Menu Editor incompatibility in Clippings is resolved

An update to Clippings was released yesterday to address the problem where clippings and subfolders on the Clippings submenu on Firefox's browser context menu were disappearing if Menu Editor is installed. (This issue was not occuring on Firefox 2.) A workaround exists for this bug -- but while it allowed users to be able to paste clippings, the workaround was rather awkward to deal with, and clearly was not the best solution.

The good news is that users no longer have to contend with this workaround in the new release. Clippings users having the Menu Editor extension installed should upgrade to this release, version 3.0.2, to be able to use Clippings the way it was designed.

The update can be obtained by either waiting for Firefox's automatic extension update to detect and install this new release, or going into Tools → Add-ons in the Firefox browser window, selecting Clippings in the list of extensions, then right-clicking and selecting Find Update in the context menu.

Clippings 3.0.1 released

A new version of Clippings has been released and is now available for download from Mozilla Add-ons.

If you already have Clippings installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Extension Manager (Tools → Add-ons), then right-click on the entry for Clippings in the list of installed extensions and choose Find Update.

Please note that Firefox 1.5 and Thunderbird 1.5 are no longer supported.

What's New

This release fixes several bugs. Improvements include:

• On Linux, the Clippings Manager window position is saved. Previously, Clippings Manager always appeared at the top left corner of the screen
• On Mac OS X, the instructions in the New Clipping dialog and Clippings Manager on how to paste a clipping using shortcut keys has been clarified
• Fixed a Clippings Manager bug that caused an error when creating a new clipping if there were no clippings and common clippings was enabled
• Also in Clippings Manager, users are now prevented from exporting clippings to a datasource file of the same name in the same folder. This is to prevent a bug where clippings are appended to the data in the existing Clippings file if the user had chosen to overwrite it.

Help and Support

Send your questions, comments and bug reports to the Clippings mailing list.

Workaround to Clippings and Menu Editor conflict

I wrote about a problem that was experienced by many users who also have Menu Editor installed. The problem was that if Menu Editor is installed, the clippings and folders on the Clippings submenu of the browser context menu would disappear.

I discovered a workaround using a new feature of Clippings Manager that I totally forgot about. In Clippings 3.0, you can paste a clipping by double-clicking a clipping in Clippings Manager's tree list. Here are the steps:

1. Click on the text box where you want to paste a clipping.
2. Right-click to invoke the context menu, then choose Clippings → Organize Clippings. This will open Clippings Manager.
3. Find the desired clipping in the tree list and double-click on it. The selected clipping will be pasted into the web page text box at the cursor position.

This alternative method of pasting a clipping essentially lets you do so without using the browser context menu.

Clippings 3.0 released!

The wait is finally over. Clippings 3.0 has been released and is now available for download.

» Download: Clippings 3.0 (175 KB; compatible with Firefox 2.0-3.0b4 and Thunderbird 2.0-2.0.0.*)

Supported Languages: English (United States), Chinese (simplified), Dutch, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Slovak.

If you already have Clippings installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled in Firefox. Otherwise, open Extension Manager in Firefox, then right-click on the entry for Clippings in the list of installed extensions and choose Find Update.

Please note that Clippings 3.0 is, and will not be, compatible with Firefox 1.5 and Thunderbird 1.5. These versions are obsolete and Mozilla Corp. is no longer supporting them.

What's New

• Common clippings data for Firefox and Thunderbird. This much-requested feature allows your Clippings data to be created, accessed and modified from both Firefox and Thunderbird. (More info.)
  
• Shortcut keys. You can now assign a shortcut key to a clipping at the time of creation or by editing a clipping in Clippings Manager. Shortcut keys can be any letter (A-Z) or digit (0-9). To paste the clipping into a web page form field in Firefox or a new email message in Thunderbird, press CTRL+ALT+V, then the shortcut key.
• Clipping placeholders. You can define placeholders inside a clipping that you will be prompted to fill in when you paste the clipping. Built-in placeholders for the date, time, clipping name, user agent, etc. are also available. (More info.)
• Default clippings. System administrators and redistributors can bundle a default Clippings datasource file into a customized Clippings XPI to pre-populate their users' datasources when they install the customized XPI. (More info.)
• Improvements to Clippings Manager's automatic save functionality, including on-the-fly updating of clipping edits/changes.
• Double-click on a clipping in Clippings Manager to paste it into the most recent host app window
• Numerous bug fixes.

Known Issues

• On Firefox 3, it is not possible to adjust the width of Clippings Manager's tree list.
• Shortcut key assignments are lost after migrating to the common data source.
• Exporting Clippings data to a Clippings file that already exists may cause the data to be appended to the existing content in the file instead of overwriting it.

Help and Support

A Quick Start Guide is available, and is recommended reading for first-time users.

Support requests should be emailed to the Clippings mailing list at clippingsmozdevorg. Bug reports should also be emailed to the Clippings mailing list. If you have a Bugzilla account on Mozdev, you may file a bug report at http://clippings.mozdev.org/bugs.html.

Clippings 3.0 Release Candidate 1

This is the first release candidate of Clippings 3.0. Barring any last-minute showstopper bugs, this release should resemble the final 3.0 release.

» Download: Clippings 3.0 RC 1 (175 KB; compatible with Firefox 2.0-3.0b3 and Thunderbird 2.0-2.0.0.*)

Supported languages: English (United States), Dutch, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak.

If you already have a previous release of Clippings installed, you must uninstall it first before installing this release.

Please note that Clippings 3.0 is, and will not be, compatible with Firefox 1.5 and Thunderbird 1.5. These versions are obsolete and Mozilla Corp. is no longer supporting them.

What's New

This is a summary of all the new features introduced in the past development milestone releases. More details about some of the features are described in another post.

• Common clippings data for Firefox and Thunderbird. This much-requested feature allows your Clippings data to be created, accessed and modified from both Firefox and Thunderbird. (More info.)
  
• Shortcut keys. You can now assign a shortcut key to a clipping at the time of creation or by editing a clipping in Clippings Manager. Shortcut keys can be any letter (A-Z) or digit (0-9). To paste the clipping into a web page form field in Firefox or a new email message in Thunderbird, press CTRL+ALT+V, then the shortcut key.
• Clipping placeholders. You can define placeholders inside a clipping that you will be prompted to fill in when you paste the clipping. Built-in placeholders for the date, time, clipping name, user agent, etc. are also available. (More info.)
• Default clippings. System administrators and redistributors can bundle a default Clippings datasource file into a customized Clippings XPI to pre-populate their users' datasources when they install the customized XPI. (More info.)
• Improvements to Clippings Manager's automatic save functionality, including on-the-fly updating of clipping edits/changes.
• Double-click on a clipping in Clippings Manager to paste it into the most recent host app window
• Numerous bug fixes.
  

Known Issues

• On Firefox 3, it is not possible to adjust the width of Clippings Manager's tree list.
• Shortcut key assignments are lost after migrating to the common data source.

Feedback Welcome

Please send bug reports to the Clippings mailing list, or file a bug report on Bugzilla (requires Bugzilla account on Mozdev). You can also leave a comment below this blog post.