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Updated Aug 14, 2009 by kennytm
Labels: Phase-Support
Using_hClipboard  
How to use ℏClipboard
This page is deprecated in 3.0

Introduction

ℏClipboard is a global copy and paste solution for the iPhoneOS 2.2 based on iKeyEx.

Copying

Copying the whole text field

When the keyboard appears, switch to ℏClipboard by clicking the International button (the Globe) repeatedly. Then hit the Copy button. The entire content of the text field should now appear in the top of the clipboard.

Copying a portion of text

Move the the beginning of the range of text you want to copy. Hit the Select from here... button. Then move to the end and hit the Select to here and copy button (which is the same button) again. The entry will now appear in the clipboard.

You may use the Move to beginning (←) and Move to end (→) buttons to aid navigation.

Copying Web Page Content

You have to install a bookmarklet to copy from web page content. See CopyingTextFromSafari for instructions.

Pasting

Just click on any item on the clipboard to paste it.

If you need to access some older items, just scroll vertically.

Undoing

If you pasted something wrongly, you can click Undo (⤺) to revert it.

Note that the current implementation of the undo manager is very primitive. There is lots of issues floating around it, e.g. if you pressed the space key or return key in between a paste and an undo the text won't be properly restored. Expect to see improvement in later versions.

Do not use Undo in MobileTerminal. It will crash MobileTerminal

Deleting and Reordering clipboard items

Swipe horizontally on any items will reveal a Delete button. Hit this button and the item will be gone.

Additionally, you can click the Toggle Editing Mode button (ⓘ) to reorder and delete items in bulk.

Templates

ℏClipboard supports a secondary clipboard called Templates. Hit the Switch to Templates/Clipboard button on the lower-left corner to switch between the two.

The main difference between Templates and Clipboard is that Templates can hold infinitely many items, while Clipboard has an upper limit of 10 items. Therefore, Templates is better for storing more permanent texts like user name while Clipboard is better for temporary things like activation code.

Secure Text Management

Starting from version 0.1-3, ℏClipboard can copy secure texts (e.g. password and pass phrase). However, it is very awkward to see your password shown in clear. Therefore, in ℏClipboard secure texts will be masked, and text copied from the password field and only be pasted in another password field.

Note: Internally, these secure texts are still stored as clear text. If you have absolute secret that cannot be viewed by anyone, don't use ℏClipboard's secure text copying feature.

Preferences

There are some settings for ℏClipboard you can play with. To access the preferences pane, go to SettingsiKeyExℏClipboard.

Known Issues

iKeyEx is disabled when IntelliScreen is installed ( issue 16 ).

Some applications use a text field to intercept keyboard input instead of actual displaying. ℏClipboard can never copy on these applications. Examples include:

  • MobileTerminal
  • VNC clients, e.g. Jaadu VNC (Jaadu VNC does not even support pasting).
  • "Enhanced" text editors, e.g. WritePad (MagicPad, on the other hand, works nicely with ℏClipboard.)

Some texts are read-only, so no clipboards will be displayed. You can't copy any text from it using keyboard-based clipboard solutions. Examples include:

  • Received text in MobileSMS, iRealSMS, etc.
  • Received mails in MobileMail -- click Reply to show the keyboard.
  • Web contents -- In a browser (MobileSafari, myFox, etc.) you may want to use these bookmarklets to workaround it.
  • PDF, Word Documents, etc.

Alternative Solutions

Copy and paste is a much-requested functionality on the iPhoneOS that Apple has repeatedly refused to add. Therefore, it is expected to see many unofficial clipboard implementations in the wild. Here lists some of them besides ℏClipboard:

  • Clippy is another excellent copy-and-paste solution of iPhone. It provides a system-wise multi-entry clipboard, and is probably more accessible than ℏClipboard because you don't need to leave the current input mode, and more intuitive because the selection range is clearly shown.
  • CopierciN and many "enhanced" text editors on AppStore such as MagicPad and WritePad provide internal single-entry clipboards independent of the keyboard. Of course, you can't expect these clipboard to work outside of their own apps.
  • OpenClip was a framework for single-entry cross-application clipboard for AppStore apps, but was broken by Apple's sandbox model on 2.1.


Comment by k20beaks, Jan 23, 2009

Great review and AWESOME program!

Thanks very much!

Just wanted to add a note for users who want to copy/paste while in SMS app. You have to have a jailbroken SMS app (iRealSMS, MySMS, etc) that allows for forwarding. To copy a text, simply click on the forward button, and select the text you want to copy. Walla!

An example of this would be MMS messages (like copying username/password).

Comment by tosbsas, Jan 25, 2009

Hey there

Its wierd but real - in younote hclipboard works as it should, but you cannot delete the clipboard entries from the clipboard. Being younote a great freeapp, could you look into that?

Thanks

Ruben

Comment by pavel.perez, Jan 26, 2009

I prefer this one over Clippy, although you have to change keyboards and stuff, its pool of 10 clips and templates is very usefull... One question though... is there a limit for the clipboard? how many characters can be copied with no trouble???

Comment by vincen...@hotmail.com, Jan 27, 2009

Hi

I like it a lot!! Good work! It's really neat that you can copy text from websites!

Thank you so much for hClipboard.

Vincent

Comment by littletechgirl, Jan 29, 2009

This is awesome. Thank you!

Comment by karlsruhe.times, Jan 30, 2009

Very innovative program, loved it with all my heart ! Is it possible to have an "undo" button, or a "shake to undo" gesture control ? Sometimes I made the mistake of pasting a whole lot of text at the wrong position.. then had to keep clicking the <- key to erase everything..

Comment by hoopdreams81, Feb 16, 2009

This is a great program! I'm so glad i learned how to install deb files since this isn't in cydia yet. I think another thing that makes this better than clippy is the select from/to feature. It's also is good with the arrows when you just want to go to the beginning of a text. AND NEED I EVEN SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE FACT YOU CAN COPY AND PASTE FROM SAFARI!

Great app keep up the good work!

You've got my support(not like you really need it but you do have it)

Comment by DHartson, Feb 21, 2009

Your app was already awesome; the improvements I see you have made for this update are over the top -- perfect! Obviously you have put in a ton of work on this. Thank you!

Comment by rajenm2004, Feb 26, 2009

Hi,i tried installing the hclipboard app. but somehow it didnt get installed properly.ever since then i have the basic keyboard crashing for all the applications that will call for it, be it sms, mail, or creating a new contact etc. Can you please help with any known fixes?

Comment by scouter32, Feb 27, 2009

Great program! Thanks a bunch!

One thing I would like to see, however, is Clippy-like implementation of copying SMS and Mail (without forwarding)

Thanks! =)

Comment by carfree123, Feb 27, 2009

Plz help!!!!! WTF...

i downloaded this and now i cant use any app that uses a keyboard(like notes, safari, sms and app store)... idk what to do, im getting pissed...

the only way i can use the keyboard is in safe mode

i uninstalled it and it still wont work... some one plz help

Comment by scouter32, Feb 28, 2009

Or, does anyone know a way to somehow point both the Clippy and the hClipboard clipboards to the same file?That would be ideal as it would allow people to copy from SMS and mail (without forwarding) then use HClipboard's better designed interface to handle the actual copying and pasting.

Just a thought...

Comment by kennytm, Mar 02, 2009

@carfree123:

Please report to  issue 67 . Thanks!

Also, please see if upgrading to iKeyEx 0.1-8 helps you or not. http://code.google.com/p/networkpx/downloads/detail?name=hk.kennytm.5RowQWERTY-0.1-8.deb

You can uninstall iKeyEx completely via this URL: cydia://package/hk.kennytm.ikeyex?.

Comment by matej.knopp, Mar 03, 2009

Any chance of hClipboard being able to cut in future as well? I think it shouldn't be difficult to add and it would be a really nice solution for the iPhone inability to delete chunks of text.

Comment by matej.knopp, Mar 03, 2009

Also I must say that I definitely prefer hclipboard selection method to clippy. Especially because you can't scroll text while selecting with clippy which makes it impossible to select text that spans multiple pages.

Comment by kennytm, Mar 03, 2009

@matej.knoop:

Thanks! It will have cutting in 0.2-x.
Comment by matej.knopp, Mar 03, 2009

Awesome work. You should have a paypal button so that I could buy you a beer :)

Comment by kennytm, Mar 03, 2009

@matej.knopp:

Added. Ya know, Google Code's Wiki does not support <input/> elements by default...

Comment by robin.hedberg, Jun 23, 2009

Does this works for fw 3.0 as well? Would like to have the templates etc on there as well

/Robin

Comment by matthias.tretter, Jun 23, 2009

+1 for templates on FW 3.0 ...

Comment by kermit.woodall, Jul 05, 2009

It's not working for me under OS 3.0 -- any word on a fix for this?

Kermit Woodall Managing Editor GadgetNutz?.com

Comment by DLundy12, Jul 05, 2009

+1 +1 & +1 again for working on OS 3. Miss the templates.

Comment by ekoisgpsy, Jul 11, 2009

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE fix ℏClipboard for FW 3.x !!!!!!!

Comment by DrZ1969, Jul 20, 2009

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE fix ℏClipboard for FW 3.x !!!!!!!

Comment by iamthrifty, Aug 10, 2009

Are we to expect an update to 3.0? This app is so much better that 3.0's copy and paste, and I would be really disappointed if we lost this for good.

Comment by ekoisgpsy, Aug 13, 2009

??? Why do you not fix for FW 3.xx ?

Comment by abbeypatron, Aug 18, 2009

Yeah this is probably one of the most useful jailbroken apps ive used, being able to save multiple text for later use was a luxury, I wish it still worked for 3.x . Please update it. Thanks.

Comment by C420Dogg, Aug 18, 2009

Awesome app! Extremely disappointed when i got 3.0 as hclip no longer worked. Main part i miss about it was the ability to save multiple clips. i have things i send frequently and was nice not having to go out to notes to copy every different one. So heres my vote for a 3.0 update. Also on a selfish note there are games that dont allow you to copy text on 3.0 that you can still copy with hclip on 2.2 So whatever that is please avoid it in the update. If theres going to be an update. I know Kenny has other projects to work on now and maybe hclip takes back seat since 3.0 copy paste but there are usefull features 3.0 still cant do. Thank you for your time.

Comment by scottjl, Aug 26, 2009

While not an exact solution, there is an application called "Clipboard Pro" which acts more like a "scrapbook". You can save multiple clippings into it and call them out into the clipboard. It's available in the Apple Store.

Comment by dilespla, Sep 10, 2009

I'm seriously about to downgrade my iPhone to 2.xx just so I can use hClipboard again. I have found NO replacement for it, nothing even close. I tried several different copy/paste apps and hacks. I'm still furious that nothing has filled the void for for hClipboard. I even tried the iKeyEx beta thing with the clipboard and couldn't get it to work... PLEASE BRING BACK hClipboard!!!! It is now my dyeing wish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by JasonYCheng, Oct 01, 2009

Any chance we can help to port this feature into 3.0+ version, this is such a great add-on feature. kennytm, let me kwow if I can help...

Comment by jhenrie, Oct 20, 2009

Please, please, please bring Hclipboard to 3.0...I would pay more for this app than any other! And also disable the worthless Apple copy/paste.

Comment by tonyhoei, Oct 26, 2009

Hi Kenny, honestly i only do jailbreak just to use your excellent app. IKeyEX. Extremely useful. So i bet and guarantee, if u do thru apple store, many people will definitely buy it! I WOULD BUY IT!! So please, do it thru app store, i will buy it and i will highly promote your app all around!! Keep it up the excellent work.


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