Clipboard managers are so insanely useful that I can't believe everyone doesn't use them. The basic idea is that everything you've copied in the last day or so should be at your fingertips. This changes your clipboard from something you use just to move a chunk of text from point A to point B, to a stack you can push things to whenever you think you might want to use them later. Which, if you're programming or writing text, happens all the freakin' time.
So instead of `cmd-V` to paste, you do `cmd-shift-V` to pop up a list of everything you've copied recently, and then `down-arrow down-arrow down-arrow return` to paste the item three copies ago. If you hold down `cmd` while hitting return, you get the item as plain text. This works system-wide and becomes muscle memory after a day or so.
Ditto comes with some nice advanced features as well, like selecting a range of items to paste all at once, or typing to search your entire clipboard history. But just the basic clipboard-history stack is the game changer.
If you're not convinced yet, here's a few scenarios where it's amazing:
* Copy a list of items as you read through a long web page and then paste them all into a spreadsheet. * Copy comments you think you might want to reply to as you read through a long thread. * Copy someone's name, employer, address, phone number, and email address from various parts of a site to paste into the references section of your resume. * Copy snippets from four different Stack Overflow answers, then go and use them as a toolbox to build a function that solves your problem. * Copy something you're planning to paste in a second, get distracted, copy three other things, and still have the first thing ready and waiting instead of having to go back to find it again. * Get in the habit of cutting text you don't want instead of deleting, so you can paste it back ten minutes later if you change your mind.
I know this seems like a ridiculous rant, but seriously, if you use a keyboard all day this is life changing.
[1] http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/ [2] http://www.clipmenu.com/