Occasionally I come across a program that’s a real keeper, and I’ll admit it’s been a while since I’ve found one, but ClipCache Plus version 2.6 fits the bill. In a past newsletter article (February 2000), where I listed some killer software, I mentioned another program similar to ClipCache Plus, called Clipmate for Windows, which is also a clipboard extender. By that I mean it allows you to save more than just the last text or graphic copied. While Clipmate does a good job of saving your clips, that’s about all it does. ClipCache Plus, on the other hand, is a clipboard extender with quite a few other options.

ClipCache Plus sits in your system tray monitoring all clipboard activity and automatically saves clipboard objects to a currently active group folder. Your clips may then be retrieved within minutes, hours or whenever you need them. You can also create new folders where you can drag and drop a clip into that folder for long-term storage. Any text clip can be edited on the spot using any of the many handy cleanup functions I’ll discuss later. There are no limits on the number of clips ClipCache Plus can store and organize, other than the usual disk space and memory requirements.

ClipCache Plus has several text editing and formatting operations. For example, the one that got my attention was its ability to strip, or remove, certain characters from your clips, like that gosh-awful bracket indention (>) on forwarded emails. I refuse to forward an email without first removing all the greater-than signs, which sometimes takes a little while. Not any longer. Just highlight and copy the text to be forwarded and click on "clean-up text". Put a check in the box next to "trim bracket indentation ‘>’ " and voilà, it’s done. Other text operations and changes that can be made are:

A Cleanup Text dialog box allows all formatting operations to be simultaneously processed. Your favorite settings can be saved as pre-sets for later use. Text items may be merged into one clip, the order of the clips to merge may be reorganized, and/or text may be inserted between existing clips. Append mode allows the appending of copied text to the current clipboard contents. And the preview pane supports in-place editing and a context menu that includes Find and Replace and Undo commands.

ClipCache Plus adopts a standard Windows look and feel (drag and drop, property pages, context menus) and its highly intuitive and configurable options cater to the individual needs and preferences of all kinds of users. If you prefer to use hotkeys, the system tray, the main application window, they're all configurable.

The ClipCache Plus main window is divided up into three separate areas (panes): Group, Item and Preview panes. The Item pane may be sorted by clicking (or right clicking) on the required column (name, size, format, date or source window); click again to toggle between ascending or descending sort. Items may be dragged from the item pane to different groups or to different applications which support that format.

QuickPaste automatically pastes into the most recently used application, while FormPaste can paste automatically into the most recently used application and then tab to the next field of that application, ready to paste the next item - handy for filling in forms. If AutoPaste is enabled, then everything copied (from any application) to the Windows clipboard will automatically be pasted into a chosen target application. Ideal for collating snippets of information. A Find feature allows quick and easy location of any items, and clips can be printed or sent by email.

While future versions plan to support more formats, currently the clipboard formats supported are:

• Text (plain text)
• Rich Text (font type, size, colour etc. is retained)
• OEMText (Text displayed in an OEM font)
• Bitmap (Device Independent Bitmap)
• Enhanced Metafiles
• Drop (files copied to the clipboard are imported as text file names)

The following are just some of the cool things you can do with ClipCache Plus:

· Storing of text clips from applications for reading later or pasting into other applications.

· Copying text and making changes to it prior to pasting.

· Instant retrieval and pasting of frequently used text clips.

· Removing unwanted forwarding indents ">>>>" from emails.

· Removing white space and large gaps from text copied from web tables or email.

· Formatting text prior to pasting.

· Assign hotkeys to your favorite functions.

· Clip hotkey assignments can be managed from a central Hotkey window.

· Collating several text snippets into one pastable clip.

· Use as a text editor.

· Fill in web forms.

· Storing of images for later viewing or transferring to an image editor.

· Ideal research tool for copying information (text/images) from various sources.

· Game cheats: visit your favorite game cheat site and copy any cheats to a "cheats" group, then print them out with ClipCache Plus later.

· Create Text Clips allows sticky notes usage, which can be pasted any time.

· The 3 pane view (Group, Item and Preview) allows easy management of clips.

· Easy to use explorer style interface.

· Displays clip attributes: Name (supports renaming), Size, Format, Date & Source Window.

· Sort clips based on any clip attribute.

· Edit clips by typing directly in the preview pane.

· Merge selected clips to a list or with any separators you wish, such as commas, semicolons, hyphens, etc.

· Append text to the clipboard, rather than replacing the clipboard.

· Save captured clips to individual files.

· Manage folder/group size using the "purge" feature, or set size limits for each folder.

· Trashcan group avoids accidental deletion of clips.

· No restriction imposed by ClipCache Plus on number of clips.

· Expanded Search/Find facility with highly effective "Search and Replace".

· FormPaste facility pastes selected clip into the most recently used application and then automatically TABs to the next field.

· QuickSelect hotkey shows a tooltip of the currently selected clip below the mouse pointer.

· ClipMenu displays captured clips as a popup menu under the mouse pointer.

· Emptying the Windows clipboard to free up memory.

· Many custom configurations possible.

· Drag & drop clips from the item pane to applications.

· drop selected text from the preview pane to applications.

· rop data from applications to the Group, Item or Preview pane.

A trial copy of this handy utility that Microsoft left out of Windows can be downloaded at http://www.xrayz.co.uk/. If you like it - it’s only $19.95. I believe I’ll be keeping this program for a long time. u