Few apps can improve your productivity as much—and inspire as many “How did you do that?!” reactions from onlookers—as a clipboard manager (sometimes called a clipboard history or multi-clipboard utility). While the macOS clipboard holds only your most recent copy or cut, these utilities store a history of every photo, file, link, or bit of text you copy or cut, letting you paste any of those items at any time.

Copy a photo before you remembered to paste some text? The text is still there. Need to grab a dozen links or numbers? Copy them in succession from the source, then switch to the destination document and paste them one after another.

Best of all, these apps don’t intrude on your workflow—copy and paste as you normally would. When you need something from your history, simply press a keyboard shortcut or click a systemwide menu.

Check out these standout clipboard managers that will supercharge your productivity while making sure you never lose content again.

Paste’s “pinboard” appears at the bottom of your screen with easy-to-read cards for everything you’ve copied; cards are color-coded based on the app each was copied from. Double-click an item to paste it, or Control-click to paste text as plain text or to pin the item to a permanent pinboard. (You can create multiple permanent pinboards for frequently used text and switch among them using the keyboard.) Paste can sync an unlimited history to iCloud, so you can access past clipboards on another Mac or in the Paste app on iPhone and iPad.

Best for: Getting the biggest view of your past clippings

Copy ’Em’s floating clipboard list can be customized in myriad ways: Choose the size of each preview, the font size, the window theme, whether or not to show URL titles and previews, and more. Filter the clipping list by application or content type (text, images, links, files/folders); sort the list by date, by starred, by most-used, alphabetically, and more. Favorite commonly used bits of text or code and save them to custom lists for quick access; and perform basic text transformations—such as making text uppercase or removing empty lines—before pasting. The app can sync with the iPhone and iPad versions of Copy ’Em.

Best for: Customizing your clipboard list to get it exactly how you want it

Pastebot is the power user’s clipboard utility. Create complex filters that modify text, then apply them to clipboard contents on the fly. Create collections for frequently used content and code, then assign keyboard shortcuts to those collections—or to directly paste favorite clippings. Search clippings based on content or metadata. Use the sequential-paste feature to copy multiple items and then paste them elsewhere in the correct order. Pastebot syncs using iCloud so you can access your clipboard history across Macs.

Best for: Sequential copy/paste and processing clippings with complex filters

PastePal’s unobtrusive clipping list (above left) slides onto any side of the screen when you need it, showing a preview of each clipping, the app you copied it from, and when you copied it. Control-click any text item to edit it or apply basic transformations such as capitalizing words or removing blank lines, or to save it to a collection for later use. Open the app’s main window (above right) to view clippings by type (text, image, links, and more) or by application. Your clippings can sync with iPhone and iPad versions of PastePal via iCloud.

Best for: Manually editing clippings and keeping an unobtrusive clipping list

Pasta displays your clipboard history in a grid that’s especially useful if you tend to frequently copy and paste images; each preview notes when you copied it, from what app, and (for images) the dimensions or (for text) the number of characters. You can also filter clippings by app or type, add clippings to collections, and anchor Pasta’s window so it stays visible when you have a lot to paste.

Best for: A customizable grid of clipping previews

Maccy’s minimalist design lets you quickly find and paste clippings without taking your fingers off the keyboard (though you can use the pointer if you want). Press a shortcut to view your history, then search and paste items, pin items for frequent use, delete unwanted clippings, or select an item to see more details (a preview, when you copied it, and from which app). You choose how many (or how few) clipboard items and characters Maccy displays.

Best for: A blazing-fast, minimalist history and full keyboard control