Ethervane Echo sorts clipboard entries into tabs for easier access, unlike other clipboard extenders who simply provide an unsorted list of entries.

The all clips tab lists all clipboard items, whereas tabs like last hour, urls or browsers only specific items that you may be interested in. A search is provided for heavy clipboard users to aid them in finding the clipboard entries that they are looking for.

Clips are automatically sorted by date, with options to change the sorting order to alphabetical, application, use count, length or ID.

The right-click menu offers to copy, paste and delete clips, and editing options.

All information are stored in a database in the program folder. The program creates the database automatically on first run. You can easily copy the database to another computer to use it there as well, or run the clipboard manager from an external drive to access the clipboard history wherever you go.

The database is cleaned up ever 30 days by default, with options to change the frequency of the cleanup in the program preferences. It is even possible to keep the database in memory all the time and not on the computer’s hard drive.

Keyboard shortcuts are available for most operations. From deleting entries (del) over pasting only textual information (shift-enter) to minimizing the program window (esc), bringing it up front (windows insert) and clearing the clipboard (ctrl i).

The feature set does not end here though. Ethervane Echo can be configured to only accept clipboard entries from specified applications, which can be useful for the workflow or to avoid leaking information into the manager that you do not want to record.

Other features include pasting multiple clipboard entries at the same time into the active application window, adding manual entries to the clipboard database, integrating a spell checker or changing the program’s font and color layout settings.

Ethervane Echo will only capture text, no images or other data that you copy to the clipboard. This appears to be the only limitation.

The application is an excellent replacement for the standard Windows clipboard functionality. The program is a contribution to this year’s NANY challenge at the Donation Coder website.

The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Hopes are that Windows 7 will see a redesign of the Windows clipboard function just like the Windows Calculator will get his overhaul, too. Users who want to store more phrases in the Windows clipboard have to look at third party solutions and one of the best is Mike Lin’s Clipomatic.

Clipomatic adds a series of new features to the Windows clipboard without changing the whole process of storing and pasting complicated. It introduces a clipboard cache that can contain a number of phrases. The number is defined in the program’s option, by default it is 10 entries.

The entries are added as usual by marking text anywhere in Windows, for example in a browser window, email or word document, and either pressing the shortcut CTRL C or by right-clicking the phrase and selecting Copy from the menu.

The user can still paste the last phrase that he has added to the Windows clipboard by using the usual CTRL V command or selecting Paste from the right-click menu.

Pressing CTRL ALT V however opens the Clipomatic menu which provides access to the last ten phrases that have been added to the Windows clipboard. Those entries can be selected by pressing their corresponding button or by left-clicking them.

Clipomatic has another interesting feature. It provides access to permanent clipboard entries which can be added. This is useful for adding phrases that are used regularly, like names, email addresses or signatures.

The software program saves the clipboard entries whenever the user closes the application or logs out of Windows. These entries will be loaded during the next program start again.

Clipomatic uses a whooping 300 Kilobyte of computer memory and less than 2 Megabyte of virtual memory when in minimized state. This is a great Windows clipboard tool.

The Clipboard Caching utility CLCL is a small program for Windows that can store as many items that you copy as you want. The default value is 30 items but that figure can be changed in the options. CLCL stores everything that you throw at it, it does not really matter if you copy text or files, everything is stored in the clipboard.

The default keyboard shortcuts for copying (CTRL + C) and pasting (CTRL + V) remain untouched. The CLCL menu with all the stored items can be accessed by pressing ALT + C instead. (this can be changed in the options)

Plugins can be used to add functionality to CLCL. Some are available on the developers homepage, they convert upper to lower case for instance, quote, put tags around it or add support for additional formats.

Pretty much everything can be configured in the program’s options. Hotkeys can be changed and added and formats can be added and filtered.

Clipboard Caching is a excellent software with a low memory consumption.

Clipdiary, which was mentioned at Tech Yard, is such a program. It stores all plain text and rich text phrases in the clipboard as well as images in the clipboard until you delete the entry in the clipboard or a set limit of stored entries is reached. That limit is set to 3000 but you can change it from 0 (unlimited) to a number of your choosing. I personally think that 3000 is way to high because it would take ages to find the correct phrase that you are looking for, some users might find it useful nevertheless.

CTRL + C and CTRL + V work the same way as before, if you press CTRL + V the last saved phrase or image gets pasted into the current text field. The new keyboard shortcut CTRL + D opens the program interface where older entries can be picked and pasted.

It would be nice if there would be an option to pick previous items per hotkey as well. Some shortcuts are shown in the options but those did not work for me. I have set the maximum amount of saved entries to 30. The clipboard can be a security risk if you save 3000 entries, think of passwords, urls and other personal data.

Previously saved information can be accessed by double-clicking, using a hotkey or dragging and drooping the entries or using the build in search functionality – either way they can be pasted into any windows that allows basic copy and paste operations. It furthermore makes it possible to sync clipboards over a network making it a very effective tool if you have to work on more than one computer on the same project.

Data that is send over a network will be encrypted to ensure that no one can use the information except the destination. Ditto uses the sqlite database to speed up operations.