Clipboard manager

A clipboard manager is a computer program that adds functionality to basic clipboard usage. All existing window managers (2011) provide only one buffer, overwritten by each new clipping. The main task of a clipboard manager is to store data copied to clipboard in a facility that permits richer use of the "clipped" data.

The basic function of copy and paste is enhanced with one of more of the following features:

• provide multiple buffers and the ability to merge, split, and edit their contents
• select which buffer following cut or copy operations should store into
• select from which buffer(s) following paste operation should take from.
• ability to handle more than just plain text

• formatted text (like rich text (RTF), html, or word processor formats (MS Word, OpenOffice etc)
• tabular data, like spreadsheet cells
• data objects like vCards, calendar events and todos
• media content like images
• URLs (as bookmarks and/or text)

• move a selected clipping(s) to long term storage, thus making a "snippets library" or "clipbook"
• provide indexing, tagging, and/or storage groups (folders) of clipped data
• designate a number of buffers to form groups, which may additionally have an order, to be pasted together
• automatically classifying clippings by tagging or making them into members of a storage group according to given rules
• clippings search function

Some of the available tools create new buffers for every cut or copy operation thus forming a clipping history. Tools that provide only this function would perhaps be better called clipboard loggers.

Some applications only provide the user with ability to move the current clipping buffer to long term storage, thus creating an archive, but do nothing automatically. Tools that provide only this function should perhaps be better called archive managers or clipbooks'. One such is textBEAST^[1], which leaves it to the user to save desired items rather than collecting every item that passes through the Windows clipboard.

Copy history

Most clipboard managers allow the user to keep multiple clipped objects, available for later use. Some keep a clipping history by automatically making a new buffer for each new cut or copy operation. There is normally a limit on the number of buffers kept, or on the memory (possibly disk space) allowed for the purpose.

Some applications have an internal copy history feature. This internal copy history, though, is lost after the host application is closed. This has been a standard feature in UNIX editors like vi and emacs for some time. Recent versions of Microsoft Office (at least from Office 2003) have included the "Office Clipboard", a built-in clipboard manager, which operates as long as one of the Office suite applications is open.

Clipboard managers in different systems

Windows

The default Microsoft Windows clipboard manager enables pasting the copied data, even after an application is closed, by maintaining the clip buffer itself. Its copying and pasting operations are very versatile in what they permit to be transferred between applications. A range of cells clipped from an Excel sheet can be pasted as a table into MS Word, or OpenOffice.org. Formatted text clipped from a web page will become cells in an Excel sheet, a table in MS Word, or plain text in Text Edit. Windows does not offer a copy history feature. Users wanting this function use a third-party clipboard manager that replaces the default clipboard.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X also has a host of third-party options for clipboard management. Ten of them are presented in a 2009 review article. From this list are:

• ClipMenu^[2] free?
• Clipper - dead link March 2011
• Clyppan^[3] (commercial with free Lite version)
• JumpCut^[4] free
• PTHPasteboard^[5] (commercial)
• Savvy Clipboard^[6] (commercial)
• iClip - product withdrawn from the market
• Clipboard Evolved^[7] (commercial)
• Cute Clips^[8] (commercial)
• Stuf^[9] (commercial)

Clipboard managers for Mac OS X use the Dock, status bar or Dashboard to integrate with the Mac Look and Feel.

freedesktop.org

The freedesktop.org Clipboard Manager specification ^[10] describes a protocol layered on top of the ICCCM clipboard spec for client applications. A daemon process is responsible for storing clipboard contents. This daemon clipboard manager must be provided by the window manager running in the user's X session. The client-side specification has native support in a number of toolkits, including GTK+^[11].

X Window System

The UNIX desktop environment KDE ships with Klipper.

GNOME provides a basic clipboard manager function as part of the gnome-control-center (accessed via the gnome-settings-daemon), that supports the freedesktop.org Clipboard Manager Specification. It is also possible to run other clipboard managers in GNOME, such as Klipper, Glipper, Parcellite^[12] or ACM^[13].

See also

• Clipboard_(software)
• ClipX
• Shapeshifter
• Klipper
• Glipper

References

1. ^ textBEAST Clipboard
2. ^ http://www.clipmenu.com/
3. ^ Clyppan
4. ^ http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/
5. ^ http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard/
6. ^ http://www.blitzclicksoft.com/products.php
7. ^ http://www.machsoftwaredesign.com/clipboard.html
8. ^ http://www.cuteclips3.com/
9. ^ http://www.theescapers.com/stuf/index.html
10. ^ freedesktop.org Clipboard Manager specification
11. ^ GtkClipboard, GTK+ Reference Manual, GNOME Documentation Library
12. ^ Parcellite
13. ^ ACM