Clippings for Thunderbird 5.6 beta 2 released!

This is the second beta release of Clippings which is compatible with Thunderbird 60. It is being made available for testing, and although it is in a fairly stable beta-quality state, expect to encounter the inevitable bugs.

Read on to learn what's new in Clippings for Thunderbird 5.6, changes from previous releases, and how to get it.

What's New

• Compatible with Thunderbird 60
• You can paste a clipping using the Clippings 6 shortcut key prefix, ALT+SHIFT+Y (Command+Shift+Y on macOS), in addition to the traditional keys CTRL+ALT+V/Command+Option+V.
•  New in 5.6b2:  Added a setting in the Data Source tab of the Clippings preferences dialog for enabling Sync Clippings, a new feature under development

Things You Should Know About

Please be aware of the following, as there has been changes in Thunderbird 60 that has caused some existing features of Clippings to stop working.

• Rearranging clippings and folders in Clippings Manager by drag and drop in the clippings tree is no longer possible. Use the Move toolbar button to select a folder to move or copy to, or right-click and select the Cut, Copy and Paste menu options. To rearrange items within a folder, select the folder, click the Arrange toolbar button, then in the dialog that appears, you can use drag and drop to rearrange the items in the selected folder.
• It is no longer possible to drag selected text to the Clippings status bar icon to create a clipping from the selected text. Instead, copy the text to the clipboard and then select New From Clipboard from the status bar icon's context menu.
• To display the extension preferences dialog, open Clippings Manager, then select Tools -> Options. The Clippings preferences dialog is not accessible from Add-ons Manager.

Not Compatible With Thunderbird 52.x or Firefox ESR 52.x

Clippings 5.6 is compatible with Thunderbird 60. It is not compatible with Thunderbird 52.x, nor is it compatible with Firefox ESR 52.x.

If you are using those older versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, you should install Clippings 5.5.2, which is still available.

How To Get It

Users currently having Clippings for Thunderbird 5.6 beta 1 installed should be automatically updated to 5.6 beta 2, if automatic add-on updates are enabled in Thunderbird.

For those who want to try a beta release of Clippings for the first time, head over to the Clippings 5.6 beta 2 page on GitHub. Right-click on the link for clippings-tb-5.6b2.xpi and select Save As, then choose a folder location on your system (for example, the Desktop). Then follow these step-by-step instructions from the Mozilla Support website to install Clippings in Thunderbird.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be directed to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, hosted on Google Groups.

Clippings for Thunderbird 5.6 beta 1 released!

This is the first beta release of Clippings which is compatible with Thunderbird 60. It is being made available for testing, and although it is in a fairly stable beta-quality state, expect to encounter the inevitable bugs.

Because this is a beta release, no automatic upgrades to this release will be available to current Clippings users.

What's New

• Compatible with Thunderbird 60
• You can paste a clipping using the Clippings 6 shortcut key prefix, ALT+SHIFT+Y (Command+Shift+Y on macOS), in addition to the traditional keys CTRL+ALT+V/Command+Option+V.

Things You Should Know About

Please be aware of the following limitations, as there has been changes in Thunderbird 60 that has caused some existing features of Clippings to stop working.

• Rearranging clippings and folders in Clippings Manager by drag and drop in the clippings tree is no longer possible. Use the Move toolbar button to select a folder to move or copy to, or right-click and select the Cut, Copy and Paste menu options. To rearrange items within a folder, select the folder, click the Arrange toolbar button, then in the dialog that appears, you can use drag and drop to rearrange the items in the selected folder.
• It is no longer possible to drag selected text to the Clippings status bar icon to create a clipping from the selected text. Instead, copy the text to the clipboard and then select New From Clipboard from the status bar icon's context menu.
• To display the extension preferences dialog, open Clippings Manager, then select Tools -> Options. The Clippings preferences dialog is not accessible from Add-ons Manager.

Not Compatible With Thunderbird 52.x or Firefox ESR 52.x

Clippings 5.6 is compatible with Thunderbird 60. It is not compatible with Thunderbird 52.x, nor is it compatible with Firefox ESR 52.x.

If you are using those older versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, you should install Clippings 5.5.2, which is still available.

How To Get It

Head over to the Clippings 5.6 beta 1 page on GitHub. Right-click on the link for clippings-tb-5.6b1.xpi and select Save As, then choose a folder location on your system (for example, the Desktop). Then follow these step-by-step instructions from the Mozilla Support website to install Clippings in Thunderbird.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be directed to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, hosted on Google Groups.

Clippings and Panic Button with Firefox ESR 60

Many users on Firefox ESR 52.x have upgraded to the latest ESR release, version 60. This blog post summarizes compatibility info with Clippings and Panic Button for those users who have not yet made the leap.

Clippings

Clippings 6 is compatible with Firefox ESR 60.x.  Users of Firefox ESR 52.x should make a backup of their clippings before the upgrade; you should be seeing reminders to do this in the Clippings context menu and in Clippings Manager if you have version 5.5.x installed.  Once you have upgraded to Firefox ESR 60, upgrade Clippings to the latest release (version 6.0.6 at the time of this writing), where you will be prompted to upload your backup file.

There are a few differences between Clippings 6 and the legacy versions of Clippings. The biggest change is that the shortcut key prefix for pasting a clipping with the keyboard is now ALT+SHIFT+Y (Command+Shift+Y on macOS). There are plans to allow users to change the shortcut key prefix in an upcoming release.

Many users have been syncing their clippings between Firefox and Thunderbird by setting the data source location to a folder on their system that is accessible to both applications. Automatic syncing of clippings is not yet possible in Clippings 6. For now, you will need to sync your data manually, using the import and export actions in Clippings Manager.

After installing Clippings 6, it is a good idea to back up your clippings on a regular basis to keep your clippings data safe from unexpected data corruption. Unlike past releases of Clippings, the WebExtension version is unable to save backups automatically.

Note that Clippings does not work when Private Browsing is turned on in Firefox.

Panic Button

Panic Button 4 is compatible with Firefox ESR 60.x. Once you have upgraded, install the latest version of Panic Button (version 4.0.3 at the time of this writing).

The Panic Button action of hiding all browser windows and showing a floating toolbar with a button for restoring your browsing session is no longer available. But you can still hide your browser window and replace it with another window showing a web site of your choice. Also, it is no longer possible to be prompted for a password when restoring your browser sesssion.  The "Hide and Replace" action doesn't work when Private Browsing is turned on in Firefox.

Send Tab URLs discontinued

Now that Firefox ESR version 60 has been released, and Firefox ESR 52.x will reach end-of-life status very soon, Send Tab URLs is officially discontinued.

Send Tab URLs relies on a lot of functionality that is not possible with WebExtensions. For example, it is no longer possible to get the default email client that is set in Windows. With that, it was decided that rewriting Send Tab URLs into a WebExtension is not feasible.

For users looking for an alternative, consider FoxyTab by erosman. Among many things you can do with this add-on, you can copy a list of URLs for all your browser tabs, or just the ones to the left or the right of the current tab. You can also choose to copy just the URLs of the browser tabs only, or both the page titles and URLs. You can then paste the list into the editor window of your email program, and format it as desired.

The Send Tab URLs page on the AE Creations website will be taken down soon, but the Send Tab URLs discussion category in the Help and Support forums will continue to be available.