It’s no secret that the Windows clipboard is, well, basic. In the extreme. It doesn’t even try to remember anything more than your last copy operation, so if you copy some text to the clipboard, for instance, any text that was already there will be lost forever.
You don’t have to live with this, though: install Shapeshifter and it’ll remember everything you copy to the clipboard, then allow you to choose exactly what you want to paste later.
The program installs easily (no adware), and makes considerable efforts to help you figure out its operations, with helpful pop-up messages explaining its status and what you need to do next.
You may still be occasionally confused, as when the program asks if you want to use it in “Mixed”, “Integrated” or “External” mode; that didn’t seem entirely clear to us. We chose “Mixed”, though, hoping that would keep our options open, and then it was time to get started.
Press and hold Ctrl+V and your recent clipboard items are listed, ready for selection
For the most part, this doesn’t involve any extra work at all. Just continue using your PC as normal, copying text, images, files and whatever else you like to the clipboard, and Shapeshifter will remember it for you.
When you need to paste something, though, you must press and hold Ctrl+V. Shapeshifter pops up, displaying a list of all your copied items. Use the up and down cursor keys to select the item you need, release Ctrl+V, and it’ll be inserted at the current cursor position: easy.
And the program even tries to help with possible privacy concerns. If you’re scrolling the list on a shared computer and spot a confidential item in the clipboard, say, then pressing Del will dispose of it for you.
This simplicity does bring a few problems. If you’ve a really long list of copied items, for instance, there’s no “search” item to find the one you need – you just have to scroll through, inspecting them individually. You’ll only see the first line or two of text, as well, so it might not be possible to identify the item you need. What’s more, the need to keep Ctrl+V held down as you’re working can be a little uncomfortable.
Still, for simple use – you just want to re-paste a very recent image or text item, say – Shapeshifter works very well. If you’re looking for a clipboard manager which puts ease of use above all else then this is definitely a program to try.