The clipboard is a wonderful thing. Every time you copy (CTRL+C) or cut (CTRL+X) any information on your monitor, it is temporarily stored in the clipboard ready to be pasted back when needed. And while working in Microsoft Office applications you can even display the Clipboard at the side of the screen by clicking the tiny button shown below:
Once you’ve done this it’s a good idea to access the Options at the bottom of the Clipboard viewer and select the Show Office Clipboard When Ctrl+C Pressed Twice option. If find a double click on Ctrl+C much easier to remember than that tiny little button on the top ribbon. And while you’re at it you may as well select the other two options too to ensure that the Clipboard will retain a history of the items you copy/cut even without the clipboard being visible:
Now that you’ve done that you can see your clipboard’s contents and paste any of the last 24 items you copied/cut whenever you like.
Gone are your days of rigidly sequential copy’n’pasting!
But what to do if you need to copy’n’paste non-sequentially outside of Microsoft Office applications? I recently discovered a handy Windows Vista Sidebar gadget that displays the last 7 items you placed into the clipboard. Clicking each item on the list simply returns them to the top of the clipboard, effectively making them the last thing you placed in the clipboard. Now you can paste (CTRL+V) that item as needed.
So, if you need support for non-sequential clipboard use outside of Microsoft Office applications, take ClipboardManager gadget for a spin from here.