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Ask HN: Why is the Mac Copy/Paste experience so inconsistent?

3 pointsby phodoover 2 years ago
When I command-shift-4, I expect a copy of that portion of the screenshot to go to the clipboard. And then I expect to paste what I copied. However, half the time it properly copies, and I can paste the image correctly. The other half of the time, when I paste, I see the previously copied item. Then, I see the screenshot appear in the lower right, and then it appears on my desktop, and I have to either a) re-copy and re-paste or b) drag the desktop image to my destination. Am I not doing the right method? Note: I'm a Mac user for >15 years.

2 comments

ggmover 2 years ago
I too see this inconsistent behaviour. It looks like Apple implemented two strategies: an &quot;old&quot; one which respects the traditional clipboard, and a &quot;new&quot; one which uses small overlay panes in some notional sweetspot and gives you a 3 second (or thereabouts) window of time to drag-and-drop the screenshot.<p>I don&#x27;t think they workshopped how they play together, or how a user controls when which one is invoked or what desktop switching to find another context to &quot;paste&quot; into.<p>Grrrr. No solution, just validating your perception.
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solardevover 2 years ago
Sorry to ask, but are you sure you&#x27;re holding down the right hot keys? If I remember right, command shift 4 should should save to the desktop. Command control shift 4 should save to the clipboard.<p>If in doubt, use <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shottr.cc&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shottr.cc&#x2F;</a> instead. The dev is pretty active here on HN.