Overview
CopyPaste-X with yType from Script Software provides multiple clipboards, a typing accelerator and a set of text conversion tools. CopyPaste-X with yType is sold as one program, but each of its main functions could stand on its own as a valuable utility. For someone who would use all the various features it offers, this collection is truly a bonanza. The total price for CopyPaste-X with yType is $30.

CopyPaste-X started as a shareware product that answered the need to be able to cut, copy and paste multiple things at a time, and it grew from there. This economical solution to facilitating transfer of text and graphics between different programs is arguably what Apple themselves should have evolved the copy paste feature to be after this many years. Quite simply, CopyPaste-X takes the Apple provided clipboard, which allows movement of text and graphics from one application to another, and expands its usefulness by allowing someone to create multiple clipboards. This enables use of the clipboard according to the individual needs of various programs. CopyPaste-X allows you to name the clipboards, and they will be saved through a reboot.

yType could be called a typing facilitator. The program builds its own "vocabulary" as you type and will begin to automatically complete words as they are recognized in the database. It guesses the word you are about to type, and puts it in a little popup box on the screen. To complete the word, presuming it is the correct guess, you hit the space bar twice; if it's not the word you want, just ignore the popup and keep typing. Now, obviously this will not be any great attractive feature for smaller, commonly used words. However, for those that use large, long words such as for scientific reports, or anything else that would be tedious to type, this feature becomes quite useful. Other features of yType include a spellchecker and calculator.

System Requirements

• Mac OS X version 10.3 or later

Installation
Installation was simple. The full version can be downloaded from the Script Software site. On the web site, choose the version, "CopyPaste+yType 2.6.4", and then click on download. This downloads cp.dmg to your hard drive, which mounts the volume "CopyPaste 2.6.4" onto your desktop. From there you just drag the application folder to your Applications folder.

If you activate yType, you will also need to choose a location for the dictionary. This dictionary is necessary for the auto-correction feature to work in yType. The three locations from which to choose are:

• In the Application Support folder inside the Library folder of the root disk (recommended);
• In the same folder that the CopyPaste-X program is located;
• In the Applications folder on the root disk.

Additionally, to use the yType feature, you need to go to System Preferences and locate the Universal Access Panel and check the box "Enable access for assistive device".

When you launch the CopyPaste-X application for the first time, you should open the Preferences and set CopyPaste-X to launch at startup. This is optional, but once you experience the usefulness of the tool, you'll want it on at all times. In the Menus tab of the Preferences pane, you should check "Install Contextual menus" and "Install CopyPaste-X menubar icon"; these options will make CopyPaste-X available from the context menu (activated when you control-click or right-click your mouse) and from an icon on your menu bar as well as from the CopyPaste-X application itself. In the yType tab of Preferences, check "Activate yType", and then select the way you want yType to work according to your needs and style. Once the Dictionary is placed you should be ready to launch and use both CopyPaste-X and yType.

Multiple clipboards
There are three distinct features to CopyPaste-X with yType. The first part is the CopyPaste-X functionality, which expands the ability to move multiple formats of data between programs through multiple clipsets and clipboards. It also includes a built-in clipboard editor to alter the text in your clipboards and/or clipsets. Having access to multiple clipboards, by itself, is well worth the price of admission.

In OS X, the Finder does not allow more than one clipboard for cut or copy at a time. CopyPaste-X provides support for multiple named clipsets, each containing 10 clipboards, giving you access to use many clipboards instead of just one. To use, highlight the material you want to copy by holding down the mouse key and dragging it from start to end, and then hold down the Apple (Command) and C key, type a number between 1 and 10 and release the Apple (Command) and C key. The material you have copied will be saved in the numbered slot in the clip set that you are currently using. If you forget which clipboard goes with which number, you'll find each clipboard listed in sub menus under Copy in your application's Edit menu. There is a complete help menu that can be accessed at the bottom of the CopyPaste-X box. If you place your cursor at the bottom of the help menu and just hold the mouse button down the script will roll slowly so you can read the contents. If you want to see exactly what you have saved on any clip board just click on the text part of the listing in the CopyPaste-X pop up box, and a box will open up showing you the entire contents.

A central feature of CopyPaste-X is the Clip Recorder (see below), which collects your copied items one by one and puts them in a stack, one on top of another.

CopyPaste Clipboard Windows

As you select and copy items (sounds, graphics, or text), each successive copy gets stacked one upon another, as a stack of dishes in one of those plate dispensers in a restaurant. Once you take the top plate off, there is the next one in line to take its place, and so on. As you paste, the clips you have stored can be pasted one by one, with the one below moving up after you paste the one above. By default, the stack contains up to 20 items or 20MB of data, however you can set preferences to collect a maximum of 200 clips in the stack. You can also set whether you want the stack reversed (essentially dealing from the bottom of the stack). These items are stored on palettes which are available at all times.

If the option "Auto Minimize Clip Sets Palette" or "Auto Minimize Clip Recorder Palette" is checked in the Preferences, the Palette will automatically shrink to icon size when not in use. This frees up screen real estate.

CopyPaste palettes minimized

Using various CopyPaste-X commands, you can set the pasted object to either replace or append, as well as either empty the vacated slot or keep it there, and the setting holds through rebooting. You can save whole clipsets that can be archived, as well as tied to a specific program. You can name clipsets and therefore identify collections of clipboards. You can have one set of clipboards for your word processor, another for Excel, another for your favorite games, another for Outlook, etc.. This enables you to create a custom-tailored collection of text, graphics, and/or sounds that you use frequently and have them ready to go at any time. You won't have to type them in again.

Here is a way I found that made my life easier. I work as a gatekeeper for RFS tickets, which stands for Request For Service. I assign tickets to the appropriate teams for action. Many times, tickets are opened with the need for follow-up and additional information requested. This involves sending out e-mails that I have created for various situations that come up over and over again. Now, with CopyPaste, I can copy each type of letter into my clipset, and have it ready to go for each situation (there's always more than one situation, so the standard Finder single paste buffer doesn't fill the need). In games that have macro commands, a clipset for the game can be created, and with the quick touch of the cursor, the command can be inserted quickly - no more need to type it out each time.

yType
The second part of the program is the yType function, or the typing facilitator, which speeds up your typing by learning and expanding the database of words you type. It grows with use, and guesses which word you are about to type, and enables you to insert it by pressing the spacebar twice.

The 6 main features of yType are:

1. yType checks every word for spelling and can instantly correct common typing errors and frequently misspelled words automatically. 'hte' becomes 'the', 'adn' becomes 'and'.
2. yType learns as you type and then recommends words from its growing database. yType makes suggestions for words based on the frequency of use. You can accept the suggested word by hitting the space bar twice (the yType typing expansion hotkey). This types the whole suggestion for you, saves time and improves accuracy.
3. yType lets you create specialized databases for different tasks, such as medical, programming, and foreign languages, that can aid you in typing in those areas.
4. yType lets you keep boilerplate text at your fingertips. Create a mnemonic for a block of text, then just type the mnemonic, and press the spacebar twice to insert it. You can type two letters and hit the spacebar twice to get a sentence that is 250 letters long and spelled perfectly. Let's assume you assigned "ss" as a mnemonic for the Script Software URL. In this case typing ss and the spacebar twice inserts "http://www.scriptsoftware.com/index.html". That's a nice shortcut.
5. yType lets you type equations inline in any document, and it will automatically calculate and insert the answer. No more need to use a separate calculator program.
6. yType "Type Logger" can remember everything you type even if your Mac freezes or the power goes out. Never lose your work again! A word of warning - the Type Logger also records all the passwords you enter.

yType works invisibly in the background until it is needed. Whenever you start typing a word which is already in the database, it displays this word in a Suggestion Window located at the cursor. To insert that suggestion in your typing, you have two options:

1. Pressing the spacebar twice inserts the suggested word.
2. A click on the suggestion window will show a drop down list of suggestions starting with the characters you've already typed. You can select any suggestion from this list. When you see a suggestion, simply hit control-arrow-down to locate the menu and navigate it by arrow keys. Spacebar or return-key will insert the selected suggestion. Those who have problems with the mouse, or simply prefer the keyboard, will love this function.

CopyPaste Tools
The third part of CopyPaste-X consists of the CopyPaste tools, a collection of useful features to manipulate, adjust and work with existing text. The following is a partial list of the tools available:

• Case conversion - convert text to Uppercase, Lowercase, Capitalize Words, Capitalize Sentences (how many times have you needed to do this with all caps text?)
• Mac -> Win, Win -> Mac, DOS->Mac, Mac -> DOS (these are great for cross-platform environments)
• Strip Lower ASCII
• Remove Styles
• E-Mail Indentation, Comment, Uncomment (keep your mailing list posts in line with posting guidelines)
• Highlight HTML
• Encrypt / Decrypt Text
• Encode / Decode Base64
• Text Cleaner Advanced
• Multiple Spaces to Single Space (copying text from Safari windows embeds double-spaces, this cleans it)
• Convert selected text to a word list with optional word frequency
• Convert date formats including conversion between Western, Islamic and Bah'ai dates.

Documentation
Documentation is excellent, coming in the form of a 70 page PDF document. It is very clearly written, and indexed by topic. The manual covers each aspect of the program well, and explains each of the features at several levels. A beginner can dive right in, but there are more advanced features for those that need them.

Missing from the documentation are any practical suggestions on each of the segments of the program, just to give a sort of jump-start to how the program might be used. As with most Mac programs, one can get started using the program right away without reading the manual, relegating the manual to a reference tool for use when you want to see if the program will do something. I kind of like using manuals this way, and find a weird kind of pleasure to actually read and discover neat features built-in that would only be known by reading the manual. For some, it probably makes sense to read the manual first, but for me I prefer "discovering" features, and then reading up on what I discovered. Either way, the included documentation is very useful.

Highlights
The central attraction of CopyPaste-X is having multiple clipboards. It is such an attractive feature that it makes one wonder why Apple has not incorporated it into Mac OS X. Now that I have used it, even though it has been for just a short period of time, I could not go back to using a single clipboard. This makes me wonder what other aspects of the operating system could use some creative expansion. I am not a prolific writer or researcher, but the ability to create boilerplate strings of text that would be inserted by typing only two letters is worth the price of CopyPaste-X alone.

The yType feature is unique in that, as time goes on, it becomes increasingly more useful as its database of words grows. For those who manipulate text, the text conversion, cleaning and word list tools will also be very useful.

CopyPaste Text Cleaner

Summary
Script Software's CopyPaste-X is a media hub that provides access to data in transit via multiple clipboards and typing databases. The multi-clipboard feature transparently accepts and provides the data in the most suitable form to use within and between other applications, and is available to you at all times. The yType feature memorizes words typed and is able to "guess" when you are about to type them again. Two hits of the space bar and the guessed word is inserted at the cursor. CopyPaste-X can do various types of text conversions, such as converting text to all capitals, removing extra spaces, removing diacritical marks, encrypting and decrypting text, and much more. You can try the program by downloading it free from Script Software, and there are only a few limitations on the trial version, one of which is that you don't get the privilege of having your clipsets saved through reboot. When you register the software by paying the reasonable $30 price, you get the code that unlocks the program. Minor updates are free for the life of the program, and discounts on major upgrades are offered to those who register. For those who do any kind of writing, CopyPaste-X is an invaluable tool that is easy to learn, and once you start using it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Pros

• Multiple clipboards, usable between applications.
• Available in all applications.
• Customize Clipsets for each program.
• Small footprint
• All-in-one text and clipboard editing feature.
• Can import directly from TypeIt4Me.
• Video tutorial on website

Cons

• Only works in OS X 10.3 or greater
• The auto expansion feature takes some getting used to (can be turned off)
• Fairly open references and advertising on behalf of the Bah'ai faith (actually includes Bah'ai calendar in on of features)
• Does not work with Netscape

Overall Rating:

4 1/2 out of 5 Mice