Going at a Klip

KlipFolio, published by Serence, is pretty unusual, and we’re not sure exactly what to call it. Maybe it is an information tool, or perhaps a tool platform would be better. You also could explain KlipFolio as a Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP framework that supports custom applications called Klips.

We were going to write a big introduction to this column setting the scene for why we are writing about today’s topic. It was going to explain the situations in which the following product is useful, what problems it solves and how it addresses corporate needs. Then we thought, what the heck, it’s just plain cool, so we dropped the intro. Well, except for this one, which isn’t quite the same thing.

So cutting to the chase (something we here in the Gearhead Research Laboratories seem to find difficult to do) and without further ado, wasting no more time, getting down and funky, telling it like it is [Get on with it! – Ed.] . . . er, OK, is this week’s coolness: KlipFolio.

KlipFolio, published by Serence, is pretty unusual, and we’re not sure exactly what to call it. Maybe it is an information tool, or perhaps a tool platform would be better. You also could explain KlipFolio as a Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP framework that supports custom applications called Klips.

The presentation of KlipFolio is not your standard Windows user interface – whatever that might be these days (the Windows user interface has had more bad, random facial surgery than Michael Jackson).

Klips are presented as panels that the underlying application uses to display its output. The panels can be resized by clicking and dragging a tag on the lower right of each panel. You also can move the panels individually by clicking and dragging on the thin header bar in each panel.

Klips can do pretty much anything you can think of. The system comes with nine Klips, and there are many more on the Serence Web site. Pre-loaded Klips include an RSS or Atom newsfeed reader, a Hotmail in-box monitor, stock tracker, weather forecast and Google news search.

The Klips are managed by right-clicking on their panel, which reveals an options menu, or through the toolbar. The options available through both are the same and are specific to each Klip.

The KlipFolio toolbar is shaped like an L that’s been rotated 90 degrees clockwise and divided into regions. Each of these regions has a different function: Switch on and off the ability to access the ‘Net; refresh the Klips; open the preferences dialog; launch a Web browser to get online help, minimize the toolbar and all open Klips to the system tray; and exit KlipFolio.

To move the toolbar, you click on the region labeled “KlipFolio” and drag the toolbar. When you do this, all the open Klips also move, which maintains their relative positions to the toolbar. You might think of the toolbar and the Klips as being on a layer and the toolbar being, in effect, a handle on that layer.

An option in the preferences dialog is to have the KlipFolio interface always “on top” (that is, always the uppermost window). This is fine when you have a handful of Klips running, but unless you have a huge display, too many Klips will get in your way.

You also can collapse the toolbar into a small panel rather than the rotated L form. In this mode you can click and drag the top part to relocate the toolbar (and all of the open Klips) or click on the bottom part to get a menu that provides all of the functions of the full toolbar.

While Klips will run cyclically according to how they are programmed, you also can force them to run – “refresh,” as KlipFolio calls it. Klips can be hidden, deleted and duplicated.

This duplicated facility is useful with Klips such as the newsfeed reader because the Klip provided reads only one feed. Multiple feeds, therefore, require multiple Klips.

Add to that the ability for the code of any Klip to be updated automatically or on demand from a remote site, combined with an open development system based on JavaScript, and you have areally powerful package.

Did we mention that this system is free? Serence makes its money from branded versions and custom enterprise implementations.

So you’ve got the idea: a number of dynamic mini-applications, each with its own display area, relying on the support of a framework for management and services. So of course, we’re going to have to build one . . . but you’ll have to wait until next week.

Share your thoughts at a clip with gearhead@gibbs.com.