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Anything and everything is being plugged into the cloud as of late. It’s no surprise at all that file storage solutions such as Dropbox and SugarSync have seen such huge success. Our mobile devices do a lot of cloud management behind the scenes, too. Our contacts sync to the cloud, our photos sync to the cloud, and much more.

The cloud is a big deal on the mobile platform, but I don’t want you to forget about the PC. Since first writing for MUO, I’ve been the one to almost exclusively cover applications for the Windows platform, and I’m pleased to see Windows 8 make a push toward getting up into the cloud. However, there is a lot left that can be done and I’m here to cover two applications that push a very key element of both the PC and mobile platforms up to cloud level – the clipboard.

ArchiveClipboard is definitely my favorite solution to keeping a backup of your clipboard. The application works perfectly with your desktop, laptop, and netbooks running Windows, Mac, or Linux. Every modern version of these operating systems is fully supported by ArchiveClipboard, and the only dependency is Java.

ArchiveClipboard boasts a no-nonsense interface that is very attractive, lightweight, and easy to use. On the main UI, you will see two panes – your system clipboard and the archive clipboard. Your system clipboard includes the text, image, or file currently copied. Your archive clipboard shows all previous clipboard entries.

This is the application in its entirety. It’s just that simple. The Settings menu will allow you to toggle monitoring for text, images, and files. You can also set ArchiveClipboard to run in your system tray and notify you when events occur (such as your system clipboard being updated). ArchiveClipboard has localization support for Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese.

ArchiveClipboard has yet to support the functionality of allowing users to synchronize clipboard data between their devices, but the project’s development is coming along extremely quickly and it is in the works. A mobile version for the iOS and Android platforms is also on the way, so look out for that.

ArchiveClipboard is everything you want for keeping a record of your clipboard and nothing more.

CloudClip comes across as a bit of a dumbed-down version of ArchiveClipboard. Am I saying it’s a bad piece of software? Not at all. It just caters to very specific needs on a more limited number of platforms. The plus? It synchronizes with the cloud and allows you to share your clipboard between computers, and it is completely portable (meaning that the application in itself can be synchronized within a Dropbox folder).

First, worth noting is that you need to register an account on their website, which is only to know who to associate your cloud account data with. They won’t spam you with emails and actually don’t even require for you to confirm your email address after registration. CloudClip does not have support to synchronize images and other files, which is explained on their site so that “speeds remain fast.” It’d be a great feature, but the clipboard is primarily used for storing text anyway.

Upon registering, you’re immediately able to download the application on either your Windows or Mac computer. Like ArchiveClipboard, CloudClip has yet to support mobile devices but they are pushing towards it in the future. After downloading the application, click into theAccount tab, enter your username and password, and log in.

Back in the Clips tab, you can feel free to give it a test run. Copy any block of text and within a second or two it should appear in the top row of this application.

All clips are time stamped and numbered in order, from newest to oldest. You can copy a previous entry or timestamp just by double-clicking on that area in the row. It will not be re-added to the tab so that you get no duplicate entries. You can also delete a row by right-clicking on it and selecting the option.

Like ArchiveClipboard, CloudClip’s synchronization is very simple and straightforward.

Don’t let your clipboard data slip away from you. I can’t put a number to the amount of times I’ve had something copied that I’ve wanted to retrieve for use again at a later time.

Which of these two applications is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!