I seem to remember years ago I used to be able to do multiple copy/paste operations with either the Mac or Windows, can't remember which one.

By "Multiple" I mean I could copy up to five (I think it was) items to the clipboard at the same time and then when I wanted to paste, those five would show up in a window and I could select one of the five to paste.

I'm currently doing some work where a feature like that would really move things along quickly, even if I could just store three items to select from would be a big help.

Anyone know how to do that on Snow Leopard?

I seem to remember years ago I used to be able to do multiple copy/paste operations with either the Mac or Windows, can't remember which one.

By "Multiple" I mean I could copy up to five (I think it was) items to the clipboard at the same time and then when I wanted to paste, those five would show up in a window and I could select one of the five to paste.


I don't think Windows or OSX ever offered a multipart clipboard naitvely as part of the OS... You might be thinking of MS Office 2000 and later versions. They have a multi part clipboards (Clipboard manager) that do exactly what you are talking about.

A quick google search turned up a few thrid party options for Windows/OSX, but i cannot speak to/for any of them.


BReligion

Checkout some of these (http://www.macupdate.com/find/mac/clipboard), any of the free ones will more then fill your needs.

I'm a particular fan of Butler for this, as you can customize the window that appears from the menu bar.

Butler · Many Tricks (http://manytricks.com/butler/) -- It's marked as shareware, but I don't think it expires.

Alfred will also do it, but the clipboard feature isn't as well designed IMO.
Alfred App (http://alfredapp.com)

I've been very happy with the free "ClipMenu"
Download ClipMenu for Mac - Access clipboard histories via menubar or hotkey. MacUpdate.com (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29988/clipmenu)

Used to use the PTHPasteboard until they changed their "pricing" rules for 10.6+ users to an absurd price.

Thanks for the replies.
JamesB - I went through the list you linked to but most f tese applications don't do what I need at all.
I tried a few that looked promising based on the description including Butler and ClipMenu
Butler has a lot of capabilities, far beyond what I need, couldn't easily figure out how to do what I need so I didn't pursue this any further.

ClipMenu turned me off with this statement in their description:
Paste history item
Select an clipboard history item you want to paste from the menu.
You can navigate through the menu not by mouse but by keyboard. Pressing up/down key move selection vertically, left/right key show or hide sub menu items inside of lower level folder.
I didn't really wanted to be forced to use arrow keys.

I finally chose Text Wallet - it did exactly what I needed, worked great the first three times, then the application become unresponsive and eventually crashed. After that happened a few times, I trashed that application since struggling with it and re-launching it defeats the whole purose of trying to save some time.

Decided to try ClipMenu after pm-r posted.
So far works as advertised but I find using the menubar to access the snippets a but awkward and time consuming.
Hotkeys to bring up the window with the snippets aren't much better - I wonder if it's ossible to assign the right mouse click or scroll wheel click to bring up the menu with the snippets close to where my mouse pointer is at the time.
That would be ideal.

BTW - Using the mouse to select a menu item, either a snippet or a history item works just fine - don't understand why it says one can't use the mouse.

I can't ever remember using any keyboard stuff when using ClipMenu, I just use the mouse and select the 'clip' I want or just use the command+v option to paste the latest choice into wherever the insertion place is on whatever application window I might be using.

If you want more, then maybe PTHPasteboard Pro $24.95 shareware is what you need:
Download PTHPasteboard Pro for Mac - Clipboard buffer stores multiple items. MacUpdate.com (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/17465/pthpasteboard-pro)

A free simple basic version if you're running Mac OS 10.5.x. SL 10.6.x+ requires a payment without some crude hacking and a very minimal user interface.

i love iclip

Irradiated Software - iClip - Simply Useful Clipboard Manager (http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/iclip/)

I tried iclip as well.
That application immediately failed my basic usability expectations.
For one, the clips can only be assigned to the four edges of the screen nd then I found that I cannot paste the text into a clip either using the contextual menu or the paste function under the edit menu or using the keyboard paste command; one has to actually type the text into the clip.

The snippet function ClipMenu still comes closest to what I need, ClipMenu also has the clip history function which I don't need right now but that seems to be what most of the other apps provide.
Ideal would be an application where one can create a number of different snippets and then use the normal contextual right click menu to show them and be able to select which one one wants to paste - along the same lines as one can right click on a document, select "open with..." and then chose from the list of applications that shows up - except here it would be a list of snippets.

I've been using a great little opens source app called JumpCut (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/21604/jumpcut) for years. Its very minimalist and super-convenient.

Although JumpCut still works in Lion it doesn't look like it is being actively maintained by the original developer any more. However, a new developer has taken the source and created a new app called "Flycut" which is available for free (http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/flycut-clipboard-manager/id442160987?mt=12) on the Mac App Store.

I have used ClipMenu for a while now and it works very well so far.
I ended up creating a hot key combination instead of the "right-click" I would have liked, but other than that this application does what I needed.
With the hot key, the window to select either snippets or history items from the clipboard, opens righ where my mouse pointer is and I select it from there.
Application has not crashed at all - so this is working out well.