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Convert the contents of your clipboard to text or image files with PasteAsFile right-click extension

August 27, 2012 By 20 Comments

Every wished you could just right click and paste the contents of your clipboard as a text or image file on your desktop? No? Well now that you’ve heard of the concept, you probably do ;)

PasteAsFile is a Windows extension that adds an entry to your right-click Windows context menu, which can convert the contents of your clipboard to a file on your desktop in various formats.

For text it can save as TXT, RTF, DOC, HTML, CSS, and PHP and other file formats, while for image files PasteAsFile supports JPG, PCX, PNG, BMP, TGA, GIF and TIF). PasteAsFile is free for personal use.

This is such a great concept and the program works great. But of course we have an idea to make it even better: the addition of right click entries that do the opposite, and suck the contents of a text or image file into the clipboard (“shshshshump!” – imagine a sucking sound). We wrote about something like this previously (SendToClipboard) except that one only works for text files.

PasteAsFile screenshot1PasteAsFile screenshot2

Other than that there’s not much to say about PasteAsFile, a brilliant idea that is well implemented. It works on Win XP and higher and happily it installed right click context menu on our 64bit system.

[Thanks go to reader Panzer for the tip about this one]

Get PasteAsFile here.


 
 
 
Samer Kurdi

Samer Kurdi

Has been reviewing software since 2006 when he started Freewaregenius.com
Samer Kurdi

@freewaregenius

August 27, 2012
Samer Kurdi
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  • http://starpunch.net Chris Gingerich

    Thanks for the mention and I am working on an app to just what you said. It will copy the contents from plain text files and supported images to the clipboard. Stay tuned, I hope to have it finished for public use before the end of this week. :-)

  • Samer Kurdi

    @ Chris: awesome – and thanks for a great app!

  • http://techyfuzz.com Avi

    @Samer can you tell me a plugin or extension for chrome where I can save text directly in any format that I want??

    • Samer Kurdi

      @ Avi: not sure what you need exactly. I think this program (PasteAsFile ) can do that. Simply clip and right click on the desktop!

  • Kenneth

    Very clever–the ability to save elsewhere would really be super useful.

  • Chris

    @kenneth — what do you mean by save elsewhere?

  • Jod

    OK, I have Windows XP, I installed it and after copying a piece of text from a text file or from a web page I right-clicked on the background of the Windows Explorer and the PASTE AS FILE context menu option does not appear anywhere. Am I missing something? i.e. reboot windows, register a DLL file, (dunno!) I tried copying an image to the clipboard and same results!

  • Chris Gingerich

    It may be because of UAC. Try to install again but this time right click one the setup.exe file and Run As Administrator. Sounds like it is not adding the proper information to the registry. If that does not work, let me know ([email protected]) and I’ll see what else I can do.

  • Chris Gingerich

    Sorry, I forgot XP doesn’t have run as admin. Make sure that your logged in with a user that has admin rights and try the install.

  • Jod

    I’m sorry to say that I am indeed logged in as admin, I have also checked for any virus or malware but no. I even have reset complete file and registry permissions to default using WINDOWS RESOURCE KIT TOOLS (SubInACL.exe) and I haven’t made it yet after uninstalling and installing over and over. By the way I noticed that when installing PASTE AS FILE the process of copying files and registering DLLs was so fast that I suspect it was interrupted somehow and terminated prematurely.

    • http://starpunch.net Chris Gingerich

      Try this: If you do not still have Paste As File installed, install it and then download this file -> http://starpunch.net/pafinstall.exe and copy it to the folder were Paste As File is installed (usually c:\Program Files\PasteAsFile) and run it. You should see a message “Install Complete” after. Then try to right click in an open area of an explorer window or on your desktop and see if Paste As File is in the menu.

  • Jod

    I did as you said but PASTE AS FILE is not in the context menu, it doesn’t appear in my ShellExView list either.

    • http://starpunch.net Chris Gingerich

      Ok. I now have access to a Windows XP system and it is doing the same thing you are getting. I’ll work on making an update and try to get this fixed. If you want you can either download and install the latest version as it has an update feature that you can get to through the start menu Start > Programs > Past As File > Check for update. And you can check in a few days or you can send me an email to chris[AT]starpunch.net and I’ll let you know when there is an update.

      • http://starpunch.net Chris Gingerich

        I found the issue. Windows XP does not have an easy way to add menu items to the background context menu of folders or the desktop. Made an update so that it adds the menu item to the context menu of the folder. So to use it after you download (or update to) the latest version (2.1.2.0), right click on a folder and choose Paste As File.

        • guignol

          Thank you, Chris, but where can i download it? In your page it still version 2.1.0.0. And where CopyArea, i can’t download it.

  • http://starpunch.net Chris Gingerich

    Sorry. I updated the Paste As File page to say the correct version (2.1.2.0) and I fixed the download link for CopyArea. Thanks for letting me know! http://starpunch.net/#PasteAsFile – http://starpunch.net/#CopyArea

    • Jod

      Done, now it works when right-clicking the folder (not the background), awesome tool to boost programming productivity, thanks Chris.

  • http://starpunch.net Chris Gingerich

    My site went down because of all the downloads. Please change the home link above to http://cgs.vdsworld.com/#PasteAsFile

  • dam_ged

    Hello,
    Thanks for the info!
    After trying many software I would prefer 7plus: http://code.google.com/p/7plus/
    - Real freeware: it has no 5 seconds disclaimer as PastAsFile and among other things features:
    - paste as txt via CTRL+V
    - paste as image via CTRL+V
    - Create new folders and textfiles by pressing F8/F7
    - A lot of other cool feature
    …check out http://code.google.com/p/7plus/

  • http://starpunch.net Chris Gingerich

    True, but Paste As File supports Formatted HTML, RTF and PDF files and also lets you choose the file name right when you paste. Also does not run in the background taking up system memory.