Code-ClipLength 20.501a

Overview

Code-ClipLength is a tiny clipboard utility that keeps a steely eye on the Windows clipboard to determine the exact number of characters in any passage of text that have already been copied to the clipboard.

The tool is useful for people who need to create pieces of text that do not exceed a certain character length in order to qualify for inclusion in a submission (web site description, PAD file, and more).

The tool displays a colored box in the top-right corner of the desktop with a black surrounding border. Inside is printed the exact number of characters from the text last copied to the Windows clipboard. When the content inside the clipboard changes, then the colored windows changes to reflect the new character count. Therefore, someone can jot something down inside the Notepad application, copy the text to the clipboard and immediately see how many characters they have written.

Once the app has been loaded and the numbered window is display, the app can be closed by simply rolling the mouse over to the colored box whereupon a "Close" button will be displayed; once clicked, the app will close down.

Installation

There is no installation necessary with this application as it is a portable app.

No adware, toolbars, malware or spyware was included in the distribution.

Code-ClipLength requires Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 3+, 2000, XP or Windows 2003.

Interface

The interface is just a colored, numbered box which displays the number of characters currently in the Windows clipboard.

Moving over the box will reveal a button to close the app down.

Beyond that, there is almost no interface at all.

Pros

• Count the number of characters within the text copied into the Windows clipboard
• Write content into any text field on a web form or notepad and check the number of characters
• Displays a colored box on the desktop indicating the current number of characters
• No difficult control panel to work with
• Mouse over the box to view a button to close the app off

Cons

• Being able to see the number of words too would also have been a nice extra touch

Alternatives

Any Word Processor has a word and character count feature usually in the footer of the application. This includes the free LibreOffice. 

Conclusion

Code-ClipLength is a slightly useful character counting tool that displays the total character count for any text content currently stored in the Windows clipboard. Lacks any other functionality.