Clippings 7.0 release candidate 1 released!

This is a release candidate of the next version of Clippings, the Firefox extension from AE Creations that lets you save frequently-entered text for later pasting into web page forms, and is now available for testers and early adopters who are craving the latest and greatest! Unless there are any last-minute showstopper issues, this build may become the official release of Clippings 7.0.

Read on to learn more about what's new in this version of Clippings, and how to get it!

What's New

• Copy clipping text to the clipboard from Clippings Manager or the new Clippings Sidebar
• You can now add separators to organize your clippings in the Clippings menu. Separators can be added in Clippings Manager by right-clicking on a clipping or folder and then selecting Insert Separator from the context menu
  
• Brought back the ability to create a clipping from the contents of the clipboard in Clippings Manager (Tools → New From Clipboard). This finally brings back a feature that existed in Clippings prior to version 6.0
  
• New option to show the shortcut key of a clipping in the Clippings menu. Turn on this setting from the redesigned extension preferences page
• New placeholder for embedding a clipping in a clipping. Placeholder syntax: $[CLIPPING(Name of clipping)].
  
• On Linux, the option to minimize the Clippings Manager window when it's inactive is now turned off by default. Quickly turn it on or off by clicking the Minimize When Inactive icon on the status bar
  
• Sync Clippings enhancements: sync data is now compressed, allowing you to sync more of your clippings; also, improved handling of read-only sync files

Things You Should Know About

• The version number of this release candidate build will appear as 6.999.1 in Add-ons Manager.
• Additional extension permissions are now required for some features. When turning on Sync Clippings or performing actions involving the clipboard for the first time, a message box will appear, indicating the extension permission requested and how to grant it. If you're upgrading from an earlier version of Clippings, the necessary permission for Sync Clippings will already be enabled.

Compatibility

Clippings 7.0 is compatible with Firefox 128 or newer, as well as Firefox 128 ESR.

The Sync Clippings enhancements require an upgrade of the Sync Clippings Helper app. The release candidate build of Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 is now available.

How to Get It

IMPORTANT! If you're already using Clippings and want to try this release candidate, back up your clippings first before upgrading.

To install this release candidate, head over to the Clippings 7.0 release candidate 1 page on GitHub. Look for the link to clippings-7.0rc1.xpi, then click on it and follow the prompts to add it to Firefox.

Users of the previous beta releases will be automatically updated to this release candidate if automatic extension updates are turned on in Add-ons Manager. 

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

If you find a bug, you may file a bug report on GitHub. Please search the issues list first to confirm that your issue has not already been reported.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Crowdin contributor 52fisher for providing updated localizations for Chinese (Simplified)!

If you're fluent in English and another world language and would like to help update or add a new translation, consider contributing a translation in Crowdin. Localizations in other languages are always welcome, and will be added in future releases.

Clippings for Thunderbird 7.0 release candidate 1 released!

This is a release candidate of the next version of Clippings for Thunderbird, the extension from AE Creations that lets you save frequently-entered text for later pasting into email messages and is now available for testers and early adopters who are craving the latest and greatest! Unless there are any last-minute showstopper issues, this build may become the official release of Clippings for Thunderbird 7.0.

Read on to learn more about what's new in this version of Clippings for Thunderbird, and how to get it!

What's New

• The Clippings toolbar button in the message compose window has moved from the status bar to the Composition Toolbar. The Clippings toolbar button no longer appears in the main Thunderbird window.
  
• You can now add separators to organize your clippings in the Clippings menu. Separators can be added in Clippings Manager by right-clicking on a clipping or folder and then selecting Insert Separator from the context menu
• New option to show the shortcut key of a clipping in the Clippings menu. Turn on this setting from the redesigned extension preferences page
• New placeholder for embedding a clipping in a clipping. Placeholder syntax: $[CLIPPING(Name of clipping)].
  
• Sync Clippings enhancements: sync data is now compressed, allowing you to sync more of your clippings; also, improved handling of read-only sync files
• On macOS, automatic positioning of windows and dialogs, and saving of the Clippings Manager window position and size, are now fully supported and is turned on by default
• On Linux, the option to minimize the Clippings Manager window when it's inactive has been removed, since the window is no longer always on top in recent versions of Thunderbird
  
• When new users install Clippings for Thunderbird, it will only ask for the extension permissions it needs for basic functionality, and will ask for additional permissions if turning on Sync Clippings or creating a new clipping from the clipboard for the first time. This is a change from previous versions, where Clippings for Thunderbird requested full, unrestricted access to Thunderbird and your system
• Many behind-the-scenes improvements to ensure compatibility with future versions of Thunderbird

Things You Should Know About

• Users of Clippings for Thunderbird version 5.7 or earlier should take note: Clippings will no longer automatically import your clippings data when upgrading from those old versions. Export your clippings now (select the "Clippings 6" data format) so that you can import them when you're ready to upgrade Clippings to version 7.0 or newer.
  
• Additional extension permissions are now required for some features. When turning on Sync Clippings or performing clipboard actions for the first time, a message box will appear, indicating the extension permission requested and how to grant it. If you're upgrading from an earlier version of Clippings, the necessary permission for Sync Clippings will already be enabled.

Compatibility

Clippings for Thunderbird 7.0 is compatible with Thunderbird 128 and newer. It is not compatible with Thunderbird 115.x.

The Sync Clippings enhancements require an upgrade of the Sync Clippings Helper app. The release candidate build of Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 is now available.

How to Get It

IMPORTANT! If you're already using Clippings and want to try this release candidate build, back up your clippings first before upgrading.

To install this release candidate, head over to the Clippings for Thunderbird 7.0 release candidate 1 page on GitHub. Look for the link to clippings-tb-7.0rc1.xpi, then right-click on it and select Save Link 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.

Users of the previous beta releases will be automatically updated to this release candidate if automatic extension updates are turned on in Add-ons Manager.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

If you find a bug, you may file a bug report on GitHub. Please search the issues list first to confirm that your issue has not already been reported.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Crowdin contributor 52fisher for providing updated localizations for Chinese (Simplified)!

If you're fluent in English and another world language and would like to help update or add a new translation, consider contributing a translation in Crowdin. Localizations in other languages are always welcome, and will be added in future releases.

Monthly update: October 2024

I was hoping to release Clippings 7.0 by the end of September, but there were quite a number of issues, mostly cosmetic, which needed to be fixed first -- a few of those fixes were back-ported to Clippings 6.5 and Clippings for Thunderbird 6.3. More time was also needed for translations.

The good news is that I've published a release candidate build of Sync Clippings Helper, the companion app that syncs Clippings data in the background between Firefox and Thunderbird or other instances of those apps. Release candidates of Clippings 7.0 and Clippings for Thunderbird 7.0 should be available in a few days.

Translators are still needed to update the UI strings that have been added for this release. If you're fluent in English and another world language and would like to help, get started by joining the Crowdin project for Clippings!

I've been so busy with Clippings that the planned minor release of Panic Button has been delayed. That will likely come later this month, after Clippings 7.0 is released.

For Linux users: Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 release candidate 2 released!

This is the second release candidate of the next version of Sync Clippings Helper, a companion application for the Clippings extension for Firefox and Thunderbird that syncs your Clippings data between computers or multiple instances of those applications. This version supports the enhancements to the Sync Clippings feature in Clippings 7.0, the next version of the Firefox and Thunderbird extension.

This release candidate fixes a minor issue with the setup shell script for Linux.

What's New

• Bug fix: On Linux, an error occurs when extracting the setup shell script from the tar archive (issue #23). Despite the error, the shell script will still run normally and install or upgrade Sync Clippings Helper without any issues.
  

See the previous blog post for details on the new features in Sync Clippings Helper 2.0.

Things You Should Know About

• Because there are no changes to the Sync Clippings Helper app, and the app installers for Windows and macOS are not affected, the second release candidate is only available for Linux. Testers who are using Windows and macOS can continue to use the first release candidate build.
  
• Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 is backwards compatible with older versions of Clippings.
• If you're installing Sync Clippings Helper using the setup shell script, make sure that Python 3 and the Tkinter package (python3-tk) is installed on your system. The setup script will check for those dependencies and will inform you if they aren't found.

How to Get It

Download the updated setup shell script for Linux from the Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 release candidate 2 page on GitHub.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Sync Clippings Helper should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 release candidate 1 released!

This is a release candidate of the next version of Sync Clippings Helper, a companion application for the Clippings extension for Firefox and Thunderbird that syncs your Clippings data between computers or multiple instances of those applications. This version supports the enhancements to the Sync Clippings feature in Clippings 7.0, the next version of the Firefox and Thunderbird extension. Unless there are any last-minute showstopper issues, this build may become the official release of Sync Clippings Helper 2.0.

(If you've just stumbled upon this blog post and don't know what Sync Clippings is, you can learn more about this feature of the Clippings extension for Firefox and Thunderbird on the AE Creations website.)

What's New

• Supports sync data compression, allowing you to sync more of your clippings. The option to compress sync data is turned on by default in Clippings preferences
• Proper handling of read-only sync files. Creating or modifying a clipping or folder in the Synced Clippings folder is not permitted if the sync file is read-only
  

 Things You Should Know About

• Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 is backwards compatible with older versions of Clippings.
• If you're installing Sync Clippings Helper using the setup shell script, make sure that Python 3 and the Tkinter package (python3-tk) is installed on your system. The setup script will check for those dependencies and will inform you if they aren't found.

How to Get It

Sync Clippings Helper is available as a Windows setup program (requires Windows 7 or newer), a macOS installer package (requires macOS 11.7 Big Sur or newer), and a shell script for Linux that can be run from the command line. Get them from the Sync Clippings Helper 2.0 release candidate 1 page on GitHub.

If you're already running Sync Clippings Helper on Windows or Mac, you can install this release over your current version. On Linux, the setup script will automatically detect and prompt you to upgrade a previous version of Sync Clippings Helper.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Sync Clippings Helper should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

Clippings 6.5.8 released!

Another update to Clippings 6.5, the Firefox extension from AE Creations that lets you save frequently-entered text for later pasting into web page forms, has been released, and is now available from Firefox Add-ons and the AE Creations website. Clippings 6.5 requires Firefox 102 or newer.

If you already have Clippings installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Add-ons Manager (Tools → Add-ons), click on the entry for Clippings in the list of installed extensions, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Check for Updates.

What's New

• Bug fix: In Clippings Manager, the Reload button on the Synced Clippings folder is hard to see when using dark mode system themes
• Other fixes and improvements

Things You Should Know About

• Thunderbird Users: This version of Clippings is designed for Firefox and is not compatible with Thunderbird. Get Clippings for Thunderbird, which is compatible with Thunderbird 115 and 128.
  
• Some features may not be available when Firefox is in Private Browsing mode, or if the browser privacy settings are too restrictive.
• If you want to use Sync Clippings, download and install the Sync Clippings helper app. More information and download links can be found on the Sync Clippings page on the AE Creations website.

Get Ready for Clippings 7.0!

The next major version of Clippings requires Firefox 128 or newer. If you're still using a Firefox version as old as 102, upgrade to the latest version of Firefox as soon as possible in order to enjoy all the new features in Clippings 7.0 when it's released.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

Updated 16 October 2024: Removed a reference to this version being the last to support older versions of Firefox, due to one more upcoming minor release of Clippings 6.5.