Imagine you find a paragraph on the web that you want to email to a friend. You copy the paragraph. Then you think you should send a link to full article, so you copy that too. You start composing your email and you type Ctrl-V to paste in the paragraph, but to your disappointment you just paste the link. So you go back and copy the paragraph again.
The problem is that the Windows clipboard only holds the most recent thing you copied. Jeff Atwood posted an article a few days ago called Reinventing the Clipboard where he recommends a utility called ClipX that extends the clipboard. After you install ClipX, typing Ctrl-Shift-V brings up a little menu of recent clippings available for pasting.
I’ve been using ClipX for a few days now. It’s simple and unobtrusive. The only slight challenge at first is remembering that it’s available. One you think to yourself once or twice, “Oh wait, I don’t have to go back and copy that again,” you’re hooked.
I installed ClipX a few weeks ago, and I’d agree — the biggest challenge is remembering it’s there. This functionality should be standard in the OS…
I will have to try ClipX someday. But I did used to use the Ditto utility. Effectively the same thing, I imagine. Free, downloadable, easy to use, easy to install and uninstall, backup your clippings in a database, no garbage.