I’m looking for a clipboard manager.
Does anyone have a recommendation?
I bought CopyPaste Pro years ago, but the developer hasn’t updated it it a while. I’m wondering if I should switch (to something better?)
I’ve been using iClip ([https://iclipapp.com/]) for years and love it. Easy to use, practically no learning curve, unobtrusive, plays well with all Mac OS updates so far, inexpensive, and when I’ve had an occasional problem the developer was promptly helpful. I’ve tried a few others now and then, but none were as good. YMMV.
Alfred isn’t free once you have bought the ‘Powerpack’ but this does bring a decent clipboard manager along with other benefits, like a QuickKeys-like text snippet expander and a better-than Spotlight search function. Usual disclaimer - not connected to the company, just a delighted user!
Keyboard Maestro has a built-in clipboard manager. Since I use that, no need for any other app. And I tried them aLL.
Walter
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Pastebot is an excellent clipboard manager. Easy to use, but has lots of nice advanced features (like filters and transformations, sequential copy-and-paste) that you can adopt as and when you need them. See the well written Pastebot for Mac Help Guide for details. I’ve been using it for years and can’t recommend it enough.
Edit: Should have said that for a good review of Pastebot, TidBITS has you covered (of course!):
4 Likes
I’ve tried a number of them and prefer CopyLess2. Like all the rest it saves everything you copy. It has a popup window you can use to select items to paste, you can paste as plain text, mark items as favorites, name items, search items, serial paste, assign keystrokes to items… The couple times I’ve had issues or suggestions, the developers have been very responsive.
One thing I forgot is that CopyLess2 can post a notification when something is copied. I’ve had enough cases when an application inexplicably doesn’t allow copying in certain circumstances (web pages trying to protect the content is a common one), or I don’t hit command-C when I think I did, that knowing that a copy I thought took place actually did is a must have for me.
BLM:
What is it about CopyLess2 that you prefer over others that you tried, please?
The biggest thing is probably the notifications, as I’ve encountered only one other clipboard manager that does that (of course it’s quite possible I’ve missed some, or some have added that since I looked at them). I’ve also not seen serial paste (copy a bunch of things from one document, switch to another document and paste them all in order) elsewhere, although I don’t use that very often (but when I do need it, it’s very nice to have). Other features are all fairly common, I think most have paste as plain text, most (but not all) keep track of any type of thing copied, most have some notion of permanent entries, I’d think most sync through iCloud these days (although that’s not something I use so not something I looked for), etc. Some of it is qualitative as well, it’s fairly unobtrusive and was easy to learn to use.
Pastebot has that option also. It lets you set a key command that will to toggle serial paste and a key command to use it. I hardly use it. I do like Pastebot especially since it allows me to prohibit it from copying from programs which I do not want copied materials saved. I’m really not sure how to stop it from saving any copied materials for anything but the current session. Maybe if I took the time to read the manual I would find out 
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+1 for Pastebot
LaunchBar also offers clipboard history. I haven’t compared it to the others, but it meets my needs for accessing previously copied items.
I like CopyClip
https://fiplab.com/
Installs a nice small icon in the menubar and can hold at least 100 copies, accessed by key strokes.
Always works, not obtrusive, a well done app.
Hey Nello,
I use a combination of LaunchBar, Keyboard Maestro, and Paste (when I need to work between Macs and iOS devices).
LaunchBar for quick incidental stuff is set to hold 3 days worth of clippings.
Keyboard Maestro (which has a better search) is set to keep the last 500 clippings and has saved my bacon more than a few times when I changed something and needed to reconstitute it.
Keyboard Maestro of course does far more than manage the clipboard – I’m up to 2363 macros and counting.
I’m not completely happy with any of these individual options, but the combination works for me.
If I could find One Clipboard Manager that truly ruled them all, I would switch – but I’ve been trying everything available on the Mac for 35 years and haven’t seen one.
For snippets/boilerplate to be reused I use Typinator. Of all of them I’m most satisfied with it for its very specific task and wish I could convince the guys at Ergonis to add Clipboard History to the mix.
-Chris
I have used Copy 'em for some time now. it is available on the App Store, and can be used on iPhone and iPad as well. Syncs via the Cloud. Has multiple clipboards, etc which provide significant flexibility. Free to try then you buy after the trial period. I love it and find hard to do without. Strongly suggest you give it a try,
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Try Pastebot. I have been a user of CopyPaste and CopyPaste Pro. And you are right. It gets updated and the update is too late and changes something. It is now version 3.7.9.1 which has to be manually applied (plumamazing.com or macupdate.com). It just is not the same as you will lose all your history when it installs the new version. I have used Pastebot simultaneously with CopyPaste Pro and now can say CopyPaste Pro has lost its edge for now.
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CopyClip for the long list.
Quicksilver for storage launch and other functions.
Another for Pastebot. I don’t remember what I was using before, but two functions were essential to me, and Pastebot does them without the intrusive interface some other programs have. Function 1: plain text paste. Function 2: keyboard-programmed paste. With the latter, I’ve programmed a few iterations of cmd-v: cmd-sh-v to paste the previous copy, cmd-ctl-sh-v to paste the copy before that, cmd-ctl-v to paste as plain text, and cmd-opt-v to paste as all lowercase. Its built-in filters are very useful, too, such as decoding URL entities (and vice versa).
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I’ve used Paste for a number of years now, and find the integration invaluable for working between my various devices. I also really like the ability to create multiple pinboards to hold frequently used items by topic, and the fact that you can search across all clipboards/pinboards. The user interface is nice and clean and the keyboard integration is very useable.
I have Parallels Toolbox that comes with my Parallels Subscription, & I use the Clipboard App in that Suite