Text Capture FKEY is intended to capture styled text from the front window and put it on the clipboard. It works by forcing the application or desk accessory to update the window, and “watching” as the text is redrawn. This technique has certain side-effects and limitations:
• Text that is displayed as bitmapped graphics, rather than as text, will not be captured. You can’t tell when this is the case just by looking at the screen. This would certainly be the case for text in a “paint” document, but other programs sometimes draw text into an “offscreen bitmap” and then copy the bitmap to the screen.
• Text is captured in the order that it is drawn, not in its order on the screen. For example, a program might draw the text in the window from bottom to top, and then Text Capture will capture the lines in reverse order.
• Some programs, such as the Alarm Clock DA, may draw text beyond the bounds of the window. I don’t know why. Sometimes you may want to capture that text, sometimes not. Therefore there is an option of whether to capture such text; see “Configuration” below.
• Text Capture cannot know the paragraph structure of the text it is copying. Therefore it gives you two choices: No line breaks, or a hard return at the end of each line.
• Some programs maintain a private clipboard, which is copied to or from the public clipboard at certain times. This may result in removing the text or the style information that Text Capture puts on the clipboard. See the discussion of settings in the Configuration section below.
Installation
As with most FKEYs, there are several ways it can be installed.
• Use ResEdit to paste the FKEY resource into the System file. Not for the inexperienced or the faint of heart.
• Use a specialized FKEY installer to put it into the System file.
• Use a general resource opener, such as Suitcase, MasterJuggler, or Carpetbag, to open the file. This is my favorite approach, as it does not modify the System file. (Bias warning: I am the author of Carpetbag.)
As I have supplied the FKEY, its resource ID number is 6, meaning that you would invoke it using Shift-Command-6. But if you have other FKEYS, you might need to renumber something to avoid conflicts.
You can also execute FKEYs without a special installation step by using my shareware product OtherMenu.
Configuration
If you hold down caps-lock or control at the same time as the command-shift-whatever you use to invoke Text Capture, you will see this dialog that lets you change three settings.
• The “Capture text” setting determines how much text to capture. The default is to capture the text in a selected rectangle. When you invoke the FKEY, the cursor changes to cross-hairs, and you can use the mouse to drag out a rectangle. This feature probably will not work well with script systems using right-to-left or double-byte characters.
• The “Separate lines with” setting determines whether a carriage return or a space comes after each line in a selection of multiple lines.
• The third setting, “Copy to private clipboard,” is optional, and will probably make programs that use private clipboards work with Text Capture. But it may have a side effect of removing style information. You might want to try both checking and not checking this box with your favorite programs, to see which works better.
The choices you make in the configuration dialog are stored in a file named “Text Capture 2.3 Settings”, which will be in your Preferences folder under System 7 or in your System Folder under System 6.
Author’s Address
James W. Walker
3200 Heyward Street
Columbia, SC 29205
e-mail:
CIS: 76367,2271
America Online: JWWalker
Internet: 76367.2271@compuserve.com
Distribution policy
Text Capture may be distributed freely, provided that the software, accompanied by this documentation, is unchanged. Text Capture may not be sold or offered for sale, or included with another software product offered for sale, except with the express written permission of the author. Companies that distribute public domain/freeware/shareware software for profit are expressly prohibited from distributing Carpetbag. This restriction does not apply to bulletin boards, commercial on-line services such as America Online, CompuServe and GEnie, and non-profit Macintosh user groups which hold regularly scheduled public meetings.
Acknowledgements
Susan Lesch helped with testing and dialog design. Phil Shapiro made a useful programming suggestion.
