I copy text from OmniWeb:

Pasted text before running the trigger:

Pasted text after running the trigger:

Quicksilver maven Dan Dickinson has figured out a sneaky way to strip out this formatting, and has turned the method into a handy Trigger. The trick works by pasting the contents of the clipboard into a terminal shell (where it loses all formatting), and then re-copying the text to the clipboard. For the trigger to work, you must have the Terminal Plugin installed. A full how-to is available on Dan's website.













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-25-2007 @ 6:49PM
Angus said...
This can also be done using PlainClip, which is an app that runs in the menubar, available here: http://www.bluem.net/downloads/plain-clip_en/
PlainCan also be run as a Spark ( http://www.shadowlab.org/Software/software.php?sign=Sprk ) plug-in. The Spark route is especially nice if you are doing a large amount of cut and paste work.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:39PM
olivier said...
Apple + Shift + T anyone?
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4-25-2007 @ 7:41PM
Gilles said...
The solution is to use Option/Shift/Command V (any text will then be pasted without any formatting). This works System-Wide.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:42PM
olivier said...
i meant V
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4-25-2007 @ 9:11PM
Karl said...
I'm with Gilles, this has always been possible through Opt+Shift+Cmd+V which is a system wide way to correctly do this without QS intervention. QS is cool, but we don't need to invoke it's powers for even minor tasks the system provides.
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4-25-2007 @ 10:52PM
artifex said...
I just wish pasting would work consistently, especially in Firefox. If I already have something on the clipboard, and i clip something else, sometimes the new copy is ignored, so when i paste, I still get the old clip out. This is in 10.4.9 on both g4 and intel macs. My only solution so far has been to try to use cut instead of copy when the first method fails, as sometimes that works.
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4-25-2007 @ 11:46PM
JeffDM said...
6: Firefox is known to not use system services, and it is known to be inconsistent with respect to the rest of the Mac ecosystem.
I wish it were better in that respect, but I still use it almost exclusively because the alternatives are so limited with respect to my uses that it makes me feel almost claustrophobic.
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4-25-2007 @ 11:51PM
JeffDM said...
5: Opt+Shift+Cmd+V? holy cow, a four key combination?! I can see why it's not that well known. Heck, I keep forgetting the key codes for doing screen grabs, those are three and four simultaneous keys too, so I just call up Grab instead.
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4-26-2007 @ 2:50AM
Breached said...
Great for bringing this to my attention, both Dans! A great productivity solution for those of us that copy and paste out of emails and website all day long. I made my hot key Option Command V. Nice and simple. Quicksilver is one of the best apps on the Mac period.
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4-26-2007 @ 4:18AM
Jono said...
Does anyone know how to select clips from the Quicksilver clipboard history & then paste them as plain text? (i.e. from any of the clips, not just the last one copied).
The method described above only works with the last clip copied to the clipboard (I think).
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4-26-2007 @ 4:26AM
Chris said...
Isn't there a danger of side effects here? If the text on the clipboard has paragraph breaks, isn't the terminal going to end up trying to run commands?
e.g. Try it on the next two lines:
say Holy unexpected consequences Batman!
More text here.
I'm sticking to the built in shortcut...
(I can't test the method - away from the Mac for the day)
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4-26-2007 @ 8:29AM
ME said...
in the example, you used Google Doc's and Spreadsheets, with OmniWeb, I love Omniweb, but it doesnt support Google Docs yet, atleast not for me!
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4-26-2007 @ 1:50PM
Joe Cabrera said...
What I've always done is pasted the clipboard text into the CC field of a new email message then copied it back out again.
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4-27-2007 @ 3:17AM
sporobolus said...
pbpaste | pbcopy is a very old trick, and it falls down on Unicode text; there are half a dozen other ways to do it, not least of which is this AppleScript one-liner (which may also be triggered by Quicksilver):
set the clipboard to (the clipboard as Unicode text)
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4-29-2007 @ 3:02PM
Erdem Üney said...
Opt+Shift+Cmd+V : four keys but you need three fingers =) Opt+Cmd with the thumb and the rest you will figure out. Also in Mail, Shift+Cmd+V pastes the copied text as quoted text, in case you haven't noticed.
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