615: The Clipboard Manager Roundup

Episodes
#42

Do any of the apps mentioned in the Podcast (or App Store) work with Apple Mail to copy/save emails.

#43

Thanks. Is the developer of Paste here? I’d like to discuss this potential enhancement with them.

#44

To be honest I had never used a clipboard manager until this week. I knew they existed but it was just another thing on my list of things to get acquainted with in an already busy schedule. Enjoyed the episode and decided to play around during the Thanksgiving holiday and can already see so many uses for a clipboard manager.

Since I already owned Keyboard Maestro I started there. Probably not the best place to start. To much work for simple management tasks although the transformation tools are impressive. Went ahead and took advantage of the “Black Friday” sale and subscribed to Paste for $4.99 and think it has great promise for me. Additionally I found it easy to use KM for text transformations while using Paste for organization so best of both worlds. My first Pinboard is a collection of standard emails that I regularly send to students. This will save time. Think I have finally been talked into buying the power pack for Alfred and will play with that as well and see where all this shakes out.

3 Likes
#45

I wish one would work through Microsoft Remote Desktop :tired_face:

#46

According to [this Paste blog post(Paste with Shortcuts for macOS Monterey | by Paste | Paste | Oct, 2021 | Medium) there is a “Get item at index” Shortcuts action. I would think that could be used - on iOS and now Monterey - to fill in a template.

I shall experiment. (I should’ve done that before composing the link above.) :slight_smile:

#47

Having experimented, I have a Shortcut - using Paste - that takes the last 2 clipboard items and makes a Markdown link on the clipboard.

I also have a Keyboard Maestro macro that does the same - and then creates a new Drafts draft from it.

In both cases you copy the URL to the clipboard, and then the text of the link, and then invoke the automation

I think I’ll write these up in a blog post. They’re both quite simple. I just need to “sleep on it”. (Stuff happens to ideas when I do that.) :slight_smile:

1 Like
#48

You shouldn’t have to copy anything. Keyboard Maestro can get the URL and the link title for you.

1 Like
#49

In the episode it was mentioned how Jumpcut hasn’t changed in all those years. That is true, but there is actually an updated and more modern successor: Flycut. Have been using it for years. I miss the scissor icon, though…

Anyways, am trying out Maccy now, and it seems to be an upgrade so far. Thanks!

#50

Every time I chance upon discussions on clipboard managers, Paste is always highly lauded. It boggles me because I seem to be the odd one out who isn’t that thrilled about it. I so want to love it though, because it comes with my Setapp subscription, and I want my money’s worth, but somehow every time I reinstall it to give it another shot, I’d end up uninstalling it soon after. I just find the experience of it too bulky, if that makes any sense, and the interface takes up so much of the screen estate.

I used to use CopyQ, which was sufficient for my needs except it was kinda buggy. Eventually I switched to Maccy, which is like a more well-designed CopyQ and I’m really pleased with it. Minimal, stays out of my way but everything’s there when I need it. I suppose the only thing it doesn’t do that I would like is the ability to share my clips between devices.

#51

Right. It’s just a simple example that gathers more than one clipboard item and fills out what is effectively a template. (Which is why I’m mentioning it in this thread.)

Actually - as a Firefox user (because of its better HTML 5 Canvas support) - it is a little tricky to extract a link in Markdown format.

#52

@MartinPacker, by chance is the macro Copy as Markdown Link - Macro Library - Keyboard Maestro Discourse by @ComplexPoint. If not, I suggest you check it out; it’s incredibly useful!

1 Like
#53

Hello Jim.

No. It’s not.

I’m only including that example because it’s a simple one with “fill in the blanks” that anyone can understand. It’s not meant to be “production quality” - as @complexpoint’s contributions tend to be.

It’s the “fill in the blanks” aspect I’m portraying - as an experiment with clipboard managers. (To bring this thread (somewhat) :slight_smile: back on track.)

If I could think of a better - only slightly more complex - example I would use that instead.

1 Like
#54

This episode finally triggered me to buy Alfred & Powerpack. I’ve been a Launchbar user for years - since Quicksilver died. Yet it has had virtually no meaningful development or community built around it.

Now today I noticed Launchbar was consuming many CPU cycles. Rather than investigate, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I purchased Alfred immediately.

Now I have to retrain my fingers. That’s probably going to be like switching from QWERTY to Dvorak…

7 Likes
#55

OK. Here’s my blog post: Clippy? Not THAT Clippy!

1 Like
#56

I dropped Launchbar because it was feeling neglected, I went to Alfred, never got used to it and dropped that and put a Keyboard Maestro palette where it used to be. ⌘+ space bar, totally satisfied with my idiosyncratic set of actions.

1 Like
#57

My weapon of choice for clipboard management on macOS is Keyboard Maestro.

Here are two timesaving clipboard tricks (macros) I used several times a day:

Paste Quoted Text

This trims the whitespace from the current clipboard and pastes it wrapped in quotes. I have various flavors of this for the different quote characters. For example if I have “ abc “ in my clipboard, I can type a trigger string to invoke the behavior:

“cb → it pastes “abc”
‘cb → it pastes ‘abc’
`cb → it pastes `abc`

This is very useful when working on the command line.

Paste URL

This pastes the most recent URL found in the clipboard history. That’s it. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s very helpful. “Just give me the URL I copied I few minutes ago.”

6 Likes
#58

Tried Paste for the first time as I already have Setapp. So far it’s working great for me.

2 Likes
#59

Pastepal is on offer today for 2.99 (was 13.99) was a new one on me and looks interesting

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/pastepal-clipboard-manager/id1503446680

#60

Another experiment occurred to me yesterday:

  1. Copy a “marker” string to the clipboard. “XYZZY” would do nicely. :slight_smile:
  2. Copy some items to the clipboard.
  3. Sort everything copied after “XYZZY” back to the clipboard (or to somewhere else. Possibly a draft with a Markdown bulleted list.

So using the clipboard history as a buffer / stack.

To me clipboard history is the simplest transient storage going.

I might just do this this weekend.

#61

I’ve got this to work with Keyboard Maestro - including a limit on the number of entries.

I don’t know if this is of any interest to anyone.

1 Like