It explains how to make a “smart snippet” using TextExpander’s %clipboard variable, which is replaced by whatever is currently on the clipboard when the snippet is typed.

The original author of the tip uses it to create Amazon affiliate links for his blog on the fly, but obviously it has wider uses too.

For example, imagine you run a blog that attracts a lot of emails asking how to do this, that or the other thing.

You can quickly run up a snippet like this:

Then, when the emails start to arrive, all you need to do is navigate to the link, copy it to the clipboard and then type the snippet into the reply:

Suddenly more of your life is your own. Clever.

If I sat around here long enough I’m sure I could think of a dozen other applications for this tip, but you might have more fun thinking them up for yourself.

TextExpander costs USD 29.95 and is available from the developer’s web site .textexpander, textpander, productivity, snippets, shortcuts, tips, helpful apps, clipboard, mail.app, apple mailSimilar Posts:

• TextExpander: 20% Discount for Hawk Wings readers
• TypeIt4Me 3.0: Loads of new features
• TextExpander: Textpander makes good
• Textexpander 1.4: Flexible delimiters, old logo
• RapidoWrite: Accelerate your typing

The new version features improvements to the app’s blogging and clipboard features as well as a raft of bugfixes, including a fix for handling URLs from Firefox.

Users will benefit most from the new clipboard functions in the DockNote.

Clippings can now be opened, edited and deleted from the clipboard recorder.

A clipping can be saved into Notes as a new note or be replaced with a selection from the current application.

In addition, when the clipboard recorder is turned off, it now stays off.

This means the the DockNote now contains a viable clipboard recorder, which could potentially replace apps like JumpCut or CuteClips.

Other improvements include the option to specify which folder the “Print to PDF” service will save to, better remembering of column width and position between launches (still a problem for me), better explanation of the SOHO sync service, and imrpvoements to Sync’s tolerance of sync faults.

Blogging features have also been improved. A bug preventing notes from being published to TypePad accounts has been fixed.

The app’s Preferences now include a new pane for its blogging features.

It can handle multiple blogging accounts and authentications:

SOHO Notes is shareware (USD 39.99) and is available from the Chronos web site .StickyBrain, productivity, SOHO Notes, information manager, clipboard, blogging, PIM, not Apple MailSimilar Posts:

• StickyBrain is no more
• StickyBrain 4.1b3 gets Yojimboed
• StickyBrain updated, gets Mail-like look
• Getting organised: Four note managers reviewed
• EagleFiler: tag-smart, open-format PIM

JumpCut, CuteClips, CopyPaste+yType all do this job well, as do Quicksilver and Butler which have clipboard or pasteboard histories.

PopCopy takes a slightly different approach. It lives in the Menubar, where it displays the title of the most recent clip.

When you click on the title, it launches a drop-down menu listing all the most recent clips. (The demo is limited to five clips):

However, it can also be activated with a hotkey (Command-Shift-V by default), which produces a pop-up dialog:

Hitting the hotkey again cycles through the list of stored clips, until you find the one you want.

PopCopy is shareware, like CuteClips and CopyPaste, but unlike JumpCut which is freeware. It costs USD 12 and you can get a crippled demo from the developer’s web site .

The developer plans to use any money raised from the app to help finance a trip to Japan to pursue his career as a professional wrestler.clipboard, extender, productivity, menubar, helpful appsSimilar Posts:

• PopCopy 2.0: Faster, more features
• Jumpcut: Super slick clipboard extender
• CuteClips 1.2: A smarter clipboard
• CuteClips: A smarter clipboard
• Jumpcut 0.6: Smarter shortcuts, handsome

The Hawk Wings Plug-in and Add-on List has been updated.

CalTalk (sharing calendars over Bonjour) was added to the iCal section.

Address Book to CSV Exporter was added to the Address Book section.

Jumpcut (clipboard extender) and Gmail Counter (tracks disk usage in Gmail accounts) were added to the helpful apps / Miscellaneous Section.

Backend

More props to Brady Frey who performed some graceful surgery on the indexes of Hawk Wings’ MySQL tables last week. Thanks.

This is Hawk Wings’ 1,000th post. Huzzah!mail.app, apple mail, ical, address book, plugins, addons, clipboard, gmail, hawkwings, vanity postSimilar Posts:

• Plugin and addon list updates
• Hawk Wings Addon and Plugin List Update: 10 new entries
• Plugin List update: 11 new entries
• Weekly Update
• Weekly Update

It can store up images, URLs, text or files in a nice smoked glass dialog, complete with preview and is activated by a hotkey

A new version, released today, offers a smart improvement to the way you can select the clippings. In the past, you has to tab, or use the arrow keys or mouse to select the clip you wanted.

Now, hitting Control reveals the numbering of the clips, and hitting the corresponding Function key paste that entry in:

There are other utilities that do that same thing, notably CopyPaste, which offers far richer features but is also far more expensive (USD 30). Quicksilver can do this too, but lacks the facility to make a clipping sticky and thus available forever (it doesn’t actually lack this — see Henning’s remarks in the comments).

CuteClips does the job for me, making my work in Mail.app and elsewhere faster and more efficient.

It costs only 5 euros (USD 6) and is available from the developer’s web site .clipboard, clippings, productivity, helpful apps, quicksilver, cute clips, copypasteSimilar Posts:

• PopCopy: Menubar Clipboard Extender
• CuteClips: A smarter clipboard
• Jumpcut: Super slick clipboard extender
• Jumpcut 0.6: Smarter shortcuts, handsome
• SOHO Notes 5.6.0: Clipboard, blogging improvements

Two things were added to the Hawk Wings Plugin and Addon list this week:

1. iVideoMail (a plugin for video clips in Mail.app) found a home in the Added Functionality section.
2. CuteClips (a cheap, extended clipboard) was added to the Miscellaneous (helpful apps) section.

That makes 112 entries.

Backend

Grateful thanks to Josh Kirby, who pointed out that I had broken the categories and archives listings some time ago. They are fixed now.

That is to say, I’ve installed the Extended Live Archive WordPress plugin, which allows you to browse the Hawk Wings archives by date, by category or by tag.

I’ve also added a plugin that allows you to subscribe to the comments on a particular post. I thought it might be useful, for example, to people who contributed to the Entourage developer’s request for feedback and who want to know what other people posted as well.

Of course, you could always subscribe to the Comments RSS feed, and never miss a thing ;-)Similar Posts:

• Weekly update
• Weekly Update
• Weekly Update
• Weekly Update
• Weekly Update

It can store up to twelve recently copied elements — images, URLs, text or files — in a nice smoked glass dialog, complete with preview.

Hitting a hotkey (Shift-Command-V by default) brings up the utility’s dialog:

Clicking on one of the stored entries, pastes it at the current position of the cursor.

You can also create “sticky” clips, by holding down the Option key while clicking on a current entry.

I like little productivity-enhancing apps like this because these helpful apps help me work faster in Mail.app and elsewhere.

A demo limited to three slots and with no access to the utility’s preferences is available from the developer’s web site. The full version costs 5 euros (c. USD 6).

CopyPaste, another extended clipboard utility, offers far richer features, but is also far more expensive (USD 30).Similar Posts:

• PopCopy: Menubar Clipboard Extender
• CopyPaste + yType 2.6.3
• CuteClips 1.2: A smarter clipboard
• JABMenu: Menubar Address Book
• Clever TextExpander clipboard snippet trick

The improved version contains bug-fixes for its clipboard, for yType and for other minor issues.

CopyPaste + yPaste costs USD 30. A 30-day free demo is available from the developer’s web site.Similar Posts:

• CopyPaste + yType: Text snippet nirvana?
• PopCopy: Menubar Clipboard Extender
• CuteClips: A smarter clipboard
• CuteClips 1.2: A smarter clipboard
• Google Maps Address Book plugin updated

CopyPaste + yType is it.

Like iClip or iSnip, it offers multiple clipboards and adds access through the contextual menu to make insertion even easier. It can also automatically record the history of the things that you have copied.

Like Textpander, this app offers predefined keyboard shortcuts for inserting blocks of frequently used text.

This makes working faster, of course, but also reduces the amount of errors in your typing. Further spelling errors are reduced by its ability to correct common spelling errors on the fly like Microsoft’s “autocorrect feature”.

The clipboard, text snippet features and preferences are all accessible through an icon in the Statusbar.

MacAddict Magazine describes it as “the turbo clipboard utility on steriods”. I’ve only been playing with CopyPaste for thirty minutes, but I can already see how this is going to make working in Apple Mail (and with text more generally) faster, more error-free and easier on the fingers.

CopyPaste is shareware (USD 30) and is available from the developer’s web site. It offers a thirty day free trial period during which you could play around with it and see if the utility lives up to its promise. That’s what I will be doing.Similar Posts:

• CopyPaste + yType 2.6.3
• Spell Catcher X Lite: Faster, cleaner, cheaper typing and snippets
• Spell Catcher X: Typos, snippets, formatting …
• Weekly Update
• Clever TextExpander clipboard snippet trick

This time-saving (and finger-saving) utility stores snippets of text and images that you can insert in your typing with user-defined shortcuts. It’s one of my favorite OS X add-ons and saves me lots of time in Apple Mail and elsewhere.

The updated version features as new variable (%clipboard) allowing you to insert whatever is in the Clipboard into your snippets. Sweet.

It now imports snippets from other apps better and works more smoothly with Nisus Writer nlang files. Panther users will be pleased to learn that it now works in 10.3.9 as well. The version also adds French and German localizations.

You can get the updated version from the developer’s web site.Similar Posts:

• Textpander 1.2.1: On-the-fly typing accelerator
• TypeIt4Me 3.0: Loads of new features
• Fuhgeddaboutit script updated
• Textpander: Save your fingers, type more efficiently
• Jumpcut 0.6: Smarter shortcuts, handsome