Here's your chance to use what will become QCE v3. Before launching this new major release, I'd like forum users to
confirm that everything they actually use in QCE v2 is still running well. My tests are giving good results but I'd prefer to double check with you.
In this release, you will benefit from
new editing features from Scintilla, a powerful open-source code editing component that provides a robust text editing foundation for many popular code editors, including Notepad++ and SciTE.
DOWNLOAD LINK:
https://clipboard.quickaccesspopup.com/beta/?v=2.9.7.3
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS:
This major beta upgrade includes new features like syntax highlighting and automatic programming language detection. These new features will benefit from the contribution of users with expertise in programming languages and/or RegEx queries. If you want to help, please contact me on the forum or at support@quickaccesspopup.com.
Version BETA: 2.9.7.3 (2025-02-14)
- fix bug introduced in v2.9.7.2 when pasting
Version BETA: 2.9.7.1 (2025-02-13)
Find and Replace
- add the option "Replace All" in the Find and Replace command dialog box
- add the option to search "Backwards" in Find command
- add options to search for "Whole word", "Word start" or "Regular expression" (RegEx)
- update commands to support Unicode (multibyte) characters
- make the dialog box auto dismiss after 3 seconds after Find or Find and replace are completed
Various
- optimize Clipboard operations for applications writing to the Clipboard with delayed rendering; delayed rendering allow applications writing to the Clipboard, for example MS Office, to delay the generation of the content for a time-consuming format until it is requested by an applications; this makes more complex the code to get the full Clipboard size or content
- fix a bug when pasting multiple clips from Clipboard history
- in the status line, set the column position taking into account tabs and multibyte characters
- fix a bug not updating the second status bar section in some situation
- fix a bug when getting the ASCII code of the selected character when it is a Unicode (multibyte) character
- optimize the code copying the editor content to Clipboard
- fix a bug with line numbers column color after changing fixed or proportional font in the toolbar
Version BETA: 2.9.7 (2025-01-23)
Text Editing
- add an option under "Editor Window" to highlight active line (line containing the caret)
- add an option under "Editor Window" to enable/disable "Multiple selection"
- in the status bar, show the length of text selection including multiple selections
- add in ini file (not in "Options" dialog box) options to change default colors for caret, selection and indentation background and foreground (colors used only when syntax highlighthing is disabled)
Images clips
- fix a bug when calculating the image display size to fit in the editor window (taking into account screen scaling)
- add a delay to avoid empty image when loading image clips from the history to the editor
History Search/Quick Paste window
- add a link to "Refresh (F5)" the search result
- always refresh the search result when activating the window
- add a link to toggle window "Always on top" property
Launch options
- move "Open Editor window at startup" option from the "Editor Window" section to "Launch" (enabled by default)
- add a new option to "Open History Search at startup" (disabled by default)
QCE Messaging
- add receiver command "Copy" to copy the selection in the active window to the Clipboard with an optional timeout (if Clipboard stays empty) in seconds (example "Copy|2.5" to wait a maximum of 2.5 seconds)
- send a list of command categories (with descriptions), built-in commands and saved commands to a caller application (format "List|calling_app_title", for example "List|ahk_exe quickaccesspopup.exe")
Various
- in Welcome window shown at first launch of QCE v3, allow to select initial history configuration (maximum clip size and database size)
- optimize getting the size of the Clipboard when the application sending content to the Clipboard uses the async method (wait until all formats has been sent to the Clipboard)
- keep current editor content when the Clipboard receive a clip exceeding the maximum clip size option
- other minor or internal changes
Version BETA: 2.9.6.1 (2024-12-24)
Welcome window
- Add a welcome message displayed only at the first launch after an installation with the Setup program (this screen is not displayed when QCE is running in portable mode)
- Users can select what their preferred configuration:
- Basic setup: simple editor window for distraction-free editing, for users primarily working with text and images
- Power user setup: advanced features enabled for programmers and coders (features like "Line numbering", "Syntax highlighting", "Language auto-detection", "Automatic indentation" and "Indentation guides")
- Add the "Show Welcome window" item to "Help" menu bar
Light or Dark themes
- In the "Options, Editor Window", replace the "Dark mode support" checkbox with radio buttons to select themes "Light", "Dark" or "Follow Windows"
- In the "Options, Fonts and colors", under the "Editor" and "Line numbers" sections, add a note indicating that these "Light" and "Dark" themes colors are used only when syntax highlighting is disabled (when syntax highlighting is enabled, the editor colors are set using the XML files under the "...\Themes\Default" folder (with a link to the help page
https://clipboard.quickaccesspopup.com/colors/)
- In XML file "Themes.xml" (under the "...\Themes\Default" folder), improve dark mode colors for the editor, the line number column and the indentation guides
- Note 1: The QCE "Light" and "Dark" options control the editor window colors; however, the QCE menus colors are set by the Windows "Light" or "Dark" themes (in Windows Settings, "Personalization", "Colors")
- Note 2: In most syntax highlighting XML files (under the "...\Themes\Default" folder), some dark theme colors has been created automatically by inverting the light theme colors; this may not always give optimal results; users of dark theme (I'm not) are invited to share their improved files (on the QCE forum or at support@quickaccesspopup.com)
Language detection patterns (for syntax highlighting)
- Add the text file "! TIPS ABOUT DETECTION PATTERNS.txt" under the "...\Themes\Custom" folder explaining how detection patterns can be improved
- Add detection patterns for languages JavaScript, Batch, Ini files and CSS; update detect patterns for AutoHotkey and HTML
- Improve detection patterns debugging window (to enable debugging, add "DebugDetectPatterns=1" under "[Launch]" in the file quickclipboardeditor.ini)
Various changes
- Rename "None" to "No highlighting" in syntax types dropdown list
- fix intermittent issue when pasting multiple image clips from the "Quick Paste" or "History Search" windows (sometimes, the first clip was pasted repeatedly)
- increase delay to avoid intermittent issue when loading an image clip from the history to the editor window
- fix bug showing a SQLite error when launching QCE in portable mode (from the ZIP file)
Version BETA: 2.9.6 (2024-12-13)
Syntax highlighting
- Implement Scintilla Lexer component (based on open source code from Adventure IDE, thanks to Alguimist!)
- Add an option to enable syntax highlighting in "Options, Editor"
- Add a dropdown list in the editor's toolbar to select the syntax type for highlighting (default to "None"), to launch detection on demande "Detect now" or to enable "Auto-detect"
Highlighting rules XML files
- Syntax highlighting rules are described in XML files saved in the QCE working folder under the "Themes\Default"
- XML files contain syntax highlight rules for two themes "Light" and "Dark" selected accordingly to the "Dark mode support" option under "Options, Editor Window"
- These programming or markup languages are actually supported: AutoHotkey, AutoIt, Batch, C++, C#, CSS, HTML, IniFile, Java, JavaScript, JSON, Lua, Makefile, Markdown, Pascal, Perl, PowerShell, Python, Ruby, SQL, Text, VB and XML
- NOTES:
- Most of these XML files need to be tested and improved. Users can save their own custom copy under the "Themes\Custom" folder; if they exist, XML files in the "Custom" folder are read in priority over the default files
- Syntax highlighting could also be implemented for other languages like Go, PHP (similar to HTML), Rust, Swift, TypeScript, etc.
- CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: Users are invited to share their new or improved custom XML files with other users on the QCE forum or by contacting the developer
Language detection
- In order to enable the appropriate syntax highlighting, QCE can detect automatically the languages of code snippets loaded to the editor from the Clipboard or from the clips history (only available for some languages, see "Language detection patterns" below)
- Select the "Auto-detect" entry in the languages dropdown list to enable or disable auto-detection; when auto-detection is enabled, the entry is preceded with a checkmark
- Set the default startup value of language detection in "Options, Editor Window", under "Startup Default"
- User can trigger the language detection on demand by clicking "Detect now" in the languages dropdown list, by selecting the "Options, Detect language" or by hitting the F5 hotkey
- QCE remembers the language auto-detection settings from the previous session
Language detection patterns
- Automatic language detection is done using regular expression (regex) patterns in XML files saved in the QCE working folder under the "Themes\Default" subfolder with the name of the language plus the suffix "_DetectPatterns", for example "HTML_DetectPatterns.xml"
- In this release, detection is implemented only for AutoHotkey, HTML and XML; languages to be implemented: C++ (aka CPP), Java, JavaScript, Python and Ruby
- Detection could also be implemented for these languages already having syntax highlighting: AutoIt, Batch, C#, CSS, IniFile, JSON, Lua, Makefile, Markdown, Pascal, Perl, PowerShell, SQL, Text, VB or XML
- NOTES:
- Existing files (AutoHotkey, HTML and XML) can be improved. Users can save under the "Themes\Custom" folder their own custom copy of XML files. XML files are read in priority under the "Custom" folder.
- XML files for some language detection need validation (C++, Java, JavaScript, Python and Ruby) and files can be added for other languages
- To help building the detection patterns files, QCE can display a detection report after each detection in a stand alone window; add the entry DebugDetectPatterns=1 under the section [Launch] of the quickclipboardeditor.ini file (in the QCE working folder) to enable patterns debugging
- Users are invited to share their new or improved custom XML files with other users on the QCE forum (or by contacting the developer)
Other improvements
- The Scintilla editor component now completely replaces the basic Windows editor
- Fix a display issue in "Options, Clipboard History"
- Set line number column font size to 80% of the editor's font size and set its width to a minimum of two digits
- Redesign the "Help, Shortcut Help" dialog box reordering commands and groups
- For new users, enabled by default the Scintilla options "Show indentation guides", "Auto-indentation", "Syntax highlighting" and "Display line numbers" (these options can be changed under under "Options, Editor Window")
Version BETA: 2.9.5.1 (2024-11-28)
- Fix bug preventing saved commands to be executed from QCEmessenger
Version BETA: 2.9.5 (2024-11-27)
- Add "multi-typing" (typing in multiple selections or vertical selection):
TYPING IN MULTIPLE SELECTIONS
1) Select multiple portions of text with Ctrl+Click.
2) Move the cursor (Right or Left keys) in all selections simultaneously and start typing to insert or delete text in all selections, or hit Ctrl+V to paste in all selections.
Hit Escape to deselect multiple selections.
TYPING IN A VERTICAL SELECTION
1) Hit simultaneously Shift+Alt+Down or Shift+Alt+Up to position the caret on multiple lines at the same column.
2) Start typing to insert or delete text on all selected lines, or hit Ctrl+V to paste on all lines.
- In "Options, Fonts and colors", redesign the "Colors" section, adding color selection for line number column in the editor
- Automatically restart QCE after resetting the default fonts or colors
Version BETA: 2.9.4.1 (2024-11-22)
- fix a bug in line auto-indentation
Version BETA: 2.9.4 (2024-11-21)
- Under "Options, Scintilla Editor", add the options
- "Show indentation guides" (vertical lines showing indentation accros lines)
- "Auto-indentation" (when pression Enter, start the new line at the same indentation as the previous line)
- Implement the "Tab width" option for the basic editor (at this time only fixed width tab stops)
- Move the "Tab width" option from the "Scintilla Editor" section to the "Editor Window" section as it is now available for both editors
- Disable controls in "Options" dialog box when they are not available depending on the selected editor (basic or Scintilla)
Version BETA: 2.9.3 (2024-11-17)
- add a new section in the "Options" window for "Scintilla Editor" and move existing Scintilla options from "Editor Window" to this new section
- under "Options, Scintilla Editor", add "Tabs width" option with default value of 4 characters
- under "Options, Editor window", add option for "See invisible" default setting
- upgrade Scintilla editor component from v3.7.6 to latest release v5.5.3 (no visible feature changes in QCE)
- include changes to be released in stable release v2.3.2:
- Allow for multiple selection in "Quick Paste" window (to paste or delete multiple clips at once)
- when the window is open with the Win+Ctrl+` hotkey (keeping it open after releasing Ctrl)
- or when user escapes the Quick Patse cycling with the Win escape key
- Fix a bug closing the "Quick Paste" and "History Search" windows when multiple items are selected
- Refactor "Convert, Convert number base" to support hexadecimal numbers w/o "0x" prefix
Version BETA: 2.9.2 (2024-11-13)
SCINTILLA EDITOR
Scintilla is a powerful open-source code editing component used in many popular text editors, including Notepad++ and SciTE.
It is now available in Quick Clipboard Editor:
- Under "Options, Editor Window", the new option "Use Scintilla editor" is enabled by default; deselect it to use the basic editor ("Edit" control) provided by Windows.
- Also under "Options, Editor Window", enable the "Display line numbers" checkbox to show line numbers in the left margin.
ADVANTAGES OF USING THE SCINTILLA EDITOR
MULTIPLE SELECTIONS and RECTANGLES
- Use Ctrl+Click to select more than one section the text.
- Use Alt+Click to select a rectangle of text.
- Once a rectangle or multiple sections has been selected, these commands will be applied to all selected text: Change Case, Substring, Insert String, Filter Lines, Filter Characters, Reformat paragraph, Convert text (all encode and decode commands), Find and Replace (with regular expression), File Save, Convert Colors and Convert Numbers.
HOTKEYS
Use various keyboard shortcuts common to text editors based on Scintilla, including:
- Delete Line Left (Ctrl+Shift+Back)
- Delete Word Left (Ctrl+Back)
- Toggle Overtype (Insert)
- Back Tab (Shift+Tab)
- Selection Duplicate (Ctrl+D)
- Line Cut (Ctrl+L)
- Case Upper (Ctrl+Shift+U)
- Case Lower (Ctrl+U)
- etc.
EDITING
- Edit text with invisible characters is possible (not with the basic editor).
- Lines can be moved up (Shift+Ctrl+Up) or down (Shift+Ctrl+Down) even when word wrap is enabled (not with the basic editor).
- Display line numbers in the left margin.
Notes:
Not all Scintilla features has been implemented yet in Quick Clipboard Editor (for example, syntax highlighting, code folding or auto-completion). But more will be added in future releases, starting with setting tab stops and indentation.
Some hotkeys of QCE v2 has been changed in this release in order to give priority to established Scintilla hotkeys.
- Filter characters: Ctrl+D changed to Shift+Ctrl+D (in Scintilla editor, Ctrl+D is Selection Duplicate)
- Filter lines: Ctrl+L changed to Shift+Ctrl+L (in Scintilla editor, Ctrl+L is Line Cut)
- Sort with options: Ctrl+T changed to Shift+Ctrl+S (in Scintilla editor, Ctrl+T is Line Transpose)
- Close window: Esc key changed for Ctrl+F4 (in Scintilla editor, Esc is use to deselect multiple selections)
See the download link at the top of this thread.