Flashpaste is a handy little program which, if you do lots of writing and keyboard work, is a jewel of a tool. It is essentially a database of commonly used bits of text that you usually end up having to type over and over into the programs you use. Some examples of this type of text are names, postal addresses, greetings, e-mail addresses, phrases, URLs, computer code and many others. These text bits can be sorted and saved in various folders within Flashpaste to be called up when working on different projects or types of documents. This is great for touch typists and software programmers who repeatedly type the same text entries into various papers or processes.

Once the Flashpaste program is loaded, a simple, configurable keyboard combination like Ctrl-I opens a small window containing the complete list of folders and phrases. A mouse click or a few arrow clicks on the keyboard along with a press of the Tab or Enter key inserts the complete body of chosen text into whatever you're working on. This is much better than having to remember a large number of macro keyboard combinations in a word processor or having to copy & paste different pieces of text within a document or between documents. Flashpaste also records all words, numbers and phrases sent to the Windows clipboard, not just the most recent item, and makes them available and easy to insert repeatedly as well.

The Pro version of Flashpaste has three additional features over the free Lite version. First of all there is no banner or nag box urging you purchase the Pro version. Second, macros are supported. Third, there is the capability to divide a string into different folders.

Flashpaste is small in size. The free Lite version is a 430KB download and the Pro version is only slightly larger 575KB. It is well supported with a clear and concise web site and a very thorough online help system. The online animated tutorial is excellent and will have you up and running in no time. SoftVoile offers free registrations of Flashpaste Pro to anyone who submits a new language translation of the program that is approved and verified by SoftVoile.

While you're at it, if you like Flashpaste you might also want to download SoftVoile’s Flashnote program. This is a down and dirty, rough note taker that you might use when you want to jot down something while you're working or talking on the phone. It saves notes to the desktop for you to retrieve when you have more time to deal with the information. Oh, and its free too!

If you're into writing software programs, novels, screenplays, poems, letters or regular writing of any kind, check out Flashpaste because it might save you lots of time. Better still, Flashpaste costs nothing to try.