Capturing Data (Copying)

Introducing ClipMate 7 > Basic Operation > Capturing Data (copying)

As you copy items from other applications, ClipMate will detect the data arriving on the System Clipboard, make a copy for itself, and place it into one of your Collections (similar to folders).  This data is now known as a "clip".

Methods for copying from applications vary.  Most applications allow you to select data with the mouse or keyboard, and copy to the Clipboard (and thus into ClipMate) with keyboard combinations such as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Insert, or the Edit | Copy menu.

You can also perform a Screen Capture to obtain a bitmap of a window, the entire desktop, or any part of your desktop.

As you capture the data, you'll hear a little "pop" sound, to indicate that ClipMate has captured the data, and placed it into one of its collections.  If you have ClipMate Classic or ClipMate Explorer on the screen, you will see the data appear.

Each clip is assigned an ID (a unique numerical identifier), a title, and is immediately saved into the database under a "Collection", such as "InBox".  

Now that ClipMate has captured the data, how long does it stay?  By default, ClipMate puts new "clips" into a collection called InBox, which holds the 200 most recent clips.  When you shut down ClipMate, it performs some housekeeping which will trim the InBox down to its retention limit.  The trimmed clips are sent to another collection called "Overflow".  This area keeps 800 clips, and is likely to hold anything that has recently aged off of the InBox.  It too, is subject to purging, so when items are purged from Overflow, they are sent to the trashcan.

But unlike previous versions of ClipMate, the trashcan does not get discarded when you quit the program. Instead, items in the trash will say there for 7 days (adjustable, of course), in the event that you wish to retrieve something.  You can learn all about this process in the Data Management section.

You may have clips that you want to keep forever - so place those into another collection, with retention rules set to "never delete". The default "Safe" collection is one such collection.  To view/set the retention rules of any collection, right-click on it and view the Collection Properties dialog.