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

3 pointsphodo3y ago3 comments

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.

3 comments

3 comments · 2 top-level

ggm3y ago· 1 in thread

I too see this inconsistent behaviour. It looks like Apple implemented two strategies: an "old" one which respects the traditional clipboard, and a "new" 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.

I don'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 "paste" into.

Grrrr. No solution, just validating your perception.

phodoOP3y ago

Thank you for sharing your perspective. Glad I'm not the only one. One thing I stumbled upon is if your window is maximized (full screen) and you do the cmd-shift-4, it appears in the clipboard more often. But then again, I might be overfitting on recency and randomness.

solardev3y ago

Sorry to ask, but are you sure you'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.

If in doubt, use https://shottr.cc/ instead. The dev is pretty active here on HN.

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