ClipNote is a clipboard monitor for Android devices. It monitors the system clipboard and automatically saves each entry that is put into the clipboard for later re-use. In addition ClipNote allows to manually create notes containing arbitrary text data and to copy it to the clipboard if needed. Clips and notes can be managed through a simple and unobtrusive user interface.

The screenshot above shows the main screen of ClipNote. It is divided into three pages that can be switched by tapping on the tabs on top: Clipboard, Favorites, and Notes. The left page contains the saved entries from the system clipboard. Tapping on an entry in this list by default copies it back to the clipboard and then returns to the previous screen. Therefore, if ClipNote is invoked from the notification bar or the Android app switchter (long-press on Home) from within another application, tapping an entry will return to that application with the selected entry in the clipboard. A long-tap on a list entry opens the context menu which allows to copy, view, edit, send, or delete it.

The rightmost page lists notes which have been created manually. To create a new note press the menu button on the device and select the option New note. The note editor will open to enter the title and the text of the note. Tapping on a note by default opens the viewer page where the note and associated data is displayed. By tapping the favorite symbol (the star) on the top right of the viewer the favorite state of a clip or note can be changed. Each clip or note that has been marked as a favorite appears in the favorite tab instead of it's original page. Entries in the favorites list behave like clipboard entries (i.e. tapping copies them to the clipboard), even if they had been created as notes.

The New note menu item only appears when the menu is opened from the Notes tab. This is because the Clipboard list is filled from new clipboard entries and the favorites list from entries in the other lists that are marked as favorites. The other items in the list menu are the same for all tabs:

• Sorting: allows to set the sort order for the displayed list, with the options Title, Last used, Modified, and Created. The latter three are will sort by the respective date, sorting by the last used date is the default. The sorting can be either ascending or descending.
• Delete all: will delete all entries in the current list if a security question is confirmed. Caution - all entries in the list are deleted and cannot be restored when OK is pressed in the confirmation dialog!
• Settings: invokes the ClipNote settings screen as described below.
• Info: shows an information dialog that also includes a short usage information.

Android currently cannot notify ClipNote automatically when the contents of the clipboard changes. ClipNote checks for new clipboard entries each time it is invoked and with a background service that periodically checks the clipboard for new data even if the ClipNote application is not visible. The interval between these checks can be defined in the preferences. It is also possible to disable the background service but it only runs while the phone is actively used and won't consume a noticeable amount of energy.

Another limitation of Android is that it currently only supports text data in the clipboard. ClipNote is prepared to handle additional data formats and will be adapted when future versions of Android add support for other formats.

Viewing and Editing

From the context menu of any list entry or by tapping on notes the viewer screen can be opened. The default action when tapping on list entries can be modified in the settings as described below.

The image to the right shows the viewer screen. It is divided into two parts. At the bottom the text of the clip or note is displayed and can be scrolled if necessary. At the top of the viewer is the title and additional information about the entry. At the left you'll find several date and time values for the entry:

1. Last used: the time when the entry has been last used, i.e. copied to the clipboard.
2. Modified: this is the last time the entry has been edited.
3. Created: this is the date and time when the entry had been created (either by copying to the clipboard or by adding a new note). This is the only of the date values that can never change.

To the right is a star symbol that serves to display and toggle the favorite state of an entry. If the star is tapped for the first time it will turn yellow and the clip or note will be moved to the favorites list. Tapping the star again will move the entry back to it's previous list.

Pressing the menu button in the viewer will display a menu with three options: edit, send, and delete. Choosing Delete will remove the entry from it's list and close the viewer. The menu item Send will invoke the standard send option dialog of Android. Through this entries can be sent by email or SMS, for example.

The menu option Edit will close the viewer and open the editor screen instead. The editor can also be invoked directly from the context menu of a list entry. It consists of two input fields, one for the clip or note title and a large one for the text. The contents of the editor is always saved automatically, even if the editing is interrupted, e.g. by an incoming call. The editor menu contains two options, Undo and Cancel. Undo reverts any changes back to the original text but keeps the editor open. Cancel closes the editor after restoring the original text.

Settings

From the menu the settings screen can be opened. The complete list of settings is shown in the screenshot to the right. The following settings are available:

1. Viewer text size: defines the size of text when notes are displayed (small, medium, or large).
2. Default note action: the default action to be performed when a note is tapped (copy, view, or edit).
3. Default clip action: the default action to be performed when a clipboard entry or a favorite is tapped (copy, view, or edit).
4. Play clip sound: allows to select a sound to be played when a new clipboard entry is stored.
5. Minimum clip length: the minimum size for clipboard entries to store. If the text in the clipboard is shorter it will not be stored.
6. Maximum clip length: the maximum size for clipboard entries to store. If the text in the clipboard is longer it will not be stored.
7. Maximum clip count: the maximum number of clipboard entries to store. If this count is reached and a new text is placed in the system clipboard the oldest entry in the clipboard tab will be deleted. If this value is reduced the oldest clips exceeding the count will be deleted. Setting it to zero will delete all clips and stop the copying of clipboard entries.
8. Clipboard monitoring: enabled or disables the background service that checks the system clipboard for new data. The following two options are only active if the monitoring is enabled.
9. Show icon: if enabled a ClipNote icon will be displayed in the notification area to visualize the running service. Furthermore it allows to open ClipNote from the notification pull-down menu.
10. Monitoring interval: this value defines the time span in seconds between two checks of the system clipboard by the background service. The default value is 15 seconds which should be a reasonable value for most usages. If you copy values often and notice that some values do not appear in ClipNote you can lower this value a bit. Values below 5 seconds are not recommended.