Create or paste clippings as quoted or unquoted text

An annoyance in Clippings for Thunderbird has inspired a new feature idea.

When creating a new clipping from quoted text in a reply, one would have to manually delete the unwanted ">" symbols in the New Clipping dialog. The first part of my idea is to have a new checkbox in the New Clipping dialog, specific for Clippings for Thunderbird, to strip the leading ">" symbols on each line when creating a new clipping from quoted text. Here is a UI mockup:

The second part of my idea is pasting clippings into the message compose window as quoted or unquoted text. This is going to be a bit challenging, as there are two issues to address:

1. How does the user choose to paste the clipping as quoted or unquoted text?
2. If the user wants to paste the clipping as quoted text, how will Clippings know where to place the ">" symbols?

Issue #2 may be easy to implement once I study the source code for Thunderbird's message compose window and learn how the Edit | Paste As Quotation command is implemented. It could be a simple matter of copying the desired clipping to the system clipboard and then invoking the Paste As Quotation command to paste the clipping as a quotation.

Issue #1 promises to be an interesting exercise in user interface design. There are two ways I can think of implementing this, as both methods have their own pros and cons:

1. Each clipping entry on the Clippings context menu would sprout another submenu containing two commands: "Paste As Quoted" and "Paste As Unquoted."
   
   • Pro: Very flexible option, as the choice to paste as quoted or unquoted text is right there for the user to select.
     
   • Con: An extra wrist action is needed to select yet another level of submenus, which can prove to be painfully annoying. Users will be up in arms over sore wrists (pun unintended) brought on by Clippings. Kind of reminds me of the recent reports of repetitive strain injuries experienced by users of the Nintendo Wii remote control....
     
     
2. Create a toolbar button to toggle pasting clippings as quoted or unquoted text. Then, subsequent pasting of clippings as quoted or unquoted text will depend on what the user has set.
   
   • Pro: Eliminates the need for the submenus in the first option. Very convenient when pasting multiple clippings in the same email message as quoted or unquoted text. No more sore wrists.
     
   • Con: Not as flexible as the first option, as the user will have to ensure the option to paste as quoted or unquoted is properly set every time before pasting the clipping. If the user forgets to set the correct option, then he or she will have to undo the clippings paste action, set the correct option, and try again.
     

Hopefully this will get some dialog started. Thoughts and suggestions are welcome in the comments below, or in the Clippings mailing list.