Copying files in Finder, pasting filenames as plaintext in Speeadsheet

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Level 1

15 points

Copying files in Finder, pasting filenames as plaintext in Speeadsheet

I’m using a Mac book Air M1 and running Sequoia 15.6.1

I recently found I could no longer select files that were images or videos in finder and simply highlight the files names in finder then copy (cmd-c) and paste (cmd-v) the plain text names into spreadsheets such as Numbers or Google Sheets. Now to paste the “simple” text names I need to use a combination of keys (shift-opt-cmd-v) which activates a new paste feature called “Paste and Match Style”. Pressing that many keys to paste a simple file name or group of file names is hurting my work flow and my hand.

I found two solutions: one is creating and using a shortcut to change the clipboards contents to simple text but this still adds an extra step when I am just trying to copy and paste. The other solution is to redefine the keyboard shortcut for “Paste and Match Style” to the previous (cmd-v). This does remove the (cmd-v) shortcut from “paste” but as it was not doing what I wanted it to do… well then at least for me no big loss.

How do you change the keyboard shortcut you ask??? Use

system settings > keyboard > keyboard shortcuts > app shortcuts > +

then follow the directions in the pop up. you can select a specific app to change or all apps. For me since I’m trying to copy into a Google sheets document I edit through my web browser (safari) I chose Safari and in the menu title I put

Paste and Match Style

finally for the keyboard shortcut I pressed cmd-v on my keyboard as I normally would and it added the command.

click done and then when you return to safari and look in the edit menu you will see that Paste now has no shortcut but Paste and Match Style now shows its shortcut as cmd-v.

Why a simple utility such as paste was recently changed and overly complicated is beyond me. I just hope these fixes help someone else.

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Sep 16, 2025 8:22 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 17, 2025 3:04 AM in response to Drew!!!

There is a big difference between selecting a file, like this:

and selecting the TEXT consisting of the name of the file:

The clipboard has always had the capability to store different types of content, and what gets pasted depends on the type of content supported by the destination application or document into which you paste.

For example:

If you select a file in Finder (as in the first image above), and then paste into a plain text editor, like BBEdit, or TextMate, it will paste the file name.

If you do the same but in Terminal, it will paste the file path.

If you paste into another Finder window, it will paste a copy of the actual file.

And so on...

If instead you had select the name, and not the file itself, and copied, then pasting would always paste the text, regardless.

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Answer 2

Sep 17, 2025 4:38 AM in response to Drew!!!

I selected a set of files in a Finder window.

I dragged them to a TextEdit document and it pasted the full path.

I right-clicked > copy and then went to the TextEdit document and pasted. It pasted just the file names.

So something tells me that part of the issue is with the receiving software.

I'm old-school and I have always remapped copy and paste to F3 and F4 Some apps such as Firefox don't pay any attention to it though, plus I find that with both Sequoia and High Sierra that sometimes the remapping stops working and then starts again. I've not figured that out.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,379 points

Sep 16, 2025 10:10 PM in response to Drew!!!

Nice work my friend.👍🏽

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