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ClipAid (VERSION 1.00) by Douglas Boling 
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff Davis Publishing Company 
First Published February 4, 1997 
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About  ClipAid...
Purpose:  ClipAid, which runs under Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, lets you 
copy internet URLs from any Windows document to an easily accessible list in the 
tray. You can also paste the URLs to your desktop as internet shortcuts.

Usage:  To install ClipAid, copy the program files into a directory on your hard disk 
and create an icon for CLIPAID.EXE in your shell. When you launch ClipAid, you'll 
see a small icon in the tray on the far end of the taskbar. As long as ClipAid is running, 
any URL that you copy into the clipboard will be saved in the ClipAid history list. 
ClipAid supports these internet schemes: http, ftp, file, gopher, mailto, news, and telnet.

To view the URLs you've saved in ClipAid's history list, double click on the ClipAid 
icon on the taskbar. The ClipAid window, organized as a set of property sheets, will 
be displayed on your screen. The property sheet that is initially displayed is the 
history page. This page contains a list of the last 64 Internet addresses you have 
copied to the clipboard. ClipAid automatically removes duplicates so the list contains 
up to 64 unique addresses organizes in the order they were saved, the most recent 
one being at the top of the list.

Two buttons on the history page let you manage the history list. The Delete button 
deletes the currently selected URL from the history list. The Clear History button 
clears the entire history list. To protect against accidents, ClipAid asks for confirmation 
before clearing the list. 

If you double click on an address in the list or click the copy button, ClipAid will copy 
the selected URL back into the system clipboard. Since ClipAid knows the copied data 
is a URL, it will not only place the URL text string into the clipboard, but also a set of 
other data types that are recognized by Explorer. This lets you paste an internet 
shortcut onto the Windows desktop or into a folder. When you double-click this 
shortcut, the system will automatically launch the internet access software you have 
associated with this URL data type.

ClipAid's Configuration page contains a set of radio buttons that let you control 
whether ClipAid automatically inserts the URL data type into the clipboard when you 
copy a URL and, if so, how this is handled. If you choose automatic insertion, there 
are some special considerations. Unfortunately, inserting the URL data type overwrites 
other data types that OLE-enabled programs such as Word and Excel use to handle 
OLE objects. 

The first of the four buttons, "Always insert URL data type", tells ClipAid to always 
put the URL data type in the clipboard when a new URL is added to the list. This 
setting is handy if you are using non-OLE programs since the URL insertion always 
occurs automatically. It is also the only mode that retains formats in the clipboard that 
are not known to ClipAid when inserting the URL data type. Use this mode if you want 
automatic insertion when using programs that use special formats of text, such as a 
Netscape Navigator's bookmark data type. Since the inserted URL data type can cause 
problems with when using the OLE features of programs like Word and Excel, this mode 
is not a good option when using these programs.

The second setting, "Insert URL data type and delete all but text and RTF types", 
configures ClipAid to automatically copy a URL data type to the clipboard but delete 
all data types other than text and, if available, RTF. Since basic formatting information 
is retained with the RTF data type, you can cut and paste within programs like Word 
or WordPad as long as you are working with text, not OLE objects. Deletion of the 
other data types prevents the word processor from attempting to use OLE when it 
cannot. However, special purpose data types that are unknown to ClipAid are also 
deleted. This option is the best choice when cutting URLs from word processors.

The third setting, "Insert URL data type only when simple text is in clipboard", 
causes ClipAid to place a URL data type in the clipboard only when the clipboard 
contains the standard ASCII text data type and no other. This setting is safer 
than the two settings listed above, but can be inconvenient when you are using 
an OLE-enabled program such as Word. This option is useful if you are using a 
program like Notepad or most internet email programs, which only insert the text 
data type into the clipboard.

The final setting, "Never place URL data type", disables automatic URL insertion 
under all conditions, though ClipAid will continue to add the URL text to its 
history list. You can manually insert the URL data type by double-clicking a URL, 
or selecting a URL and clicking the Copy button. 

Below the radio buttons, there are two check boxes. Check the first checkbox, 
"Allow single click activate from taskbar", and ClipAid will open with a single 
click on its taskbar icon instead of a double click. This isn't the way Microsoft's 
own tray icon utilities work, but many users like the quick response of single click 
activation.

Checking the other checkbox, "Start ClipAid each time Windows is started", lets 
you automatically start ClipAid without placing it in your Startup group. ClipAid 
uses few resources and its performance impact is minimal, so you'll probably want 
to use this option. Since ClipAid saves the history list when you shut down the 
program and restores the list when you restart it, the list can contain URLs you've 
saved going back weeks or months.

The Configuration page also contains a Remove button, which shuts down 
ClipAid and removes it from memory. This is different from the Close button, which 
minimizes ClipAid but does not remove it from memory. Note that ClipAid must be 
running and visible in the taskbar to monitor the clipboard and save URLs in the 
history list.

There are some other useful actions available by right-clicking on the ClipAid icon 
in the tray. The first item on ClipAid's context menu is Properties; selecting it 
displays the ClipAid window. If there are any URL addresses in the history list, the 
context menu also displays the last four URLs copied into the clipboard. When you 
select one of these menu items, ClipAid copies the URL into the clipboard so you 
can paste it as a shortcut. This provides a quick method of inserting the URL data 
type into the clipboard even if ClipAid is not configured to do this automatically.

Support Help for PC Magazine's free utilities can be obtained electronically
in the Utilities section of ZD Net's TIPS Forum (GO ZNT:TIPS). The authors
of current utilities generally visit this forum daily. You may find an answer to 
your question by reading the messages already posted in the forum. If the
author is not available and the forum sysops can't answer your question, the 
Utilities column editor, who checks this forum each day, will contact the
author for you.

Douglas Boling is a contributing editor of PC Magazine. 
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