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The clipboard applet that comes with every install of Windows while great has an irritating and obvious limitation. It can only store one item at a time, and loses state when you reboot your computer.
A clipboard manager is an application that tries to circumvent this problem by replacing the default Windows clipboard with something has a few more features. For example a good clipboard manager would let you save multiple items and when you want to paste something it would let you select what you want paste from a list. These are just some of features the freeware listed on this page can do.
Simply put the best clipboard manager out there is Ditto clipboard manager. It's also the first software of this type which is open-source. Its feature-set is way above average, and it's the first manager I've seen that has support for unlimited clips right out of the box. It lets you send clips over the network, can expire clips after a defined period, lets you save to and import your clips from a sqlite database and while it might sound cliched this one comes with bells and whistles. Each time you save a clip you can configure it to play a sound!
Clipx and Clipomatic are excellent. They are both fast, lightweight, easy to use and use few system resources. Press a programmable hot key to launch a pop-up menu of clips to select. The clip selection can be made via mouse or keyboard shortcut. They have options to record and display a variable number of clips, and to store permanent clips such as text snippets. Both use less than 1MB memory so you can have them running continuously.
Clipomatic is a bit slicker to use and has more robust permanent item functionality, but its real limitation is that it is text only. ClipX will do everything Clipomatic will (A plug-in to enable the permanent clip function is available from the same site as ClipX plus copy images.)
There are other clip utilities that record full histories but most of them fail in simplicity of use. Clip Magic and Yankee Clipper III are two decent ones that record, sort, and archive huge histories and both do it well. But they are overkill; more like clipboard Personal Information Managers than utilities. And the cost of this overkill is the loss of simplicity of operation. Yankee Clipper is now shareware but the last free version is available from the link below.
ArsClip offers a perfect balance between functionality and ease of use. It has the fast and light features of Clipomatic and ClipX, but also records a long history of clips. The popup only displays a limited number of clips but the rest of the history is just one click further away. The history is also searchable. ArsClip has permanent items, and lets you create several different groups of permanent clips (like forum responses, email addresses, signatures, etc.), each displayed as separate cascading menus on the popup. It also allows easy one-click editing of clips, requires no installation and can be run from a portable drive so you can easily tote all your clips with you.
For those with undemanding clip management needs, ClipX and Clipomatic are both fine choices. They are efficient tiny utilities that, while simple, still enormously increase the functionality of the Windows clipboard. Clip Magic and YCIII are more like full-blown clip management applications rather than utilities, but do offer excellent sorting and archiving. ArsClip is my favorite, offering speed and effortless functionality while preserving a wealth of data.
All of these tools offer great advantages over the standard Windows Clipboard. So pick what's right for your needs knowing that whatever you chose you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Ditto
Website: http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/
Download Link:: Latest stable version: Ditto 3.15.4
Author: Scott Brogden & Kevin Edwards
Current Version: 3.15.4
Version Date: 16 January, 2008
License: Freeware/Open source
Download File Size: 2MB
Operating Systems Supported: Tested on Windows XP, but should work on any recent edition
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Unknown but most likely yes
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Yes.Supports Unicode-character set.Available in the following languages: Chinese, French, German and Italian amongst others. Has an active translation community.
Other relevant information: Uses sqlite to save its data. Can save any type of data. Shows thumbnail of images in the clipboard. Can send data (encrypted) across a network. I like the feature where you can expire clips after a period.
ClipX
Website: http://bluemars.org/clipx/
Download Link:: Latest stable version: ClipX 1.0.3.8 (Nov. 30th, 2005)
Latest beta version: ClipX 1.0.3.9 beta 3 (Feb. 6th, 2008)
Author: Francis Gastellu
Current Version: 1.0.3.8
Version Date: November 30, 2005
License: Freeware
Download File Size: 108KB
Operating Systems Supported: Not Clear – presumably through Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: None
Clipomatic
Website: http://www.mlin.net/Clipomatic.shtml
Download Link: http://www.mlin.net/Clipomatic.shtml
Author: Unknown
Current Version: 2.01
Version Date: Unknown
License: Freeware
Download File Size: 96KB
Operating Systems Supported: XP
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: Zip File
Clip Magic
Website: http://www.clipmagic.com/
Download Link: http://www.clipmagic.com
Latest stable version: 3..2.3
Author: MJT Net Ltd
Current Version: 3.2.3
Version Date: Unknown
License: Freeware
Download File Size: 1.83MB
Operating Systems Supported: XP
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Yankee Clipper III
Website: http://www.intelexual.com/products/index.aspx
Download Link for last free version: http://www.brothersoft.com/yankee-clipper-iii-3552.html
Latest stable version: 1.0.1.0
Author: InteleXual Software, LLC
Current Version: 1.0.1.0
Version Date: September 20, 2005
License: Trialware (90 days)
Download File Size: 4.27MB
Operating Systems Supported: XP
Additional Software Required: No
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: Must register after 90-day trial
ArsClip
Website: http://www.joejoesoft.com/cms/showpage.php?cid=97
Download Link: http://www.joejoesoft.com
Latest stable version: 3.0.3
Author: arsware.org
Current Version: 3.0.3
Version Date: June 12, 2007
License: Freeware
Download File Size: 613KB
Operating Systems Supported: At least through '98 S.E.
Additional Software Required:
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: Runs from executable
This software category is maintained by volunteer editor zahirj
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zahirj wrote: "Simply put the best clipboard manager out there is Ditto clipboard manager."
My response: A bold statement... which, from my cursory examination today, might very well be true.
One weird thing it did, though: After copying the above quote from zahirj into my clipboard, but before pasting it into this posting, I also, just as a test, copied the Gizmo logo from the top-leftmost part of the page to the clipboard. Then opened Ditto and highlighted it and deleted it. Then came here, to this comment text box and tried to use [Ctrl-V] to paste zahirj's quote herein... and it wouldn't do it. This, even thought there were no other clips on the clipboard, and even though when I opened Ditto, zahirj's quote was highlighted (which, as I understand it, is what determines what will paste if one simply uses [Ctrl-V]. Of course, I could still make it paste by just left-double-clicking on zahirj's quote on Ditto's list of (in this case, only one) clips, but I'm thinking that maybe that's a bug.
But I don't think we should hold that against Ditto. Microsoft products should have as few bugs as Ditto seems to have. In fact, ANY product should.
Having just had my heart broken by AccelClip, I was hesitant to get my hopes up about Ditto... but zahirj's quote was so bold, I just had to try it. So far, so good...
...and kudos to Ditto's makers for two seemingly small things:
In a world where most software thinks (and acts as if) it's the only software installed on one's system, and so, often conflicts with other apps, the second of the two is a small thing MUCH appreciated!
Or so it is my opinion.
__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg [at] greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
Gregg, thanks for the reply. If you have any other clipboard software you want to see reviewed, please do drop me a mail.
Gregg, thanks for the feedback. That's what this site is about!
LINK ERROR:
The link to Ditto, above, actually points to the ClipX site. I tried to change it, but it either didn't take, or someone needs to review it before it takes. If it's the latter, then I'm sure it will appear correctly here soon. If it's the former, then someone needs to correct it...
...and then, I would advocate, delete this posting.
__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg [at] greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
Thank Napa, your correction is appreciated.
Ditto works in Vista x64 under a standard user account
I recently tried most of the suggestions myself while configuring my new computer, and I concur that Ditto is the easiest & fastest to use when using the keyboard. One keystroke opens the Ditto toolwindow, which previews the last X clips. Focus is on a quick search box already, so you can immediately start typing text to search for in the saved clips. Once your clip is in view, you can either navigate to it with the arrow keys and press Enter to paste (no arrows necessary if the clip you want is the first one), or press a number to paste any of the top 10 matches. No other clipboard replacement I tried kept my fingers on the keyboard so well.
I was very surprised that software this bad would be recommended on this site. After installing Clipomatic on my WinXP Pro computer I found that I didn't like it so I uninstalled it . . . or so I thought. Even tho the uninstall routine said it had been uninstalled NOTHING had changed. (I had used the Add/Remove applet in Control Panel.) So I shutdown the program and removed it manually - including registry entries. ClipX does the job just fine and the options for usage are much more clear and extensive. ~ David Crow
CLCL is the best: right-click on the clip-icon in the traybar and select the clip (text, bitmaps with preview, etc.). That's all. The clip will be automatically inserted!
All other clip magnagers are slow because you have to select an hotkey (= you MUST use keyboard), pop-up the window, select the clip, insert the clip with an hotkey.
CLCL is just 1 right-click + select.
I agree CLCL is a very lite and convenient tool. A must-have for me. The first freeware I got each time I reinstal windows.
Does anybody know what about CLCL and Vista ?
Don't know for clcl, but clipx has working vista64 beta version nicely running.
Back to Clipdiary...
Probably like most of you, I've been using/trying/throwing out all kinds of clipboard extenders for the last 17 years. Clipmate was one of the first and probably the best. Then it got more bloated. And of course, it isn't free. I've tried just about all the other alternatives suggested above. Some are alright. Well, most are alright. Depends on what you're looking for. I was using Arsclip up until 5 minutes ago. I'm keeping Clipdiary. I can have tons of clips in my history, search them, and most important of all to me, with hotkeys, I can go up or down the list in my history and sequentially paste clips. That's one feature I really loved about Clipmate. I don't see where I can edit my clips in Clipdiary (maybe it's there, I don't know) but that is a feature I did like about Arsclip, but used only a little bit. If I need to edit a clip, I'll just put it into editor2 or something. But I just don't like clipboard extenders that try to do so many things. Too many features get a clipboard extender way too cluttered. In this case, less is more.
Thanks GOTD! I've been looking for a good clipboard extender like this forever!
Brad
"...and most important of all to me, with hotkeys, I can go up or down the list in my history and sequentially paste clips. That's one feature I really loved about Clipmate."
You can achieve the same thing with ArsClip. Right-Click on ArslClip's tray Icon > Configure > In the hotkey tab check the box where it says "Enable the Tooltip Popup". You can also configure your own hotkeys.
Brad seems to be referring to yesterday's time limited offer (not freeware and now expired) from Give Away Of The Day (http://it.giveawayoftheday.com/). Some good offers from GOTD get posted - sometimes rather late in the day - as Hot Finds (http://www.techsupportalert.com/view/hot). Selfishly, I didn't look into this one myself as I'm so happy with ArsClip.
Hopefully, the upcoming Gizmo TSA Twitter (work in prograss) may help us get this sort of time limited alert out a bit quicker.
Try Acceclip: http://www.flexigensoft.com/ (sophisticated and now free!)
I have been using CLCL for several years, and do recommend it to anyone! It is free, stores text and images, allows setting permanent items. In the past I have tried several others, and CLCL offered the easiest access and features. You can get it from:
http://www.nakka.com/soft/clcl/index_eng.html
Tomasz
I totally agree. CLCL is a truly gem !!
Didier.
I tried several times to connect to the ClipX web page but it couldn't connect to the website. I did a search and found an older version available on CNet but decided to hold off for now.
I had been using ClipDiary, free version, but they have upgraded and as mentioned in the post by Megaman they have now gone to being a paid program. Tried to find the last free version which was 1.41 I think. Every link which said 1.41 or the older 1.3... brought up the Version 2.0 which is the current paid version after a free trial.
I am still searching for something similar which is not limited to text but without all of the PIM features.
I'm checking out all of the suggestions shown here.
If someone just wants a small, simple program, Oscar's Miniclip is pretty nice. It may not be hardcore like some other programs, but, hmm, as I look at the site again, it does have a few interesting things for not being hardcore. Nice, unobtrusive, and tiny. Not for clipboard powerusers, though.
http://www.mediachance.com/free/miniclip.htm
Oh, it's very good for me! Thanks for this information. A small, simple program. It works, it is very useful! (A hungarian teacher.)
Thanks #14(Who so ever you are)
Ditto is a good program.
I've used coodclip since 1999. Easliy the simpliest and best imho. Just click on the icon in the system tray. Probably the only app I can't live without.
I registered my copy years ago,however the programer Lugetsky Dmitry no longer supports it.
Look here for a run down http://www.toflidium.com/weblog/articles/coodclip.html
Lugetsky Dmitry, offers it as a free to use unsuported pp now. Ver 2.10
clcl is the best it takes awhile to work it out but once you have it is the best of all
Does any of these have crash recovery? Clipboard Recorder free version is totally okay otherwise.
I am surprised that you didnt mention this little gem.
http://m8software.com/clipboards/freeclip/freeclip.htm
It even has a pay version but I dont use it and I dont think its necessary. Ever since I installed this I love it its light, flexible and easy to use.
Is there a good simple multi-copy/paste utility which can be accessed from the right-click context menu rather than by hotkey?
Have you had a look at Phrase Express?
http://www.phraseexpress.com/
Little blurb that explains its functions easier than I can:
Phrase Express manages all your frequently used text phrases from a taskbar icon and allows you to paste them into any Windows application with a single mouse click, a keyboard shortcut or a text macro command.
The new version has an auto-complete feature, and, you can set strings for anything you want defined. Strings are user defined text shortcuts for often used phrases. Example is if you use a phrase like BTW often and you want it to expand to By The Way, you could name it btw.
Phrase Express is completely free for personal use, but it does detect certain words and phrases that indicate its being used by a business and/or in a commercial context. If that happens, a screen asking you to buy the commercial version will pop up repeatedly.
The commercial version is no different than the personal version.
Geez I sound like a commercial - for the record, I have no affiliation whatsoever with the program or anyone related to it. Its a nice piece of freeware.
Amazing Collection, thanks.
but i think you missed xNeat Clipboard Manager.
you can download it from xNeat Clipboard Manager
it is a free clipboard manager, works well on vista & takes approximately Zero recourse
another vote for xNeat. great up and comer. tiny footprint. modern aesthetics.
I was just surprised that you wrote "author unknown" about clipomatic.
You have the web site mlin.net, where Mike says:
About Mike Lin
I was born in 1983 and grew up in Holmdel, NJ. I started mlin.net in 1999, offering to the world a few useful programs that I developed in my free time during high school. Then I went to MIT, where my education got somewhat more intense, and this site was essentially dormant. Recently, I've been bringing this site up to date, and implementing some more ideas that came to me during that long journey. I hope to provide useful software long into the future.
Today, I am a member of the research staff at CSAIL and the Broad Institute, where I assist with scientific research in computational biology. I reside in Brookline, MA.
I can be reached at mlin@mlin.net. Unfortunately, I can't respond to every e-mail I receive at this address, but I do read everything. If you need help or support with one of the programs on my web site, please visit the discussion forum:
Google Groups Beta
mlin.net
Visit this group - http://groups.google.com/group/mlin_net
Hello Mike,
My apologies, don't know how I missed that. I'm somewhat familiar with your work: I've used another of your programs (CrossHair) for years. I've found it invaluable for following data vertically or horizontally. (Currently using for fantasy baseball - oops).
Thank you for correcting the record and for your fine work!
Check out this clipboard manager AccelClip
I downloaded this thing in June 2009, and it just sat there 'til I got around to finally installing it this weekend (July 18,2009). From the screenshots, I expected it to be pure bloatware...
...and traditional clipboard manager purists will probably see it that way, too. Understandable.
But I gotta' tell ya'... this thing's pretty cool. It's somewhere between "hey, this actually doesn't suck" and "ohmygod, where have you BEEN all my life?" Very interesting, indeed.
On Vista, the help index from the pulldown "Help" menu is dysfunctional for some reason... says I need a file that simply won't download, and the newest version of which Vista says I already have... yet it won't work. The two help files are linked to in the Start Menu folder, however, and so can be gotten to by hook or by crook.
But I must say, I'm a bit more impressed with this than I thought I would be.
I'm gonna' give it a SERIOUS try. SERIOUS.
And I would invite others to, too.
I may come back here and report that it sucked after all, but from my preliminary fooling around with it, I'm thinking not. And if not, then I may have finally found a clipboard viewer/manager I can really love.
I'll tell you what I wish: I wish I could get my hands on a utility that does the essence of what AccelClip does, and also what a little utility called "PicPick" does. PicPick doesn't fit in this category, so I won't go into it here. But I'm going to try to figure out which category it SHOULD be in here, and I'm gonna' go make a posting about it because IT'S AMAZING!
Gimmee a little time to make the posting (today is 7/19/2009), and then search here for "PicPick" and you'll see what I mean.
In the meantime, I'm kinda' likin' this AccelClip thing... to my astonishment. Yeah, it's full-o-more-stuff-than-usual, but it's still unambiguously a clip view/manager in the classic sense. And its having more features doesn't seem to make it slow or in any way BEHAVE like bloatware. Plus, as I poke aroud in it more and more, I actually can figure out how to use more of its features on a day-to-day basis than I ever, from reading about it on its web site, would have imagined.
Who woulda' thunk it. [grin]
I'm the one who posted the above as "Anonymous" yesteday... not deliberately, mind you. I thought I was logged-in...
...which brings me to what MAY (and the operative word, here, is "may") be one of the things that AccelClip screws up (though I'm still researching it). Having installed AccelClip, suddenly my IE8 isn't keeping me logged-in to things... my logins are not surviving IE8 shutdown and restart. When I look in AccelClip, I see that it DOES monitor cookies.
Hmmm. Again, I'm still researching.
But there is one thing that AccelClip is doing which, if I can't find a way to make it stop, is going to end my association with it in short order, to wit: When I'm on a web page in IE8, and I press [Ctrl-F] so that I can begin searching ("finding") down the page for specific text, AccelClip launches itself on the [Ctrl-F] keystroke combination. When I look at AccelClip's various hotkey combinations, [Ctrl-F] isn't among them. [Shift-Ctrl-F] is, as are some other [????-Ctrl-F] combinations, but not just [Ctrl-F]. So that, right there is a problem. AccelClip is responding to keystroke combinations that aren't even on its hotkey list.
But wait... it gets worse...
When I go into AccelClip and tell it that I simply don't want any of its hotkey keystroke combinations to work (i.e., I'll get at the software from its system tray icon), it STILL responds to the [Ctrl-F] keystroke combination.
What th...?
I use the [Ctrl-F] keystroke combination many times a day. I can't have AccelClip popping-up every time I do. So, that, I'm afraid, may be a deal-breaker.... and quite probably the end of my very short love affair with this seemingly potent little product.
When a software company suddenly and inexplicably makes FREE what SEEMS like a wonderful piece of software for which it once charged, there's sometimes a reason why. Some companies do it, and the software's just fine. Others do it, though, because maybe some things about it were just too much to keep up with, given the revenue generated from it. I suspect that AccelClip suffered from that sort of thing.
But we'll see. I haven't de-installed it yet, but my eye has darted over to the REVO UNINSTALLER icon every time AccelClip has popped-up when it shouldn't have. I doubt, at this rate, that it will make it to the end of the day.
Just wanted to update.
__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg [at] greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
[sigh]
I'm back to update. And I just couldn't make AccelClip behave itself. It's got some POTENT features, alright...
...but, alas, it just doesn't play sufficiently well with others.
And so it is gone from my machine.
Buh bye, now.
Pity, though. What it did well, I liked... a lot.
I just hate it when an otherwise really good piece of software has such basic operational/logistical impediments that it ends-up being untenable. Opportunity lost.
__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg [at] greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
thanks for the comments - much appreciated. Any chance of you coming back on a regular basis to produce a review for us? If you've got some time available just send me a PM via the forum and I'll point you in the right direction.
Thanks again anyway
MC
I have used Yankee Clipper for years, and it works well, but the free version seems to limit the amount of text it will save, as well as the duration it will keep it. I wanted a utility that will save everything, for as long as there is HD space. I myself only found that is doing that, Clip Diary. no nage or such, it just collects and collects to wherever location you choose (see all options), and is easily retrieved. http://clipdiary.com/?s=cda I thank God for those who write such useful freeware!
They stopped giving out ClipDiary as freeware.
there are some (hand)made portable solutions for Yankee Clipper 3 , I work with one of them and seems to me more stable as the original .
JOCR adds an interesting twist... cut a graphic containing text (screen capture) and paste as text... hence the OCR in the name: http://home.megapass.co.kr/~woosjung/Product_JOCR.html
I will test the programs you suggest, but I've been a long-time user of ditto http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/
Hi Brian -
Yes, there seem to be a least several that i found by googling . i haven't yet looked at any of them. If you have any suggestions, please pass them along. That should speed up the review process. i appreciate the thought.
I agree with the previous post about Clipboard Recorder. I've been using it for a year and I am really happy with its performance. If my memory is good, I even got that recommandation from this website. Are the other sugestions so much better?
What about Clipboard Recorder (http://www.lw-works.com/)?
Clipboard Recorder does seem promising. However, as currently made available by the publisher, it is not true freeware. Rather, more like shareware or trialware in that what is downloaded from the site for one to use is not the same as what it becomes (more limited) after a 30-day trial has passed - unless the user registers for a fee of $29.95.
I have only recently installed the program and now need wait for the 30 days to expire to try the version ( I could not find a way to download the limited version) which is actually free for the long term. If it turns out to be valuable to our readers, i will be able to make a recommendation in about one month.
Thanks for your interest.
Hi, Any good 64 bit clipboard managers out there? Thanks, Brian
ClipX has a 64bit version.
I'm looking for a freeware that does network transfer of text and images, with Vista64 support. Network Clipboard almost got me there. It "works" but on the 64 bit side there's no sound. No way to know if it copied to clipboard without going to the other machine and trying it. Also it has triplet hotkeys which makes it even more doubtful when copying. No way to change the hotkeys. If there was a visual cue it would be helpful too. Seems like it can't access the soundcard on 64 bit. Any hotkey combo where you have to hold 3 keys is just a pita. It's not that hard to provide a selection of hotkey pairs.
I couldn't find any better freeware that does images so I just wrote a few lines of AutoHotKey script that plays sound files when you hit the Copy and Paste hotkeys. It just lets the hotkeys pass on to be handled by Network Clipboard. With the audio cue this utility seems to fill my needs. At least for now. If you have Vista64 and want to give Network Clipboard a try check out AutoHotKey. Anyone who has written even simple batch files can do quite a few cool things on Windows with it. The secret is to put a tilde('~') before the hotkey. This way you do whatever in AutoHotKey without "eating" the hotkey. It continues on to whatever app was using it.
ClipCache http://xrayz.co.uk
no "release" version yet but I am running the x64 beta and it works a treat
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