Did you know that you can create “auto-installing” HandStory clips to your web site?

I recently noticed a “glitch” in the “mobile edition” of my web site, so I fixed the code and cleaned it up a bit. It’s cleaner and the download is smaller. But that’s not my reason for writing this…

I was poking around at the HandStory web site, and I realized that if I were to just include on my web site a URL to a HandStory “.HSC file”, it could provide simple automatic “clip activation” right from a web site!

It turns out that when you create a HandStory clip, it creates a .HSC file (I assume this stands for “HandStoryClip”) and places that clip definition file into your C:Program FilesSony HandheldHandStory directory. This file defines the clip properties such as the URL, the update frequency, etc.

So, I simply uploaded the file to my web site, uploaded an icon image, and created a reference to both on my web page. Now, when you go to my site, you will see a HandStory icon on the left side of the page in the “Modules” block next to the “Mobile Edition” entry. Clicking on the icon simply downloads the pre-defined .HSC file and, if you have HandStory installed, auto-opens it in your Clip Manager. You then just adjust any settings you want and the next time you update, the clip will update and be installed!