5.19. Working with xclipboard
The xclipboard
client does exactly what you might think: it allows you to save
multiple text selections (Section 5.13) and copy them to other windows. Text you copy
from an xterm window can be made the
CLIPBOARD selection (and thus
automatically appear in the xclipboard window). To
set this up, you first need to customize xterm
using resources.[21]
For text you copy from an
xterm to be pasted automatically into
xclipboard, the text must be made the CLIPBOARD
selection. You set this up to happen by specifying a few translations (Section 6.4)
for xterm.[22] Here are the translations I use to
coordinate xterm with
xclipboard:
*VT100.Translations: #override\
Button1 <Btn3Down>: select-end(primary,CUT_BUFFER0,CLIPBOARD)\n\
!Shift <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD)\n\
~Shift ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(primary,CUT_BUFFER0)
To let you store multiple text selections, the seemingly tiny
xclipboard actually provides multiple screens,
each of which can be thought of as a separate buffer. Each time you
use the pointer to make text the CLIPBOARD selection, the
xclipboard advances to a new screen in which it
displays and stores the text. If you make a long selection, it might
take up more than one screen, but the clipboard still considers it a
single buffer. When you make a selection that extends beyond the
bounds of the xclipboard window (either
horizontally, vertically, or both), scrollbars (Section 5.11) will
be activated in the window to allow you to view the entire selection.
To the right of the command buttons is a tiny box that displays a
number corresponding to the selection currently in the
xclipboard window. Once you have saved multiple
selections, you can click on the client's
Next and Prev command buttons
to move forward and backward among these screens of text.
If you've coordinated xterm with
xclipboard using the guidelines outlined earlier,
you paste the CLIPBOARD selection in an xterm
window by holding down the Shift key and clicking the second pointer
button. When you paste the CLIPBOARD selection, you get the selection
that's currently being displayed in the
xclipboard window. Here's where
the client really comes in handy. Suppose you send four selections to
xclipboard and you want to paste #2. Just go back
to selection #2 using the Prev command button;
when you use the pointer command to paste the CLIPBOARD selection,
selection #2 is pasted. In Figure 5-4,
we've pasted selection #2 into a new file. (Notice
that the text is too wide for the xclipboard
window and that a horizontal scrollbar has been provided so we can
view the entire selection.)
Figure 5-4. Text you copy from an xterm appears in xclipboard
A selection remains available in xclipboard until
you Quit the program or use the
Delete button to erase the current buffer.
Use the Save command button to save the text in
the current buffer to a file. A dialog will ask you to
Accept or Cancel the save to a
file with the default name clipboard. You can
change the filename using Text widget commands
[these are listed in the xedit(1)
manpage -- JP]. If you want to save multiple
selections, you'll need to change the filename each
time, or you'll overwrite the previous save.
You can edit text you send to the xclipboard using
Text widget commands. When you edit
a screenful of text, the xclipboard continues to
store the edited version until you delete it or exit the program.
--VQ and SJC
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