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Charles Moore Reviews ScrapX Version 1.2: A Scrapbook for Mac OS X
One of the time-honored Mac OS features Apple, in a its questionable wisdom, opted to leave out of OS X, is the Scrapbook, originally a desk accessory and later an application that served as a dumping ground, holding tank, and minimalist database for graphics, passages of text, movie clips, sounds, or whatever you wanted to park and store there for later use. The Classic Mac OS scrapbook had a main window, a smaller window field of containing data about the stored item, and a horizontal scroll bar you could use to browse through the “pages” of Scrapbook entries. Since it resided in the old-style Apple Menu, the Scrapbook was conveniently available from any application. You could store or retrieve and apply data to and from the Scrapbook using either copy - paste board drag & drop. In days of yore, shareware developer John Holder also created an enhanced scrapbook-style application called ScrapIt Pro, which would store and index pretty much anything you could copy with the Clipboard, import, or drag & drop. ScrapIt Pro also allowed you to print thumbnail photos or text lists from any Scrapbook file, search, edit text, play music, or a edit images, all in the program window. There is now an OS X version of ScrapIt Pro, which is $25.00 Shareware, and can be found here: There is also a newer kid on the block. ScrapX 1.2, the subject of this review, is an update to a shareware scrapbook utility built for Mac OS X Jaguar. ScrapX is $10.00 shareware and more like the original Mac OS Scrapbook than ScrapIt Pro. It stores, displays, and dispenses content that can be copied and pasted or drag-and-dropped among Mac OS X and Classic Mac OS applications, or that is imported from Classic Mac OS Scrapbooks including those created with ScrapIt. Tim Kokesh of Aqueous Software explains that the ScrapX developers’ goal goal was to build a basic scrapbook for Mac OS X, on the guiding principle that when information is moved (copied and pasted or drag-and-dropped) from one application to another via ScrapX, the result should be exactly the same as moving it directly from the first application to the second. Kokesh notes that although they were inspired by the Classic Scrapbook, they wanted ScrapX to be much more powerful as a scrapbook, without turning it into something else, a notepad application, for example. ScrapX 1.0 was primarily a reincarnation of the Classic Scrapbook. But it included new features like the ability to select which type would be displayed-- by clicking on the Type field-- and the ability to open more than one scrapbook at a time. With ScrapX 1.1, they added a thumbnail view and the ability to import Classic scrapbooks (including scrapbooks made with ScrapIt). They also added a memo field for item comments and a source field that stores the original name of the file from which the item was created, if applicable. ScrapX 1.2 has been the result of much more original thought, as well as suggestions from ScrapX users, since they had covered more-or-less all of the functionality of the Classic Scrapbook. “Search and sort were obvious additions,” says Tim Kokesh, “but our ‘Dropbox View’ was a fusion of several ideas, both our own and users’. In addition, we have added features that allow entire items to be inspected. In ScrapX 1.0 and 1.1, text was cut off to fit in the item view, but now we allow the user to scroll through multi-page text documents. We have also added support for animated GIFs and multi-page PDFs. “Our plans include AppleScript-ability, Services, and Undo. We also plan to add several new views to ScrapX. Past that, we have an ‘ideas’ document that seems to get longer every day.” New in ScrapX 1.2 are: Content of ScrapX scrapbooks can be text, images, movies, or sounds. It can be displayed in three “views” if it is in one of the supported data formats, which currently include: aGIF (animated GIF), BMP, GIF, HTML, JPEG, PDF, PICT, PNG, RTF, RTFD, TIFF, URL, plain text, movie, sound, and (classic) sound resource. But content with unsupported types–or even no supported types–also can be placed in and dispensed from ScrapX. For example, ScrapX content can include Adobe Illustrator images and FileMaker buttons with scripts. ScrapX 1.2 is localized in English and French. Comparison of ScrapX and the Classic Scrapbook Similarities A Few Differences ScrapX 1.2 allows four scrapbook views: Combined view, Item view, Thumbnail view, and Dropbox view. Each of the first three views are comprised of two components: Item Content and Item Information. Item Content can be full size, or thumbnail size. The Item Label is an abbreviated form of Item Information. 
• Item view is Full Size Content + Item Information. 
Item Information • Item: the position of the current item and the number of items in the scrapbook. • Memo: a field that can be used to name, annotate or store keywords for a scrapbook item. To move between items when in the Combined or Item views use the slider or the arrow buttons in the Item Selector. When in the Combined or Thumbnail views use the scroll bar on the right side of the window. Or, in any of the views use the left (or up) and right (or down) arrow keys on the keyboard. If an item has more than one supported type you can select how the item is displayed in the Combined or Item views by clicking on a type. In the Thumbnail view the item’s Primary type always is displayed. The lower right image shows a ScrapX item that has three supported types: RTFD, RTF, and plain text and is displayed as RTFD. In the center image the “RTF” type has been selected, so only the text appears but it is formatted. In the top left image the “text” type has been selected. Again only text appears, but in this case font formatting and alignment have been lost. (The original content was created with TextEdit.) 6. To play a movie or sound use the control bar in the Item Window. For an item of type: sound resource or aGIF (animated GIF), click on the Play button. To export an item to a file select Export… under the Item menu. The format of the file created will depend on the type selected; if an item has more than one supported type, first select the type corresponding to the file format you want you want to export. To search, sort or randomize the scrapbook, select the appropriate command under the Scrapbook menu. Criteria for searching and sorting can be based on the content of any of the Item Information fields or on the content of text items (types HTML, RTFD, RTF, URL, or plain text). Sort criteria can be retained and used to keep a scrapbook sorted. Files in supported formats can be copied and pasted or drag-and-dropped to ScrapX and the contents will be inserted as new items. This method can be used with files in formats corresponding to the supported types plus others that are displayable as supported types: Drag-and-drop can also be done with multiple files or with folders, in which case an item is created for each file. Normally, the files are inserted as a block according to the User Preference for insertion of new items. Then, within the block items are ordered alphabetically by filename. However, if “Keep Sorted” has been checked in the Sort panel, then the files will be inserted according to the retained sort criteria. Like Classic scrapbook, ScrapX stores unsupported type information for an item even if it cannot use it to display the item. There is no limit to what ScrapX can contain in the sense that the result of a transfer of content via ScrapX. The above descriptions and explanations are really only the highlights of ScrapX’s capabilities. This is an amazingly powerful and versatile little program. An extensive and comprehensive manual in PDF format is included with the download which covers all the bases in considerable detail. If you liked the old Classic Mac OS Scrapbook, or even if you’re new to the Mac in the OS X era and the concept is new to you, it’s well worth downloading ScrapX for a looksee and tryout. The program is shareware, so there is no cash commitment necessary up front. The shareware ScrapX download is fully featured, but certain limitations are imposed in the trial (unregistered) form: scrapbooks are limited to ten items; only two scrapbooks can be open at the same time; export is unavailable; two search criteria can be specified; and one sort criteria can be entered. Entry of a Registration Key ($10.00) removes these limitations. System Requirements For complete details and to download ScrapX 1.2, visit:
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