HyperClip

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2071

Posted by zeoli
2004-07-23 23:17:41

Have we discussed HyperClip before? If so, I apologize for bringing it up again, but I tried it out today and found that it had a couple of interesting features that seem fairly unique to me. The navigation pane on the left has three tabs: 1. The outline view in which you create your organizational hierarchy; 2. An index view, which flattens the outline and puts the topics in alpha order; and 3. A search view. The index view is a handy feature, especially when combined with the simple filter which allows you to see only those topics that you’ve tagged with a specific symbol (chosen from among a dozen or so… tags like “to do,” “address,” “note,” etc…). So it would be easy to keep a hierarchical organization of projects, for instance, and tag “to do” items along the way, then use the index and filter to see your complete to do list. Not sophisticated, but easy and effective.

The other feature I like is the editor itself. It is the only editor in a program of this nature that I’ve found that has full editing control and the ability to embed OLE objects. What I mean by full editing control is this: the ability to select pieces of text most conveniently by double-clicking a word to select the whole word, then scoop up adjacent words by keeping the final click depressed and sweeping forward or backward. Select a whole paragraph by triple-clicking within the paragraph. This may sound trivial, but the way I write and edit, I find this makes my life so much easier. Most of the editors that allow OLE objects don’t do anything when you triple click on a paragraph, and don’t select complete words on double-clicking, so they require a more precise, distracting use of the mouse as you need to place your the cursor exactly at the start of a word and then drag exactly to the end… I know this seems silly, but I find it distracts me from my writing.

Anyway, HyperClip is the exception. And it is only $23US, a good deal. It won’t replace an ADM or a Zoot or any of the more sophisticated PIMs, but it does a nice job for a low-end alternative.

URL is http://www.risksoftworks.com/hyperclip/index.html

Steve Z.

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