Windows' clipboard, which allows one to copy or cut and paste text or graphics between documents or applications, is one of its more useful utilities.

To use it one selects text or graphics by dragging the mouse pointer over the item(s), highlighting them, then CTRL+C (or click Edit, Copy) to copy; CTRL+X (or Edit, Cut) to cut; then CTRL+V (or Edit, Paste) to paste them in the appropriate place. But the clipboard's limitations quickly become apparent. It only keeps track of the last item that you have cut or copied. If you previously cut or copied some text then decided not to paste it, then cut or copy something else, your original selection is either lost, or must be selected and copied again.

I would like to have easy access to items I copied yesterday, or even weeks ago. Instead, I have to go searching through files to find my original words of wisdom (or perhaps more important, somebody else's!). Even the best-organized person spends too much time at such tasks, and a clutterbug such as I may sweat for hours digging through disjecta membra. But computers should make our work easier, not harder; more, not less, productive.

My guiding principle is, as regular readers will recall, Maram's Law of Conservation, discovered by computer maven Harry Maram, of Data Concepts: we only have so many keystrokes left in our lives, so use the least possible amount that will accomplish a given task.

Equally important is Maram's Corollary: if you don't know how to minimize keystrokes in a given case, find someone (or something) who does. My Maram Epiphany of today is ClipTrakker. With this program installed, all items cut or copied are retained and stored as snapshots on its clipboard history page.

ClipTrakker generates a "thumbnail" of cut or copied items, a small bitmap image of the original data, visible on the history page. Click the image you want, click your document where you wish it pasted, then CTRL+V (or Edit, Paste) et voila! Now the best part, at least for messy desk types like me: while all copied or cut items are saved on ClipTrakker's history page, you can organize them further by creating additional pages for specific purposes or categories.

For example, I created an "NNN" page to store items I've copied from my notes for future pasting. A small tab labeled "NNN" appears at the bottom of ClipTrakker's main window. To move items from the history page I just left-click and drag them, dropping them on the NNN tab. Next time I want one I click that tab, select what I want, click my document in the proper place, then CTRL+V to paste it. The automatic history can be disabled if you are doing a one-time copy or cut that you know you'll never need again.

Download a shareware version of ClipTrakker from www.cliptrakker.com. Registration is $25. I don't know how the developers, Silicon Prairie Software, came to take a company name that is associated with Chicago, when they are located in Redmond, Washington.

I hope their propinquity to Microsoft doesn't get them swallowed into "the Belly of the Beast."

• Next column

• Previous column

• Links, Searches & Stuff

• Contents

• Introduction

• Home