Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Clipboard on Steroids: How to Capture and Keep Multiple Clips



One of the annoying oversights of PC and Mac is the lack of a "clipboard extender": a clipboard that can clip all types of material (plain text, rich text, hyperlinks, images) and keep a list of your last 100 clips for recall later. Seriously, once I discovered the power of a good clipboard extender, I don't know how I lived without it! This is a "must" for any one working with text, images or web urls.

Clipmagic was my favorite for many years. It is free, powerful and you can customize what it does. Go to http://www.clipmagic.com/clipboard-extender.html

Grade: B+

Recently, however, I was in search for a 64-bit clipboard program (Clipmagic is 32-bit). I stumbled upon a little treasure that costs $17 (with educational discount) for two computers:

Clipcache Pro. Even more powerful and slick than Clipmagic, and rock-solid stable with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

There is a 30-day trial on Clipcache Pro. Give it a try. Whichever one you choose, you will never go back to the old way: Extenders are way better than one-clip-at-a-time clipboards!

Grade: A+

If there is an equivalent free program for Mac, I haven’t found it but Mac users might try iClip or Savvy Clipboard. Mac users can send me suggestions.

PS: There are many junkie clipboard extenders that only do plain text. I tried about 30 of these before stumbling on Clipmagic and Clipache Pro.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Digital History for America

There are many web sites for history but few as all-encompassing as

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

This site focuses on U.S. history and does it very well. It includes a full online textbook (free), many documents, images, and media (all free). Plus it is just plain fun to read tests like this one:

"Could You Pass the 1885 Admission Test for High School?"

Definitely worth bookmarking for the teacher (or student) who might need to grab something for class.