Each clip drawer can contain any number of items. An item contains one or more format, where a format can be some text, a picture, an URL or email address, an alias, a script, a thumbnail, a sound, a movie, text styling or anything else. For example, dragging in some text from Microsoft Word 98 will create an item containing a picture, text, text styling and 7 other formats which only Word understands.
Creating items
Items can be created in many ways. The easiest is by using drag and drop from another application (almost all modern Mac applications now support this technology). You can also use the Paste command in the clip drawer’s contextual menu to paste in from the clipboard.
Another way to create a new item is to give the clip drawer a Key to Copy Selection into Drawer. Pressing this key will copy the selection from any Mac OS application and paste it into the drawer (see previous topic).
To create a new item from within Drop Drawers, use the Create Item submenu of the clip drawer’s contextual menu. You can create a new text item, URL or script in their respective editors, a new alias by selecting the file or folder to make the alias to or a new sound by recording.
Showing and removing formats
Although items can contain as many formats as required, only one format is displayed at a time (along with the item’s name for non-text items). To change the format to show, use the Show sub-menu of the item’s contextual menu (accessible by control-clicking).
To remove a format from an item, use the Remove sub-menu of the item’s contextual menu – items in this menu also show you how much space each of the item’s formats is taking up.
Selecting, moving, duplicating and resizing items
Items are selected in the same way as the Finder, with shift-clicking, rectangular selection and a Select All command in the clip drawer’s contextual menu. Items can be moved by dragging and duplicated by option-dragging. If the command key is down, the arrow keys will ‘nudge’ items by 1 pixel in the desired direction. Items can be resized by dragging the handles in the items’ corner - the item’s proportion will determine whether and where to show the item’s name (except items whose text is shown or which have no name).
Inserting items
Items can be inserted from a clip drawer into any Mac OS application using the Insert command in the item’s contextual menu. The item will be inserted as if it had been pasted in from the clipboard. This feature works by putting the data on the clipboard and sending a Command-V key press to the frontmost application. If the application does not interpret the Command-V key press correctly, it will not work with this feature of Drop Drawers.
Item Options
Each item in a clip drawer has some options which can be set in the Item Options window. To open this window, choose Item Options… from the item’s contextual menu. You can set the item’s name and assign shortcut keys to insert (within the frontmost application), open, show or edit the item. These keys will be interpreted sensibly depending on which format is showing for the item. You can also give any item a thumbnail, to be displayed with or without its name. Thumbnails can be copied in or out of the square area using drag and drop or the three buttons labelled Copy, Paste and Clear.
Clip Drawer Item Formats
Each item in a clip drawer contains one or more formats. A format can be anything at all, however Drop Drawers contains built-in support for several different formats, each of which is explained below:
Aliases and File Specs
You should already be familiar with aliases from using the Finder. A file spec is similar to an alias except that it contains a much less robust pointer to the original file – if you rename or move the file, the file spec will no longer work. Therefore, we recommend leaving on the Convert File Specs to Aliases option in the Preferences (see later).
Aliases or file specs in clip drawers can do many things. The original file can be opened by choosing Open from the item’s contextual menu, it can be revealed in the Finder by choosing Reveal or the Finder’s information window for the item can be opened by choosing Get Info. If the item is a folder and Show Hierarchical Folder Menus is on in the preferences (see later), each of these three menu items will also have hierarchical submenus allowing you to open, reveal or get information on any file contained within the folder, up to 4 levels deep.
If the alias or file spec points to an image or movie file and QuickTime Image Previewing is installed, choose Create Thumbnail to create a thumbnail to display instead of the file’s icon. This will happen automatically for files if the Always Create Thumbnails option is set in the Preferences (see later). To reselect the file or folder for the alias or file spec to point to, choose Retarget… from the item’s contextual menu. Note: The item’s name will not be changed as a result.
Aliases or file specs can also be dragged onto application or folder aliases within a drawer to simulate what would happen if this was done in the Finder. Documents are launched with the receiving application or moved to the receiving folder (copied if on a different disk). You can also drag files from the Finder onto items within a drawer and vice versa. Note: Dragging an alias into a Finder window will create a copy of the alias, not move the original file.
Alias and file spec items also contain an additional format called Icon Cache. This contains a copy of the item’s Finder icons to speed up icon drawing within Drop Drawers. If the original file’s icon has changed, remove the icon cache to update the icon within the drawer.
Plain texts and Text styles
Clip drawers display text items within the drawer along with their text style information, if any is present. To display styled text in the drawer’s default text style (ignoring the style information), choose Plain Text from the Show sub-menu in the item’s contextual menu. Drop Drawers also contains a built-in styled text editor with support for multiple fonts, sizes, styles and colors. To edit text, choose Edit Text… from the item’s contextual menu.
URLs
Clip drawers display URLs within the drawer as their name (if one exists) and the actual web site location (if there is space). To launch an URL, choose Go to site from the item’s contextual menu. If Internet Config or OS 8.5’s Internet control panel is available, it will be launched in the preferred application for the URL type. Otherwise, Drop Drawers will search for Netscape Navigator then Microsoft Internet Explorer to open the URL. To edit an URL, choose Edit URL… from the item’s contextual menu.
Scripts and Results
Clip drawers display scripts within the drawer as a script icon. Drop Drawers supports any scripting language which is designed to run within Apple’s OSA (Open Scripting Architecture). Every system from 7.5 onwards comes with the AppleScript language built-in, however there are also third-party languages available such as Frontier. The OSA is a very powerful Mac-only technology - for more information, please see the AppleScript web site at http://applescript.apple.com/
To run a script without any parameter data (executing the ‘on run’ or unnamed handler for AppleScript), choose Run Script from the item’s contextual menu. The run a script with parameter data (executing the ‘on open’ handler for AppleScript), drag the desired data (from inside or outside Drop Drawers) onto the script item. Currently, Drop Drawers supports text or alias parameters. If several items are dropped onto a script, Drop Drawers passes the script a list of the items.
To edit a script, choose Edit Script… from the item’s contextual menu. A script editing window will appear, with similar functionality to the Mac OS’s Script Editor. Select the desired scripting language from the Language pop-up menu. In the Options menu, you may select whether errors which occur while running the script should be reported to the user and whether the final outcome of the script should be displayed in the drawer as a Result format for the drawer item (text only).
Thumbnails
Any item in a clip drawer can have a thumbnail displayed instead of the item's actual data. The thumbnail can be set in the Item Options dialog, or it can be generated from image or movie files by choosing Create Thumbnail from the item’s contextual menu or switching on Always Create Thumbnails in the Drop Drawers Preferences.
Pictures
Clip drawers display picture items within the drawer and allows them to be scaled up to their original size. To view a picture at full size in a separate, scrollable window, choose View Picture from the item’s contextual menu.
Movies
Clip drawers display movies within a drawer, showing their poster frame. To play a movie, choose Play Movie from the item’s contextual menu. The movie will stop playing once it is completed, if another movie is playing or if Stop Movie is chosen from the item’s contextual menu.
Sounds
Clip drawers display sounds within a drawer as a loudspeaker icon. To play a sound, choose Play Sound from the item’s contextual menu.
Clip Drawer Arranging
There are many sophisticated options for resizing, cleaning up, aligning and distributing items in a clip drawer. These can be carried out either on the entire drawer or on a selection of items within the drawer.
To arrange all items in a clip drawer, click More Options… in the Contents panel of a clip drawer’s options window or choose Arrange All… from the drawer’s contextual menu. To arrange the selected items in a drawer, choose Arrange Items… from the items’ contextual menu. The Resize Drawer and Keep Drawer Arranged options are only available when arranging all items.
As you change the arranging options, the drawer will be updated to reflect the chosen settings. Once you are happy with the results, click OK. To cancel arranging, click Cancel. If Keep Drawer Arranged is checked, the drawer will automatically be kept arranged using the chosen settings.
Although the options described below sound complicated, clip drawer arranging provides a lot of flexibility with the minimum of complexity. We recommend simply experimenting to see what different combinations of settings do. Some options depend on the drawer’s grid setting – this can be changed in the Contents panel of its options window.
Resize
To switch on item resizing, check Resize - this will enable the options below.
• Smart, Minimize, Maximize. These three options resize each item independently and cannot be combined with any other resizing settings. The Smart option uses the current size of the item to calculate its new size, for example by showing an alias’ full name or text’s full height. The Minimize and Maximize options make items as small or as large as possible respectively.
• To Grid Width, Thinnest, Average, Widest. These four options resize items to the same width, equal either to the width of the drawer’s grid or the thinnest, average or widest item being arranged. They can be combined with height resizing by checking the And box.
• To Grid Height, Shortest, Average, Tallest. These four options resize items to the same height, equal either to the height of the drawer’s grid or the shortest, average or tallest item being arranged. They can be combined with width resizing by checking the And box.
Clean Up
To switch on item cleaning up (which repositions items in order), check Clean Up - this will enable the options below.
• By Position, Name or Text, Shown Type, Item Size. These four options determine how the items should be reordered. Choose By Position to leave the items close to their current positions, By Name or Text to reorder by name or text (depending on the items' shown format), By Shown Type to group by the type of format shown (e.g. text, picture or sound) and By Item Size to reorder based on rectangular area (not size in memory).
• Spacing. This setting determine how much, if any, spacing should be left between items when cleaning up. If the Distribute and To Grid settings are on in the right panel, the grid spacing will automatically be used instead of this.
• Right then Down, Right then Up, Down then Right. These three options determine the direction in which items should be reordered.
Align / Distribute
If the Clean Up option is off, this section is entitled Align and allows you to align items either relative to each other, or to the drawer’s grid. If Clean Up is on, it is entitled Distribute and allows you to determine whether, and how items being cleaned up should be distributed. When cleaning up, the Distribute setting will cause items to be spaced equally by width and/or height, otherwise they will be packed as tightly as possible.
• Items, To Grid. These two options select whether items should be aligned relative to each other, or using the drawer’s grid. In either case, the remaining settings determine exactly how the alignment should take place.
• Smart, Left, Center, Right. These four options align or distribute items horizontally. The Smart option aligns or distributes appropriately for each item and its name, while the Left, Center and Right options align or distribute all items by their left edge, horizontal center or right edge respectively. These options can be combined with vertical alignment or distribution by checking the And box.
• Top, Middle, Bottom. These three options align or distribute items vertically. The Top, Middle and Bottom options align or distribute items by their top edge, vertical center or bottom edge respectively. These options can be combined with horizontal alignment or distribution by checking the And box.
Resize Drawer
Clip drawers can be resized automatically to fit their contents at the end of the arranging operation by using these options. There separate options for resizing the drawer’s width and height.
Preferences
To edit the global preferences for Drop Drawers, choose Preferences… from the Edit menu (Drop Drawers must be the frontmost application).
Application
• Open Automatically at Startup. Set whether you want Drop Drawers to be opened when your Macintosh starts up (this places an alias to the Drop Drawers application in the Startup Items folder of your System Folder).
• Bring Finder to Front at Startup. Set whether you want Drop Drawers to bring the Finder to the front after it has been launched.
• Use Navigation Services if Possible. Set whether you want Drop Drawers to choose files or folders using Apple’s Navigation Services (included in Mac OS 8.5 but available for OS 7.5.5 or later). Navigation Services have been known to cause problems with some setups, so switch this setting off if you are experiencing any.
• Use Contextual Menu Plug-ins. Set whether you want Drop Drawers to pass through selected items to the system’s Contextual Menu Manager (available in Mac OS 8), allowing CMM plug-ins to act on the data.
Drawers
• Key to Show or Hide All Drawers. This lets you set a key to toggle the visibility of all drawers on screen. If the drawers ever get in your way, this could be useful. If Pass Key Through for Others is on, Drop Drawers will pass the key press on to other programs, allowing you to set one key for Drop Drawers and any other floating dock application.
• Expanding Delay, Expanding Speed, Contracting Delay. These set how long to wait before and how fast to automatically expand or contract drawers which have the Expand when Mouse at Edge setting turned on (see Drawer Options).
• Always Finish Expanding Drawers. This sets whether automatic expansion of drawers should always complete. The expansion can always be completed instantly by clicking the mouse at the drawer edge.
• Tab Font, Size, Style. These set the font, size and style to use for displaying drawer names in their tabs.
Clip Drawers
• Convert File Specs to Aliases. This sets whether incoming file specs (for example, by dragging from the Finder) should be converted into aliases for storing within a clip drawer. A file spec is similar to an alias except that it contains a much less robust pointer to the original file – if you rename or move the file, the file spec will no longer work.
• Always Create Thumbnails. This sets whether newly created file specs or aliases in clip drawers should automatically have a thumbnail created for them if QuickTime Image Previewing is installed and the file is of the appropriate type.
• Automatically Detect URLs. This sets whether text items coming into clip drawers containing an URL should have the URL detected and shown. We recommend leaving this on.
• Auto Detect Email Addresses. This sets whether text items coming into clip drawers containing an email address should have the email address detected and shown. We recommend leaving this on unless it creates problems with foreign character sets.
• Use Full Icon Square for Clicking. This sets whether the entire square surrounding icons in drawers (belonging to aliases, sounds or scripts) should be active for clicking and dragging, instead of only the areas which the icons specifies.
• Dim Icons for Open Applications. This sets whether clip drawer icons belonging to applications which are currently running should be displayed in the same dimmed style as the Finder uses.
• Show Hierarchical Folder Menus. This sets whether you want Drop Drawers to show hierarchical menus for folders and disks in clip drawers. If this is on, you will be able to Open, Reveal or Get Info on any item within a folder, up to 4 levels deep.
• Collapse on Open File & Go to URL. This sets whether clip drawers should be instantly collapsed whenever a file/alias is opened or an URL is launched.
• Deselect Items on Drawer Close. This sets whether items inside clip drawers should be deselected when the drawer is closed.
• Auto Re-protect after. This sets an optional time interval after which the password to open a drawer must be re-entered, in order to allow the drawer to be used. It is useful if you often leave your computer unattended at home or in the workplace.
Clip Clicks
This table of settings determines what action should be performed for different types of click on different types of items in clip drawer (the click action for process drawers is fixed). Separate settings can be made for single clicks, double-clicks and clicks with the Command key, and for Text, Alias, URL, Picture, Sound and Script items. An action can only be set for double-clicks if the action for a single click is Select (otherwise the single click action will have been performed before the second click was made). Actions in these menus correspond to those available in items’ contextual menus (except Select).
Mouse and Keyboard Reference
Drop Drawers has many different mouse and key press actions which you may not be aware of, so all are listed in the tables below.
Clip Drawers: Clicks on items
click User-definable (selects item by default)
click-hold Item/s contextual menu
double-click User-definable (opens or inserts item by default)
drag Move selected item/s
shift-click Toggle item selection
control-click Item/s contextual menu
option-drag Duplicate item/s
command-click User-definable (shows or edits item by default)
Clip Drawers: Clicks in drawer
click-hold Drawer contextual menu
drag Select items within dragged rectangle
shift-drag Toggle selection of items within dragged rectangle
Any distribution of Drop Drawers must include these help files. No responsibility about Drop Drawers' functionality or integrity is implied. This document and Drop Drawers are copyright of the author. Other trademarks are copyright of their respective owners.
