Paste
Master

Version 4.0
August 7, 2010

Price: $8

Paste Master is an easy to use clipboard manager configured by a preference pane that allows you to save multiple clipboards and be able to paste them again later. It has the following advantages:

Compact grid display allows you to see and select from many saved clipboards at once.
Handles all types of clipboards.
Recognition of special text types in clipboards allows convenient pasting options.
You can quickly search the grid to find clipboards you want to paste.
You can delete individual or ALL saved clipboards (for example if they contain sensitive data).
You can lock clipboards so they are not displaced by new ones.
You can paste multiple clipboards rapidly through two different mechanisms.
You can securely and easily fill in forms.
Clipboards are also optionally available from an icon in the menu bar.

Paste Master allows you to display up to 99 clipboards in a compact manner, making it easy to quickly find which one you want to paste again. Paste Master recognizes certain types of text much like Apple's Data Detectors, and allows you to paste them in special ways. This feature is very useful when dealing with web or database forms that force you to type things like phone numbers or social security numbers in separate fields, or force you to enter phone numbers with just decimal digits. Furthermore, you can paste clipboards as unformatted text even if they are formatted. This is useful if you want pasted text to inherit the formatting of the application you are pasting into.

Recognition Of Special Text Types

Paste Master allows you to copy numbers in several different formats and paste them in their current form, as separate fields, or as just digits together. Pasting as separate fields means that tabs are typed between the fields to move to the next field in the form. Thus, a phone number like:

    (202) 345-6789

can be pasted as:


or as:



Paste Master currently supports several types, as shown below. More types and paste options will be added in the future, based on demand.

Type	Examples(s)	Can be pasted

Number	202-345-6789	As is, as individual fields, or as just the digits
	789-456-1234 x5678	As is, as individual fields, or as just the digits
	(202) 345-6789	As is, as individual fields, or as just the digits
	(789) 456-1234 x5678	As is, as individual fields, or as just the digits
	02 1234 5678	As is, as individual fields, or as just the digits
	234-23-0500 (e.g., an SSN)	As is, as individual fields, or as just the digits

Multiple	xcy-kjy-oiuy-po34 (e.g., registration code)	As is or as individual fields or with fields together
Fields

Multiple	John Woodward	As is or as individual words
Words

All text types can also be pasted unformatted.

Clipboards Grid Display

Here is an example display of multiple saved clipboards that show how the special types are designated. You display or hide the grid with a hot key you designate (default command-/). You can also hide the grid with the escape key, by clicking on the close (red) button, or by clicking outside the grid (unless you are in Paste Multiple mode).

You click a clipboard or type its number to paste it. Only the first 9 clipboards have a number, shown with a yellow background. If a very long textual item is in a clipboard, you can hover your mouse over item and more of the text (as much as will fit) will be shown. If you hover your mouse over an image, a larger size of the image will be displayed (up to full size, as much as will fit).

Clipboard 2, marked with a , has been recognized as mutiple words, so command-clicking pastes each word in a different field, tabbing in between. This feature would be useful for pasting a name into separate first and last name fields.

Clipboard 3, marked with an , has been recognized as having multiple fields (like a registration code), so command clicking pastes each field separately.

Clipboards 4, 5, & 6, marked with , have been recognized as numbers, so (by default) command-clicking pastes as fields, or option-clicking pastes all digits together.

Right-clicking any clipboard shows you all the options for that clipboard and allows you to choose:

Using the contextual menu for a clipboard, as shown above, you can paste clipboards per the table above, lock or unlock the clipboard, or delete the clipboard. Key modifier Shortcuts let you easily choose among the menu items above when clicking.

Searching Clipboards

If you type text in the search field, clipboards matching the text are turned to a light green background, as shown here:

Locking Clipboards

As more clipboards are selected they are added to the grid up to the maximum you specify (1-99). When the maximum is reached, the oldest clipboards are thrown away. To prevent this for a particular clipboard, you can lock it. The visual difference between locked an unlocked clipboards is shown at the right. You can lock/unlock individual clipboards or unlock all of them. Note that you cannot lock all of the available clipboards because then there would be no room for new ones.

Deleting Clipboards

You can delete individual clipboards (e.g. because they contain sensitive information), or all unlocked clipboards, or all clipboards (via the grid menu). Note that deleting all clipboards clears the system clipboard, which may be useful as a security measure.

The Grid Menu

Using the pulldown menu in the upper left of the grid, as shown at the left, you can open the preferences, delete unlocked clipboards, all clipboards, or unlock all clipboards. You can also turn on/off Paste Multiple mode, which allows you to paste multiple clipboards without the grid disappearing after pasting.

Pasting Multiple Clipboards

You specify that you want to paste multiple items while keeping the grid displayed by selecting Paste Multiple (command-M), which changes the grid menu button to

as shown at the right to indicate you are in paste multiple mode, and the grid will remain displayed until you close it with the grid hotkey, the ESC key, or by clicking the red close button. Clicking outside the grid does not hide it in this mode, and if you bring another window forward while the grid is displayed, the yellow numbers disappear from the grid because typing those numbers would type into the window rather than pasting a clipboard.

You will remain in this mode until you select Paste Multiple (command-M) again with the grid displayed (even if you hide and redisplay the grid). When in this mode, you can type the tab key to tab in the window into which you are pasting. Also, if you reposition the grid in this mode, it will stay where you put it even if you hide the grid and redisplay it. When you enter this mode, a number of other options appear:

Tab After Pasting (command-T) makes it easier to paste into forms, because the next form field is automatically tabbed to after each paste. When this mode is on, the grid menu button changes to .
Show All Clipboards (command-A) is the default when in Paste Multiple mode, but if you have many clipboards saved, you may find it inconvenient because the grid blocks the window into which you are pasting.
Show Only Locked (command-L) shows only locked clipboards, in case you locked them because you paste them often. You might use this to paste you name, address, phone number, etc. This option is available only if you have locked clipboards.
Show Only Recent (command-R) shows only the last 9 clipboards, which can be pasted easily by typing 1-9.
Show Only Recent and Locked (command-B) shows both of the above.

When you are in Paste Multiple mode, all functions that delete, lock, or unlock clipboards are not available unless you are showing all clipboards.

Pasting Into Forms

Here is an example of how the Pasting Multiple Clipboards features can be combined to make is fast and easy to paste a name and address into a typical form. Copy the first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip code one at a time. Put your cursor in the first name field. Display the grid, switch to paste multiple mode, show only recent clipboards, turn on tab after paste, then click your first name (it pastes and tabs), then click your last name, your address, then--assuming the form has two lines for address but you have only one--type TAB to skip the second line of the address, then click your city, state, and zip code. Then hide the grid. This procedure is much faster than going back and forth pasting each part separately. If there are clipboards you paste frequently you can lock them to save even more time.

Pasting Multiple Clipboards Via Hot Key

There is an alternative way to paste multiple clipboards. A special hot key (default command-') is specified in the Preference Pane (see below) that pastes the items in the clipboard in a last-in-first-out manner. The hot key can be used with or without the grid displayed. In other words, using the grid above as an example, the first press of this hot key would paste "word" (the last item copied), the next press would paste "two words", etc. There are three important things to note about pasting with this hot key:

There is a very slight delay between pressing the hot key and the pasting of the clipboard. This is normal.
As you paste and item, it goes to the end of the grid, and other unlocked items shift downward, such that each paste actually pastes the first item shown in the grid (if you were to look at it beyween pastes).
If you have locked items that you have grouped at the end of the grid (see below), they will not be shifted via this hot key.

Menu Bar Icon

You can optionally have Paste Master display its icon in the menu bar, as shown at the right. You can also choose to have the icon be grayscale, as shown at the right. In addition to the functions above the line, each clipboard is listed below the line. Choosing the clipboard pastes it. The modifier keys that work on the grid work here as well (except that control- or right-click is not needed because each clipboard acts as a menu if you want to choose a function that way).

Pasting via this menu works in a situation when pasting via the grid does not. Certain applications that cause you to take some special action to enter input mode may cancel input mode when the grid is displayed. In this case, pasting via this menu should work because the menu does not cancel input mode. As example of this behavior, if you select a file in Finder and hit return, you enter input mode. Displaying the grid cancels input mode, but pulling down the menu does not.

Locked items will be marked with a lock symbol as in the grid on 10.5 and 10.6 systems, but will be marked with a check mark on 10.4 systems (because of a Mac OS limitation).

You can specify the maximum number of clipboards you want to appear in the menu.

Shortcuts

Several modifier keys and combinations provide shortcuts for choosing special functions from the above menu or from the contextual menus in the grid. Here are the default keys and their meanings:

Control or Right-click	Displays the menu of all functions that can be performed on the clicked clipboard
Command	Pastes the clicked clipboard as separate fields; ignored if clipboard was not recognized as fields or a phone number
Option	Pastes the clicked clipboard as digits together; ignored if clipboard was not recognized as a phone number
Command-Option	Deletes the clicked clipboard

All of these can be changed (except right-click) as described below.

Configuring Paste Master

When you select the Paste Master preference pane in the System Preferences (it is automatically selected immediately after installation), you will see the Configure tab:

The default configuration is shown above. Any configuration changes you make take effect when you enable Paste Master, or--for changes made after it is enabled--when you leave the Preference Pane. If you uncheck "Move pasted items to position 1", items you click on to paste will remain in their current position until you cut or copy a new item, which will always go into position 1, shifting others up by one. You have the option to save all clipboards across reboots or restarts of Paste Master.

The number of clipboards saved can be 1-99. If you set it to a number lower than the current number of saved clipboards, older saved clipboards will be deleted. However, in no case will locked clipboards be automatically deleted, nor will the last unlocked clipboard. Examples assuming that you have 5 locked clipboards and 5 unlocked clipboard saved:

If you set the number of saved clipboards to 8, the oldest two unlocked clipboards are deleted.
If you set the number of saved clipboards to 4, the oldest four unlocked clipboards are deleted (because 1 unlocked clipboard must always be left), leaving a total of 6 clipboards.

You can also specify how many clipboards should be shown in the menu, up to the number saved.

The Exclusions tab allows you to specify applications whose clipboards should not be saved by Paste Master:

Clipboards from these applications will appear in position 1 of ther grid, but will not be saved after that. In other words, the next clipboard will replace them in position 1. By default, there are no applications excluded.

The Shortcuts tab allows you to change the default modifier keys that provide shortcuts in the clipboard grid or menu:

The Clipboard Grid tab shows a reminder of the meanings of the symbols of the in the clipboards window, and the Register tab allows you to go to the web page where you can pay only $8 for a registration code and enter the code. It also allows you to go to a web page to retrieve a previously-purchaased registration code given your purchase information.

Installing Paste Master

ALWAYS make sure that System Preferences is not open when you install. To install, just double-click Paste Master.prefPane. You will be given the option to install for all users or just the current one. No matter how you install it, it must be configured for each user separately.

Macintosh Requirements

Paste Master is a Cocoa (MacOS X only) application. It runs on 10.4 and higher, including Snow Leopard. Universal Binary.

It is required that the keyboard shortcut on your system to paste is command-v, the common default.

Version History

4.0 - Feature enhancements and typo fix:

Added new pulldown menu in the clipboard grid that allows pasting, deleting, and unlocking multiple clipboards.
Added ability to paste multiple saved clipboards in a last-in-first-out order using a new hotkey specified in the Preference Pane.
Removed deleting and unlocking multiple clipboard options from the contextual menus of each clipboard in the grid.
Added the option to unlock all clipboards to the menu bar icon.
Reorganized Preference Pane configuration panel to add the new hotkey.
Fixed typo in Preference Pane shortcuts panel.

3.8 - Feature enhancements:

Added ability to specify the maximum number of clipboards that should be displayed in the menu.
Reorganized Preference Pane.

3.7 - Feature enhancement and documentation update:

Added option to display menu bar icon as grayscale.
Fixed typo in Preference Pane documentation.

3.6 - Feature enhancement and bug fix:

Added button to Register tab to retrieve previously-purchased registration code.
Fixed bug with reducing the number of saved clipboards below the current number saved.

3.5 - Feature enhancements:

Added ability to specify keys that appear twice on keyboard (such as 0-9) as the hotkey and have both keys function as the hotkey.
Added button in Preference Pane to email the author.

3.4 - Updates:

Updated look of the clipboard grid, using solid grey lines instead of dotted lines.
Improved hover help for grids items.

3.3 - Feature enhancement:

Added ability to paste regonized fields together (e.g., 345FD-89 as 345FD89).

3.2 - Feature enhancement:

Added "Exclusions" tab to preference pane to allow you to specify applications whose clipboards should not be saved.

3.1 - Feature enhancements and typo fix:

Broadened specification of what is recognized as a number to accommodate non-US phone number formats.
Improved performance.
Fixed typo in Preference Pane.

3.0 - Feature enhancement and bug fix:

Added search field to clipboards grid.
Fixed problem with pasting clipboards from Microsoft Office and other applications that produce clipboards in uncommon ways.

2.91 - Fixed bug in menu on 10.3 systems.

2.9 - Feature enhancements:

Added "Delete Unlocked Clipboards" to menu.
Improved performance for large clipboard sets.

2.81 - Fixed obscure bug in setting hot key.

2.8 - Feature enhancements:

Added support for Dvorak keyboard layout.
Added shift modifier as an option for the hotkey.
Added option to confirm deletions of all clipboard or unlocked clipboards to prevent accidental deletion.
Reorganized Configure tab of Preference Pane.

2.7 - Feature enhancement:

Changed Shortcuts tab to allow custom specification of modifier keys for all functions that can be specified via the clipoard grid or menu.

2.6 - Feature enhancement:

Added preference to keep all locked clipboards grouped at the end of the grid and menu.

2.5 - Feature enhancements and bug fixes:

More of a text item is now shown when you hover the mouse over them item in the grid.
Image items are now shown larger (if possible) when you hover the mouse over the item in the grid.
Images in the grid are now scaled down to fit in 10.6.
Many memory leaks fixed.

2.4 - Feature enhancements:

Added a warning in the preference pane that configuration changes take effect when Paste Master is re-enabled or System Preferences is quit.
Improved support for non-standard clipboard types.

2.3 - Corrupted release.

2.2 - Feature enhancements and bug fix:

Added the option to display an icon in the menu bar to allow for Paste Master control and pasting, as an alternative to the grid view.
The escape key now dismisses the clipboards grid.
Right-clicking a clipboard in the grid now displays the menu, like a control-click.
Fixed bug in entering registration code.

2.1 - Feature enhancements and bug fixes:

Added the option to display all text in clipboard grid unformatted.
Clipboard grid width is now limited by main screen width.
Empty grid cells now have a darker background to visually distinguish them.
Worked around buggy clipboard produced by Mail.
Fixed bug in clipboard type display and empty grid cell display.
Fixed bug in shrinking some image clipboards to fit in grid cell.

2.0 - Feature and compatibility enhancements and bug fix:

Added the ability save clipboards across restarts.
Added the ability to lock individual clipboards so they are not discarded as new items are placed in the clipboard (and the ability to unlock).
Added the option to paste text without its formatting.
Added the option to automatically check for updates/
Clipboards now displayed in the grid as formatted text.
Added hover help to the Configure tab of the preference pane.
Limited the display of clipboard items hovered over to 1000 characters.
Reorganized the help information in the preference pane.
Preference pane now loads as 64 bit on 10.6--no annoying relaunch of System Preferences (10.4+ version only).
Fixed bug when "Moved pasted clipboards to position 1" is unchecked.

1.1 - Feature and compatibility enhancements:

Added the ability to delete individual or ALL saved clipboards.
Reformatted preference pane for improved display on 10.4.
Added support for 10.3.

1.0 - Initial release.

Purchasing Paste Master

Paste Master is shareware. You can try it out for 30 days, but if you still use it thereafter, you must register it. The price is very reasonable--$8. After 30 days, Paste Master will not work unless you have registered it.

Registration includes future updates.

To purchase Paste Master, click here, or click the Purchase Registration Code button in the Register tab of the Preference Pane. Once you have paid, you will receive a registration code via email. You can enter this code in Paste Master Register tab.

If you do not get your registration code via email in a timely manner it may be that it was eaten by an overly aggressive spam filter. In that case, click on the Retrieve Purchased Code button in the Register tab or click here and enter your PayPal purchase information to retrieve the code.

You may distribute Paste Master unmodified via any media, as long as you keep it together with its Read Me file.