Every year there comes a time when an old and trusted Mac utility needs to be put out to pasture. Usually it’s because it is no longer updated to work with the latest version of OS X. Such is the case with PTHPasteboard, one of the Mac’s best clipboard managers, which hasn’t been updated since mid-2012. It still works but causes conflict with other Mac utilities (trial and error is your friend).
PTHPasteboard had it all; loaded with features but incredibly easy to use, and it synchronized clipboards between Macs on a local network. Replacements for such elegant and robust utilities are not easily found. Not every Mac user has a need for a clipboard manager, but once you use it awhile it becomes a must-have as it remembers everything you copy making repasting much faster and easier.
After trying a dozen or so apps with basic clipboard management features, I settled, for now, on Copy’em Paste; also elegant and robust; a good blend of useful functions.
Copy’em Paste simply remembers what you copy. It resides in the Mac’s Menubar and uses keyboard shortcuts to copy items, select items from the history, and paste items; the learning curve is modest. Favorite clippings, those you use often and mark as Favorites, can be stored forever, while the limit for all other clippings is 999.
There’s a handy option to take copied formatted text and convert it to plain text when being pasted into a document.
Multiple copied snippets in the Copy’em Paste history can also be pasted into a document. History can be searched and rearranged in the list. Copy’em Paste will copy and store just about everything that can be copied by Command-C or Command-X- text, code, images, whatever. The app requires an odd add-on to paste stored items from history but it’s a one-time download which is easily installed.
Overall, Copy’em Paste is well done and so far has become a decent replacement for PTHPasteboard. One function is missing, though, and that’s the ability to share a the entire clipboard history between Macs (or to iPhone and iPad). Fortunately, there’s a free solution that does just that. It’s called CloudClip Manager.
CloudClip Manager stores clipboard items in iCloud so they can be synchronized between Macs, iPhone, and iPad. Yes, there’s an iOS version of CloudClip and it’s free, too (I don’t claim to understand the business model). While not as robust or feature laden as Copy’em Paste it is a good way to share clipboard items between devices.
chris says
There is a listing of clipboard managers here.