Memorized clipboard entries

[eisenpony]

Summary: Support assigning key-bindings to clipboard history items.

I occasionally need to run a command over and over again on a number of files.

I typically get my list of files ready as a \n delimited list of paths. To open them, I will cut their path to the clipboard, switch to a console and paste. Once they are open, I need to type in a command into the integrated shell. I would love to be able to paste the command, but because I copied the path onto the clipboard buffer, the command is no longer at my finger tips. Using the Clipboard history feature of Windows helps, but as I open more files, the command gets pushed further and further down the history list.

As an enhancement to the history list, I would love to be able to assign a key-binding to a particular entry. No matter how far the entry was pushed down the list, the key-binding would let me select it quickly.

When the entry was removed from the list, the key binding should also be freed up.
I suggest the key-binding only work after opening the clipboard history with Win+V, but perhaps a global key binding would be useful to some people too.

[nolde]

@eisenpony , you might want to check ClipX.

I have been using it for a long time, cannot live without it.

[robsonsobral]

WIN+V+1, WIN+V+2, WIN+V+3...

[crutkas]

is this you want the same item over and over again or to pull stuff truly from your clipboard.

[eisenpony]

My idea was based on getting an item from the clipboard history.

Either bind an entry in the clipboard history to a hotkey, or prevent it from getting bumped down the list when copying new items so that it would always be available using the same key strokes.

Perhaps the Pin command could be modified to accomplish the same thing.

[nolde]

I know I've said it before, but ClipX with Stickies plugin seems to do exactly what you want:

• on paste menu, you can reference the 10 top entries with the numbers keys; so, if you configure the paste menu with CTRL+Shift+V, you could then just press 5 to get the fifth item on the list
• if you have common commands that you sue VERY often, you can turn it into a Stickie, that bind to letters, so you could trigger CTRL+Shift+V then A to get the 1st stickie, which is always the same

ClipX is quite old, but still works well. I would give a try into a new one if PowerToys ever adds something like it.

[dedavis6797]

Yeah ClipX sounds perfect for this kind of functionality. I'd find it super useful as well.

[bovrhovn]

I would suggest starting to work on this one - for example Flow.Launcher has that out of the box (example here) . If you use PT run all the time, this can be quite handy. For devs IMHO for sure - at least I am using CopyQ everywhere with key bindings and it is useful. To be able to execute that from PT run would be even better - of course with additional actions. You can then easily add commands to copy as text, html, picture, if the source if picture, etc.

Has anybody already started to work on it or how does assigning works?

[Aaron-Junker]

I would suggest starting to work on this one - for example Flow.Launcher has that out of the box (example here) . If you use PT run all the time, this can be quite handy. For devs IMHO for sure - at least I am using CopyQ everywhere with key bindings and it is useful. To be able to execute that from PT run would be even better - of course with additional actions. You can then easily add commands to copy as text, html, picture, if the source if picture, etc.

Has anybody already started to work on it or how does assigning works?

Cc: @crutkas @jaimecbernardo

[Aaron-Junker]

@bovrhovn When a core team member approves you can start working on it. You'll then get assigned and the issue will be marked as in progress.

[jaimecbernardo]

@bovrhovn , are you saying you'd like to pick this one up?

[bovrhovn]

@bovrhovn , are you saying you'd like to pick this one up?

Would love to have a shot at it. Always wanted to go deeper into how clipboard works and this looks like a perfect opportunity to learn something new and to make useful tool for other (and me) to use.

[nolde]

@bovrhovn Looks like ClipX is gone now, but I still have the installers if you want to check it out. Also, it seemed to be made using .Net, so you should be able to reflect the code out.

[bovrhovn]

@bovrhovn Looks like ClipX is gone now, but I still have the installers if you want to check it out. Also, it seemed to be made using .Net, so you should be able to reflect the code out.

@nolde perfect, please share, and I'll dive into it. @jaimecbernardo @crutkas happy to take this task to make PT clipboard tool if you guys agree.

[jaimecbernardo]

Thanks for wanting to pick this up!
Let's discuss how'd this look like as well (try to agree on some spec), are you thinking PowerToys Run plugin or distinct PowerToys?
How do you see it working?

[crutkas]

@bovrhovn i think a big question for me is the interaction model here. @jaimecbernardo talked about this in his comment.

Where does it live, how does someone interact with it, what is configurable. ...

[bovrhovn]

@bovrhovn i think a big question for me is the interaction model here. @jaimecbernardo talked about this in his comment.

Where does it live, how does someone interact with it, what is configurable. ...

I played with clipboard API's a bit over the weekend. Looks quite easy to configure, but due to storing history of items somewhere to be able to access clipboard content (even though you get that by getting the data object), would make sense to be added as separate window and can be traversed through either via PT plugin or via the app itself. App needs to run to "register" to clipboard updates to get the entry via Win 32 API, not sure if that can be done with PT plugin. Or does it activate in the beginning when PT is initialized?

For app to be useful, I would add (in the first iteration) the following functionalities:

• store the history item (set in preferences how much item to store)
• activate window with item list, be able to search through it (images included - OCR option - next phase) and to "move" that to clipboard (with preferred key-binding) - aka search, focus moved to item, press enter, or some key and that gets moved to clipboard - if you go to word or somewhere you can then easily put that in
• be able to pin clipboard entry and be available on top (for starters only 1 pinned option, but we can add more)
• be able to delete from clipboard history (in preferences) and define to auto-delete after exit (or something like that)
• be able to define what to store (only text, image, file, etc.) - all is default and can be defined, but at least 1 needs to be selected
• define actions based on type of entry (aka if text, format options. if file, filename, path, if image, save as etc.)
• define storage - Sqlite or json files with location to store the files

I can do a simple demo project to demonstrate what and how for you to see, what I was thinking with short video and then you can decide if that makes sense.

Simple demo example here, video about the app here.

Let me know your thoughts.

[nolde]

@bovrhovn Zip file with the installers I had.

clipx.zip

[scotho3]

I'll drop a link in here for Ditto - still the best clipboard manager I've ever found outside of vim.

[bovrhovn]

I'll drop a link in here for Ditto - still the best clipboard manager I've ever found outside of vim.

Thanks for the link. I prefer CopyQ, which works cross-platform and has rich options. Use it in Linux all the time and on Windows. My goal here is to make a tool, which will be lightweight, integrated into one stop tool for enabling / disabling the feature, having needed feature for working with on daily basis and enough stamina to increase needed productivity.

If it doesn't make sense to create another clipboard tool, then let's close the ticket and continue with other cool ideas to make our life easier :)

[crutkas]

I'm going to xref this against #671

[yzlnew]

Maybe similar to what Raycast offer? A neat clipboard manager living inside PT Run would be nice.

[nolde]

ClipX page is back up, btw.

https://bluemars.org/clipx/

[Turk303]

My idea was based on getting an item from the clipboard history.

Either bind an entry in the clipboard history to a hotkey, or prevent it from getting bumped down the list when copying new items so that it would always be available using the same key strokes.

Perhaps the Pin command could be modified to accomplish the same thing.

There's an OLD tool from OSX side of things called CopyPasteX 2.5 (NOT the newer pro version, it removes the "good stuff") If you have a means to even download (I do have a copy but...) or a means to run it on an older OSuX / machine you too may want this implemented in powertoys.

I tried MANY clipboard tools odly the best of an ok bunch was Outreach Clipboard History Managher. (Ditto, ClipCube, clipdiary, Arsclip, ClipMate and many more might be worth a google and suite your needs, they didn't quite do it for me and were slightly better than the meager WIN/V option),

After a bit of searching i found 1 remaining image of this elusive tool (from back in 2002/3 !)

This is it and why no one has managed to do better or think how useful it still could be is a shock, As you see C stands for copy, p :P paste.
each field is 10x10 but expandable and each Copy/paste field can store ANYTHING, audio, text, pdf files, mobvies, images etc SO useful,.
Anyway CopyPaste-X looks like this :-

Its easy to see this as Win/V but you can "audition" & edit within the tool in the format that is copied, ie play the copied movie or audio or view and edit an image all from the 10x10 (expandable until your ram ran out) : it was so un-cluttered it looked far simpler than it was, alas Copy Paste Pro (aka no onger free) removed a lot of the simplicity to make it appear worth money. And ruined the tool.

ps Outreach 's Clipboard History is from 2011, and kicks Win/V in its place - 12 years and still nothing worth using....