16. A computer program product for implementing a method for persisting data clippings categorized according to metadata associated with the clippings at the time of the creation of the clippings, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising: detecting that a user has selected one or more items from a source file that are captured for inclusion in a clipping; determining the format of each item included in the clipping, wherein at least one of the items includes a plurality of different formats where at least one of the plurality of different formats includes a greater amount of item formatting information than another format; identifying a file path for the source file from which the clipping was selected, the file path to access additional items from the source file; generating associated metadata about the selected clipping including the determined formats of each item in the selected clipping and an activatable hyperlink that, upon activation, is configured to access the source file using a stored file path linking the clipping to the source file; receiving at least one filtering criterion; filtering each item of the clipping into a filtered subset based on the filtering criterion or criteria and the associated metadata; for each item of the clipping: determining that the items include a plurality of different formats, each different format including a greater or lesser amount of item formatting information in comparison to the other formats, such that a format with a greater or lesser amount of item formatting information than the format in which the item was initially captured for inclusion in the clipping is selectable by the user for inserting the item; persisting the item in the determined plurality of different formats based on item type along with the associated metadata, the item is configured for insertion into software application fields in any of the plurality of formats; and inserting the items into one or more data fields of a software application in a format different than the format in which the item was initially captured for inclusion in the clipping, the format is selected by the application and based on at least some of the associated metadata, the selected format for each item selected from among the plurality of formats the item was persisted in; receiving a user request to access one or more additional items from the source file; based on the received user request, activating the hyperlink to access the one or more additional items in the source file using the hyperlinik provided in the associated metadata; providing a user interface having a plurality of user-selectable views, wherein at least one of the user-selectable views displays a thumbnail corresponding to at least one of the clippings, and wherein at least one of the user-selectable views displays a list view including text corresponding to the clippings.
16. A computer program product for implementing a method for persisting data clippings categorized according to metadata associated with the clippings at the time of the creation of the clippings, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising: detecting that a user has selected one or more items from a source file that are captured for inclusion in a clipping; determining the format of each item included in the clipping, wherein at least one of the items includes a plurality of different formats where at least one of the plurality of different formats includes a greater amount of item formatting information than another format; identifying a file path for the source file from which the clipping was selected, the file path to access additional items from the source file; generating associated metadata about the selected clipping including the determined formats of each item in the selected clipping and an activatable hyperlink that, upon activation, is configured to access the source file using a stored file path linking the clipping to the source file; receiving at least one filtering criterion; filtering each item of the clipping into a filtered subset based on the filtering criterion or criteria and the associated metadata; for each item of the clipping: determining that the items include a plurality of different formats, each different format including a greater or lesser amount of item formatting information in comparison to the other formats, such that a format with a greater or lesser amount of item formatting information than the format in which the item was initially captured for inclusion in the clipping is selectable by the user for inserting the item; persisting the item in the determined plurality of different formats based on item type along with the associated metadata, the item is configured for insertion into software application fields in any of the plurality of formats; and inserting the items into one or more data fields of a software application in a format different than the format in which the item was initially captured for inclusion in the clipping, the format is selected by the application and based on at least some of the associated metadata, the selected format for each item selected from among the plurality of formats the item was persisted in; receiving a user request to access one or more additional items from the source file; based on the received user request, activating the hyperlink to access the one or more additional items in the source file using the hyperlinik provided in the associated metadata; providing a user interface having a plurality of user-selectable views, wherein at least one of the user-selectable views displays a thumbnail corresponding to at least one of the clippings, and wherein at least one of the user-selectable views displays a list view including text corresponding to the clippings. 18. The computer-readable storage media of claim 16 wherein filtering the clippings into a filtered subset comprises filtering to present clippings that are associated with a project, and further comprising, receiving a request to persist a new clipping, and automatically associating the new clipping with the project.