10 Hidden Copy and Paste Functions on a Mac

Beyond basic Copy and Paste, you can do things like copy without text styling, or copy only the style. You can copy and paste files. You can copy text without even opening the document. You can even copy and paste between your Mac and iPhone.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you some features of Copy & Paste on the Mac that you may not know about. 
Now Copy & Paste is one of the most basic parts of using macOS or any computer operating system. But there are lots of hidden features that you may not know about. For instance, when you copy something, like let me copy this paragraph here in Pages, you can use, of course, Edit, Copy or Command C to copy. If you ever want to see what's in the Clipboard perhaps before you paste there is a way. 
You have to switch to the Finder. So I'm going to click on the Desktop here and you can see here at the top left I've switched to the Finder. Now go to Edit and there's an option here for Show Clipboard. This brings up a window that shows you what's in the Clipboard. It will stay there although it is only visible when you are in the Finder. So if I switch back to Pages then it is not there anymore. It will show more than just text. For instance I'll select this object here and I'll Copy and then I'll switch back using the App Switcher to Finder and you can see now the Clipboard window displays what's in it even though it is an image. 
Now one problem people often have with Copy & Paste is that it takes not just the text but the styling as well. So I've got this text selected here in Safari on a webpage. I'm going to use Command C to copy. Then I'm going to switch to Mail where I'm composing a message. If I just use Command V, or Edit Paste, to paste it you can see it brings with it the coloring and styling of the text. However, you can go to Edit and if you look carefully you'll see Paste and Match Style. This is the equivalent to converting the text to plain text and then pasting it in adopting whatever style happens to be what you're using at the cursor right now. So if I put this in there like that you can see it retains the style that I was using. You'll find this in a lot of other apps as well. For instance in Pages here you can see Paste & Match Style is there also. 
Sometimes in some apps you'll have to hold down the Option Key and it will show you this option as an alternative to paste. 
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Now sometimes there are alternative Copy & Paste functions. For instance, I can select this text here and then instead of going to the Edit Menu I can go to the Format Menu and there I'll find Copy Style, Option Command C. Then I can select other text, like this paragraph here, and go to Format & Paste Style, or Option Command V. Then it won't replace the text, it will replace the Styling for the text. Here I am in Photos. I can go to this photo to edit it. Click the Edit button and I can make adjustments. For instance, I'll make some lighting adjustments and color adjustments like this and then click Done. Now, I'll see the changes here for this photo. With that photo selected instead of going to Edit I can go to Image and there's an option for Copy Edit, Shift Command C in this case. It gives me some options here on exactly what I want to copy. I'll copy and then I'll select this image here and I'll do image and then Paste Edit. You can see how this one will change to reflect that. It's a great way to get a series of photos to have all of the same adjustments. 
In addition to using Copy & Paste for things like text, images, and objects inside of apps you can also use it in the Finder for files. So I can go into a folder here, like this one, and I can select this file here and use Edit, Copy. Then I can go to another folder, like this one here, and I can Edit, Paste. Now this will make a copy of the item and put it here. So now I'll have two copies of the file. But if I hold the Option Key down then this changes to Move Item here. So Command C, for copy, and then Option Command V, to paste, will actually take the item out of its original location and place it in the new location. It works for multiple files too. A great alternative to Drag & Drop when you can't easily see both locations at the same time. 
You can also use the Clipboard with the Terminal. So I'm going to Copy this text here in Pages. Then I'm going to switch to Terminal. If I want to see what's in the Clipboard I can use pbpaste and that shows me the contents of the Clipboard. You can also send results from a ShellScript or Command line into the Clipboard. So, for instance, if I do ls I get a listing of the files in the current directory. If I do ls and then use the pipe symbol I can send into the Clipboard using pbcopy. So this command lists the files but puts it into the Clipboard instead. So now when I do Command V to paste that's what I get. 
When you do screenshots you can choose the Clipboard as a destination for the screenshot. So you can do this using Shift Command 5 and then you pick Capture Entire Screen, Selected Window, or Selected Portion. Under Options I'm going to choose Clipboard as the destination. So now instead of it appearing as a floating thumbnail and then going to a file location when I Capture it just goes straight into the Clipboard. Now I can paste it wherever I want, like in this Mail composition window like that. 
In System Settings if you go to Keyboard and then Keyboard Shortcuts and then to Screenshots you'll see that there are two keyboard shortcuts that pertain to going directly to the Clipboard as well.
Now sometimes you'll find that you can't copy text. Like, for instance, here in this System Settings window there's no way to copy this text here if I wanted to paste it somewhere. But you can use Screenshots to take care of this. So I'm going to use Shift Command 5 and then I'm going to switch to any one of these. I'm going to use Entire Screen here, and set the Option to Desktop or any file location. It doesn't matter because I'm not going to save it. Then I'm going to make sure Show Floating Thumbnail is turned On. I'm going to click Capture and then click the Floating Thumbnail. Now it is an image that I'm previewing. I haven't saved it yet. But notice in this mode you can actually select text and then use Command C to copy. You don't have to save the screenshot. I can just click the Trashcan icon there at the top, it is not saved anywhere, but now when I go to Paste, you can see it pastes in that text. It has actually interpreted the pixels in the screenshot as text. So you may want to check to make sure it is accurate. But it is a great way to deal with text that you could not normally select. 
Now let's say there is some text in a document and you want to copy that text. Normally you would open it up in whatever app you use to work with it. But you don't have to do that as long as you can view the document with Quick Look. So I've selected this in the Finder. I'm going to press Spacebar here and now I'm using Quick Look. If I were to scroll to the text that I want and then use the text cursor in here I can select text and use Command C to Copy from Quick Look without ever opening the document up. Then I can Paste it where I need. 
Now you don't always need to Copy & Paste if you want to duplicate something. You can select something like text here and then start dragging it. Hold the Option Key down while dragging and wherever you place it, instead of moving it you can see it makes a copy and puts it there. This works in a variety of different situations in different apps. So, for instance, dragging an object around just moves it. But Option dragging will create a Copy and then you can drop it where you need. 
Now probably the best feature of Copy & Paste in the Apple ecosystem is the ability to Copy & Paste between devices. A lot of people still don't know this is possible. There's really nothing you even need to do to enable it as long as you're using the same Apple ID across the devices, you've got WiFi and Bluetooth turned On then it should just work. So, for instance, on my iPhone here I'm going to select and then Copy some text. Then here on my Mac in a completely different app I'm going to use Command V to paste and you can see it paste what I copied from my iPhone to the app on my Mac. It works the other way as well. Works between two Macs or between your iPhone and iPad. Everything. 
One last trick is that your Mac actually has two different clipboards. It has the regular one that we have been using all along. But there is also this text clipboard that goes back to the early days of computing. You can use it still in all of the modern apps. So, for instance, if you want to select some text here. You can use Control, that's control not Command, and K. This will basically cut the text that is selected. Then you could use Control and Y to paste it back in. This is a separate clipboard from the regular one. So, even if you've copied something else into the clipboard that doesn't touch this one works separate from that and it works just with text.
Now I can't talk about Copy & Paste without at least mentioning Clipboard Managers. These allow you to keep a history of what's in the Clipboard so you can copy several things and then paste something that was 3 or 4 copies back. Clipboard Managers are 3rd party apps but there are tons of different ones, many that have been around for a long time. Some that are even free and, of course, I have to mention my own ClipTools that you can get in the App Store and then it appears here in the Menu Bar. It keeps a history and has a ton of different functions. It's completely free. No Ads. No in-app purchases. Nothing like that. So get ClipTools or any other manager your prefer if you want a history for your Clipboard. I usually don't recommend 3rd party apps unless they are absolutely necessary. But if you work with documents a lot I think a Clipboard Manager is something that you should have. 
I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 8 Responses to “10 Hidden Copy and Paste Functions on a Mac”

Bern Shanfield

4 months ago

While 3rd party, TextSniper is a nice upgrade to screenshotting, selecting the screenshot, and selecting text to get non-selectable text on the Clipboard as just the act of dragging a selection box over text with TexSniper puts it directly on the Clipboard.

It's worthwhile if you do this regularly.

Sheldon

Thanks bunches

Joel D Canfield

I've used computers since the 70s and you still teach me surprising things. The fact that the text in the floating thumbnail of a screenshot is selectable is amazing. I'm used to text being auto-OCRed by my phone, but that's a new one.

LIZ GUILLE

Try as I have I can’t find your ClipTools in the App Store- any ways to get a link to it, or is only available to US audiences? Thanks

Gary Rosenzweig

Liz: Just searching for "ClipTools" in the Mac App Store should bring it right up, worldwide. But here is the direct link: https://apps.apple.com/app/cliptools/id1619348240

Melody Whitaker

Thank you Gary! You provide the best, hidden tricks. 🤩

Barry Wilson

Gary, you constantly amaze me with your knowledge of the workings of the Mac system, this video makes shortcut sense. Thank you.

Jack

The 'copy style' and 'paste style' in iWork apps can also be put in the tool bar of the window. If you need to copy styles often, I can recommend using the icons for it. It's way faster then always using the 'Format' menu.