It just makes sense.
Copy as many times as you want and, until you've pasted, each copied item queues <first time using that word> up and pastes in the order with which they were copied.

I mean... it must exist somewhere.
Right?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 29 2012

http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard/ For apple mac [pocmloc, Nov 29 2012]

CopyPaste Pro http://plumamazing.com/mac/copypaste/
Only baked since the early 90s :p [BunsenHoneydew, Dec 06 2012]

At least one version of MS office had this, well, as [21] describes it, not in order, but I haven't seen it recently.
-- MechE, Nov 29 2012


This is basically copy to clipboard function that most PCs do, but you want certain control over clipboard.
-- rcarty, Nov 29 2012


I like the suggestion in the idea to turn the clipboard into what we would have once called a 'stack' in old introductory CS courses. It should support all the basic stack operations.
-- hippo, Nov 29 2012


the warranty just ran out on your diploma din't it. That's a queue.
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 29 2012


I think he probably misread the idea. A stack is "first in, last out", a queue is "first in, first out".

I suppose hippo thinks he'd prefer the former (as would I).
-- Loris, Nov 29 2012


Yes - wishful thinking - I wanted it to be a stack because I prefer stacks. "Copy/Paste" would then become "Push/Pop".
-- hippo, Nov 29 2012


It works fine until you want to copy once, paste many times. There needs to be some method of switching between modes where mode-options are:
i) traditional - each copy replaces previous contents, and pasting doesn't clear the clipboard
ii) stack - each copy goes into a stack, and each paste removes the most recent copy, until the stack is empty
iii) pipe/queue - each copy goes into the queue, pastes taking the oldest copy from storage, until the queue is empty

So there are implementations of all the above - the tricky part is having some method by which the user can easily switch between storage/retrieval modes.
-- zen_tom, Nov 29 2012


I would not like the modes, personally; modes can quickly get tedious once you start forgetting which you're in and getting unexpected results.

A simple solution: 'Copy' and 'Cut' push, 'Paste' peeks, 'Pop' pops, 'Shift' shifts. That way, 'Cut' 'Copy' and 'Paste' always behave in the traditional way (you can copy once, paste many times), and only two extra commands are needed.
-- spidermother, Nov 29 2012


//A simple solution: 'Copy' and 'Cut' push, 'Paste' peeks, 'Pop' pops, 'Shift' shifts. That way, 'Cut' 'Copy' and 'Paste' always behave in the traditional way (you can copy once, paste many times), and only two extra commands are needed.//

I think you'd also need 'flush'. But I concur. What we have then is formally an "input-restricted deque".
Given this, I think being able to review the contents of at least the two end clippings would be desirable.

I'd also like the abilities to edit the clippings where possible.
-- Loris, Nov 29 2012


There are macro programs that allow you to have multiple clipboards, and also retrieve items previously copied to any of the clipboards.

Also, many common Unix programs, including the Bash shell and the Emacs text editor, have a version of this built in. Pressing Ctrl-K will “kill” the text from the cursor to the end of the line, and Ctrl-Y will “yank” it back. Immediately after yanking text, if you press Alt-Y, it will cycle the yanked text backwards through the kill ring, which contains every snippet of text you've previously killed.

Interestingly, Mac OS X has this feature built-in as well, albeit without the ability to cycle back through the kill ring (in most programs, typing Alt-Y generates a ¥). Also, the killed text is stored on a per-window basis, so you can have killed text in many different windows without overwriting the contents of the clipboard through a normal cut and paste operation. It's useful for storing stuff on a secondary “clipboard”, though, in case you don't want to overwrite the contents of the main clipboard.
-- ytk, Nov 29 2012


The custom graphics creator in Forza Motorsport 4 has a 'copy queu' with about 80 slots, but you can only paste back the polygons or layer groups in the order they were copied/cut.
-- Alterother, Nov 29 2012


I have an interface metaphor for this (based on where the whole cut-and-paste metaphor came from in the first place), but I'm not going to tell you since if it hasn't been done already, I'd like to try and make some money off it.
-- DrCurry, Dec 04 2012


Baked [link]
-- BunsenHoneydew, Dec 06 2012


I once had a clipboard viewer, but lost it somewhere---it didn't do much like the idea suggests. Even while I had it, I used a Notepad window to paste into repeatedly, then copied the built-up work into the desired window.

My current need for complex pasting involves nested items. I need to put quoted material into HTML tags, so linear won't work for me.
-- baconbrain, Dec 06 2012



random, halfbakery