Smart-Paste ... not what I want - can it be turned off?

Question

bruxxx Author

Level 1

53 points

Smart-Paste ... not what I want - can it be turned off?

It used to be that when I was in a terminal window, and I think most

other applications, I could highlight, then copy a selection of

text and have just the text data get pasted to a chosen destination.

Now, when I do this, it seems to carry the font, formatting, color

and even the URL status with it when I paste it. This plops a

big ugly blob of text that does not fit into the destination where it

should not be.

If I just want to cut some text and paste it in an email or a text

document this ends up ruining the formatting, putting control

characters and what-not into the destination and in general really

causing a pain in the butt.

My question is can this be turned off, over-ridden, undone or

removed somehow?

Second, where is this controlled ... in the clip-board? And if so,

is there a way to configure the clip-board not to do this or access

just the text data selectively?

--

The answer to this for the OS ought to be to be able to cut and

paste the formatting data separately - which would be a good

thing to be able to do in many situations, such as photo manipulation,

etc.

Thanks.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), 24 inch

Posted on Jun 7, 2014 6:16 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 7, 2014 6:24 PM in response to bruxxx

I don't see that behaviour here with 10.9.3. It copies only the actual text. The formating in the destination app comes from that applications font settings.

Can you give us an example of what you're describing?

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Answer 2

bruxxx Author

Level 1

53 points

Jun 7, 2014 6:31 PM in response to bigschwabbel

Here is specifically what I did

1. Found a speech in Safari at a URL and selected it.

- pasted it into imovie as text and it came with all kinds of weird formatting and URLs.

no apparent way to remove the formatting wherever I looked.

2. Then I tried to paste it into a terminal window in a vi session.

- when i reselected it and pasted it into iMovie the same thing happened only it was

the new style, colors, etc of the terminal font and background.

What I expected to have happen and was hoping to have happen was that

like most cut and pastes of text that when I pasted it into the iMovie text input

screen that it would take whatever the text formate of the font panel was get to.

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Answer 3

Jun 7, 2014 6:37 PM in response to bruxxx

What did you select, the speech or the URL? Can you paste here what you get when you copy it? It would be even easier to test if you'd give us the URL. It's not necessarily a problem with your Mac. It might be that speech/URL.

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