What's the difference between pinning and a snippet?

A pinned clip is a history item you keep from rolling off the 150-item limit. A snippet is a named, permanent block of text you save deliberately for long-term reuse. Use pins for the current week, snippets for forever.

How many phrases can I store?

History keeps 150 unpinned items. Pinned clips and snippets are unlimited, so the phrases you reuse most have no cap.

Are my saved phrases private?

Yes. Everything is stored locally on your Mac with no cloud and no account. Nothing is uploaded unless you run an AI transform, which goes directly to the provider key you set.

Can I paste plain text without formatting?

Yes. Use the AI clean transform to strip hidden formatting before saving, so the phrase pastes as predictable plain text.

Store Frequently Used Phrases on Mac

If you retype the same sentences every day — a standard reply, your address, a code block, a closing line — you're spending minutes a day on text you've already written. macOS has no built-in place to keep those phrases, so most people paste them out of a Notes file or just type them again.

Here's how to store frequently used phrases properly on your Mac and paste any of them in one shortcut.

Two kinds of "frequent" text

It helps to separate them, because each has a different home.

Recently copied text — things you copied minutes ago and need again soon. This is what clipboard history handles.
Permanently reused text — phrases you'll want next week and next month. This is what snippets handle.

ClipHistory covers both, so you don't need a second app.

History for recent phrases

Every time you copy, ClipHistory saves it. Your last 150 items stay searchable. Press Cmd+Shift+V, type a word from the phrase, and paste it. No more re-copying something you already had a minute ago.

If a phrase keeps coming back, pin it. Pinned clips don't count against the 150-item limit and never roll off, so the address or signature you use constantly is always at the top.

Snippets for phrases you keep forever

A snippet is a named block of text you save once and reuse indefinitely. Good candidates:

Canned email replies ("Thanks for reaching out — here's the next step…")
Your mailing address, tax ID, or bank details
Frequently used code blocks or commands
Boilerplate intros, disclaimers, and sign-offs

Give each snippet a clear name and find it instantly in the ClipHistory window. Because snippets never expire, they're the right place for anything you'd be annoyed to lose.

Group related phrases with boards

If you have phrases that belong together — say, a set of support replies — put them on a board. Boards keep related snippets in one view so you can scan and grab the right one without scrolling a long flat list.

Paste several phrases in order

Sometimes you need more than one phrase, in sequence — a greeting, a body, a sign-off. The paste stack lets you queue clips and paste them one after another into the same document, so building a structured message is a few keystrokes instead of three trips to your snippet list.

Clean up phrases before you save them

Text copied from email or a PDF often carries hidden formatting. ClipHistory's AI clean transform strips that out so your stored phrase pastes as plain, predictable text. You can also rewrite a phrase into a different tone or translate it before saving — all using your own API key with one of five providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, or a custom endpoint).

It all stays on your Mac

Your phrases are stored locally. There's no account, no cloud, and nothing uploaded. That matters when the phrases you save include personal details or client information — they never leave your machine unless you explicitly run an AI transform.

Getting started

Let history collect your recent copies automatically.
Pin the handful of phrases you reach for every day.
Move evergreen phrases into named snippets.
Group sets of related snippets onto boards.

Phrases you didn't realize you retype

It's worth spending five minutes auditing your own typing. Most people underestimate how much of their day is repeated text. Some categories that almost always pay off as saved phrases:

Scheduling — "Here are a few times that work for me this week…", your meeting link, your time zone note.
Status updates — "Quick update: I'm on track for Friday…", the standard format your manager expects.
Support and FAQ answers — the explanation you give the same question every week.
Personal admin — shipping address, billing address, emergency contact, IBAN or account number.
Developer text — license headers, common shell commands, a .gitignore block, a connection string template.

Once these are snippets, you stop breaking flow to remember or retype them. The cumulative time saving is larger than any single phrase suggests.

A note on keeping the list tidy

A phrase library only stays useful if you prune it. Every month or two, glance through your snippets and delete the ones you no longer use, and merge near-duplicates into a single canonical version. Boards make this easy because related phrases sit together — you can spot the three slightly different sign-offs and collapse them into one. The system clipboard's one-item limit forced you to be ruthless by accident; with ClipHistory you keep that discipline on purpose.

ClipHistory is a one-time purchase, signed and notarized by Apple, and runs on macOS 12 and later as a universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel.

Ready to stop losing your text? Get ClipHistory for macOS ($19.99) — a one-time payment for a 12-month license, no auto-renewal. Signed and notarized by Apple, universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, runs on macOS 12+. Everything stays on your Mac.