Sunday 19 April 2020
Papercuts 4.0
As well as updating Paste It to version 4.0, this week I will be releasing Papercuts 4.0, the first major update in over 4 years. Here's what's new:
Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
Papercuts 4.0 will allow the keyboard shortcuts to be customised from chrome://extensions/shortcuts. To set keyboard shortcuts, head to the Notebook tab of the Options page and select a shortcut next to the note you wish to assign. If you see "Shortcut X" instead of a key code, you'll first need to go to the chrome://extensions/shortcuts page to set a key.
Due to a restriction in Chrome, the keyboard shortcuts are now limited to 4 notes (previously this was 9). If you require more shortcuts, consider installing Paste It as well, so you can effectively have up to 8 keys assigned in total.
Workaround for Unsupported Input Fields (e.g. Gmail)
As detailed on my previous post, Papercuts 4.0 offers a workaround for pasting on unsupported input fields, such as Gmail or Reddit, instead of silently failing.
Friendlier Permissions and Bug Fixes
When you install Papercuts for the first time you will no longer see a message about the extension reading the data on "all your data on the websites you visit". This was previously only used for the legacy keyboard shortcut method, which now uses a safe and supported Chrome API.
Papercuts 4.0 also contains a number of bug fixes, including some UI issues which caused a second scrollbar to display and the 'Rename Tab' button to be hidden off screen. Both the popup and options pages have received a bit of polish and clean up.
Papercuts can be installed for free from the Chrome Web Store, with the version 4.0 update coming within a few days pending approval from Google. I'm not planning on bringing Papercuts to the Edge Add-ons store, but the Chrome version can be installed on Edge.
Papercuts is both offered 100% free with no ads or paywalled features. Please show your support by leaving a review in the Chrome Web Store or sharing it with your friends.
Paste It 4.0
This week I will be releasing version 4.0 updates to both of my browser extensions, Paste It and Papercuts. Each features a number of new features that I hope you find useful, including a long-awaited workaround for sites like Gmail.
First off, here are the changes you'll find in Paste It 4.0, which offers further enhancements to the recently released 3.6 update.
Workaround for Unsupported Input Fields (e.g. Gmail)
One of the most commonly reported issues for both Paste It and Papercuts is that pasting was unsupported on some websites, particularly those that use rich text editing such as Gmail or Reddit. This has proven difficult to fix as it would require a deep understanding of how these sites operate, and their implementations could potentially change over time.
With the version 4.0 updates, I have implemented a workaround which will intelligently detect when the text does not paste successfully, in which case an option will appear to allow you to copy the text to the clipboard instead. From there you can paste your text using regular system commands such as Ctrl+V or the context menu.
Paste Text for 4 Different Keyboard Shortcuts
Another popularly requested feature for Paste It has been the ability to support more lines of text. With the new update, Paste It will support up to 3 alternate paste texts in addition to the primary text, which you can set from the "Alternate Paste Text" section of the Options page. By default these use Alt+Shift+V, Alt+B and Alt+Shift+B, all of which can be customized from chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
Note that Alternate Text can only be pasted from keyboard shortcuts - Chromium has a hard limit of one toolbar icon and one context menu entry per extension, so these methods will only support the primary text string. Some people have suggested using a dropdown menu to allow these to be expanded, but I believe that would detract from the speed and simplicity of Paste It. I recommend looking to Papercuts if you wish to store and paste multiple notes.
Dyamic Keyboard Shortcuts and Better Mac Support
Paste It 4.0 also improves the recently added custom shortcut feature so that the Options page will now show the correct keyboard shortcut if you customise it. Additionally, on MacOS this will now display as "⌥+V" by default.
Paste It can be installed for free from the Chrome Web Store or Edge Add-ons store. The version 4.0 update will be available within a few days, pending approval from Google and Microsoft.
Paste It is offered 100% free with no ads or paywalled features. Please show your support by leaving a review in the Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons store or sharing it with your friends.
First off, here are the changes you'll find in Paste It 4.0, which offers further enhancements to the recently released 3.6 update.
Workaround for Unsupported Input Fields (e.g. Gmail)
With the version 4.0 updates, I have implemented a workaround which will intelligently detect when the text does not paste successfully, in which case an option will appear to allow you to copy the text to the clipboard instead. From there you can paste your text using regular system commands such as Ctrl+V or the context menu.
Paste Text for 4 Different Keyboard Shortcuts
Another popularly requested feature for Paste It has been the ability to support more lines of text. With the new update, Paste It will support up to 3 alternate paste texts in addition to the primary text, which you can set from the "Alternate Paste Text" section of the Options page. By default these use Alt+Shift+V, Alt+B and Alt+Shift+B, all of which can be customized from chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
Note that Alternate Text can only be pasted from keyboard shortcuts - Chromium has a hard limit of one toolbar icon and one context menu entry per extension, so these methods will only support the primary text string. Some people have suggested using a dropdown menu to allow these to be expanded, but I believe that would detract from the speed and simplicity of Paste It. I recommend looking to Papercuts if you wish to store and paste multiple notes.
Dyamic Keyboard Shortcuts and Better Mac Support
Paste It 4.0 also improves the recently added custom shortcut feature so that the Options page will now show the correct keyboard shortcut if you customise it. Additionally, on MacOS this will now display as "⌥+V" by default.
Paste It can be installed for free from the Chrome Web Store or Edge Add-ons store. The version 4.0 update will be available within a few days, pending approval from Google and Microsoft.
Paste It is offered 100% free with no ads or paywalled features. Please show your support by leaving a review in the Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons store or sharing it with your friends.
Friday 3 April 2020
Paste It 3.6
Paste It is a browser extension I started work on in 2010 ago as lightweight alternative to my note keeping extension Papercuts, with the primary aim of being able to paste a single line of text - typically the user's email address - in the quickest and simplest way possible.
Over the past decade Paste It has found over 10,000 users on Chrome worldwide. This week I released Paste It 3.6, which brings a number of new features and improved support for Edge.
Friendlier Permissions
If you installed Paste It prior to this week, you may have seen a message that the extension could “read and change all your data on the websites you visit”. While this may have sounded a little scary, it was required so that the extension could add the neccessary code to each website to support keyboard shortcuts i.e. pasting text when the "Alt+V" key was held down.
With version 3.6, I've rewritten how the extension interprets keyboard commands using Chromium's in-built commands API. As this is a standard and safe method supported by Chromium, there won't be any warnings when you first install Paste It.
Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
Paste It 3.6 also brings a commonly requested new feature - customizable keyboard shortcuts! If you don't want Alt+V to be the keyboard command, just open chrome://extensions/shortcuts to change it to anything you like. This could be useful if you have another app that's using the default command already.
I'm hoping to bring this update to Paste It's bigger brother Papercuts, though that will take a bit more work due to the more complicated nature of the extension supporting multiple keyboard shortcuts.
Other Tweaks
There are a few other tweaks in this version, such as a cleaner Options page with clearer usage instructions. I've improved feedback for some unsupported pages such as the Chrome Web Store or internal browser pages - if you try and use Paste It on these websites you will now get an alert instead of a silent failure.
Some sites such as Gmail will still fail silently - this is due to the complicated nature of their rich text input which has proven difficult to work around.
Improved Edge Support
While it was already possible to install Paste It on the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser, version 3.6 makes a few changes to the terminology used inside Edge to provide a more optimal experience.
Today I'm also pleased to announce that Paste It is now available in the Edge Add-ons section of the Microsoft Store. It works exactly the same as the Chrome Web Store version, but if you are using Edge I'd recommend installing via Microsoft's store to ensure future updates are downloaded automatically.
Paste It and Papercuts are both offered 100% free with no ads or paywalled features. Please show your support by leaving a review in the Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons store or sharing them with your friends.
Over the past decade Paste It has found over 10,000 users on Chrome worldwide. This week I released Paste It 3.6, which brings a number of new features and improved support for Edge.
Friendlier Permissions
If you installed Paste It prior to this week, you may have seen a message that the extension could “read and change all your data on the websites you visit”. While this may have sounded a little scary, it was required so that the extension could add the neccessary code to each website to support keyboard shortcuts i.e. pasting text when the "Alt+V" key was held down.
With version 3.6, I've rewritten how the extension interprets keyboard commands using Chromium's in-built commands API. As this is a standard and safe method supported by Chromium, there won't be any warnings when you first install Paste It.
Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
Paste It 3.6 also brings a commonly requested new feature - customizable keyboard shortcuts! If you don't want Alt+V to be the keyboard command, just open chrome://extensions/shortcuts to change it to anything you like. This could be useful if you have another app that's using the default command already.
I'm hoping to bring this update to Paste It's bigger brother Papercuts, though that will take a bit more work due to the more complicated nature of the extension supporting multiple keyboard shortcuts.
Other Tweaks
There are a few other tweaks in this version, such as a cleaner Options page with clearer usage instructions. I've improved feedback for some unsupported pages such as the Chrome Web Store or internal browser pages - if you try and use Paste It on these websites you will now get an alert instead of a silent failure.
Some sites such as Gmail will still fail silently - this is due to the complicated nature of their rich text input which has proven difficult to work around.
Improved Edge Support
While it was already possible to install Paste It on the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser, version 3.6 makes a few changes to the terminology used inside Edge to provide a more optimal experience.
Today I'm also pleased to announce that Paste It is now available in the Edge Add-ons section of the Microsoft Store. It works exactly the same as the Chrome Web Store version, but if you are using Edge I'd recommend installing via Microsoft's store to ensure future updates are downloaded automatically.
Paste It and Papercuts are both offered 100% free with no ads or paywalled features. Please show your support by leaving a review in the Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons store or sharing them with your friends.
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