Directly Save Text and Image from Clipboard as File

Yesterday I had posted a tip for the new screen capture feature in Windows 8 that allows users to capture and automatically save desktop screenshots. That’s a convenient feature, but if you’d like a more advanced clipboard saving functionality, have a look at PasteAsFile.

PasteAsFile is a free program that you can use to directly save Clipboard data as files to your computer, without using any other program. You can quickly copy-paste both image and text from any program to any folder on your computer as a file. It also works with the Windows PrtScr (Print Screen) feature since image is captured to the clipboard.

Using PasteAsFile

During installation, the application integrates into Windows Explorer context menu. Now to save Clipboard data to a file, you just have to right-click in a folder – including Desktop – and select the new “Paste As File” context menu entry. On clicking it, a new dialog box opens (seen in first image) in which you get the option to rename the file, change its extension, and change the location to save the file at. If you don’t want to change anything, simply click on OK or hit the Enter key to save the file using default suggestions.

While saving, TXT format is selected by default for textual content, and PNG is selected for images. However, the program supports many other formats, including RTF, DOC, HTML, PHP and other text based formats, while the supported image file formats are JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TIF, TGA and PCX. By simply changing the file extension while saving, PasteAsFile will convert the file for you. But do note that renaming the file after pasting won’t accomplish anything.

PasteAsFile is a handy, time-saving way to paste useful tidbits to your desktop. It’s lightweight and stays out of your way until you need it. A recommended program all the way.

PasteAsFile works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download: PasteAsFile