How to use the clipboard keyboard shortcuts on macOS
You can do this with Paste My. Ten shortcuts cover everything — six inside the app, and four that work in whatever you happen to be using at the time.
Most of what you do with a clipboard history is the same three things: look at it, find one thing in it, and put that thing back. Each is one keystroke.
The four below that are different. They work in any app at all, without opening a window, and they turn the clipboard itself into a small tool — strip formatting off what you just copied, encode it, or clean a link before you send it.
Here is the whole set, what each one is for, and the two or three that are worth committing to memory on day one.
If you only learn two, learn ⇧⌘V to open your history and ⇧⌘C to paste something without dragging its formatting along.
The six you will use daily
Open your history — ⇧⌘V
The one to start with. Your history opens with the newest clipping at the top and everything before it underneath.
It works from anywhere, so you do not have to go looking for a window first.
Your history, newest at the top. The sources list is on the left; each entry carries a badge for the kind of thing it is. Search your history — ⌘F
Puts the cursor in the search field. Start typing and the list narrows as you go, with your terms highlighted in the previews.
Tokens work here too —
type:link,type:image,pinned:yes— and they mix freely with ordinary words.Copy the selected item — ⌘↩
Puts the selected clipping back on your clipboard, exactly as you copied it. A short Copied confirmation appears, and then you paste it wherever you were going with ⌘V as normal.
Copying an item back never adds a duplicate to your history.
Pin or unpin — ⌘P
Pinned clippings float to the top of every view and are never removed by cleanup, so nothing you copy can bury them.
Pinned clippings do use history room, so pin the address, the licence key or the boilerplate you retype weekly — and leave it there.
Pause or resume saving — ⇧⌘K
Stops recording without quitting anything. The menu-bar icon changes so you can always see which state you are in, and the same key brings it back.
Useful when you are about to work through something you would rather not have a record of.
Paste from the menu bar — ⌘1 through ⌘9
Open the menu-bar picker and the first nine clippings answer to a number. No window, no mouse, no scrolling.
You can type first to narrow the list, then take the number you want.
⌘1⌘2⌘3⌘4The menu-bar picker. Start typing to narrow it, then press ⌘1 to ⌘9 to put one of the first nine back on your clipboard.
The four that work in any app
These do not need a window open, and they do not care which app you are in. They act on whatever is on your clipboard right now and put the result straight back.
- ⇧⌘C — re-copy as plain text. Strips every trace of styling off what you just copied, so the next paste arrives as characters rather than as somebody else's fonts and colours.
- ⇧⌘B — re-copy as Base64. Encodes the clipboard's text or image, ready to drop into whatever needed it that way.
- ⇧⌘L — copy a link without tracking. Strips
utm_parameters and click IDs from the first link on the clipboard. - ⌥⇧⌘F — turn copied paths into files. Takes path text and puts real file objects on the clipboard, the kind the Finder will accept.
All four replace what is on the clipboard with the converted version. The original clipping stays in your history untouched, so nothing is lost by converting.
The full list
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⇧⌘V | Open your clipboard history |
| ⌘F | Search your history |
| ⌘↩ | Copy the selected item |
| ⌘P | Pin or unpin |
| ⇧⌘K | Pause or resume saving |
| ⌘1 through ⌘9 | Paste from the menu bar |
| ⇧⌘C | Re-copy whatever is on the clipboard as plain text |
| ⇧⌘L | Copy a link with its tracking parameters stripped out |
| ⇧⌘B | Re-copy the clipboard as Base64 |
| ⌥⇧⌘F | Turn copied path text into real files |
Every one of these is also listed inside Settings, so the app is its own reference and you never have to go looking for this page again.
If a shortcut does not seem to fire
Nothing happens when you press it
Check the menu-bar icon first. If saving is paused, the history shortcuts still open the window but nothing new has been recorded since you paused, so it can look as though the key did nothing. ⇧⌘K resumes.
Another app already uses that key
macOS gives the frontmost app first refusal on a keystroke, so an app that has claimed the same combination will win while it is in front. Use the menu-bar picker in that app instead — it does the same job and no other app can intercept a menu-bar click.
You cannot remember which is which
Open Settings. Every shortcut in the list above is shown there, so the answer is always two clicks away rather than a thing you have to have memorised.
Questions people ask
Can I change these shortcuts?
The set above is what Paste My ships with, and every one of them is listed inside Settings so you can see the whole map in one place.
Do the plain text and Base64 shortcuts work outside the app?
Yes — that is the point of them. ⇧⌘C, ⇧⌘B, ⇧⌘L and ⌥⇧⌘F act on whatever is on your clipboard from wherever you happen to be, with no window open.
What is the difference between ⌘↩ and ⌘1?
⌘↩ copies whichever clipping you have selected in the history window. ⌘1 through ⌘9 work in the menu-bar picker and take the first nine without you having to select anything first. Same result, two routes.
Does copying an item back push it to the top of the list?
It does not create a second copy. Re-copying something you already have bumps the entry you own and counts how often you have reached for it, so a clipping you use constantly rises rather than duplicating.
Is there a shortcut to clear everything?
Clearing is deliberately not on a keystroke — it is a confirmed action in Settings, because it is not something you want a mistyped chord to do. Pinned and stashed items survive it in any case.
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