The Windows Clipboard is OK for basic tasks but there are much better alternatives available.
Ditto
Ditto
When downloading Ditto, you can choose between the standard 64-bit version or a portable one. The latter runs from a USB stick and means you can carry around your clipboard manager and plug it into whatever computer you happen to be using.
Like our other top picks, Save.Me and Shapeshifter, Ditto runs alongside the Windows Clipboard and uses the same Ctrl+C (cut) and Ctrl +V (paste) key combinations. This means you can start using it right away and only dabble with Ditto’s extra tools when you want to.
The program captures and stores text, images and web addresses, and you can set the number of items it stores (the default is 500), after which the oldest item will be deleted as you add new ones. Alternatively, you can mark individual clips as ‘Never Delete’ and they’ll always stay in the Ditto database.
The amount of storage space for your clippings is similar to Save.Me, and it works better with large clip collections than Shapeshifter. Clipped items are searchable and easily inserted into the document of your choice. The Ditto window is much smaller than that of our other award-winning clipboards, but it has options galore for combining clips into Groups (such as salutations, sign-offs and signatures for writing letters and emails), and lets you edit existing text clips or create new ones from scratch. You can also have Ditto sit on top of other programs and keep it rolled up next to the menu bar to save space on small screens. Like Save.Me, everything is stored in a database, so you can switch off the PC knowing that your clips will be saved.
Ditto’s interface looks amateurish and unloved, and could do with some care and attention. Its always-on-top mode doesn’t always work, depending on what other programs are running. Adding new supported file types is confusing and it would be helpful if clicking a clipped URL opened it in a web browser.
Save.Me
Save.Me comes as a single executable file, so you don’t need to install it on your PC. Its interface is better looking than Ditto’s and it has a good Default View, which lists commands on the left, clips in the middle and a preview of the currently selected clip on the right.
Save.Me’s window takes up more space than Ditto’s, but is better suited to storing photos and website URLs, because it previews them live and in full. Like the other clipboard managers here, it can clip text, graphics and web addresses, and you can also create new text snippets and save them for later. Save.Me also has a unique Logbook View, which organises clips by date, as well as a useful Research View with customisable columns displaying headings such as Topic, Date, Content and more. Like Ditto, it stores clips even after you turn off your PC.
It’s easy to miss some of Save.Me’s best features, such as the ability to customise the columns in Research View. The Search facility sometimes produces inconsistent results, finding words in some text clips but not others.
Shapeshifter
At last, a clipboard manager that doesn’t look like it was designed in 1995. Shapeshifter’s clean interface is more edgy than the others and although that’s due in part to having fewer features, it’s noticeably more refreshing than its staid rivals.
Like the other clipboard managers in this round-up, it uses the same Copy and Paste commands le as Windows, but holding down Ctrl+V displays its main window in Integrated Mode, so you can select the item you want to paste. Shapeshifter is the easiest of our top picks to master because there are so few options and its use of large thumbnails makes it well suited to working with graphics.
We would have liked Shapeshifter to provide a better explanation about how the three different modes work
and the advantages of each, rather than having to work it out for ourselves. In Integrated Mode, you can’t open the viewer and close it again if you don’t paste.
OrangeNote
Something of an unusual entry. this free program combines attractive sticky notes with a simple clipboard manager for text snippets. It has an appealing interface; plenty of hotkeys for fast access; and taggable and searchable notes. Although there's no support for any other data types, the program is neat, effective and fun to use.
xNeat
This unobtrusive, low-powered clipboard manager hasn't been updated for a while and lacks any database-style features. However, if all you want is access to a simple pop-up list of recently clipped items (text, URLs and images) that you can access via a hotkey and paste into an open application, it's definitely worth a look. You can also choose the number of items stored in the clipboard at any one time.
Clipboard History
Clipboard History is another text-only clipboard manager that uses the same simple approach as xNeat but adds some extra features. These include inserting the date and time at the current cursor position; the ability to delete all clipboard entries from a pop-up menu; and a clever tool to set exclusions. so that text containing specific keywords will never be copied to the clipboard. It also lets you edit items and set them as ‘sticky', so they won't be deleted.
Did you know that you can shorten your links with Shortest and receive money for every visit to your shortened links.
ReplyDelete