MacTelligence: MacOS X and WebObjects Consultants and Developers

Version 1.2 adds the following features:

Folders auto close after drags
A Default Font button allows quick formatting of the selection
New preference for confirming deletes
The first Xnippet in the list is automatically selected and loaded when the program starts

To Upgrade from a previous version, just replace your current Xnippets application with this one.

Xnippets uses Mac OS X's services, so after installing, please log out, then back in, or restart your computer, to finish the installation (activate Xnippet services).

Xnippets 1.1 requires Mac OS 10.2 (Jagaur) or later.

What is Xnippets

Xnippets allows you to capture and organize all those little items of information that you want to store and have easy access to. If you have ever read a web page (or an email) and seen something that you wished you could quickly save for later, Xnippets is for you. Unlike Stickles or the NotePad, Xnippets allows you to store your entries by name, in a hierarchical list, making it easy to categorize and later find any item. It also leverages Mac OS X's services, to allow you to save and retrieve Xnippets from within other applications.

Adding Xnippets

There are five basic ways of adding Xnippet items:

1) Click the "New Item" button in the toolbar to create a new Xnippet.

2) Select text in any services compliant app, then select Services->Xnippets->Save as Xnippet from the application menu, or use command-shift-(. This will automatically capture the selected text as a Xnippet item. The name of the Xnippet will be the first 40 or so characters of the text.

The following example was taken from within Safari. It shows an part of the actually Safari web page selected. I simply select all the text, and then select "Save as Xnippet" from the services menu:

This makes a copy of the text from the web page as a new Xnippet item:

Notice the new entry "Safari Offers You a Superior Web" at the bottom of the Xnippets list. You can categorize this item by dragging it into one of the folders.

3) Drag text from any application (it doesn't have to be a Cocoa Application) to the Xnippets list. You can select where to drop the item, in the hierarchy. The Example below shows dragging text from Internet Explorer (which is not yet services compliant), into the Xnippets list. Note that any folder you drag onto opens, so you can choose where to categorize your dragged item.

After the drag, there is a new Xnippet item in the position the item was dropped onto. Note that Xnippets auto saves items, so you can go back to your browsing without worrying about saving the Xnippet.

4) Drag text to the text area of an existing Xnippet and it will be added to the existing item instead of creating a new Xnippet.

5) Drag any file (or files) onto the Xnippet icon in the Finder. Xnippets will copy the file into its own storage, and you can then delete the original file. This is handy for cleaning up all those text snippets you saved to the desktop in hopes of finding them again.

Retrieving Xnippets

You can retrieve your Xnippets items from any services compliant application, by typing the name of the Xnippet into the application, selecting it, and selecting Services->Xnippets->Retrieve Named Xnippet, or command-shift-). For example, I have a few email sigs saved in Xnippets. Here I simply type the name of the Xnippet (which is xsig), select it, and select Services->Xnippets->Retrieve Named Xnippet.

Mail asks Xnippets for the text of the item named "xsig", and it replaces the selection with my signature. Notice that you don't need to leave mail, or even have Xnippets running (it will launch automatically if it's not).