Monday's Mac Gadget
by John F. Braun

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Sick Of Having Only One Clipboard? ClipDoubler X To The Rescue!

December 3rd, 2001

ClipDoubler X 1.2.4 ($10 Shareware)
Northern Softworks

The Clipboard has always been a part of Mac OS. Having a ubiquitous Clipboard, where one could Cut and Past at will, plus standard formats for representing text and graphics, has made the Mac a favorite with those that need to move data between different programs. About the only problem is that there is only a single Clipboard. If one could only have multiple clipboards...

You guessed it! ClipDoubler offers both OS 9 (with CarbonLib) and OS X users the ability to create and access multiple clipboards. Unlike some other clipboard enhancers, ClipDoubler is an application, so doesn't muck around with your system software. But it needs to be active to enable multiple clipboards. Instead of manually launching it every time, you can make it a Login Item in your Login System Preference (OS X) or put an alias in your Startup Items folder (OS 9).

As Many Clipboards As You Want
(Click for a Larger Image)

Once you have started ClipDoubler, simply use the Copy command from within whatever application you are running. The next time you make ClipDoubler the active application, you'll see a clipboard with the most recent item from the Copy command. This could be text, a graphic, or other information. Likewise, you can perform a Paste operation within an application, and the most recent item will be Pasted. For added fun, you can select and item other than the most recent, and it will be pasted instead.

To round things out, each Clipboard window offers a menu with extra options. Among them are the ability to create a new clipboard, get info on a current clipboard, open or save another clipboard, and manipulate system Scrapbooks. Plus, if you want to save multiple clipboards when you quite the application, you can select 'Save clipboards on quit' in the Preferences.

So take the Clipboard concept to where it should be in 2001, and try ClipDoubler.

Have any other Mac gadgets that Apple should have used in the Mac OS? Drop John an e-mail, and he'll have a great time beating up on it.

Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs.

John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at

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