Grab text with Stickies service

May 10, '01 10:34:37AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

At times you'll want to grab a selection of text different apps for any number of purposes. For example, you may be viewing a post in this "Tips" forum and want to keep a particular paragraph within a particular post.

Previously, you would have selected the text and dragged it to the desktop as a "clipping." This still works, but it clutters up your desktop.

Here's a better way:

Select the desired text -- in any Cocoa application -- and choose "Services" and then "Make Sticky" under the menu with your applications title in it (the menu just to the right of the Apple menu; it will have the same name as the application you're in). Stickies will launch if it's not already running, and create a new note with your selected text.

[Editor's addendum: In my opinion, system-wide services are one of the coolest and probably least publicized features of OS X. Take a look at the Services menu (under the application's name in the menu bar) for examples of what you can do.

Most services seem to be available even if the service app is not running; the application will launch when the service is selected. "Grab" services appear broken, at least in my 10.0.3 - it doesn't work with or without Grab running.

At present, only Cocoa apps can take advantage of services; hopefully, Carbon apps will gain the ability at some point in the future. I personally think services could turn into one of the most useful features of X]

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