Window Clippings 1.2

15 Comments

• I have always wanted something likes this that could get a real windows metafile instead of a bitmaps (in a metafile doesn't count) on the clipboard. They it would render perfectly as I would have all the drawing commmands captured for a windows. Don't know if this is possible.
  

• Metafiles are rooted in GDI where they record a sequence of GDI-related operations. Unfortunately the DWM does not translate its rendering to a GDI equivalent so metafiles cannot be used to playback the rendering of a window rendered with desktop composition.
  For more information on this check out my DWM article.
  

• Amy: Window Clippings requires OneNote 2003 Service Pack 1 which includes a simple COM API used for importing content. The installation path is not relevant. If the COM server is not present it will assume that OneNote is not available and disable any OneNote functionality.
  

• Dear Kenny,
  
  Many thanks, I'm downloading sp1 now.
  
  Any idea when they'll either release onenote 2007 trial or permit Beta downloading again? I downloaded Office 2007 Beta but it wasn't in the install and when I went back to dl the standalone the links no longer worked.
  
  (except for one stray live link to oon-fr.exe ... but I don't suppose I can somehow sub out the French for English?)
  
  I'm dead eager to see if the breadth of the Onenote 2007 drag & drop ability comes anywhere near the drag & drop integration of Info Select, in which case I'll never have to leave Onenote at all! It's such a cool program.
  
  Thanks again!
  
  

• Hi Amy, Office 2007 has been released to manufacturing (RTM) so they’re likely removing all downloads to the beta versions. It should be available to subscribers at the beginning of December if not sooner. I haven’t tested Window Clippings with OneNote 2007 yet but will do so as soon as I get my hands on a copy of the RTM version.
  

• Hi, again, Kenny,
  
  Okay, I don't know what I did wrong, but I installed Onenote SP1 and now window clippings does not work at all. The menus and options are all there and it selects, but nothing happens. no matter which options I pick, nothing gets saved or sent anywhere.
  
  I'm running xpsp2, not vista -- do I need a previous version and if so, may I have the link?
  
  re: onenote 2007, do you mean they'll also be releasing the trial to the office beta testers?
  or are you referring to a different Office subscription, cause if I'm not on the list I need to get on it. Many thanks!
  

• Hi Amy, I’ll try to reproduce your environment in a VM to see if I can figure out what’s wrong. WC 1.2 works with XP and later. Let me know if you think of anything that is unique to your configuration that I should know about.
  
  Oh and try rebooting your computer. It’s amazing how often that is all that is needed.
  
  Regarding OneNote 2007, it will be released with Office 2007. The beta program has concluded so you won’t get any more builds as part of the beta program. You need to either purchase a copy/upgrade of Office 2007 or receive your copy with a volume license agreement or an MSDN Subscription (as is the case for me).
  

• Amy: I tested WC 1.2 again on XPSP2 with OneNote 2003 SP1. Everything works as designed. Whether or not clippings can be sent to OneNote, the other operations should still succeed. So if you automatically send a copy to the History folder and to the clipboard but the import for OneNote fails the first two should still succeed.
  
  I have actually considered dropping support for OneNote. I haven’t received much interest in support for OneNote but I have maintained it figuring that some users may still be using the feature. The problem is that the OneNote API is not that great primarily due to the way it interfaces with the OneNote application. A problem occurs with Windows Vista when you’re running WC as administrator (to create a clipping of an elevated application such as MMC). Sending a clipping to OneNote can cause problems since OneNote is probably not running as administrator. Anyway, to avoid problems in this scenario, WC won’t send to OneNote when it’s running as administrator. This also impacts users running as administrator on Windows XP.
  
  Obviously you should avoid running as administrator but if this is something users still want to be able to do then let me know and I’ll consider adding support for this scenario.
  

• Hi, Kenny, just noticed your response about the testrun -- if works on your box with XPSP2, guess it's my XPSP2 setup that's to blame. But as you mentioned the administrator thing, I'll add a new user to do a wc "run as" and see if that makes a difference, as the only users I've got now are amy/adm and adm.
  
  rSo far as sending to clipboard and saving to disk, that doesn't work either, although it did before I installed ON SP1. But I am enjoying the extra functionality that pack provides, which was a nice surprise!
  
  Sorry to hear you might drop ON support but that doesn't surprise me -- as you've noted, it's not just a matter of there being relatively few ON users compared to other MS products (although most anybody who tries it loves it) but relatively little awareness!
  
  My brother runs IT ops for an int'l conglomerate of fashion chains and gets sent betas of everything so naturally I called him hoping to snag a copy of ON 2007. But apart from faint name recognition that ON is part of MS Office, he didn't know what it's used for!
  
  But perhaps the retail release of ON 2007 will be the breakout edition, what with all the reviews and great word of mouth.
  
  Anyhow Kenny, thanks again for all your help!
  
  

• Amy: thanks for your feedback. It’s always interesting to hear different people’s perspectives.
  I don’t have any specific information about the release strategy for Office and OneNote but I suspect they will continue to sell OneNote as a standalone application. I didn’t say there wouldn’t be a trial – I said there wouldn’t be further betas.
  I’m not sure what you mean by “skinny OS”; presumably you’ve created a customized configuration. This is only officially supported with Windows PE and Windows XP Embedded but these are not retail versions of Windows XP so you’re unlikely to find any software vendors that will support it – there are just too many configurations to test. Windows PE is the ultimate in OS customization for Windows if you’re interested. You may want to give Windows Server Core a try. It’s the first retail version of Windows designed as a minimal installation of Windows.
  The Vista licensing restriction you mentioned has been lifted.
  

• Haha that is funny! Yes, you would want to play with it so that random applications you wanted to use failed in new and different ways! Amy you are funny!
  

• Hi kenny,
  
  I'm running XP-SP2, and when I try to run the installation, nothing happens. No install screen pop, no cpu usage.. nothing!
  
  Am I doing something wrong?
  
  Bill
  

• Bill: WindowClippings.exe is not a setup program – it’s the program executable. Copy it to your local computer and run it – then notice that there is a new icon in the notify area (next to the clock). It looks like a cactus… You can right click for some options or double click to create a window clipping.
  

• for *some* reason when I press the hotkey to fire up the screenshot, a glass surface appears over my whole screen...
  
  It also does this when right clicking on the taskbar icon and selecting "create window clipping"
  
  I do have OneNote 2007 installed.
  
  Thanks for the hard work :)
  

• m: This is by design. See the following article for a description of using Window Clippings:
  
  http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/pages/using-window-clippings.aspx
  
  Also, be sure to use the latest version available here:
  
  http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/archive/2007/01/28/window-clippings-1-5.aspx