "Current Clipboard" insert command is not eligible, since it's value is volatile. All other commands under the "insert" menu are eligible.

Conversely, keystrokes commands always ensure that text before and after the command are pasted as separate clips.

More Do It Yourself

I just had a very interesting email about ArsClip interacting with other programs, scripts, and batch files. To help support this better, I'll be adding some new macro commands. To pass data between ArsClip and another program, using the Clipboard is the most logical choice. There, however, needs to be some helper commands added to make this work more universally.

Currently, [RUN][ENDRUN] command supports using "Insert" commands between these two tags, but the data may not be safe to use as a command line argument. A command to save the clipboard to a text file will be added. This also solves the problem of sending data to a program that can't access the clipboard. Example:

[TOTEXTFILE="c:\path\name.txt"][RUN]notepad.exe c:\path\name.txt[ENDRUN]

A new Wait command will solve the synchronization problem. When the target script/program saves its data to the clipboard, this will be used as a signal for ArsClip to continue executing its macro. For example, there's a CLIP command prompt function in Windows that can pipe data from a file or program to the clipboard. This means it will be trivial receive data from batch commands:

[RUN]cmd.exe /c dir *.ini | CLIP[ENDRUN][WAITFORCLIP=2000]Files Found:[CLIPBRDCURRENT]

Edit: Here's a screen capture of the above macro.

It everything works out, script languages like PowerShell and JavaScript should be usable to extend ArsClip Macros. Both are already part of most Windows operating systems.

About the New Macro Features

ArsClip receives a lot of requests for features that won't be added to the program. Besides ideas that don't fit the scope of the program; complicated features that very few users will use aren't likely to be added. Similarly, features that are too difficult to explain and conceptualized aren't implemented.

There's a loophole, however, for these type of feature requests: "do it yourself". If the idea is still a good one, it will usually be supported indirectly as a new or updated macro command. ArsClip is designed to be a generic tool, so this flexibility is crucial to supporting the varied ways the program can be used.

The new Per-Program macro feature is based on previously "rejected" user requests, some of which are over a year old. For example, many users are forced to deal with strange and antiquated programs. Some of the programs require data pasted in all caps, some require special keystrokes to accept a paste, some require no linefeeds in the text, and so on. These niche ideas would never be implemented directly as Configuration options, but using a macro to do it is a natural fit. Having a way to execute the macro automatically for a program was the final piece of this puzzle.

Macro commands will likely remain in continual development for all the reasons listed above. As new requests come in, it will be adapted for flexibility.

The 'Send To' issue with Rename Master

RM has had a long know issue with using the 'Send To' Explorer option to receive a list of files. The biggest issue is that there is a 2K character limit to this list. A long list of file and/or files in a long path can easily exceed this limit. The second issue is that Windows doesn't send the list in the correct order.

Two changes were made long ago to work around this issue. The first change was to add file drag-and-drop. A list of file can be dropped from Explorer onto RM. This works, but drag-drop between programs never really caught on in Windows. The result is that most users don't know it exists and it's not easy to perform.

The second change made was an optional addon for Explorer. It interacts with Explorer directly to detect when multiple files are selected and add a "Rename Master" context menu item. This also worked, but is very complicated and limited to 32 bit Explorer. Since the cost to create 64 bit programs is prohibitive, this option is dead in the water.

---

A third change has been made to RM that should be better. A new Edit menu command has been added that detects files on the clipboard. So, after selecting a group of files, the files are copied by the user instead of using 'Send To' or performing a cumbersome drag. This still requires manually clicking an Edit menu item, but it is discoverable - unlike drag-and-drop.

Great ArsClip Feedback

The Beta users have been doing a great job with the feedback. Official releases usually get 1 comment per 1000 downloads. Beta releases are only download 100 times at most, but generate 30 times more feedback. I'll comment on some of the recent feedback below.

Keystrokes, advanced users love them. The popup is designed to be both mouse friendly and keyboard friendly, so I'm making it easier to interact with the Clip Menu with arrow keys. In the next Beta, CTRL+Left will open the Clip Menu and Left/Right will also close it. In usage, it feels natural and intuitive to those that are used to arrow key navigation. The Configuration window will be updated to show the new keystrokes.

Editing clips with keystrokes on the popup has been improved by updated moving and deleting. Using Shift+Up/Down will move a clip, similar to how clips can be dragged. Deleting multiple clips is easier because the hover is now replaced after a delete.

The Keystrokes actions are pretty much the same as the Custom Menus. I'll likely update the settings so that the keystrokes can also execute a Custom Menu macro.

The Clip Menu

The Clip Menu for ArsClip is now getting some much needed attention. This window has always been a bit strange. Showing a context style menu on a popup that itself behaves like a context menu is an abnormal relationship in Windows. The benefit of being able to execute commands directly on a Popup Clip outweighs how unintuitive the menu may be.

There's some inconsistent behavior with this menu that needs to be addressed. Now that there are Custom Menu items, the width of the menu must be able grow to fit longer caption. The shortcut keys on the menu are hard-coded, but there still needs to be a shortcut key for Custom Menus that doesn't conflict with existing keys. The arrow keys need to function for navigation and Space/Enter need to be the same as a click. Ideally, this menu probably deserves a complete re-write, but I think these changes will suffice for now.

---

I've received some feedback about Custom Menus. To answer the questions publicly, below are some other examples that show more tasks. Custom Menu macros can do almost every task that you can do manually with the Popup. This includes changing pasting methods, keeping the popup open, simulating keystrokes, and so on.

[INDEX=$i][TOCLIPBOARD=$i][RUN]http://www.google.com/search?q=[CLIPBRDCURRENT]

This macro places the clip on the clipboard and runs a Google search with the contents of the clipboard.

[STAYOPEN][INDEX=$i][TOCLIPBOARD=$i][MOVECLIP="$i" TO="0"]

This macro keeps the popup open, places the current clip on the clipboard, and moves the clip to the top of the list. This is useful to run before existing Permanent Clip/Macros that expect text to be already on the clipboard.

[STAYOPEN][INDEX=$i][TOCLIPBOARD=$i][PASTEDEFAULT]

This macro performs a paste using the same rules as the popup, but keeps the popup open. This action can also be performed using the Keystrokes / Clicks settings, but a Custom Menu is mouse friendly.