Many times you get frustrated after copying something to your clipboard and then end up clearing it due to distraction from something else or someone. It can be annoying when this actually happens.
But how can you do away with such frustration? That is the question we are going to answer in this article.
Here, we shall look at clipboard managers that can help you manage and keep track of you clipboard contents.
What is a Clipboard Manager?
You can refer to a clipboard manager as a utility or tool that is runs in the background of your Linux system and keeps a history everything that you have saved to your system clipboard.
Why you actually need a Clipboard Manager?
One important use of clipboard managers is that you do not have to worry of clearing or overwriting your clipboard content especially if you a programmer or writer and do a lot of copy and paste.
There are many tools out there that can help you manage your Linux clipboard and these include:
1. CopyQ
This is a advanced clipboard manager which is available on most if not all platforms. It has editing and scripting features including some of the following:
- Command line control and scripting
- Searchable
- Image format support
- Editable history
- Customize tray menu
- Fully customizable appearance
- Variety of system-wide shortcuts and many more.
Visit Homepage: http://hluk.github.io/CopyQ/
2. GPaste
It is a powerful and great clipboard manager for GNOME based distributions, but can work on a variety of desktop environments as well.
It has features such as:
- Integration with the GNOME shell
- Clipboard history management
- Quick access shortcuts
- Copying images
- GTK+3 GUI
Visit Homepage: https://github.com/Keruspe/GPaste
3. Klipper
Klipper is a clipboard manager for the KDE desktop environment. It offers fundamental features similar to that offered by Gpaste, but is also has some advanced and power features such as clipboard actions.
Some of its features include:
- History management
- Quick access shortcuts
- Image copying
- Create custom actions
Visit Homepage: https://userbase.kde.org/Klipper
4. Clipman
It is a lightweight clipboard plugin option for XFCE desktop environment and works well on XFCE based distributions such as Xubuntu.
It is feature rich including:
- History management
- Access shortcuts
- Ignoring application closure signals
- Tweaks support and many more
Visit Homepage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/clipman/
5. Diodon
It is a light weight but yet powerful clipboard manager designed to work best when integrated with Unity and GNOME desktop environments.
It has the following features similar to other clipboard management tools:
- Desktop integration
- History management in terms of size and so on
- Quick access shortcuts
- Copying images
Visit Homepage: https://launchpad.net/diodon
6. Pastie
This is a simple clipboard manager for Ubuntu and makes use of the AppIndicator. It has some cool features that include among others:
- Image copy support
- Customizable interface
- Quick access shortcuts and so much more
Visit Homepage: https://github.com/fmoralesc/pastie
7. Parcellite
It is a stripped down, lightweight GTK+2, basic-features clipboard manager for Linux.
It has some of the following features:
- History management
- Daemon mode
- Display clipboard contents quickly using global hotkeys
- Perform custom commands using clipboard contents
Parcellite Clipboard Manager
Visit Homepage: http://parcellite.sourceforge.net/
8. Glipper
It is a clipboard management tool for GNOME desktop environment, users can extend its functionality using plugins. It now uses the App Indicator to support Unity and Gnome Classic desktop environments in Ubuntu.
Glipper has most of the fundamental features including clipboard history management.
Visit Homepage: https://launchpad.net/glipper
9. Clipit
This is a lightweight GTK+ clipboard manager. It is feature rich and actually forked from Parcellite, but includes some extra features and bug fixes.
It has got the following features:
- Save history of last copied item
- Global hotkeys for most used functions
- Declare static items
- Exclude specific items from history
- Searchable history and many more
Visit Homepage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gtkclipit/
10. Keepboard
It is a cross-platform clipboard manager that allows users to save clipboard history.
Visit Homepage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/keepboard/
Summary
That is it for now, there could be some clipboard management utilities or tools that I have not included in the article, let us know of any by dropping a comment. Hope you find this article useful.