This Mac App Gives a Much-Needed Update to Copy and Paste
I couldn’t live without copy and paste—it’s fundamental to how I write and work—but when you think about it, it’s a pretty abstract function. Copy something and it goes… somewhere. Then you can paste it. Yes, and if you copy the second thing, the first thing will disappear.
Clipboard managers solve this problem. These apps let you view everything you’ve recently copied and even select an old item to paste. They work well, but usually require frequent context switching. What if you want to copy multiple objects and then paste them later, in the same order you copied them, without having to open the Clipboard Manager and select the items in order? There’s a free and open source Mac tool for this: Batch Clipboard (which I found via MacMenuBar ).
This app is not a clipboard manager – in fact, it can easily be used in conjunction with one. With the application running, you can copy text, images, or files using the keyboard shortcut Cmd-Control-C to start creating a package. When you’re ready, you can paste them one at a time, starting from the beginning of the package, using the keyboard shortcut Cmd-Control-V . You can click the menu bar icon at any time to view the current package.
It takes a second to wrap your head around this, but in certain contexts it’s quite useful. If, for example, you’re reading a document and want to collect several quotes, you can copy each one into its own packet and then paste them all into your notes one by one, adding a little context as you go. This allows you to focus on reading rather than constantly switching between the original document and your notes.
Getting started is easy. Once you download the app, you can launch it to read the quick tutorial – it will tell you how to use the app and ask you to enable permissions. You can access settings by clicking the icon in the menu bar and clicking Settings. You can customize keyboard shortcuts, decide whether the app starts at the same time as your computer, and change the number of history items shown in the menu. You can also choose to have the app ignore items copied from certain apps.
In theory, you could use a batch clipboard as an alternative to a clipboard manager—click the icon in the menu bar while holding down the Option key and you’ll be able to view everything you’ve recently copied. You can also use it in conjunction with a dedicated clipboard manager, or simply open it when you want to use the batch copy feature. Check this out if clipboard managers have never gotten along with you.