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Filed under: Developer, Text, Windows, Productivity, Commercial, Freeware

PhraseExpress is so much more than an autotext app

Windowsby Lee Mathews Nov 30th 2008

A good snippet manager or autotext tool can save just about anyone a little time and effort. For those who do a lot of typing, it can even help prevent repetitive stress injuries. If you're looking for an application like this, take a look at PhraseExpress.

Apart from point and click insertion of pre-defined text and auto-completion of recognized words and phrases, Phrase Express packs a clipboard monitor, macro support, and system-wide spell check.

Though the settings window presents only two buttons - new folder and new phrase - you're able to do a whole lot more than add commonly used text. PhraseExpress' included macros provide a wide array of powerful functions, including:
  • launching external applications
  • changing window focus
  • opening files, folders, and web pages
  • trimming, formatting, and replacing text
  • embedding autotext suggestions
  • time and date stamping
  • inserting Windows environment variables
Since hotkeys are also supported, you PhraseExpress makes a very capable launcher application as well. Unlike some other launcher/hotkey apps, you're able to utilize the Windows key. Despite its numerous features, resource usage is very light - about 10mb of memory on my Vista install.

PhraseExpress can be installed, or you can download the portable version and extract it to your USB flash drive. It's free for personal use and $49.95 to register for commercial use. There's also a network edition that allows groups to access a shared library that runs $44.95 (or less, based on volume) per seat.

If you're already using PhraseExpress, share your experience. If you don't, what apps do you use (if anything) to handle these tasks?

Tags: autotext, clipboard, launcher, macro, portable, snippet

Filed under: Text, Utilities, Macintosh

Shadow: network-enabled Mac clipboard manager

Macby Jay Hathaway Oct 8th 2008

Shadow is a clipboard utility for OS X. Nothing special about that, right? I mean, we covered a whole slew of good ones back in January. Hold on a minute, though, because Shadow puts a new twist on the classic clipboard-enhancement app: it lets you copy and paste across your network.

That's right: Shadow uses Bonjour to let you use your clipboard across all your networked Macs. It has a lot of other useful features that any modern clipboard app needs, too. Multiple clipboards come in handy for organizing or keeping things private. A nice, bezel-style UI keeps the interface from being too obtrusive.

Although it's in public beta, Shadow is already highly usable. It records your clipboard history automatically, and you can summon it with a hotkey or the menu icon. Navigating your saved items is easy, and you can do an easy one-button paste with the spacebar. If you already have a clipboard manager, Shadow might be good enough replace it. If you don't, it's a good place to start.

Tags: beta, clipboard, clipboardapplications, copy, copy paste, CopyPaste, paste, Shadow

Filed under: Internet, Text, Utilities, Macintosh, Blogging, Productivity, Commercial

Get your clip on with jfSnips for Mac OS X

Macby Drew Olanoff May 26th 2008

jfSnipsDo you often repeat the same HTML code, form emails, or text? jfSnips might be up your alley then. With jfSnips you can manage all of the text you regularly paste over and over again, as well as re-use everything you've copied in a clipboard, much like Windows does. Except this is for all of you Mac OS X lovers out there.

You can place clips of text in whatever categories you like, so you could have one for PHP code, Javascript, HTML, or whatever tickles your fancy. Just don't tell us about your fancy tickling, that's way TMI.

Keyboard shortcuts make it even easier to insert text wherever you like. A simple SHIFT-CTRL-V pops open the jfSnips drop-down that sits up in your menu bar. Easy.

So if you repeat multiple email signatures that go a little something like "Sincerely, Thurston Howell IV" over and over and over, then give jfSnips a whirl. You can download it and give it a 15 day try or pay $15 for a full license. If you're looking for a free option, or a commercial utility with a different feature set, check out our recent rundown of clipboard applications for OS X.

Tags: apple, clipboard, jfsnip, mac, text

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

ClipX: Clipboard history manager for Windows

Windowsby Simon Kerbel Apr 3rd 2008

We've covered clipboard applications for OS X in the near past (well-nigh exhaustively), so it's only fair that Windows clipboard applications get a little love and affection.

ClipX is a handy little clipboard manager for Windows which allows you to copy multiple items to your clipboard, then pick and choose which one to paste, either through a mouse selection or use of a hotkey. ClipX allows you to copy both text and images.

ClipX abounds with customizable options:
  • Change how many items to remember on the clipboard (up to 1024, perhaps a number of significance for the developer)
  • Choose a sound to play when a clipboard entry is recorded
  • Enable multi-user or multi-session support
ClipX has plugin extensibility as well. Here are a few of the more useful ones:
ClipX is free, though donations are appreciated. Windows only.

[via Online Tech Tips]

Tags: clipboard, clipX

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Supercharge your Windows clipboard with Clipdiary

Windowsby Brad Linder Feb 8th 2008

Clipdiary
Like the idea of having a copy of every snippet of information you copy to your Windows clipboard, but don't feel like trusting a remote web site with your personal data? Clipdiary basically does the same thing as ControlC, but instead of storing your clipboard information line, Clipdiary stores it on your computer.

Once Clipdiary is running, every time you hit Ctrl+C, a copy of the information you're copying is saved to a Clipdiary database. If you hit the print screen button, you can also save images as BMP files. You can bring up your database by hitting Ctrl+D or clicking the Clipdiary icon in your taskbar.

You can preview information stored in the database by clicking on the entry in your clipboard, but there's no way to preview images, which are unhelpfully labeled "image." If you want to paste text or an image into a new file, just double click on the entry or single-click and then click the copy button.

[via NoHeat]

Tags: clipboard, clipdiary, controlc

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

ControlC changes the way you copy and paste

WindowsMacLinuxby Brad Linder Feb 4th 2008

ControlC
Without copy and paste functionality, modern computers might as well be ancient typewriters. OK, that might be going a bit far, but would you really want to live in a world without copy and paste functionality? It's amazing how much time you can save copying and pasting serial numbers, text, URLs, pictures, and other items.

But what happens when you hit Ctrl+C and then forget to hit Ctrl+V until after you've already accidentally copied something else to your clipboard? Or what if you copied a URL into an email last week but you can't find the URL or the email today?

ControlC is a new service that automatically saves everything you copy to your clipboard to your web account. Since a record of all your copies is saved online, you can copy to your hearts content, save in the knowledge that even if you accidentally overwrite the clipboard you can still find that text snippet you need. In fact, you might start hitting Ctrl+C even when you have no intention of pasting the text anywhere, just to save a URL for later.

If you copy a picture, ControlC will not store the image online. But if you copy the URL for a web image or video, you can view the pictures or video from your ControlC account. You can also mark some text, images, or videos as public if you want to share them with friends or the the larger ControlC community.

ControlC is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. The service is currently in private beta, but you can sign up for an account using the code "beta4040." Free account holders will only be able to access 5 days worth of clippings. But you can remove that restriction by signing up for a paid account for $20 for 6 months.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: clipboard, control-c, controlc, copy, paste

Filed under: Productivity

Lifehacker : 10 Clipboard tricks

by Grant Robertson Jul 25th 2007


The system clipboard is possibly one of man's greatest inventions. Just think how often you use that little piece of functionality, and how much time it saves you every single day. But, are you using it as effectively as you could?

Lifehacker put together a list of 10 clipboard tricks you can use to increase your productivity, and amaze your friends -- ok, your friends probably won't be amazed. Still, it's a top ten worthy of a look and, you just might learn something.

Tags: clipboard, lifehacker, tips, tricks

Broadcast Clipboard: Copy here, paste across the office

by Jordan Running Oct 19th 2006

Broadcast ClipboardDana "Software Jedi" Hanna's App a Day experiment--now sadly concluded--has proven to be fertile ground for Download Squad fodder. Broadcast Clipboard is a perfect example. How many times have you wanted to copy a bunch of text from one computer to another across the room or on the other side of the building? Okay, well, I have enough times for the both of us. There are lots of ways to accomplish the task--e-mailing things to yourself is pretty standard--but all of them require a few clicks, when what you really want is to copy here, paste there. Broadcast Clipboard makes that possible. All you have to do is install it on each computer in question, and when you copy something on one of them, it will be broadcast across the network and inserted into the clipboard on all of the others for quick-and-easy pasting. Very cool. As with every App a Day program, Broadcast Clipboard is an open source app for Windows.

Tags: app a day, AppADay, broadcast clipboard, BroadcastClipboard, clipboard, copy, dana hanna, DanaHanna, network, paste, software jedi, SoftwareJedi

Filed under: Text, Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

ClipPath - grab a file's path from context menu

Windowsby Jason Clarke Aug 17th 2006

ClipPathIt seems like references to ClipPath have shown up all over the place, and I'm not sure where I first saw of it. I bookmarked the link, and finally came back to check it out, and I've got to say it's a simple, and great idea. (Doesn't it seem like most great ideas are simple?) Anyway, ClipPath gives you a context menu option to grab the full path to a file from within Windows Explorer. The most obvious use of this is for users of web-based email services, who have to use the awkward "file open" dialog box to navigate to a file on their system to attach it to an email. This little utility allows the user to simply right-click on the file (however they navigated to it), copy the path, then paste the path into the appropriate field in their web-based email program, and voila. Simple as that. And for those of us that bounce around between different browsers, it's nice to have a little hack that enhances a web service that works on any browser.

Tags: clip path, clipboard, ClipPath, file path, FilePath, path

Filed under: Text, Web services

Cl1p.net: The Internet clipboard

by Jordan Running Apr 11th 2006

Cl1p.netCl1p.net is a web site that you can use as a clipboard between two computers. Just surf to any URL starting with cl1p.net/ (e.g. cl1p.net/bobsnotes), paste some text and hit Save, and then anybody who visits that URL will be able to access what you pasted. It also lets you upload attachments up to 2MB. You can also password-protect your pastes, though that only keeps others from editing, not reading. As someone who has Gmail open in a tab 24 hours a day, the utility of Cl1p.net is not entirely clear, but I do like its minimalist interface and it seems like somebody ought to be able to find a use for it. Cl1pDrive, anyone?

[Via Lifehacker]

Tags: cl1p, cl1p.net, clipboard, text, web

Filed under: Text, Utilities, Macintosh, Freeware, Open Source

Jumpcut - multi-clip clipboard tool for OS X

Macby Victor Agreda, Jr. Apr 11th 2006

jumpcut clipboard toolSomething that blew me away, back in the day, were the multiple clipboard slots I started using when Office 2000 came out. This blew me away because, as a mostly Mac user, I was used to the old copy/paste one thing at a time routine. Well Office 2k spoiled me, because despite efforts like iClip Lite (a Dashboard widget), I have yet to find a great clipboard tool. But Jumpcut might fit the bill. It's free, open source, and incredibly easy to use, once you get the hang of it. Copy some text, and it's stored in Jumpcut's holding tank. Drop down the menu bar icon (or use a hotkey to activate a bezel view), choose which clip you want to paste, and go paste it. There are some idiosyncrasies, but those are mostly from other apps like Camino, and how they handle keyboard shortcuts or the clipboard. It's the little things in life that help so much, isn't it?

Tags: clipboard, enhancement, extension, hack, iclip, jumpcut, menu bar, MenuBar, mod, osx, sourceforge

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