14 DAY TRIAL // Most of the time, most people are happy with having just one clipboard, and indeed, for many tasks the tried and true copy-paste is enough to get the job done. And, if you find the need for more than one clipboard, there are many great multi-clipboards and clipboard extenders out there, and they all work differently, and are all suited to specific tasks. Unfortunately, once you get used to having all those extra clipboard options, you can't go back to using the default one, it's just too limited. And you wind up using many different clipboard extenders, each for a different task. CuteClips is one such multiple clipboard that is not only very well designed, but also great to work with.
Discreet CuteClips is totally invisible until you need it. It has no dock icon or menu bar item or anything other than a key combination that invokes its window. And when you do invoke it, it brings up a half translucent bezel window that is not only well integrated with the look and feel of the system, but also non-intrusive as it lets you see what you were doing behind it.
After you select one of the clipboard entries, it automatically hides itself again, staying dormant until you need it. And because it uses so very little resources it will never bother you.
Copy many, paste many Most of these programs work by either providing multiple shortcuts in order to switch the currently active multiple keyboard or through a clipboard window. CuteClips works by keeping you last twelve copied chunks of information in its library. And you only need to invoke it when you want to paste something. But what if I want to always keep something for easy pasting? Nothing easier, just Option-click on any of the entries and a little green light will appear next to it to indicate that it will be kept.
You can navigate through the clipboard entries using Tab/Shift-Tab or the arrow keys, and in the right half of the CuteClips window you can see a preview.
When you want to paste some of those older chunks of information, just bring up the CuteClips window and either click or hit return or enter to paste the currently selected entry. If you would like to paste a clipping as plain text, without any styles, just hold down the option key. As soon as you paste, the CuteClips window automatically disappears leaving you to go on with your work. If you would like to paste many entries in just one move, you can use Command-Up/Down to paste all entries above or below the currently selected clipping. Fast, clean and efficient.
Needs some salt While CuteClips is on the right track and promises to be great a few more releases down the road, at the moment there are a few problems and limitations.
For one thing, if you have a nasty habit to copy several times, to be sure that it's in the clipboard, like I do in X11 applications, you will find yourself with 5 entries that are identical and useless, and all those things that you did need gone from the list. This is silly and should be fixed... how hard can it be to compare the content that has just been copied to the most recent CuteClips entry and ignore it if they are the same?
Another missing link is the ability to hold a modifier key down in order to paste without closing the window. If you collect information from several places and then want to dump it all in one document it becomes very tedious. This can also be tied in with the ability to change cursor focus in the application you are going to paste in.
The Good Very clean and easy to work with. The design and accessibility are great, free of any useless gadgets that just get in the way, and it takes up almost no resources when it is inactive.
The Bad Can still be improved in many ways, and there are still features that can make it better. There are problems like the two I mentioned above but they are not major issues, although still annoying.
The Truth Built for functionality without ignoring any of the details, this little clipboard enhancer, despite being less gadget heavy gets the job done in a fast, clean way. If the bumps are ironed out and just a few more features packed in it would really be something.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
