Kenny Kerr : Window Clippings

Window Clippings v3 Sneak Peek – New Options Window – Take 2

KennyKerr — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:37:00 GMT

I’ve updated the layout a bit to reduce the focus on the configurations. I felt that the configuration selection was too prominent in the earlier builds and I also wanted to make the window simpler and more approachable.

Here you can see the options corresponding to the Image tab in version 2 of Window Clippings. There’s nothing really new here aside from the new color picker. I’ve never liked the built-in color picker that Windows provides so I decided to bake it into the options window even though it’s not a very necessary feature.

Feedback Forum for Window Clippings

KennyKerr — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:13:00 GMT

Window Clippings has always been very much driven by the feedback I receive from the community. Up till now I have received that feedback primarily via email and comments on my blog.

As I work on version 3 I thought I should try and make this a bit more manageable and open so I’ve set up a Feedback Forum for Window Clippings. I’ve also seeded it with a few suggestions. I still need to go through all my emails and comments and add various other suggestions that I’ve received but hopefully this is enough to get things started as far as the forum is concerned. I obviously can’t guarantee that every suggestion will turn into a product feature but you can bet that popular suggestions will seriously be considered for inclusion.

Please add suggestions and vote!

Window Clippings v3 Sneak Peek – New Options Window

KennyKerr — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:14:00 GMT

I’m hoping to get Window Clippings version 3 released before the end of the year but being an evenings and weekends project it’s hard to say for sure. What I did want to start doing is give you a sneak peek of where I’m heading and get your feedback along the way. To kick things off here are some screenshots of the new Options window. In subsequent posts I’ll talk more about the individual features but you can probably guess at a lot of what’s coming up based on what’s in these screenshots. These screenshots are taken on a high resolution screen at 120 DPI so they may appear a bit larger than usual if you’re using the default scaling.

As you can see I’ve finally decided to drop the property sheet as the number of new tabs was becoming overbearing. I hope you like the new layout.

The new window is also resizable to make it easier to manage the growing collection of add-ins:

Please keep in mind that the UI will likely change as I get closer to release and of course the official set of add-ins that will be included with v3 has not yet been finalized.

What do you think?

Send your Window Clippings to ImageShack

KennyKerr — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:22:00 GMT

Maximilian Krauß recently sent me an add-in he wrote for uploading images to ImageShack. I’d never heard of the ImageShack service before but it turns out you can upload and host images for free and without needing to create an account. As you can see, the add-in itself provides no settings:

After the image is captured the add-in immediately proceeds to upload the image:

On completion it presents a window with links that you can use to refer to the uploaded image:

You can download it here.

Thanks Maximilian!

ActionFTP for Window Clippings

KennyKerr — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:22:00 GMT

Sorry for the lack of updates again. I have a pile of posts in the queue but I just haven’t had the time polish them enough for publishing. Anyway...

Fred Taylor-Young recently released the ActionFTP add-in for Window Clippings. This is meant to be an improvement over the original FTP add-in that Ari Glaizel wrote. As with the original add-in, ActionFTP is a “Send To” add-in for uploading images to an FTP server. It however adds the ability to edit the image before it is uploaded by passing it to the program of your choice.

You can download it here. While you’re there you can admire his awesome array of monitors. :)

This and that

KennyKerr — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:09:00 GMT

It’s been a while since I posted anything. I spent some time in South Africa. Increasingly I feel like it’s time to go home. If only it were that simple. We’ve also had a bit of a rough time here in England. I have also heard that a few people assumed that I’d be driving around in a Ferrari after the announcement about PlateSpin’s acquisition for $205 million in cash. I should just mention that I left PlateSpin about six months before the acquisition and did not get to share in the big payout for a variety of subtle and not so subtle reasons. So if you’ve enjoyed my articles feel free to support me by purchasing a license for Window Clippings – it will be much appreciated! :)

There are a few more articles in the pipeline at MSDN Magazine. The first talks about writing asynchronous HTTP clients in native C++ (naturally). The second talks about high performance algorithms and cache-conscious design. I’ll post updates as they are released.

I’m also on track to release the next major version of Window Clippings in a few months. I’ve received a ton of feedback and am prioritizing new features and improvements to address the most popular requests.

As for this blog, I’m going to try something new. The articles I’ve posted on this blog have traditionally been on the long side (usually a few thousand words each). Although I enjoy writing them they do take a lot of time to put together. I’m going to try a little experiment and post a series of short articles (only a few hundred words each) and see how that works out. Please let me know what you think.

Quick Update

KennyKerr — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:20:00 GMT

I’m doing some traveling over the next few days and will unfortunately be offline for most of that time. I will be back online on Tuesday so if you’ve sent me an email, please don’t expect a response before then.

I’ve also made some small changes to the Window Clippings order handling to make the process run a bit smoother and ensure that you receive your license keys promptly and reliably. This will hopefully reduce the number of times I need to send license keys out manually.

I also made the change from US dollars to Canadian dollars. This won’t really effect anyone as the currencies are mostly hovering around 1=1 but it will reduce processing costs for me as I do my banking in Canadian dollars and the exchange rate provided by the payment processor is quite outrageous.

On a different note I recently submitted my latest column for MSDN Magazine. This one is about writing high performance asynchronous HTTP clients in native C++. Look for it around July. I’m also going to start covering the upcoming C++0x standard in my column. C++0x aims to make it easier to build libraries and in particular template metaprogramming. It allows you to produce even more efficient code while making it easier to write and diagnose compile-time errors related to templates and will thus make it easier to learn for novices. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Exciting times!

Window Clippings 2.1: How to open the Options Window

KennyKerr — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:47:00 GMT

Did you know there are three ways to open the options window?

The options window is the single interface for controlling all aspects of Window Clippings. It is a tabbed window that allows you to specify what you want it to do with captured images, whether you want an icon to appear in the notification area, whether you want to include window shadows, and much more. It is also where you register Window Clippings using your license key. So naturally it is important to know how to find the options window!

Window Clippings will by default show an icon in the notification area. The simplest way to show the options window is to right-click this icon and select “Options” from the context menu that appears.

If you have chosen to hide the icon you still have a few more options. You can right-click the capture screen itself and select “Options” from its context menu. Finally you can use the “/options” command line argument to show the options window directly:

windowclippings.exe /options

Stay tuned for more “How to ...” articles.

Window Clippings: A note to Microsoft employees

KennyKerr — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:29:00 GMT

It looks like the public mail servers used for receiving mail sent to @microsoft.com addresses are regularly blocking the emails that are sent automatically with your Window Clippings license keys. In these cases I need to manually send an email with your license key.

The anti-spam content filter is kind enough to let me know when they refuse to deliver the automated messages but it might take a few hours before you receive your license key. (I might be sleeping when you place your order!) Feel free to contact me directly if you haven’t received your license key.

Anyway, I’m sorry for any inconvenience due to the delay. I’ll hopefully figure out what’s offending the anti-spam filter soon. If anyone from Microsoft ITG/MSIT is reading this then here’s what a license email looks like (the email contains only text with no attachments, images or markup):

From: info@windowclippings.com
Subject: Your Window Clippings 2.1 License

Thank you for your purchase!

To register Window Clippings simply enter the following information on the About tab of the Window Clippings Options window:

Email address: <your email address appears here>
License key: <your license key appears here>

Enjoy!

Should you have any questions or concerns simply reply to this email and I will be more than happy to assist.

Cheers,
Kenny Kerr

http://www.windowclippings.com/

Special offer for Paint.NET users

KennyKerr — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:25:00 GMT

To promote the new integration between Paint.NET and Window Clippings, Rick and I are offering a special deal to Paint.NET users. For the month of May we’re offering Window Clippings at a special discounted price!

You should see this offer when you install or upgrade Paint.NET 3.31. If you’ve already upgraded you can just hop over to Rick’s blog to take advantage of this special offer.

Window Clippings 2.1: Send to Paint.NET

KennyKerr — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:06:00 GMT

Earlier this week I hinted at a surprise new feature that was introduced with the 2.1.28 build of Window Clippings. I can now tell you what it is!

Rick Brewster and I collaborated to enable seamless integration between Window Clippings and Paint.NET. Assuming you have the latest release of Window Clippings (2.1.28 or later) and the latest release of Paint.NET (3.31 or later), Window Clippings will offer a brand new add-in called Send to Paint.NET.

Last year I showed how you can use the Window Clippings “Post-save event” feature to send images to Paint.NET. This is a useful feature that lets you run any command after an image is saved to disk. It can be used to send images to any program.

The new Send to Paint.NET add-in makes it even easier by sending images directly to Paint.NET without first having to save it to a file. Window Clippings will automatically figure out where Panit.NET is installed so there’s not even any configuration involved. Not only that, but the image is treated as a new “untitled” image as if it was automatically copied and pasted directly into Paint.NET.

Download Window Clippings here: http://www.windowclippings.com/

Download Paint.NET here: http://www.getpaint.net/

Enjoy!

Window Clippings 2.1.28

KennyKerr — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:13:00 GMT

As usual, you can get the update via the “Check for Updates” button on the About tab. New users can download the latest version from http://www.windowclippings.com/.

To get “Check for Updates” to work behind an HTTP proxy, you can use the use the “netsh winhttp” command on Windows Vista or the “proxycfg” command on Windows XP. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. The next major version of Window Clippings includes a brand new HTTP foundation with automatic proxy detection and configuration.

This build includes a few improvements:

Much better support for DPI scaling on Windows Vista.

Fixes in the capture screen on Windows Vista when using the selection rectangle.

There is also a surprise new feature which I’ll introduce in a day or two (to coincide with the release of another related product). Stay tuned.

I hope you enjoy using Window Clippings!

Window Clippings Website Redesign

KennyKerr — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:01:00 GMT

I finally got around to updating the Window Clippings website with a fresh new look. I’ve tried to keep it simple and easy to use.

I hope you like it!

Window Clippings 2.1: How to Capture Menus and Other Interactive Effects

KennyKerr — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:10:00 GMT

One of the more popular features that Window Clippings provides is the ability to capture menus, tooltips as well as other interactive effects that applications may produce. Here’s how it’s done.

Let’s imagine I want to capture this Explorer window along with the popup menu that is visible when I right click on the drive:

If you launch the Window Clippings capture screen the popup menu disappears automatically since Explorer lost the input focus.

Keep in mind that the capture screen doesn’t show a copy of your desktop. It is actually a powerful view of your live desktop so that you can see any changes that might occur in the background.

To include the popup menu in the captured image you need to take advantage of an option called Delay before capture that is available on the Image tab of the Options window. To get there simply right click the Window Clippings icon and select Options from the menu (if the capture screen is already visible you can simply right click the capture screen and select Options):

Now select the Image tab and set “Delay before capture” to the number of seconds that you would like to have in order to prepare the “scene” for capture:

Now click the OK button to save the change and double click the Window Clippings icon again to show the capture screen. Now simply double click the Explorer window:

You will notice a fading message in the bottom right corner of your screen’s work area indicating how much time remains before Window Clippings will take the shot:

It is at this point that you should display the popup menu, or any other effect that you would like to capture. When the timer reaches zero Window Clippings will capture the selected window and any associated popup windows that it detects.

Here is the result:

Note: although there are standard approaches available to developers for displaying different types of popups, some applications use non-standard approaches which aren’t always very easy to detect. Window Clippings 2.1 does a good job of capturing the most common types of popups but there is still room for improvement. The upcoming release of Window Clippings will continue to improve in this area.

Stay tuned for more “How to ...” articles.

Window Clippings 2.1: How to Include a Disabled Parent Window

KennyKerr — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:41:00 GMT

In my last “how to” article I showed how you can select multiple windows with Window Clippings by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking additional windows. You may however come across a window that is disabled and thus cannot be selected. By far the most common reason for this is when an application is displaying a modal dialog box and the parent window is then disabled until the dialog box is closed.

Let’s start again with the capture screen:

Here you can see the Calculator application with its modal “About” dialog box.

To include the parent window simply hold down the Shift key while clicking or double clicking the “About Calculator” window. Window Clippings will automatically include the parent in the selection:

And here’s the result:

Stay tuned for more “How to ...” articles.