1/27/16
8:00 am

Clipboard History Managers

Perhaps one of the most useful things you can add to your app is a clipboard history manager. Take a look at two free apps that allow you to recall multiple clipboard items, not just the current text in the clipboard buffer. Any Mac user should find Jumpcut or ClipMenu useful additions to their computer.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. On today's episode let's take a look at two extensions to your Mac that will allow you to save multiple items in your Clipboard.
So I talked about these before but it has been a long time and they are worth talking about again because it's something that I absolutely must have on my Mac. The ability to go back into the history of my Clipboard.
For instance, in a text document here if I were to select a word and copy it, Command C, select another word and copy it, select another word and copy it. Now what do I have in the Clipboard. I've got the last thing that I copied and I can paste it in here but what happens if I want the thing before that, or the thing before that. It would be nice to have a history and it is so easy to add to your Mac. 
There are two extensions, both free, that I have added and I use them both because they both work at the same time and one is simple and one is feature filled.
The first one is called Jumpcut. It is a simple little menu here and it just looks like a little scissors there on my menu bar and I can see a list of the most recent items I added. So if I wanted to go back to a previous item I can select it and it pastes it in there like that. It makes it so easy to go back in history. You've got some cool preferences in here like, for instance, what it looks like. You have some Hotkeys to be able to use it. Things like that. How many to remember. All sorts of things. 
You can set it to automatically launch when you start up your Mac and it just adds it here. It is quiet and doesn't get in the way. It's been around forever. I'll show you how to get it at the end of the video.
The other one I have is ClipMenu. It does a very similar thing except it's a little deeper. So you've got a little history here. You go into this folder and here's the most recent usually ten items that it goes back on. The preferences allow you to do a lot more in here including having Snippets which are things you manually add in. So in addition to being able to go in here and grab you know recent Clipboard things, you can grab special items. 
So, for instance, for Snippets we can add one and just create an untitled folder and an untitled snippet. So this can be like a response to an email you have to send a lot or something like that. Then when I look now I can see there are snippets and there's the folder and there's the item in the folder. I can add tons of these things in there.
There is a whole bunch of other different options here in ClipMenu including the ability to save images. So Jumpcut is simple and just does text which is what I need most of the time. ClipMenu will actually remember images. So if I am copying things while I'm working on an image I'll see the image appear here in the menu instead of text.
I find that I have them both running. They both record the Clipboard. I use this for just about everything and when I need something a little more advanced I'll go from Jumpcut to ClipMenu and use that. I recommend at lease installing Jumpcut for most people because it is so useful. You can go through a document and cut things out and then think well boy I wish I didn't cut that and go back and find those items in here. 
I also find that I'll do things because I'm typing, say I'm typing a response on a web form or something like that and I know that if I hit submit and say I want to save that and post that somewhere else as well or if maybe you are submitting a sport form and you'll never see that text again and it's gone when you hit submit; just selecting it just before I hit submit and copying it means it will remain in Jumpcut and ClipMenu here for a while because it is going to record a certain amount of history. So if a minute or ten minutes later I decide I want to look at that text again I've got a quick copy of it. 
This is so useful that you really should go and get these two. They are both free. So here are the websites for them. Jumpcut is at jumpsuit.sourceforge.net so it is easy to get to and you can just download and install the app, the extension really.
ClipMenu is at ClipMenu.com and you can just download it from there. So I definitely recommend getting one or the other or both just for making your Mac experience a little better. Every Mac I've got has these.

Comments: 30 Responses to “Clipboard History Managers”

Antrim

9 years ago

There are others. For example, Alfred contains this feature in its many-tooled kit.

Lance Rosenthal

9 years ago

I've used CopyPaste from Plum Amazing forever. I paid for it a million years ago and it's always there with all my clipboard history. I often wish that I could sync between my laptop and desktop to have all clips available on both computers.

Michael Lusk

9 years ago

I tried to install the clipboard menu, and it stated, but the one on the desktop would not eject. I had to forcequite and then it would not show up at all after ejection. Can you help? Thank you..Michael

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Michael: Not sure what the issue could be. It is not my app, I'm just a user.

Josh

9 years ago

Looks like jumpcut hasn't been updated in a while. There's an app called flycut in the app store which is based on it. Is there any reason to get the original rather than flycut?

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Josh: Good find. Looks like the same source code but getting it from the App Store is easier. I'll give it a try.

Joe

9 years ago

Gary: Do any of these make the contents of the clipboard visually persistent in a window on the screen? Like the old windows clipbrd.exe They both seem to require you to open their menus to see what's currently in the clipboard.

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Joe: Not these, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were others.

Jean H

9 years ago

I have downloaded both Jumpcut and ClipMenu. How do I keep them in my menu on Safari?

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Jean: They should both remain in your menu bar unrelated to which app you are using. Both have options to launch automatically on restart in their prefs.

Jean H

9 years ago

Gary: It shows in some and not others. None of the browsers show the icons . I have checked jumpcut and clip menu preferences to attempt to correct but has not worked.

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Jean: Menu bar icons on the right side of the menu bar are independent of the app. They shouldn't disappear when you switch apps. The only exception is for space. If you use an app that has a lot of menus and the last menu (Help) is too far to the right, then there is no room for all of the menubar icons. Maybe that is what you are experiencing?

Barrie

9 years ago

Is there an app for iPad?

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Barrie: I can't see there ever being an app for that in iOS because of the system security built in.

Kathy George

9 years ago

Brilliant!

Jean H

9 years ago

Yes, you are right. I noticed the expanded menu with the browsers and wondered if that was the reason. Is there a way to remove some icons in the menu?
Thanks for your help. I have followed your website for several years and have learned much.

Jean H

9 years ago

Problem solved. I changed the user name to the icon and it opened some space.

Jerry J

9 years ago

The ClipMenu download site seems to be a "trick" to get users to download MacKeeper.

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Jerry: How so? I only see one download link on the right (ClipMenu 0.4.3) and I click that I get ClipMenu. I see no mention or link to the MacKeeper anywhere on the page.

9 years ago

I use clipmenu and live by it. Although don't know why you would need both if you have clipmenu. Also would love a searchable clipboard history manager. Sometimes it takes awhile to find my clippings.

assaf

9 years ago

Cloudclip can be downloaded for free from the app store and sync among all OS and iOS devices.

Mr. Luigi

9 years ago

Just checked our Flycut on the MAS. The last time it was updated was 2011 which is less than exciting. I did discover this site:

http://alternativeto.net/software/flycut/?platform=mac

ClipMenu and Jumpcut are highly rated. But, above them is a clipboard manager called CopyQ. One impressive thing about CopyQ is that it is still being aggressively updated. Gary, have you had any experience with CopyQ? Great video, BTW!

Mr. Luigi

9 years ago

I'm sorry for double posting. I forgot to mention that I also checked out "assaf's" recommendation of Cloudclip on the MAS. It only has 47 reviews. But, of those, 37 are 5 stars and 6 are 4 stars. The iCloud sync feature is quite exciting for someone like me who has 5 different Apple devices and would certainly take advantage of being able to copy an item to the clipboard on my iPhone or iPad and also have it available on my Macs...and vice-versa.

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Luigi: Haven't tried that one.

Mr. Luigi

9 years ago

This is embarrassing. I have now downloaded and used Cloudclip. It is very impressive and the iCloud sync feature is awesome. But, I don't know where my brain was when I said you could access clipboard items on your iPhone and iPad using it. You can't. But, it works wonderfully in allowing access to all your clipboard items on all your Macs...of which I have three.

Mr. Luigi

9 years ago

I am mortified. CloudClip DOES allow for accessing and sharing clipboard items from your iPad and iPhone to your Macs as it has a free companion iOS app. See below for link. I'm going away now and promise to not come back. :-)

CloudClip by Thinkbitz Software Studio
https://appsto.re/us/xncLH.i

Dr Paul Pringle

9 years ago

Gary! - I have downloaded ClipMenu but my iMac will not let me open it as the program didn't come from the Apple store or an approved source?? Where can we go from here!

PS: Enjoy your input!

Paul

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Paul: Sounds like you just need to approve it in System Preferences, Security.

Wendy Farkas

9 years ago

Thanks for another helpful video.
I've launched ClipMenu and tried to set it to launch at login (Preferences / General) but that checkbox is greyed out. Any suggestions how to activate that option?

Gary Rosenzweig

9 years ago

Wendy: Not sure. I would check the ClipMenu site to see if there is any mention of this. Otherwise, it is just a convenience. Restarting your Mac should be a rare thing (if it isn't, see http://macmost.com/shut-down-or-sleep.html).

Comments Closed.

Clipboard History Managers

Comments: 30 Responses to “Clipboard History Managers”

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