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Feedback usually appears in bursts with long lulls in between. Now is one of those lulls. I'm currently at a point where there's not enough planned for development to warrant a beta release.

The only thing I'm currently working on is small tweaks to Makelinks. However, this extension doesn't have an audience on this site for beta versions to work. Even though it's been downloaded more than 70,000 times, thats relatively low compared to the most popular extensions.

Possible ArsClip Scope Change

As said before, the scope of ArsClip is limited to copy and paste automation. Anything that can help this task is considered, even if it can be used for tasks outside this scope. I've had to reject text editing task ideas and full-on macros since it's out of the scope. Even the simplest text editor or macro program will do this task much better. For automation, I have to include some macro abilities, so it's a grey area.

I may change my mind and expand the scope to clipboard editing. Right now, there are 2 Clipboard editing commands in the program: a find and replace, and a trim. As long as it's clipboard manipulation, I can rationalize this a being truly related to copying/pasting automation.

I'm currently looking through past emails for common ideas for text manipulation. The only common feedback I'm seeing is a case changing feature.

EDIT: v4.11 will include a new "Edit Clipboard" submenu. While some examples are added that show how to replace whitespace, there are technically no new commands added to the program. New commands are planned for the next version.

ArsClip Wrapup

The last new feature is being placed into the program. I figured out a workaround for displaying the Popup using the pinned taskbar icon. A new "Jump List" configuration page has been added to to show how Jump Lists work and to select the default action when the taskbar icon is clicked. This will be included in Release Candidate 1.

For version 4.11, the main feature will be the improved visuals for the popup. The color generation now better supports a wider range and the icons have been reworked for this. The visual cue showing a clip on the clipboard is now intuitive. Shortcut keys are now easier to read.

The second major feature will be improved shortcut key support. While the arrow keys can still be used, shortcut keys can now be used to navigate within expandable menus and submenus. These shortcut keys only appear when these menus are activated by a keystroke.

ArsClip Colors

'Metro Steel Blue' example color scheme shown above.

I've been spending a lot of time working with how colors are shown on the popup. Since colors are now customizable, I've had to adjust for widely different color settings. I've added several selectable example color schemes in the Configuration to help get started.

The default settings are still based off of the current system's color scheme. New colors are created by adjusting the brightness level of these colors. For example, the left column is the same as the background color but darker. The same rules are used for custom colors.

The way double-height menus are displayed has also changed. Now, a gradient is used to visibly separate the clip from other clips. This method seems to be the least intrusive way to show two lines are part of a single clip.

These changes are in the current Public Beta upload.

ArsClip Musings

The above screenshot shows a few things I'm working on.

First, shortcut keys are shown in expandable menus when the keyboard is used. This will remove as many shortcut keys as needed from the rest of the popup to add keys to the submenu items. Closing the menu will return the shortcut keys to normal. Those using a mouse will see no change when opening an expandable menu.

Second, the shortcut keys visuals have changed slightly. The color and the font weight are changed. The coloring is based on the current font color. It will lighten very dark colors, darken very light color, or slightly darken all other colors.

Third, more color fixes have been made. The highlight and the icon column colors, for example, are generated using the current colors as a base. In some cases, darkening or lightening the color fails. More safeguards have been added to prevent issues. This better supports the custom color settings.

A New Scratchpad

I've added a new sub-page that's basically just some random notes about the current programs. Since my "high tech" method of keeping track of planned changes and ideas for programs is just a text file, I figured it would be a good idea to make the process transparent.

ArsClip Wrapup

At this point, I'm no longer adding any new feature for the current beta. My intent it to fix and polish the current changes for an official release.

The new set of features is small for this release: improved Clip Menu, improved Clipboard Only pasting, improved Popup to support more clips and "clicked" notification, improved Tooltip, improved Hotkey Alternatives.

The behavior of the Clip Menu is now more consistent. There are no secondary windows used for submenus. I've still some experimenting to do for possible keyboard shortcuts for this window.

The Clipboard Only pasting mechanism is now more intuitive. A small tooltip is shown to signify the clip was placed on the clipboard only. This operation should be less confusing.

Support for a larger Popup Clips history is implemented with a set of features. First, Clip Sets keep the size of the popup manageable. Second, the program no longer has to reserve one shortcut key per clip. Third, the History settings have been changed to allow for a larger number of Popup Clips. Lastly, there is a new page in the Configuration specifically for Clip Sets. The color changes for clicked clips are also new to this version.

The Tooltip has been updated to show Richtext. The Tooltip's job is to give a more detailed preview of the current clip. Now, for a Richtext clip, plain text is shown on the popup, but the formatting is shown on the Tooltip. Support for HTML Clips is being researched and not likely to be included.

There were 2 issues fixed with Hotkey Alternatives. First, the program now distinguishes between a full screen program and a maximized program. This is for the right-click trigger. Second, the system tray routine is more liable for detecting the target program.

Clip Sets

In the latest upload, I've added a new page of options for Clip Sets. These new options alter the number of clips per set and when to enable sets. By default, these Clip Sets are enabled for when there are more than 20 clips shown in the clip history or when the popup is taller than the screen. The idea is that this option should trigger for users that are likely to need use sets.

A second feature I've added targets an issue when showing many clips. Before, every clip would be assigned a shortcut key. When showing a large number of clips, it's easy to run out of keys to use. The new option limits the number of keys assigned to the popup clip history.