ClipTools: Using the Calculator Functions

You can use the free app from MacMost to perform calculations and have the result automatically pasted. You can also calculate the selected text or the text in the clipboard.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you the calculation functions in 
ClipTools. 
MacMost and ClipTools are brought to you by a great group of more than 1000 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/patreon. There you can read more about the Patreon Campaign. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts.
So ClipTools is an app I created that is basically a Clipboard Manager but with lots of extra functionality. You can read more about it at MacMost.com/cliptools. It is absolutely free and in the Mac App Store. Back when I started creating ClipTools one of the very first features I added was a Calculation Function. This is something I really wanted for myself. The ability to perform calculations and simply paste the result. 
Normally you can use Spotlight for calculations. You can do Command Space, you can perform a calculation like that, and there's the result. You can even do a Command C to copy and then go into a document and paste the result. But I wanted to skip all those steps and simply bring up an input where I could enter in a calculation, press return, and the result is pasted in. That's what ClipTools does. So you access ClipTools in the Menu Bar like this and there is the Paste Calculation Function. If I use it you could see it comes up with this dialogue here and I enter in some calculation, like 1+2. Then I press OK and the result is just pasted into wherever I was typing text. I'm  using TextEdit as an example here. But you could be using it in any app where you type text. For instance, here I'm typing an email and I want to do a quick calculation so I could go here, paste calculation and then type a calculation like that and then the result is just pasted in there. 
Now of course the easiest way to use ClipTools is to have a global keyboard shortcut set. So I want to go into ClipTools Settings and you could see here the Global Keyboard Shortcut is Shift Command M is the default for activating the menu. So I can use that along with the keyboard shortcut inside of ClipTools, Shift Command and equals. So Shift Command M brings up the menu and then I continue to hold Shift and Command  and then = and now I'm doing a calculation and I can paste the result. I could also go back into settings here and set another Global Keyboard Shortcut. This one I'm going to do as Shift Command = and set this to Paste Calculation. So now I could do it with one keyboard command. Shift Command = without ClipTools being activated will activate ClipTools and go directly here and I can use it. 
Now you can do more than just simple addition, of course. If you bring this up you can use parentheses. So you could do something like this and get the proper result. You would use an asterisk for multiplication like you're using a programming language. Then you would use a slash for division like that. 
There are also some functions available. So, for instance, you can use pow for power and you take 9,3 for nine to the third. There are other common ones. Like, for instance, you could use trigonometric functions like this one. If you back to MacMost.com/cliptools and then you scroll down to Calculations you could see a list here of the functions that are supported. 
In addition to just being able to use it like that you also have a full history. So now that I've used Paste Calculation a few times you could see previous calculations and there's a history of all the previous calculations. The actual equation and the result. I can select one of these and just paste the result.
Now there's another Setting you should know about. So if you go into Settings here there's a checkbox for Paste Formula with Calculation. When you select that things work a little differently. So now if I were to activate this and do a calculation like that, I get the original text that I typed and then an equals sign and then the result. This would be true when using the previous calculations as well. 
Now there's another way to can use Calculations in ClipTools. You can select an existing calculation in your text, like this, and then instead of going to Paste Calculation go to Calculate Selection. Then it will calculate that selection there and give you the result. It's going to follow the same Paste Formula with Calculation setting. So if I turn that Off and then were to do the same thing here then Replace Selected Text with the result. You can use this in other apps as well. So, for instance, while writing you could just type out something like this and then later on go back to it and select it and go Calculation Selection. 
Now calculations do a little something special if you use currency. Like, for instance, in the United States if you use the dollar sign $ and you put that at the very beginning so you have something like this and then you add something else to it, I'll do like that, and continue to go the dollar sign there will recognize that. It will still do the calculation and then it will put the dollar sign there at the beginning. It works for Euro, Yen, and Pound as well. Plus, if you include two decimal places like that then it will do the calculation and give you two decimal places since it is currency. So here I'm doing it with two dollar signs and I actually forgot the last one but it is not important. It is just the first dollar sign that matters. So now I can do Calculate Selection, and I get the result. 
There's actually a third way this can work. It can work on the Clipboard. So I can do something like this and select it and say I copy it. Then let's say I go somewhere else. If I use Calculate Selection and there's no selection, I don't have any text at all selected, it's instead going to default to using whatever is in the Clipboard right now. So it would be what I just copied and I get the result there. 
Also note that other functions in ClipTools if you hold down the Control Key it changes to Copy. So instead of actually pasting and in this case replacing that text it would actually just copy it to the Clipboard and now when I paste, I paste the result. 
Now in addition to these basic calculations there is also something called Stacks, right here, where you can continue to add numbers and then perform calculations on a list of numbers that you've added. You can look that up in the Documentation and try that out for yourself and if there is enough interest I'll do a video on using Stacks as well. 
Again, remember that you can find out all about this by going to MacMost.com/cliptools and there is a whole section on Calculations. I hope you find ClipTools useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 7 Responses to “ClipTools: Using the Calculator Functions”

Jonathan

1 year ago

Clip tools are great. I have a request as I use smart clips a lot. If you can add a label function next to each, that would be helpful. I have to remember which smart clip is for what. In addition, I have noticed that sometimes an Apple page (like safari passwords) will accept the clip, and other times the same Apple page, will not and copy c, copy v is the work around. And in some cases, even that doesn't work.

Gary Rosenzweig

Jonathan: I plan on adding a title function to the Smart Clips at some point. As for Apple pages, I'd love to know the specific page and spot where it isn't working so I can try to recreate the problem and deal with it.

Paul

Cliptools works great for me. Specifically, I formatted the Paste Time function (yyyyMMddHHmmssSS) to create unique filenames while I am designing things. I occasionally lose something as I'm trying different iterations of a file, so I use Save As and paste in this specially formatted "time" before the file extension to make a quick backup that I can go back to if all doesn't work as planned. These backup files are then deleted at some point when I change to a final version file. Great stuff!

Ilan Aisic

Hi Gary,
It wouid be nice if you add some other currency symbols. I'm using ₪ (for the Israeli New Shekel). If you open the Character Viewer, you can see all currency symbols supported by default on Mac.

Alan

How to clear previous calculations?

Alan: Hold Shift+Option to remove one.

William

Gary--Thank you so much for giving us Clip Tools. It's an app I've need for a long time and it works so well.

Comments Closed.

ClipTools: Using the Calculator Functions

Comments: 7 Responses to “ClipTools: Using the Calculator Functions”

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