Spartan Lite Multi Clipboard

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on March 02, 2012

Spartan Lite Multi Clipboard is an enhanced clipboard for Windows. It saves the 25 most recently copied clips in a simple, spreadsheet-style grid and also stores many permanent clips, including text, images, Web and e-mail addresses, and anything else you can copy and paste from the clipboard.

It does more than just paste stuff, though. You can configure it to perform a wide range of functions such as sending e-mail, running programs, filling forms, bookmarking Web sites, and dialing telephone numbers. Spartan Lite is a fully functional freeware version of Spartan, with no adware or nag screens. The freeware only stores 500 permanent clips, while the paid version stores 10,000 clips.

We recommend starting with Spartan Lite's Quick Start Guide, though the program also offers a full Help file for greater detail. Spartan and Spartan Lite share an interface, a series of gridded rows and color-coded cells. The first 25 cells are yellow for temporary clips, while the remainder are either white, for permanent clips, or grayed out and labeled "Full version only." The white areas can be configured in multiple Sheets (the full version has many more than the Lite version) that can be arranged in various ways.

The interface itself can be quickly reconfigured into different Views, including those that display Hotkeys and Macro Clips. Clips can be dragged and dropped into cells or pasted directly. You can drag clips to arrange them, too. Hovering the cursor over a cell displays its contents in a preview, including images.

One nice feature of Spartan Lite is its frequent explanations. Hovering the cursor over many of the program's elements and options produced frequent, detailed explanations, especially on the General and View 1 (main view) Options sheets on the Tools menu. The program even includes a Year Planner and other extras.

Most of the time, Spartan Lite sits in the system tray; clicking the program's icon gives quick access to all of its views. Temporary clips appeared automatically in View 1; we merely had to right-click any clip to paste, delete, rename, copy, or edit it. The Clip editing tool is a mini graphics app and text editor. In short, Spartan Lite is a worthwhile clipboard enhancement.

Publisher's Description

From M8 Software:

Spartan Lite multi clipboard is a complete information centre for your PC. You can save often used text form letters to paste into emails or word processors. You can make things easy to find. You can arrange things visually by position or by color and you can sort any group alphabetically and when you come to reuse your clips. Spartan shows a preview of each clip and provides you with a picture browser for your digital photos, a browser launch button when the clip contains a web address, an email launch button when it contains an email address, a dial button when it contains a phone number, and a run or open button where it is a program or file on your computer. The Lite Version has no time limit and no nags but you can use 500 permanent clips.

What's new in this version: In version 8.19, screen now links directly to the "Getting started" video.