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Clipboard manager

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A clipboard manager is a computer program that adds additional functionality to basic clipboard usage. The main tasks of a clipboard manager are:

  • to store data copied to clipboard, so it can be pasted after closing the host application of the data copied, and
  • to make multiple clips from the clip history available, whereas most system-native clipboards overwrite one clip with the next.

Copy history

Some clipboard managers allow the user to keep multiple objects, usually text fragments, in the clipboard. Often this is done in the form of copy history. Without a clipboard manager, it is usually possible to keep only one entry in the clipboard. If another object is cut or copied the previously stored one is discarded.

Some applications have internal copy history feature. This internal copy history, though, is lost after the host application is closed. This copy history feature has been a standard feature in powerful UNIX editors like vi and emacs. Later versions of Microsoft Office have also included some built-in clipboard management, the "Office Clipboard" which remains open as long as one of the Office suite applications is open.

Clipboard managers in different systems

The default clipboard manager of Microsoft Windows operating system enables pasting after closing the host application of the copied data (usually), but doesn't have the copy history feature. Users needing this functionality often run a more powerful clipboard manager in parallel with the default one. Mac OS X also has a whole host of third party options for clipboard managers. Third party clipboard managers for Mac OS X use mac concepts such as the Dock or Dashboard to fit nicely into the operating system.

The freedesktop.org Clipboard Manager specification [1] describes a protocol layered on top of the ICCCM clipboard spec for client applications to direct a daemon process to save clipboard contents. The client-side specification has native support in a number of toolkits, including GTK+[2]; it of course requires a daemon clipboard manager to be running in the user's X session.

The UNIX desktop environment KDE ships with Klipper. GNOME contains basic clipboard manager functionality in gnome-settings-daemon, part of gnome-control-center; it preserves clipboard contents on application close, supporting the freedesktop.org Clipboard Manager Specification. It is also possible to run more complex clipboard managers in GNOME, such as Klipper, Glipper or Java based ACM[3], the latter being similar cross-platform application. With ACM it is possible to display different types of content like text, files or images.

References

  1. ^ freedesktop.org Clipboard Manager specification
  2. ^ GtkClipboard, GTK+ Reference Manual, GNOME Documentation Library
  3. ^ ACM - Advanced Clipboard Manager
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