If you use multiple computers at your workplace, you know how frustrating it is to copy Windows clipboard data across two computers. If both the computers are connected in a local area network, you can share the data by simply pasting the clipboard content in a simple text document. Then put the text file in the shared folder and copy the file from another computer.

But this is not the case if both the computers are not connected in a local area network. Consider a scenario: you have a desktop computer and a laptop in separate rooms – it’s not possible to get a big LAN cable and connect them in a home network. How do you share clipboard content in such circumstances ?

Enter Cl1P.net – a nice web service which lets you copy and paste plain as well as rich text data across multiple computers. Works quite simple – just go to the home page and append any random string e.g http://clip.net/huihui.

You will see a simple text box where you can paste the clipboard data or type whatever you want

The content is auto saved so you can simply browse to that URL from another computer and copy the data. Sweet!

The site also allows you to password protected the URL, just use the options button from the left sidebar and add   a password to the content, as shown below

This is very useful, you can share this data with anyone. There is nothing to install or download and you don’t have to email all the time, just to share some piece of code or clipboard data. Think CL1P as an online whiteboard where you can write anything and access it from any computer – just remember the URL. Thanks to Himanshu for the hat tip.

Techie Buzz Verdict

The service looks impressive, no registration nags or obstrusive advertisements. They also provide a handy bookmarklet, just clip the data, grab the URL and open it anywhere to access it. Nothing earth shaking, but these simple tools makes computing far more fun and easy to use.

You probably know how the Windows clipboard works. You copy something, then you can paste it somewhere else. The things you copy could be plain text, formatted text, images, links or files. You may also know what happens each time you use the clipboard. The Windows clipboard only holds the memory of the last clipping. Anything you clipped previous to the last item is gone forever.

This loss can be frustrating, and the frustration has inspired many solutions to this problem. The most common solution is a tool called a clipboard manager. These tools (sometimes called clipboard extenders, enhancements or extensions) can give you access to old clippings.

I won’t use a PC for any length of time without a clipboard manager. Over the years, I’ve tried many clipboard extenders, and Ditto is my favorite. Ditto is a free and open source program. It has built-in help and an active online forum. It also comes in a portable version that you can unzip onto a flash drive and take with you for use on any PC.

Ditto’s search feature is what really sold me on it. When Ditto is activated by it’s hot key, it displays the most recent clips and also defaults to a search mode. As soon as you start typing, Ditto searches all of it’s clippings for the characters you enter and displays the most likely clippings that contain those characters.

When you combine the search feature with Ditto’s ability to permanently store clippings, you have a time saving database right at your finger tips. After I describe the program, I’ll show you my favorite feature to save you time if you decide to use it.

The default Windows clipboard has a serious downside. It can only keep the last copied data and whatever you copied earlier is lost. If you want to copy multiple items in Windows Clipboard, Winklipper is just the tool you need.

Earlier we have seen some better alternatives of Windows clipboard and how to perform specific actions while copying text in Windows clipboard. Winklipper can be used to backup and restore Windows clipboard data very easily.

To get started with Winklipper, download Winklipper and extract the zipped package. It is a portable application and thus requires no installation. You can carry the small utility in a usb stick and use it on multiple computers.

Once the program is launched it sits in the Windows system tray and monitors your copy activity. Right click the system tray icon and go to preferences. From here, you can set the number of items to store in the clipboard.

Copying and pasting items: Copying items is done the usual way and you need not invoke the application while copying. To paste a specific clipboard entry, just right click the Winklipper icon from system tray

Bingo! All your clipboard entries are arranged in the order you have copied. To paste a clipboard item, just select it and it will be copied to Windows clipboard. Now you can go ahead and paste it in the desired program.

You may also be interested in Clipomatic Best clipboard manager for Windows

Techie-Buzz Verdict

Winklipper is very good at copying multiple items in Windows clipboard. The utility is free and portable and thus can be used in multiple computers. It’s works perfectly in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Techie-Buzz rating: 4/5 (very good)

The biggest annoyance I have with the Windows OS is that it does not support storing multiple text in the clipboard. Except for Microsoft Word which has its own Clipboard and stores up to 24 clips you cannot store multiple data in the clipboard. This tends to become quite a hassle. To get over the annoyance I always paste the current text in memory to a text file before copying something new so that I do not erase something that might be important.

The problem occurs when you have copied a certain text and then copied something else without pasting the older text. Due to the Clipboard remembering only one clip your older clip is erased from the memory. Nevertheless I have done it quite a lot of time and lost something important text and have had to retype the entire thing again.

Clipomatic is the perfect solution to the problem. It creates a cache of what has been copied to the clipboard and does not erase the old clip. Which means that you can now store more than 1 item in the Clipboard.

By default Clipomatic allows you to store up to 10 items in the clipboard but you can easily change this by going to the settings. In addition to that instead of the regular Ctrl + V combination to paste items you will have to use a new shortcut Ctrl + Alt + V which is also configurable in the settings. Pressing the new shortcut key for pasting will bring up a new menu from which you can choose the text you want to past.

Well if you think that’s all to it then you will be in for a surprise. Clipomatic has a cool feature where you can create permanent clips which can be available to you even when no text is copied to the clipboard. This will help you store text that you frequently used to be copied quickly and easily. This feature could be very useful if when you may have to paste your hobbies, about you etc in social networking sites or even your website description which many sites ask for.

Do add a permanent clip to the Clipomatic Clipboard right click on the icon in the system tray and click on Clipset Editor. Once you have done that a new window will pop up. Right click in this New and click on add clip.

Another window will pop up in this add the text you want to be made permanently available to you and click on Ok. Once you have done that close the Clipset Editor. The next time you use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + V you will able to see the permanent clips as an option.

Clipomatic works in any application including browsers, text editors and documents. All you have to do is use the new shortcut Ctrl + Alt + V.

Summarizing

Clipomatic is genuinely one of the best softwares I have come across till date. It solves the biggest problem I have had for years and I would definitely add this one to my must have applications that should be installed with any PC.

The permanent clip option is also quite a nice feature. I can simply create permanent clips for the site description, about me and easily paste it into websites that require it.

Do you use any other softwares to manage your clipboard. Do let me know about it, I am always on the lookout for interesting softwares.

Download: Clipomatic Clipboard Manager

Technorati tags: Windows Clipboard, Clipboard Manager, Clipboard, Clipomatic