Copying files in Finder, pasting filenames as plaintext in Numbers - No longer working correctly?

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Copying files in Finder, pasting filenames as plaintext in Numbers - No longer working correctly?

I'm confident that I used to be able to highlight a bunch of files (of different types, including PDFs) in the Finder with cmd-c and then paste them straight into a Numbers table with cmd-v as plaintext (so that it produced a list of filenames in a column with one per row).

This has been a huge benefit for the kind of data processing I do and I've used the feature extensively over the last few years.

Whenever I try to do this now, if the selected files include one or more images or PDFs, Numbers instead pastes a tiny thumbnail of the first media file of the selection into whichever cell is highlighted (which renders as a teeny tiny thumbnail). I don't know when this changed but it's really frustrating.

I can still copy-paste selections (including folders, .zips, .dwg, .docx, .txt, etc) and get the expected list of filenames providing there's no image or PDF file in that selection.

I know that I can paste/copy through TextEdit as a workaround but I was wondering if this is a setting that I can change back? Or is there a bit of code I can run to force it to plain text?

I literally never want to post tiny thumbnails of massive PDFs into tables and it seems strange that this is the default behaviour when a list of files is on the clipboard.

Any advice/insight is much appreciated!

MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Apr 19, 2023 7:02 AM

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Answer 1

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Badunit

Level 7

30,774 points

Apr 19, 2023 12:33 PM in response to irny

I'm on Monterey. I get different results depending on what types of files are in my mix of selected files and what order they were picked. Sometimes I get a single background image, sometimes all the filenames, sometimes it says the image format is not supported. One time it pasted the filenames like a table with each filename split across several columns (like when importing a table with fixed width delineation). I think because there are some files that would typically paste in as background images (jpg, pdf), the results will vary. Maybe it used to be able to figure it out but it appears to be confused now.

The script/shortcut "set clipboard as text" might get around this problem. It does so for me as best as I can tell. Select the files, Copy, run the shortcut, Paste.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/74e81863afa84590b6d7dba8beb51abd

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Answer 2

Badunit

Level 7

30,774 points

Apr 20, 2023 6:16 AM in response to irny

It is a script packaged in a shortcut. Here is the script. Really simple.

set the clipboard to (the clipboard as text)

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Answer 3

SGIII

Level 8

37,562 points

Apr 19, 2023 8:34 AM in response to irny

irny wrote:

highlight a bunch of files (of different types, including PDFs) in the Finder with cmd-c and then paste them straight into a Numbers table with cmd-v

Under macOS Ventura 13.2.1 when I select files in Finder, command-c, click once in a cell in an existing Numbers table, and command-v to paste into Numbers 13.0 I still get rows of filenames as expected even if some are media files.

However, if I select only one media file in Finder and paste that into Numbers a cell in a Numbers table then I get an image in the cell background as you describe.

If I try to paste onto the canvas of a Numbers sheet (instead of clicking a cell in an existing table) then I get full-sized images.

Are you sure you are selecting multiple files in Finder before the command-c, then clicking once in a cell in a Numbers table, followed by command-v?

SG

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Answer 4

irny Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 19, 2023 9:05 AM in response to SGIII

Yes, quite sure, but I've just discovered that this isn't a consistent behaviour!

Before replying to you I thought I'd check again with a particular dataset (a mix of folders, .zip, .dwg, .pdf). I noticed that a combo of folders, .zip, and .pdf will produce the image in cell background, however adding one or more .dwg files to the same selection results in it pasting the filenames correctly.

Here's the interesting part: I thought I'd screenshot this to show you but didn't want to share my (work) filenames so I copied the files to a new folder and used A Better Finder Rename 10 (a handy bit of software) to quickly rename them sequentially but without changing the extension. However, when I tested this renamed file set, it behaves totally correctly—exactly as you've described!

I'm not really sure what to make of this. I suppose the implication is that Finder/Numbers is handling the original files incorrectly for some reason and dismissing the folders and .zips? But it's doing that across a whole lot of datasets that I have which all used to copy-paste correctly.

It may be worth mentioning that this data is all held on an APFS (Encrypted) SSD, which seems to work fine, but the behaviour seems to occur with desktop files as well, so I'm stumped.

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Answer 5

irny Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 20, 2023 5:54 AM in response to Badunit

Well, I suppose it's a bug on this basis! Maybe it'll get resolved at some point.

Thanks for the shortcut tip—I've set up a few scripts but somehow never seen the shortcuts app bit. I'll have a look.

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Copying files in Finder, pasting filenames as plaintext in Numbers - No longer working correctly?

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