Software Review of:
ClipMate 5.1 
From the June, 2000 issue of PC Alamode Magazine 

ClipMate is shareware that you download from the ‘net. What it does so simply and elegantly is allow the user to copy and paste words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, graphics —hundreds of them — and hold them until you are ready to paste them, one by one, wherever you desire. Shut off your PC. Start up again the next day and there are all your clips, patiently waiting for you to decide when and where to paste them. 

Of course, if you are a heavy word processing user, you will accumulate a lot of unwanted clips as you cut, copy and paste using Windows Clipboard. In other words, each time you "copy" or "cut" something, not only does a duplicate image go onto your Windows Clipboard, an image goes into ClipMate also. There are a lot of differences between the two but the major difference is, the image remains in ClipMate while the Windows Clipboard image gets replaced each time you copy — or cut — something new. 

Not only will ClipMate capture text, it will also capture bit-mapped graphics. Clicking on Control C captures the highlighted text; Control V then pastes the text or graphic into the program you are using. A feature called QuickPaste is really useful. Press Ctrl+Shift+Q while in any application and a special mode opens, ready to select any clip within ClipMate and paste it automatically into the target application, right where you are working. 

A short tutorial opens by clicking the Help button. It will get you up and running using the basic commands of the program. I recommend revisiting the tutorial once you’ve gotten the basics down pat to explore some of the more sophisticated features of ClipMate. 

Do you get e-mail jokes? Dumb question! Do you like some well enough to save? Simply highlight the joke, click Copy. It’s saved until you pass it on. Do you have a collection of golf jokes? You can create a "Collection (folder)" within ClipMate where you store all your golf jokes. Then, still in ClipMate, you can "glue" the individual jokes together to e-mail a string of golf jokes to impress your buddies. 

Some folders are already designated when you install the program. Unless you designate differently, your clips will go into the Short-term folder. You can determine how long to keep the clips (I’ve got mine set at 100 days) or the amount of clips (mine is set at 45). If you’re a packrat, you can keep clips in the Long-term folder forever or until your hard disk crashes, whichever comes first. Another folder is Favorites which is self explanatory. Then there is the Garbage Can folder where your deleted clips go until they are purged — just like Windows Recycle Bin. 

For ClipMate 4 users, there are several nice updates to version 5 which should cause you to want to upgrade. 

• If you copy from Netscape or Internet Explorer, then the URL of the page that you copied from is remembered. It has its own column in ClipMate Explorer and you can click on the URL to open it in your default browser. You can also right-click to launch it as well.
• There is now a Clip Properties Dialog than can be used to view and edit certain attributes of a clip — such as the title, timestamp. creator, source URL and a list of data formats.
• QuickPaste has been enhanced with Dual Clip Lists (split screen so that you have your current "collection" at the top and an "alternate" collection below. You tab between the two to pick clips. There are also some QuickPaste toolbar buttons which can send tabs and linefeeds to the target application without having to leave QuickPaste.

Thornsoft Development 
PO Box 26263, Rochester, NY 14626