DON'S FREEWARE CORNER -- AUG 2013
CLIPBOARD EXTENDERS

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DON'S FREEWARE CORNER  2013-08
CLIPBOARD EXTENDERS

©2014 Donald R. Snow

My Freeware Corner Notes are printed in our Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group monthly newsletter TAGGology and posted on my Family History Class Notes webpage http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html , sometimes with updated information there.

CLIPBOARD EXTENDERS
Clipboard extenders are replacements for the Windows clipboard.  They have features such as allowing you to save more than one item on the clipboard and keep them for the future.  I have several FH projects where I need to have lots of clips available and find them easily.  Here are three clipboard extenders that I have used and that have received good reviews.
 
1.      DITTO -- http://sourceforge.net/projects/ditto-cp/?source=directory -- http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/
This is OpenSource freeware and if you know programming you can edit it yourself.  It saves any type of clip: text, image, URL, etc..  It comes in various versions including portable and 64-bit and is updated regularly.  You can subscribe for free updates and a newsletter.  When running, you open it by clicking on the icon in the tray (lower right-hand side of your screen) or, more simply, by using the default hot key combination CTRL` (Hold down the Control key and press the tilde key -- upper left corner of your keyboard).  A popup opens with the last 10 clips and a search box.  Just double click on a clip and it is copied in your document where the cursor is.  It can be set to start automatically with windows, so it saves all your clips successively and this is helpful.  The default is to save 500 clips before it starts deleting earlier ones, but you can set this the way you want.  The search box that opens is helpful to find clips with search terms you want.  The last copied clips are at the top and I can't see any way to sort them, but the search is fast.  It allows you to set up groups in a tree structure and copy or move clips between groups.  By right-clicking on the tray icon you see many options and also help screens.

2.      CLIPX -- http://bluemars.org/clipx/
This is a simple, easy to use, clipboard extender.  It has not been updated for several years, but has a 64-bit version that works fine in Windows 7.  It can be set to save up to 1024 clips of text, URLs, images, screenshots, etc.  It is opened by clicking on the icon in the tray (lower right-hand side of your screen).  Left-clicking on the icon shows the last 10 or so clips with the latest ones at the top and I can't see any way to sort them.  Right-clicking on the icon shows a menu to search, manage, change options, etc..  The program can be set to run when your computer boots so you save all the clips you make.  It allows some editing of clips, e.g. combining two in either order.  Searching for a clip requires right-clicking on the icon, then left-clicking on Search and typing in your search terms.  There are several Plug-Ins you can download free, e.g. one called Stickies that allows saving permanent clips at the bottom of the clip list.  The main benefit of ClipX seems to be its ease of use, but it still takes a couple of extra mouse clicks.

3.      RESOPHNOTES -- http://www.resoph.com/ResophNotes/Welcome.html
This is really a note program that I have used essentially as a clipboard extender and found it very helpful. It only saves text clips, not URLs nor images, but I need that for some FH projects.  Clips (notes) are added by clicking the "+" and deleted by clicking the "-".  You can add tags, but search terms show all notes containing that term easily.  And because the notes are automatically alphabetized in a list, they are easy to find.  After you find the clip you want, highlight it, then paste it where you want.  It doesn't seem to have any limit as to how many notes it can handle and I have several hundred notes in it.  I use this when editing letter collections where I have several hundred people and places identified and that I want to insert explanations in square brackets so they are readable and searchable, e.g. if the letter has just E.B., I add [Erastus Beman Snow 1853-1900] after it so it is readable and findable.  I have heard that RESOPHNOTES does spell checking for you in other programs, but I don't know how to use that feature.

A few review sites that discuss these and other clipboard extenders are the following, if you are looking for other features.
(1)  http://lifehacker.com/5298615/five-best-clipboard-managers
(2)  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-useful-clipboard-replacement-utilities-for-windows/
(3)  http://www.howtogeek.com/126930/the-best-tools-for-enhancing-and-expanding-the-features-of-the-windows-clipboard/
(4)  http://dottech.org/91792/windows-best-free-clipboard-manager-program-review/comment-page-1/#comments 
(5)  http://www.top5freeware.com/clipboard-manager-for-windows

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