6.10 Grabbing, Linking and Clipping Web content

Clipping content from the web
Clipping content from the web is now easier than ever with the new IE and Firefox extensions. For other browsers, use the universal clipper (Win-C) or copy / paste in the New Item dialog (Win-N)

1- Clipping from Internet Explorer

1- Install the IE extension
To install the extension:
  1. Close all instances of IE
  2. In Windows Explorer, double-click on the file InfoQubeIEExtensionInstall.exe. The file is in the same folder as the main InfoQube executable (InfoQube.exe). Alternatively, it can be downloaded here (unzip downloaded file and place content in the IQ folder).
  3. Click Yes to confirm modification to the registry (you'll need admin priviledges to do this).
2- Using the IE extension
You'll now have 2 new entries in the right-click (context) menu:
  • InfoQube: Copy Content:  Copy content to InfoQube (either selected content or entire page if nothing selected)
  • InfoQube: Create Link:     Create a link to the current web page in InfoQube (creates an item with the URL field = web page URL)
Activating either of these functions will open the Add New Item window (ensure that InfoQube is running with an opened file)

2- Clipping from Firefox

1- Install the Firefox extension
To install the extension:
  1. Open Firefox (tested in version 3.0.3)
  2. Drag-drop the file InfoQubeFFExtension.xpi to the Firefox window (not the heading, but on the page content). The file is in the same folder as the main InfoQube executable (InfoQube.exe). Alternatively, it can be downloaded here.
  3. Click Install.
  4. Click on Restart Firefox
2- Using the Firefox extension
You'll now have 2 new icons on the Firefox toolbar and 2 new entries in the right-click (context) menu
.
                
 
  • InfoQube: Copy Content:  Copy content to InfoQube (either selected content or entire page if nothing selected)
  • InfoQube: Create Link:     Create a link to the current web page in InfoQube (creates an item with the URL field = web page URL)
Activating either of these functions will open the Add New Item window (ensure that InfoQube is running with an opened file)

3- Clipping from other browsers and applications

The universal clipper can be used to clip content from other applications and browsers. To do so:
  1. Select text
  2. Press the Universal Clipper hotkey (Tools>>Options>>Other). The default is Win+C
  3. See section 5.0 below

4- Grabbing entire web pages, Linking to web pages

  1. To grab an entire web page, ensure nothing is selected in your browser and right-click and select InfoQube:Copy Content (or click the InfoQube (copy) button in FF).
  2. The Add New Item window will be shown with the Copy URL Content option checked
  3. The item textbox is automatically filled with the page title
  4. The URL textbox is automatically filled with the page URL
  5. The page will be saved in the YourFile.sndb.Files folder in HTML or MHT format depending on the option you select. Most pages are equally well grabbed either way, some are better as MHT, others as HTML.
  6. Click Add Item to save the web page.
Note: All content that is behind a login cannot be grabbed this way. An example of this is GMail. Clip the content instead (next section)
Note: To simply link to a web page, use the Create Link button instead (step 1 above) or uncheck the "Copy URL content" checkbox. When linking, you can use the HTML pane to enter rich text information or other clippings

5- Clipping content from web pages

  1. To clip, select content from web pages and or right-click and select InfoQube: Create Link (or click the InfoQube (copy) button in FF).
  2. The Add New Item window will be shown with your selected text in the HTML pane of the Add New Item window. (Press Alt+H if hidden)
  3. The item textbox is automatically filled with the page title
  4. The URL textbox is automatically filled with the page URL
  5. The HTML pane will contain the selected content formatted according to the HTMLClipperTemplate.htm template file
  6. Select "Save as MHT" if the selection contains images and you want to have a local copy (otherwise, the image will be linked to the original web page)
  7. Click Add Item to save the clipping
You can also collect multiple clippings in a single item, by leaving the Add New Item window opened (Uncheck the Auto-Close checkbox).
Select the first web text, click "Add item", then select the next web text, and click "Add Item" again. Repeat as many times as necessary.
You do not have to re-position the cursor after the first capture; it's done automatically.
The multiple Clippings will be added:
 
 
 
Tips: Coping GMail messages: Open the Print Preview version of the email, select the content to clip and clip it.

6- Configuring the clipping format

You can configure what additional information is added to the clipping using the HTMLClipperTemplate.htm file.
You can use the following tags to substitute clipping info:
  • {ClipURL}
  • {ClipDateTime}
  • {ClipDate}
  • {ClipTime}
  • {User}
  • {Title}: Page title
  • {ClipContent}: This tag must be enclosed by <!-- {StartClip} --> and <!-- {EndClip} --> tags to be able to extract the original clipping, typically during an HTML export (this feature is not yet implemented).

The default template adds:

  1. A horizontal line after the clipping
  2. The URL of the clipping, Date and the current user
  3. A second horizontal line
 The HTMLClipperTemplate.htm file is located in:
  • Portable version: Users\YourName folder in the installation folder.
  • Installable version: Documents and settings\YourName\Application Data\InfoQube
The default HTMLClipperTemplate.htm file is used for new users is located in:
  • App folder\AppFiles
Note that this default file is overwritten on program installation.

‹ 6. Importingup6.20 Text files import (Excel, Access, Outlook, etc.) ›