Description

ClipSwap is application for Psion Epoc32 machines that enables you to seamlessly change clipart sets in the Sketch (Paint) application. It was tested to be used on Psion netBook, Psion Revo and Ericsson MC218. I could not verify functionality on ER3 and ER4 machines.

How to use it

First time you run ClipSwap, you'd be asked to define two paths:

• Folder of all your clipart files.
• Folder of your Paint* application where clipart files will be copied. Default is C:\System\Apps\Paint.

* ("Paint" is system name of the "Sketch" application).

You can also define sorting method in the this dialog (e.g. by name, date, size and unsorted, ascending and descending order).

Notice: To save your settings you need to "Exit" this dialog.

Once you are happy with your settings, goto Exit and you will see following window:

Explaination of each item:

Current file

This is currently used clipart file. After installation there will be [], it means that information is not known. Once you do your selection, there will be name of used file (as seen on the image above).

Filter

There could be loads of different cliparts and it would be great to have opportunity to categorize it and quickly perform selection. Into this filter dialog you can put any wildcards that will restrict your selection. For example *animals*.

Clipart

In this choice dialog you can select file that fits into our Filter criteria. Names are sorted based on SetUp definition.

Records

Number of files that match our filter criteria.

Buttons

ClipSwap [Enter]

Perform change of the clipart file based on your criteria.

Apply Filter [Ctrl + F]

Refreshes "Clipart" choice dialog based on the Filter criteria.

Reset [Ctrl + R]

This function will reset custom clipart file to original Psion clipart file built in ROM.

Exit [Esc]

Close application.

SetUp [Ctrl + K]

Invokes setup window described above.

Operation

You can have ClipSwap open while you work in Sketch. Once you change the clipart file (by pressing ClipSwap button) all open Sketch files will be closed and after copying it will be again reopened (in the same order). This is very important step and it avoids crashes of the the Sketch application.

Known issues

ClipSwap cannot recognize if Sketch application would be opened via embedded object in other application (e.g. Word, Agenda, Data). Using ClipSwap on embedded objects is NOT recommended as the application could crash and you could lose your data.

Psion Revo

I found that some clipart files are not working on the Psion Revo, Sketch application reports error about incorrect end of file. MBMView on the same machine can open the same clipart file without issues. I have no fix for that, it is probably caused by conversion method and output structure of MBM file.

Clipart files

There are two archives with large number of clipart files. All of them were converted, dithered and compiled by JSH (Thanks a lot for that!). Small set is mostly black and white, Large set is suited for color machines.

Can you create your own clipart

Sure! You can use any MBM file. It would be great if you contribute and create some useful cliparts that could be shared with other Psioners.

I could imagine that following categories will be very useful:

• All S7/netBook color palette, categorized by RGB, HSV
• All 16 greyscales for B/W machines
• Electrical schematics (resistors, transistors, capacitors...)
• Flowcharts
• Animals, flowers, symbols...
• Large font sets
• ...etc

I implemented "Filter" dialog to have a chance to categorize cliparts. Therefore if you keep naming convention for example:

Animals_Sea.mbm

Animals_Mammals.mbm

Animals_Insects.mbm

You could sort all animals by defining "*animals*" filter.

Release notes

This program is freeware, I am also releasing source code. Send me bugs, comments and suggestions via this webpage.

ClipSwap idea, bug testing and feature requests by JSH (aka the last Psion Dinosaur).

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