Why You Should Get And How To Use a Mac Clipboard Manager

Perhaps the most useful third-party tool you can get for your Mac is a clipboard manager. These will let you go beyond the single copy and paste clipboard and recall items you previous copied.

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Video Transcript: Hi this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let me tell you about Mac Clipboard Managers. 
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Those of you that have been watching me for awhile know that I'm one of the few voices out there that tells you not to clutter your Mac with all sorts of system extensions and helper apps. I personally don't use anything like window managers or any special search tools or things like that. I believe that macOS has a lot of great features built-in and it's worth it to take the time to learn how to use it instead of falling back to using third party apps that clutter and perhaps even slow down your Mac. 
However there is one third party tool that I do recommend that you install on your Mac. That's a clipboard manager. Normally when you copy and paste the last thing you copied is the thing that is pasted in. A clipboard manager allows you to go back and look at your copy history and paste something else besides the very last thing that you copied. This is fantastic for productivity if you do any kind of writing. Any kind at all. Even just writing email messages or posting comments online. Being able to access a clipboard history is very useful.
Fortunately you don't have to look any further than the Mac App Store for a whole bunch of great clipboard managers. So there's really no risk in installing one plus a lot of them are free. To find a clipboard manager go to the Mac App Store App and search for Clipboard Manager. Then you'll get a list of results. There are a lot of different clipboard managers. Some of these are free. Some you pay for one time and others have subscriptions or in app purchases. Each has a different set of features and works in a slightly different way. But they all, more or less, do the same thing. 
They'll remember a list of recent things that you've copied. So you can paste not just the last thing that you've copied but go back and paste things you've previously copied. I'm going to show you three different ones here starting with CloudClip Manager, the one I happen to use. CloudClip Manager is a pretty basic one. It just copies text and remembers that but it does save a list in iCloud. So since I have two Macs, a laptop and a desktop, I can copy things on one and then see those same items on the other. 
After it's running I just see it as a Menu Bar icon right here at the top. When I copy something it remembers it. So let's copy something here. If I go and click there you can see it remembers what I copied. Now that is nothing special. The payoff is when you copy another thing. So, for instance, I'll copy another word here and now when I click in there you can see I've got both of those things remembered. I can continue to copy different things. Now I can look at the list and it's getting quite long. Normally I'd only be able to paste the last thing that I copied. But now I can actually select from this list.
So, for instance, if I were to paste it would paste the last thing that I copied. But I could go into the menu here and select a previous item that I copied and then paste that. Let's look at all the options. There's a Clear menu here and I can clear everything or a specific item. I can set this to Open at Login so I don't have to remember to run it every time I reboot. I can set a Clip Limit to the number to save. So fifteen is the default but I could go up to fifty. If I turn off Automatically Add Clips what will happen is if I copy something I can go up here and see that I could add it manually. It won't automatically add to the list. This will allow me to highly customize this list because I'm only adding very specific things to it.
I could set it to ignore one password. So for instance if I copied things from one password to paste somewhere else usually that's pretty secure information. This way it won't save it in the list and there's a Hot Key. A Hot Key simply brings up this menu so I can use it with the keyboard. So for instance I can use it Control Option Command V and you can see it brings the menu right up. I can use the arrow keys and go down and select something and then paste.
Everything is pretty simple. If I install this on my second Mac, and I'm using the same Apple ID, I should see the same items appear there.
Another one I used to use for a longtime and it's a little bit more technical is Flycut. So if I were to open that I'd see it appear in the menu just like CloudClip and it works in a similar way. If I were to copy a bunch of different things and then look in here you could see those items appear. One thing I like about Flycut is if you select the item it simply pastes it in automatically. I don't select it and then paste. There's also a way to search for things in here. I can Clear and there's a pretty good set of Preferences here including being able to sync settings and the clippings over iCloud and set a HotKey.
The HotKey works a little different than selecting something from the menu. So for instance if I want to insert something here I'll use Shift Command V and you can see it brings up a little overlay here. I can use the arrow keys to move between the different items and then release to paste that in. In Preferences I can do things like make that stay so Sticky. So you just do Shift Command V and then it stays there until you select the item that you want. I could also set it to Don't copy from Password Fields and set some rules for that. I can also set the appearance of that overlay as well.
So you can see it's a little more technical here but it works basically the same way.
A third example is CopyClip. It's free but it has a built-in promotion for apps from that same developer. But it comes up with this same kind of menu. If I copy some things and then I'll look and see here the list. Under Preferences I can set how many to remember, whether to start at Startup. A list of apps for exceptions. So I can exclude things like Password Managers. Now if you go into here and select something it doesn't immediately paste it in. You have to do Command V. These shortcuts, all they do is when you select the menu there you can then use the shortcut at that point to select the item and then you have to paste.
You'll find more features in some of these other clipboard managers if you're willing to pay. For instance the ability to copy images or parts of images as well as just text, Rich text of course, and some other things as well. Some of them work in different ways giving you visual representations of what you have in the clipboard rather than just a quick pulldown menu of it. 
So look through the Mac App Store and pick out a clipboard manager that fits your needs or just try out one of the free ones that I've shown. I think you'll find clipboard managers immediately become an essential tool on your Mac.

Comments: 15 Responses to “Why You Should Get And How To Use a Mac Clipboard Manager”

Phillip Pensabene

5 years ago

Are there any clipboard mangers that have iOS apps for iPad/iPhone which share clips between Mac and mobile devices?

Gary Rosenzweig

Phillip: I'm not aware of which ones do this offhand, but I'm sure some do. Of course macOS/iOS will share the current clipboard item as-is.

Caroline

Philip: CloudClip does that.

Gene

Hi Gary! I once purchased and used a clipboard manager named "Copied." It worked fine for a while. Then (and this may be simultaneous with my upgrading to Catalina) it began to place three copies of one copied item on its clipboard. I tried to contact the developed months ago, but he does not answer. Any explanation?

Thanks.

Gene: Sounds like the app is broken and it isn't a good sign that the developer didn't respond. Maybe time to find a new clipboard manager.

Peter

Hi Gary,

Have you checked out Unclutter app. It does clipping and more. It would be great to get your opinion on it.

Thanks for all the great videos!

Peter: Haven't tried it, sorry.

Christopher Lawrence

I just downloaded an app called "Clipy". I would suggest trying this app, too.

Dan Carpenter

Thank you for this great info! I have been struggling with this issue of late and while it isn't a major issue, it certainly will save some time when multiple items I want to copy and paste-especially when commenting on blogs and videos.

G Lud

Suggest you try CopyPaste Pro which is noted by Tidbits, and for some reason it isn't in App Store....been using it for more than 10 years.....

Gerry t.

Thanks Gary, a good manager is also a great aid to learning. Many of your tips and shortcuts, inc. your entire hotkey cheatsheet, end up on my manager until they're learned. And various signatures, codes, symbols, logos, icons besides the usual run of addresses, formulae etc gathered and awaiting a more permanent home. These snippets lurk in mini-folders waiting release by my Paste ® hotkey ⌘+V. A good clipboard "history" manager and Text Replacement are a winning combo.

Jack

I downloaded Copied to my iPad, (free with in app purchase, which expands its value, $2.99) then tried to put it on my iMac. The price was $7.99. Can’t figure out the price(s) differences.

Jack: Mac apps and iOS apps are separate things. Developers can charge what they want for each, probably with market value in mind. I'd imagine the app does a lot more on the Mac than it does on iOS.

Juan C.

Downloaded Flycut and love the app as I don't have to use command V...Thanks for all your great videos.

Karen Brown

I've used "Collective" for several years. It's relatively simple, but I particularly like it because I can designate a clip as a "favorite" (I only have a half dozen or so of them, but I use them over and over). Then Collective lets you clear "Only non-favorited clippings."

Comments Closed.

Why You Should Get And How To Use a Mac Clipboard Manager

Comments: 15 Responses to “Why You Should Get And How To Use a Mac Clipboard Manager”

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