Frequently Asked Questions (In no particular order…) Q: Why ClipDragon? A: ClipDragon came about as a solution to exploit certain features we discovered while exploring clipping files from within ResEdit! As ClipDragon was being developed, more and more features came to our attention. Hence, the final product. Q: Who wrote ClipDragon? A: ClipDragon was actually written by one person, Anthony D. Saxton. He has been working to perfect it for over six months! a few small routines that were used to enhance the user interface features were written by others. These people are credited in the About box of ClipDragon. Q: What can I use ClipDragon for? A: ClipDragon has many uses! among the more popular uses are: Easy-to-ReadMe files Every time you want to distribute something, be it an icon collection, a photograph, or a shareware package, you always want to include a "ReadMe" file. Your message is much more apt to be read if the user doesn't have to launch a compatible application to read it! Startup Reminders Insert a clipping into your Startup Items folder so that it opens a reminder every time you start your Mac! Desktop Portraits Convert a Picture file of your favorite personality to a ClipDragon clipping with the frame of your choosing! You can leave this picture visible on your desktop all the time without using up the extra memory of an application! Easy Document Maker Once you've discovered clippings, you'll be using them on a regular basis! Grab that article of interest out of the most recent MacWay email! If you later want to print it out, rather than going through the headache of putting the clipping into a document, just drag it to ClipDragon! Easy Email Spent three hours yesterday writing that all-important email. Now the email program is open, but the email is in a text file on the desktop! Just drag that document to ClipDragon before dragging it into the email! Create Clippings for viewing in both System 7 and MacOS 8! System 7 and MacOS 8 use different techniques to define the final appearance of clippings within the Finder. ClipDragon places the information for both versions of Apple’s operating systems. This feature is not available anywhere else! Q: How do I use ClipDragon? A: ClipDragon is very easy to use! Drag whatever form of document you want to convert onto ClipDragon. ClipDragon will dutifully convert the file in place. If you would rather save the file to another location, just hold the Option key as you drag the file onto ClipDragon. ClipDragon will prompt for a destination. Q: Why the new Icon Clippings? A: Ever since Custom Icons were introduced in System 7, a large amount of the Freeware and Shareware files for the Mac have been icon collections. Usually icons are distributed on empty folders. While folders don't take much space, they do have certain drawbacks as the distribution medium! As a rule, icons are very small. Often the icon is so small that compressing them increases their size! Icons attached to folders must be compressed in order to upload them, because folders cannot be recognized as files! A simple solution is to put the icon on a file. Clippings are files, but with the obvious benefits over other file types! Icons distributed on folders don't have the creators copyright attached! Usually, the only protection the icon artist has is to include a ReadMe document with this information. ClipDragon gives the option to automatically attach the copyright info into every Icon Clipping! Q: What are 'cicn' resources and why does ClipDragon support them? A: Color Icon ('cicn') resources are special icons used just about everywhere else than the MacOS desktop. Many uses of custom icons include these 'cicn' resources. A good example is FirstClass™ Client settings files! Q: Why does the creation and modification dates of my files change? A: ClipDragon does not convert the file in place. While every attempt has been made to make it seem that way, the end product is actually a new file. It would not be appropriate to attempt to convince your computer that the situation is any different. If you wish to retain the original files, just hold the option key while you drag the files onto ClipDragon. This will prompt for a new location and/or name for the converted files. Q: When I drag text from a SimpleText document, the font changes! Does ClipDragon fix this? A: This occurs because the default font for SimpleText is Geneva 12pt., while unstyled text in a clipping file appears as the font you have set in the Views control panel. ClipDragon has a feature built-in to allow you to change the default font in clippings created by ClipDragon to any font currently installed in your MacOS! Q: I have ClipDragon set to move the original file to Trash. Will the original be trashed if I do a Convert As? A: By holding the Option key (Sorry; Registered users only!) while dragging a file onto ClipDragon, or selecting Convert As from the file menu, ClipDragon will prompt for a destination and leave the original file alone. This means that if you have ClipDragon set to move the original file to Trash, it will still be left alone. It will not be moved. Q: I would like to convert a regular clipping file to ClipDragon’s version. Do I have to drag it onto ClipDragon twice? A: ClipDragon 1.2 has a new feature available to registered users! If the Shift key is held while dragging a file onto ClipDragon, the options set in Preferences will be applied to the file without changing the file’s type. This works with both clippings and regular documents and can be combined with ClipDragon’s other hot keys. Q: When I create a Clipping using the Windoid/Side Bar window, it initially opens with the bar off the left side of the screen! If I move it and press the Zoom box, I can't adjust it back to the original size! A: These are side effects of this specific window in System 7. There is no way at this time to correct it. We suggest that you carefully determine the size and not use the Zoom option with the Windoid/Side Bar windows. Note that this is no longer an issue in MacOS 8 as the Grow box is available, but will be a problem for System 7 users of the same document. Q: Wait a minute! ClipDragon’s hot keys don't work in version 1.2! What’s going on? A: Starting with version 1.2, ClipDragon only supports the Command hot key for unregistered users. If you would like to take advantage of all ClipDragon’s features, simply send in your registration! Q: How do I create clippings with both Text and Pictures? A: Clippings do not support a combination of Text and Pictures such that SimpleText and other text editors do. To create such a clipping, you will need to use another utility called Print2Pict. With this utility, you can "print" the original SimpleText document as a picture file. You will have to adjust the document height in Page Setup, to get it to fit in one file. Now, just drag the resulting file onto ClipDragon! Q: ClipDragon converts my GIF and JPEG files to Text clippings with garbage in them! What am I doing wrong? A: ClipDragon converts files based on the file’s Type signiture. Edit your Internet Browsers’s Helper files to save the GIF and JPEG files for an application that supports them (I.E. GraphicConverter, GIF Converter, JPEG Viewer…). This way ClipDragon will convert the through MacOS Easy Open as picture documents. Q: Do you have special discount rates for User Groups? A: I have already set the price of ClipDragon to as low as I can go and still see some return on my time and effort. I do have a practice of giving a free registration to individuals or organizations that publish a review of ClipDragon in a publicly available format, be it a Web page, newsletter or magazine. If you, or your organization have done this, please send me a copy or a pdf file of the publication, or the URL where I can find it. I will be happy to arrange a registration!