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I would like to be able to copy and paste multiple items on a Mac using key shortcuts.

For example, ⌘1 would copy item 1 and ⌘2 would copy item 2, etc.

Then ⌘! would paste item 1 and ⌘@ would paste item 2.

If there is already a program for this please let me know or if you can make me one. Also I need it to be a free program.

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    Copy from anywhere. What you suggest only keeps one item in the clipboard, OP wants several clipboard items simultaneously.
    – MicroMachine
    Commented Jun 16, 2020 at 20:13
  • Just a note for password manager users: most (all?) of the third party apps will also save your passwords, probably in clear text. I use KeePassXC as password manager and it automatically clears the clipboard after 10 sec - except from third party clipboard managers. (Windows has a built in solution via Windows+v, and KeePassXC will only clear the secrects from the list. Too bad this is not supported on Mac.)
    – toraritte
    Commented Feb 18, 2023 at 11:54
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    @toraritte this depends on the 3rd party solution used. For instance, the clipboard history in Alfred can be configured to ignore clipboard entries coming from Keychain, Wallet and whatever 3rd party password manager you use.
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Feb 18, 2023 at 12:30

12 Answers 12

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I use clipmenu, it's been great, lots of customizable shortcuts: http://www.clipmenu.com/

Here's what I like about it:

  1. Easy keyboard combo, hit ⌘ + ⇧ Shift + V (or customize it) and it brings up a small sensible fully keyboard navigable menu where you can select from your recent clipboard entries.
  2. You can also optionally add saved snippets of text, I put my stupid auto generated Oracle password in there, win!
  3. And other than that, it's stable and stays out of the way, you can configure it to start automatically on startup, so you never are without it, it's a life saver
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I really like Flycut. Available here: https://github.com/TermiT/Flycut

Like all of the other answers here, it's a clipboard manager which stores every item you copy using ⌘ + c in a list. Then you can press ⌘ + ⇧ Shift + v to see a list of the items you have copied and choose one to paste.

Unlike the other answers here, it's free, open source, and doesn't come with a load of other functionality. Also it is actively maintained unlike clipmenu (last release ClipMenu 1.0.0a1 released Nov 11, 2014).

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  • +1 in '18 for floss software! installs seamlessly on sierra and surprisingly configurable. usage is intuitive and easily adapted to your workflow. 10/10 would recommend.
    – Zayne S Halsall
    Commented Apr 12, 2018 at 12:13
  • For those using FlyCut, how do you cycle backwards through the list of copy's using hotkeys? Seems ⌘+shift+v only cycles forward and then you're stuck on the last copy?
    – eplictical
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 21:02
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    @robd thanks for the note. Found the full list of hotkeys here: github.com/TermiT/Flycut/blob/master/help.md. Really nice utility!!
    – eplictical
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 16:29
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    For the issue of not being able to cycle backwards, you can hold ⌘+shift + ←or→ to cycle back and forth
    – Adindu Stevens
    Commented Apr 24, 2023 at 8:04
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    Unfortunately this app doesn't let you to paste n-th clipboard item with a single hotkey like asked by OP. So it can't substitute for example Ditto if you're coming from Windows env.
    – Marek Lewandowski
    Commented Aug 8, 2023 at 22:30
6

Slightly different implementation, but will do what you want:

LaunchBar keeps a history of your clipboard, so you can copy multiple things using the usual keyboard combo ⌘ - C and then paste them using (for me, I may have changed from the default):

  • hold down ⌘
    • tap \ to view clipboard history
    • tap ↓ until desired clipping is selected
  • release ⌘

I've found it to be a pretty useful workflow. I do have to flush the clipboard history after dealing with passwords though. I keep it set at 10 items to limit my exposure if I forget.

Launchbar is free to try and $35 to buy.

I'm not sure how they limit the free version now, but back before I bought it they let you do five types of activities per login, so you could do the copy, paste, and clipboard history deletion freely without running into the limit

I do not use it because I've found Launchbar to be more useful, but it looks like Alfred includes clipboard history in the unlimited free version.

Based on the screenshot it looks like Alfred uses shortcuts closer to what you wanted.

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    Big fan of Launchbar - and this is one of the main reasons why.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Apr 8, 2014 at 22:41
6

Have a look at https://maccy.app/ . One can simply install it via brew

brew install --cask maccy
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I used to use clipmenu but I moved onto an updated fork with more recent support called Clipy.

It has the same shortcuts as clipmenu (⌘+Shift+V to open the list of items to paste, etc) but the interface is a bit cleaner (also easier to edit Snippets).

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  • Is there any documentation on this? What is a Snippet?
    – wheeliebin
    Commented May 6, 2019 at 11:29
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    @wheeliebin snippet is a small block of text (or code). It's all documented in the parent project's page, clipmenu: clipmenu.com
    – Luciano
    Commented May 6, 2019 at 12:44
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Alfred is not the best solution, but every other things mentioned here are many many worse

I use Alfred with custom UI skin, removing all the messing colors and its logo, to make it more look like Spotlight

Hope, apple'll implement multiple clipboard/clipboard history in the Spotlight.

upd:

https://www.alfredapp.com/alfred-5-whats-new/

Brief description:

  • every action has customisable hotkey, e.g. open history, select, join-copy,,,
  • history is centred floating alfred panel-window
  • history might be infinite, i use it as my Knowledge Base! Never more notes for some commands phrases etc.
  • also it have snippets as a continuation of infinite clipboard. Sadly. User should manually add items to snippets.
  • many many settings. join-copy is configurable too
  • and much more
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From what I remember CopyPastePro is pretty close to what you want. I haven't used it much since OS X was released, they were very slow with their OS X rewrite. I currently use Alfred for my clipboard needs, but that implementation isn't as close to what you describe as CopyPastePro is.

I used PTHPasteboard Pro for several years. It is probably the most powerful pasteboard utility that I used. IIRC it is probably the closest to what you describe and with some setup can be configured to work exactly as you describe.

None of these are free, but they are all reasonably priced.

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I'm coming back to macOS after decades on Windows and the built-in multi-clipboard is something I quickly realized I couldn't live without.

CopyClip seems to be the lightest-weight, free option available in the Mac App Store.

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I found right now the new tool — Raycast! It looks combination of power of Alfred and beauty of Spotlight! Will try. Yes, it has a clipboard history. Will update answer

https://www.raycast.com/

raycast clipboard history!

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    +1 for raycast. It's replaced my previous answer.
    – Max Cascone
    Commented Apr 26, 2023 at 18:14
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I use CopyPro. https://copypro.app It saves your cut / copy history and you can paste the 10 most recent items with command, control, and/ or fn + 0-9 number keys. You can also edit and reorder the copy history easily and also to open at login by default and run in the background so you never loose any copied text you might accidentally overwrite.

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As a 'generic' answer, there are lots of clipboard managers on the Mac App Store, and elsewhere, that store successive entries from the clipboard, or multiple clipboards.

Many of the existing answers have since been abandoned, and as recommendation QnAs are discouraged, I'm not going to cite specific examples!

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I've been using JumpCut for several years now.

  • very lightweight
  • easy to install: brew install --cask jumpcut
  • simple to use: ⌥^V (customizable) to cycle through clippings or simple ⌘V to paste the recent-most clipping
  • menu-bar control

enter image description here

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