Writing your blog should be a fun way to stretch your mind and stay connected to trends, friends, and the greater world, not another computer task that takes far too long to get done. But that's exactly what it can feel like if it takes you more time to find your post ideas, tweak your markup, and make everything look right than to actually get your thoughts down. Being somewhat experienced at this blogging thing, your Lifehacker editors have pinpointed a few tools and tricks that make our posts go faster and smoother. After the jump, we round up 10 of them.

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Windows Vista has a habit of making files unavailable for backup programs or just copying into new locations, claiming files you haven't touched are "In use," or sometimes just generically "Locked." The How-To Geek shows us a command-line utility, Hobocopy, that can find its way past the walls thrown up by the operating system's shadowy functions. You'll also learn how you can use Hobocopy as an incremental backup solution, like a less syntax-heavy version of cross-platform solution rsync. Hit the link to find Hobocopy and get step-by-step instructions.

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Need to send a line of text too long for an instant message, but don't feel like dashing off an email? Find some text you want access to later while using someone else's computer or a remote connection? Textsnip, a free text-capture site that provides TinyURL-like links, has you covered. Throw in the text (or HTML, CSS, PHP or most any kind of formatted code), and TextSnip will put it into a URL, tabbed spacing preserved. Depending on how quickly you email and whether you mind sending to yourself, TextSnip is either redundant or an inbox-saving memory enhancer. TextSnip is free to use, no sign-up required. Thanks Julie!

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Windows only: Copy and move files from across your system with Piky Basket, a free Windows utility that runs as an Explorer right-click extension. The basic use is a "basket" where you compile a range of files from different locations and folders through right-clicking. Head to where you want to paste or move those files, and Piky dumps them all. You can also copy all the file paths from your basket contents to the clipboard for use in other utilities, and a bonus feature lets you open a command line window pointed at any location. It's a low-key app that does (mostly) one function well, and all the better for it. Piky Basket is a free download for Windows sysytems only.

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Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Make copying tables from web pages to offline office apps easier with Table2Clipboard, a free Firefox extension. The low-key app simply adds a single item to the Edit and right-click context menus, "Copy whole table," that retains a table's formatting and makes it far easier to paste and manipulate in Microsoft Word or Excel, OpenOffice.org and other programs. The extension also keeps individually-selected (a.k.a. Control-clicked) cells in place when used. Table2Clipboard is a free download, and works wherever Firefox (including Firefox 3 Beta) does.

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Windows/Mac/Linux: Freeware application ControlC saves and uploads your clipboard history to the ControlC web site, giving you a 5-day history of all your clipboard data. ControlC recognize URLs, images on the web (displaying the image in the history), in addition to any text you copy. It does not recognize or upload copied files; instead, it will upload the name of the file you copied. You can use ControlC for anything from a bookmarking tool (it does offer social aspects and selectively making clipboard data public) to a clipboard backup tool that persists even after you shutdown your computer. A free account gives you a 5-day history, while a premium account is unlimited. The site is currently in closed beta, but the "beta4040" code will let anyone register. ControlC is free to use, works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. For desktop-based clipboard managers, check out Ditto, Jumpcut, or DDM.

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Windows only: Free clipboard utility Clipdiary doesn't have all the bells and whistles (like cross-computer syncing) of managers like Ditto, but for simply keeping a list of all your Ctrl+C action, it's a handy, lightweight application to keep in your taskbar. Clipdiary tracks the images, rich text, and even pictures placed in the Windows clipboard, tells you where they came from, and can easily "attach" and "detach" itself from monitoring for privacy concerns. By default, Clipdiary tracks up to the 3000 last items you've copied, so you'll likely want to change that in the options dialogue. For those handy with databases, Clipdiary keeps its records in an SQL file, possibly offering some cross-platform productivity potentials. Clipdiary is a free download for Windows systems only. For more clipboard ninja training, take a look through our Top 10 clipboard tricks.

Windows only: Free copying utility Text Mining Tool grabs just the text out of Word documents, PDFs, HTML pages, and other documents without the hassle of opening, selecting everything and hoping embedded images don't leave strange markers in the text. Once your text is copied, you can either re-save it as a text file or copy it to the clipboard. Its function might not sound all that helpful—until you've tried to select multiple pages' worth of text from a scanned PDF, or tried to grab text from around awkward Flash boxes on web sites. Text Mining Tool unzips to a folder that can be put anywhere and comes with a command line tool for your batch-script-writing pleasure. Text Mining Tool is a free download for Windows systems only. For similar copy power from the selection screen, try DragKing.

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One of the first things that stood out about my new iPod Touch's browser interface was the lack of a copy/paste function—and it really stuck out when sending email or filling out forms. Quasi Clipboard, a bookmarklet for the iPhone and iPod Touch, isn't a copy/paste fix, but it's a decent half-way fix. Hit the "Set" button and type in some text (that you're hopefully looking at in-browser), and you can recall that text into any text box later with the "Get" button. For hard-to-remember items like account numbers and URLs, it's definitely better than jumping back and forth between pages. Quasi Touch requires syncing your iPhone/iPod Touch with Safari (Mac) or Internet Explorer (Windows) to install.