Productivity Portfolio

Before you read too far, try this quick exercise. Open either a new email message or Notepad and press Ctrl+V (Paste command). Whatever information pasted was something recently of value. The problem is that information will disappear the next time you use the Copy command or you close Windows. How often do you use the information you just pasted?

In my case, I use copied data throughout the day. Some data such as an answer to a common email question might be used ten times. Other data such as our FedEx account number might be used twice weekly. Unfortunately, the Windows Clipboard is designed to be a temporary holding area for one item.

For a long time, I relied on the built in tools of various applications. As example, I would store often-used paragraphs as Outlook Notes. I've even been known to use the Insert Signature feature of Outlook as a mini database of text blocks. Although these systems work, they have limitations. A better solution is to use ClipMate from Thornsoft Development.

ClipMate is an ingenious program best described as a database of your clipped content. The program resides in your system tray and can hold thousands of entries. These entries might range from answers to frequently asked questions to logos. As you capture data using the Copy command, ClipMate stores the information in a collection. Once an item is captured, you can assign a assign useful name and shortcut.

Although we expected capturing items would be easy, we were pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to find saved items. The last thing we wanted was a thousand stored items and no way to find the item we needed. ClipMate makes the retrieval process easy by including filters and shortcuts. Each of these commands is invoked by typing either a question mark or period. For example, I could type "?add" and all the entries with "add" in the title would display. This might include "shipping address", "bank address", "caddy list" and so on.

The program also allows you to assign a shortcut to an entry. Like filters, shortcuts quickly narrow your selection. For example, we could assign our FedEx account number to a shortcut called ".fx". By typing a period and then "fx", my FedEx entry appears. We could also encrypt the account number.

Where we've found the program most helpful is answering email. It's not unusual for us to get support questions for various products we've reviewed. Although we like to help, we're not as good as the dedicated support departments for these companies. As a result, we've built a series of responses with shortcuts that map to these products. When one of the email support questions arrives, we paste in the proper reply using a shortcut.

Another use I found for the program was capturing Disclaimers or End User License Agreements (EULA). Previously, I would capture the text and paste to a Word document. Now, I take the captured item in ClipMate and save it to a collection called Disclaimers. If the source came from the web, ClipMate captures the URL. It also provides a time stamp.

We think you'll find many other uses for ClipMate than the few we mentioned. The program contains many features not covered in this article. We found the best way to learn the program was to start at the company web site. The company has created a series of short video tutorials. Each tutorial covers a program feature and builds on the previous lesson. These tutorials offer a great starting point so all the other great features don't sidetrack you.