Each clip drawer can contain any number of items, each of which contains any number of formats. Possible formats include: text, picture, URLs or email addresses, aliases, scripts, thumbnails, sounds, movies and text styles. For example, dragging some text from Microsoft Word into Drop Drawers will create an item containing a picture, text, text styles and several other formats which only Word understands.
Creating items
Items can be copied from any Macintosh application into a clip drawer using drag and drop or the Paste command in the clip drawer’s contextual menu. The selection in any application can also be copied into a drawer using the Key to copy selection into drawer setting in the Contents panel of the Drawer Options.
Items can also be created within Drop Drawers using the Create Item submenu of the clip drawer’s contextual menu. The menu allows the creation of a new Text item, URL, Script, Alias (by selecting the target), Sound (by recording), Trash can or Separator.
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 where appropriate). Use the Show submenu of the item’s contextual menu to select which format to show. Note that the item’s behavior in response to clicks and key presses is determined by the format shown. To remove a format from an item, use the Remove submenu of the item’s contextual menu — this menu also shows how much space is used by each format.
Selecting, moving, duplicating and resizing items
Items are selected just as in the Finder, including shift-clicking and rectangular selection. When an item is selected, black rectangular handles appear on each of its four corners. Choose Select All in the drawer’s contextual menu to select all items. Drag one or more selected items to move them together. Option-drag one of more items to duplicate and then move them. Pressing Command with the arrow keys nudges the selected items one pixel at a time. To resize one or more selected items, drag one of the corner handles. Note that if a drawer is set to keep its contents arranged, items may revert after they are moved or resized (see the Clip Drawer Arranging help section).
Showing and removing names
The size of an item automatically determines whether its name should be shown to the right or below. Some formats (such as text and URL) do not allow a name to be shown, since the item itself has a textual representation. The options at the bottom of the Show sub-menu of the item’s contextual menu allow item names to be shown or hidden explicitly.
Inserting items
Items can be inserted from a clip drawer into the frontmost application using the Insert command in the item’s contextual menu. When inserting an item, Drop Drawers puts the item’s data onto the clipboard then sends a Command-V key press to the frontmost application. Note that this feature depends on the behavior of external applications, so it may not work in all cases.
Item Options
Each item in a clip drawer has some additional options which can be set in the Item Options window, accessible by choosing Item Options… from the item’s contextual menu. In the window, he item’s name can be edited, along with shortcut keys for activation. A thumbnail image can also be set to display for the item. Thumbnails can be dragged in or out of the square area or accessed using the Copy, Paste and Clear buttons.
Clip Drawer Item Formats
Each item in a clip drawer contains one or more formats, which can contain data of any type. Drop Drawers contains built-in support for several different formats, as explained below:
Aliases and File Specs
Aliases and file specs reference items in the Finder, for example documents, applications, folders or volumes. An alias is a robust reference, which can often locate the original item even after it is moved or renamed. A file spec is less robust and is not recommended for ordinary use. The Convert file specs to aliases option in the Clip Drawers panel of the main Drop Drawers Preferences should therefore be left on, to automatically convert files specs into aliases.
Many actions can be performed on aliases and file specs. Choose Open from the contextual menu to open the referenced item (as if it was double-clicked in the Finder). Choose Reveal to show and select it in the Finder. Choose Get Info to show its Finder information window. If the referenced item is a folder or volume and Show hierarchical folder menus is on in the Clip Drawers panel of the main Drop Drawers Preferences, the Open, Reveal and Get Info menu items will have submenus allowing these actions to be performed on any item contained in the folder.
If the referenced item is an image or movie file, choose Create Thumbnail to create a thumbnail to display in the drawer instead of the file’s icon (requires QuickTime). This will happen automatically if Always create thumbnails is on in the Clip Drawers panel of the main Drop Drawers Preferences. To select a new item to be referenced by the alias or file spec, choose Retarget… from the contextual menu. Note that the drawer item’s name will not be changed as a result.
For drag and drop, items within drawers behave similarly to aliases in the Finder. For example, a document alias in a drawer can be launched with an application shown in the Finder by dragging the document onto the application. Alternatively, a file in the Finder can be moved to an aliased folder in a drawer by dragged the file onto the folder. Such operations are also allowed between items within drawers. As in the Finder, option-dragging causes the dragged item to be copied to the destination and Command-option-dragging makes an alias to the dragged item at the destination. Note that dragging a drawer alias into a Finder window will create a copy of the alias but not move the referenced file.
Aliases and file specs contain an additional format called Icon Cache. This contains a copy of the low-resolution Finder icons to speed up icon drawing. The icon cache can be updated by removing it using the Remove submenu of the item’s contextual menu.
Plain texts and Text styles
Clip drawers display text items within the drawer along with styling information, if any is present. To ignore style information, choose Text only from the Show submenu in the item’s contextual menu. Drop Drawers contains a built-in styled text editor with support for multiple fonts, sizes, styles and colors — to open the editor for some text, choose Edit Text… from the item’s contextual menu.
URLs
Clip drawers display the name of URLs within the drawer along with the web site location (if the item is large enough). To launch a URL, choose Go to site from the item’s contextual menu. If Internet Config or the Internet control panel is available, the URL will be launched in the preferred application. Otherwise, Drop Drawers will search for Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer to open the URL. To edit a URL, choose Edit URL… from the item’s contextual menu.
Scripts and Results
Clip drawers display scripts within the drawer using a script icon. Drop Drawers supports any scripting language which runs within Apple’s Open Scripting Architecture (OSA). Every system from 7.5 onwards comes with the AppleScript language and there are also third-party languages available such as Frontier. For more information on OSA, 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 AppleScripts), choose Run Script from the item’s contextual menu. To run a script with parameter data (executing the ‘on open’ handler for AppleScripts), drag the desired data onto the script item. Currently, Drop Drawers supports text or alias parameters. If several items are dropped onto a script, Drop Drawers passes a list of the items as the parameter.
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 Script Editor. Select the desired scripting language from the Language pop-up menu. The Options menu sets whether runtime errors are reported to the user and also whether ‘the result’ of the script is displayed in the drawer as a Result format (text only).
Thumbnails
Any item in a clip drawer can have a thumbnail displayed. 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. Thumnails are also created automatically if Always create thumbnails is on in the Clip Drawers panel of the main Drop Drawers preferences.
Pictures
Clip drawers display picture items within the drawer and allow 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 by showing their poster frame. This feature can also be used for MP3 audio or any other format which QuickTime supports. To play a movie, choose Play Movie from the item’s contextual menu. The movie will stop playing if another movie is played or Stop Movie is chosen from the item’s contextual menu. Note that there is a distinction between movie files and movies themselves — the easiest way to copy a movie from a file into a drawer is to open the movie file in the QuickTime Movie Player, choose Select All from the Edit menu, then Copy and Paste into the drawer. Note that movies created in this way will reference the original movie file, so it should not be discarded.
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.
Trash and Separator
Clip drawers contain special items which can only be created using the Create Item submenu of the drawer’s contextual menu. Currently, there is an option to add a Trash can or a separator. The Trash can acts just like the Finder’s, except that it does not show whether it is full or empty. The separator acts only as a visual element and can made horizontal or vertical by resizing.
Clip Drawer Arranging
Arranging can be performed either on an entire clip 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 the clip drawer’s Drawer Options or choose Arrange Drawer… from the drawer’s contextual menu. To arrange the selected items in a drawer, choose Arrange Items… from the items’ contextual menu. Note that the Resize drawer and Keep drawer Arranged options are only available when arranging all items.
As the arranging options are changed, the drawer will be updated to reflect the chosen settings. At any time, click OK to keep the results or Cancel to cancel all changes. If Keep drawer arranged is on, the drawer will automatically be kept arranged using the chosen settings whenever a change is made.
Clip drawer arranging is very flexible but the range of options can be overwhelming at first. Therefore, it is worth experimenting to see how different combinations of settings behave. Note also that some arranging options depend on the drawer’s grid size, which can be changed in the Contents panel of the Drawer Options.
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 other resizing settings. The smart option uses the current size of the item to calculate its new size, for example by showing all or nothing of the name of an alias or the full height of some text. The minimize and maximize options make items as small or as large as possible.
• 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 weight, 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 automatic repositioning of items, 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 repositioned. Choose by position to leave the items close to their current positions. Choose by name or text to reorder items alphabetically by name or text (depending on the items’ shown format). Choose by shown type to group items by the type of format shown (e.g. text, picture or sound). Choose by item size to reorder items based on their rectangular area.
• Spacing. This setting determines how much spacing should be left between items when cleaning up. However, if the Distribute and to grid settings are on in the right-hand panel, the fixed grid spacing will automatically be used instead of this setting.
• 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, the third section is entitled Align and allows items to be aligned relative to each other or to the drawer’s grid. If Clean Up is on, this section is entitled Distribute and allows items being cleaned up to be distributed evenly instead of being packed tightly.
• 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 items appropriately for how they are displayed, while the left, center and right options align or distribute 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
To resize clip drawers automatically to fit their contents, use these options. There are separate settings for resizing the drawer’s width and height.
Preferences
To edit the preferences for Drop Drawers, choose Preferences… from the Edit menu when Drop Drawers is the frontmost application.
Application
• Open automatically at startup. This sets whether Drop Drawers is opened when the computer starts up. If this setting is on in OS 7/8/9, an alias to the Drop Drawers application is placed in the Startup Items folder of your System Folder. For OS X, Drop Drawers is added to the Login Item list in the System Preferences.
• Bring Finder to front at startup. This sets whether Drop Drawers brings the Finder to the front after it has been launched.
• Use Navigation Services if possible. This sets whether Drop Drawers uses Navigation Services to choose files or folders (requires Mac OS 8.5 or later, always on in OS X). Early versions of Navigation Services have been known to cause some problems, so this option should be switched off if necessary.
• Use Contextual Menu plug-ins. This sets whether Drop Drawers sends information to the system’s Contextual Menu Manager about items in a drawer which are control-clicked, allowing plug-ins to act on the data (requires Mac OS 8 or later, not yet available in OS X).
• Use Quartz anti-aliased text. This sets whether Drop Drawers displays text using Quartz anti-aliasing (requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later).
Drawers
• Key to show or hide all drawers. This sets a key to toggle the visibility of all drawers on screen. If Pass key through for others is on, Drop Drawers will allow other programs to detect the same key (key passing is always on in OS X).
• Expanding delay, Expanding speed, Contracting delay. These set how long to wait before automatically expanding and contracting drawers and how fast the drawes expand. It is only relevant for drawers which have the Expand when mouse at edge setting on in the Placement panel of the Drawer Options.
• Always finish expanding drawers. This sets whether drawers which begin expanding automatically always finish expanding, even if the mouse is moved away.
• Allow background keyboard focus. This sets whether drawers take the keyboard focus even when Drop Drawers is not the foreground application.
• Tab Font, size, style. This sets the typeface to be used for displaying drawer names in tabs.
Clip Drawers
• Convert file specs to aliases. This sets whether file specs coming into a drawer (for example, by dragging from the Finder) are automatically converted into aliases. A file spec is similar to an alias except that it contains a less robust reference to the original file – if the original file is moved or renamed, a file spec will no longer work. Therefore, this setting should generally be left on.
• Always create Thumbnails. This sets whether new aliases to image and movie files automatically have a thumbnail created to display in the drawer instead of the file’s icon (requires QuickTime).
• Automatically detect URLs. This sets whether text items coming into a drawer are scanned for a web page address and converted automatically into an URL if one is found.
• Auto detect email addresses. This sets whether text items coming into a drawer are scanned for an email address and converted automatically if one is found. This setting can be unsuitable for some non-Roman character sets.
• Use full icon square for clicking. This sets whether the entire square surrounding icons in drawers (for aliases, file specs, sounds or scripts) should be active wjen clicking and dragging, instead of only the solid regions.
• Dim icons for open applications. This sets whether items which reference running applications are displayed in the Finder’s dimmed style (not yet implemented on OS X).
• Show hierarchical folder menus. This sets whether hierarchical submenus for folders, disks and volumes are available. If this is on, the Open, Reveal and Get Info contextual menu items will have submenus which allow these actions to be performed on any item within the folder.
• Collapse when opening items. This sets whether clip drawers are instantly collapsed when a file spec or alias is opened or when a URL is launched.
• Deselect items during collapse. This sets whether items inside clip drawers are automatically deselected when the drawer is collapsed.
• Auto re-protect after. This setting causes passwords to be automatically forgotten after the specified amount of time, requiring them to be re-entered. It is useful is the computer is used in a shared environment.
Clip Click Actions
This table of settings determines which action should be performed for different types of click on different types of item in clip drawers (click actions are fixed for process drawers). Separate settings are available for single clicks, double-clicks and Command-clicks, for items showing Text, Aliases, URLs, Pictures, Sounds (also applies to movies) and Scripts. For each type, an action can only be set for double-clicks if the action for a single click is Select, otherwise the single click action will be performed before the second click can be detected.
Mouse and Keyboard Reference
The tables below lists all the mouse and key press actions which can be used within drawers.
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.
