You can think of the Clipbook as a visible clipboard with multiple text items that can be pasted in any document. The pasteable text item can be anything from a single character to thousands of lines of text. Each item is stored in a Clipbook library and is identified by a header which is displayed in the Clipbook window. The header can either represent the actual text to be pasted, or a brief description of the text item. A simple Clip syntax can be used to produce specialized Clips. Thanks to this syntax, the Clipbook can also be used as a "Launch Pad" to open URLs and execute other programs (with or without the active document), send e-mail, and perform file management tasks. The topic Create Clipbook Libraries explains how you can edit your own libraries.
To paste a Clip, first position the cursor in your document, then go to the Clipbook window and double-click (or press Return) on the item header. You can also drag-and-drop items from the Clipbook to your document. If Auto-replace mode is enabled (either by opening an "auto-replace" library, or through the Tools | Auto-replace Mode menu command), NoteTab will check for a matching item in the active library whenever you press any of the following characters (Clip activation keys):
TAB SPACE RETURN ! " , . : ; = > ? ] }
If a matching Clip is found, the typed item in the document is automatically replaced according to the Clip instructions. For a demonstration of this feature, try the included libraries AutoCorrect and HTML-ar.
You can copy an item to Windows' clipboard by selecting its header and pressing the Ins key or by using the shortcut menu. This feature makes it easy to paste Clips into other programs.
There are several options that let you configure the Clipbook to best suit your needs. For example, you can dock the Clipbook on the left or right side of the document frame. You can also change the font and color used for the Clipbook list box. If the Default Font option is enabled, the list box font will match the font used by the active document. You can access all the Clipbook options by invoking the shortcut menu from the list box or by opening the Clipbook Properties submenu from the Tools menu.
You can resize the Clipbook list horizontally by dragging the splitter bar (between the Clipbook and the document frame).
If you have a long list of Clips or you would like to reduce mouse movement, you can invoke the In-Context Clipbook. This original feature lets you easily pick Clips directly within your document at the cursor position.
The Clipbook is also great as a "shorthand" glossary tool. For example, if you add the text "Yours sincerely" in the Clipbook and give it the header "ys" (without the quotes), then next time you type "ys" in a document and hit the F2 function key, "ys" will be replaced by "Yours sincerely". You do not need to type the full Clip header; just type enough text to match the item you want to use. For example, if you use the HTML library and type the letter "c" followed by the F2 key, then the "Center" Clipbook item will be pasted in your document. If you frequently use this glossary feature, you may prefer to hide the Clipbook list so it doesn't clutter your desktop. Open the Clipbook shortcut menu and choose Hide Clipbook. Just press F4 if you want to make the Clipbook visible again. If you close the Clipbook instead of hiding it, you will not have access to the feature until you reopen it.
The list-box shortcut menu lets you add or edit items, sort the list, save or undo changes, and modify configuration options. You can also edit the content of the library by using the commands under the Tools | Clipbook menu.
You can toggle between the available Clipbook libraries by clicking on one of the library buttons (above the status bar) or by pressing the Alt key and a number from 1 to 0 (0 = 10); the number corresponds to the library's position in the Clipbook's combo box.
If you visit one of the NoteTab sites, you will find a large selection of Clipbook libraries for all kinds of tasks (HTML, words for writing shopping lists and recipes, PGP, a maze game, COBOL, envelope printing, LaTeX, Perl, Turbo Pascal, Java/Javascript, Cascading Style Sheets, VRML, Mathematics, etc.). At this time of writing, there are more than 100! You can download them from either of the following Web pages:
http://www.notetab.com/libraries.htm (main site)
or
http://www.notetab.ch/libraries.htm (Swiss site)
Once you have downloaded a library, just unzip it into the Libraries folder under the NoteTab program directory to install it. Or even easier, you can use the "Install Libraries" Clip in the Utilities library (click on the button labeled "Utilities" at the bottom of the NoteTab window to open it in the Clipbook).