Power up copy and paste
Pastebot gives you multiple clipboards, copy/paste filters, and more
The basics of copy and paste have barely changed since the Mac’s earliest days.
And that’s fine – after all, part of the Mac’s appeal is its elegance and simplicity. Even so, it can feel limiting to only have a single pasteboard if you frequently use copy and paste. It’s here that Pastebot can prove transformative, hugely improving productivity through multiple pasteboards and powerful filtering.
The app costs £9.99 from the Mac App Store, but you can grab a free trial from tapbots.com/pastebot for this tutorial. On installing the app, you’ll need to run through a quick process to install a script (click Open Scripts Folder when prompted, and then Save Script).
It then pays to familiarise yourself with the app’s preferences. Use the Blacklist section to have Pastebot ignore certain apps (such as Keychain Access or 1Password, to avoid manually copied login details being stored in the app). General houses options for finetuning the maximum clipping size and number kept, iCloud sync, and how the app displays.
The Shortcuts section is also vital from an efficiency standpoint, enabling you to create global keyboard shortcuts for actions, such as showing the clipboard or filters windows. Usefully, you can also add a shortcut for any custom pasteboard you create, to quickly access it regardless of the app you’re using at the time.