
A chrome extension to copy stylelessly - Rhonkar
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/styleless-copyer/clncpdmejgejogkcjdhcapncehgciidh
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JackC
This can also be handled by a clipboard manager, which will have the nice side
effect of making your life 1000 times better in every way. My current
favorites are Ditto[1] on Windows and ClipMenu[2] on the Mac.

Clipboard managers are so insanely useful that I can't believe everyone
doesn't use them. The basic idea is that everything you've copied in the last
day or so should be at your fingertips. This changes your clipboard from
something you use just to move a chunk of text from point A to point B, to a
stack you can push things to whenever you think you might want to use them
later. Which, if you're programming or writing text, happens all the freakin'
time.

So instead of `cmd-V` to paste, you do `cmd-shift-V` to pop up a list of
everything you've copied recently, and then `down-arrow down-arrow down-arrow
return` to paste the item three copies ago. If you hold down `cmd` while
hitting return, you get the item as plain text. This works system-wide and
becomes muscle memory after a day or so.

Ditto comes with some nice advanced features as well, like selecting a range
of items to paste all at once, or typing to search your entire clipboard
history. But just the basic clipboard-history stack is the game changer.

If you're not convinced yet, here's a few scenarios where it's amazing:

* Copy a list of items as you read through a long web page and then paste them all into a spreadsheet. * Copy comments you think you might want to reply to as you read through a long thread. * Copy someone's name, employer, address, phone number, and email address from various parts of a site to paste into the references section of your resume. * Copy snippets from four different Stack Overflow answers, then go and use them as a toolbox to build a function that solves your problem. * Copy something you're planning to paste in a second, get distracted, copy three other things, and still have the first thing ready and waiting instead of having to go back to find it again. * Get in the habit of cutting text you don't want instead of deleting, so you can paste it back ten minutes later if you change your mind.

I know this seems like a ridiculous rant, but seriously, if you use a keyboard
all day this is life changing.

[1] [http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/](http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/) [2]
[http://www.clipmenu.com/](http://www.clipmenu.com/)

~~~
aroch
On the OSX side, if you use Alfred[1] then you already have a clipboard
manager[2]. I have cmd-shift-v set to popup Alfred's clipboard history. The
nice part about Alfred is you can search (text and regex) your history and use
cmd+1-9 to quick select the first 9 in your history. You can also exclude
certain apps from being save (ie password managers) and save frequently used
things to snippets (I use this to save frequent responses to customer tickets)

The number of times this has saved my ass or at least significant amounts of
my time is fairly large.

[1] [http://www.alfredapp.com/](http://www.alfredapp.com/)

[2]
[http://support.alfredapp.com/features:clipboard](http://support.alfredapp.com/features:clipboard)

~~~
rbolkey
This is part of their powerpack add-on, so not everyone may have it right out
the box.

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orf
You can paste without style on Windows with CTRL+Shift+V, so what is the point
in this? Not going to give an app access to all my data on all websites I
visit for no benefit.

~~~
Anderkent
Same with shift-alt-cmd-v (I think) on Mac.

~~~
karlb
This doesn't work well in certain situations (as described in Andy Mo's answer
on the following page: [http://superuser.com/questions/512491/copy-and-paste-
plain-t...](http://superuser.com/questions/512491/copy-and-paste-plain-text-
only-in-osx)

I use (and love) a workflow called "Plain Text Paste" in Alfred, which I bind
to the keyboard shortcut CMD-SHIFT-v.

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zenpaul
Rich text pasting sounded like such a great idea 10 years ago. Let's just
admit that it has proven to be the wrong choice 90% of the time. Can we start
a petition to make plain text the default?

"Plain Text Pasting Now!"

~~~
derefr
It’s really the difference between “rich text” (what you get from Markdown,
what you used to get in Wordpad, sort of what HTML2 is like) and “styled text”
(what you get from CSS.)

In professional publishing tools (InDesign, Publisher), these are rightly
thought of as two separate formats: your _content_ is rich text, written by a
journalist or copywriter and saved as .rtf. Your _publication_ is a set of
_flows_ , each of which has a data binding to a separate rich-text document,
and a set of styling information applied on top.

Really, I’d be just fine if pasting text kept the bold parts bold, the italics
italicized, and the links linked (i.e. kept the “rich text” parts) between,
say, an HTML page and a Word document. What I _don’t_ want is for the Word
document to render the text in 11pt #222222 Helvetica, just because that’s
what the page was styled like. That’s a property of the flow the text was in,
not the text itself.

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hashtree
Am I the only one who finds the broad permissions that are required by many
Chrome extensions crazy from a security perspective? This one can:

    
    
      - Access to your data on all websites
      - Access data you copy and paste
    

Talk about a non-starter, even if I were to trust the developer. Chrome is all
too happy to auto-update extensions by default. All it takes is one extension
developer compromised to have a nice little copy/paste and bank-website logger
that phones home. I could have trusted the developer. I could have reviewed
the source code. I could do a number of things and still open up myself to
risk for such things. I understand this particular extension needs said
permissions, but there has to be a better way. Many extensions ask for
permissions they have no need for. Looking at the install numbers, people are
all to happy to hand them out. I imagine some of the trust comes via proxy of
being on the Chrome store.

~~~
gvb
This is an extension that does _copy and paste._ Your complaint may be valid,
but not for this extension.

~~~
hashtree
You are absolutely correct. My critique wasn't directed at this extension, but
Chrome in general. In this instance, I'd love to see:

    
    
      - Access to your data on all websites (when directly activated)
      - Access data you copy and paste (when directly activated)
    

It is my understanding that Chrome does not have this level of granularity in
permissions currently.

~~~
kzahel
Yeah it does. Apps can have permission to the current tab when you click on
their action icon (either in URL or to the right of it)

I agree though that this app has permissions that are too broad.

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noyesno
I use a tiny app on Windows called "PureText" that removes formatting from any
text copied to the clipboard. It's lovely.

~~~
ryanwhitney
Mac: FormatMatch is great. Lightweight and runs in the menu bar in case you
want to temporarily disable it.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/formatmatch/id445211988](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/formatmatch/id445211988)

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felipesabino
I have been using jumpcut -
[http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/](http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/) \- as my
"clipboard buffering" tool and it pastes stylelessly

~~~
eli
Do you know if there's any way to get it to not save clipping from certain
apps (like KeePass)? I love Jumpcut, I just wish it wasn't quite so helpful
with remembering recent passwords.

~~~
felipesabino
I don't think it has such feature out f the box but as it is open source, it
is always hackable :p
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/jumpcut/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/jumpcut/)

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rkangel
My if-all-else-fails fallback is to go via notepad. I've got depressingly
quick at: Windows+r notepad enter ctrl+v ctrl+a ctrl+c alt+f4 n

~~~
samirmenon
If you're in the browser, you can also paste into the address bar... (ctrl-L
ctrl-v ctrl-a ctrl-c)

~~~
jakub_g
Fine for oneliners but this doesn't preserve newlines

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sanat
Gmail supports pasting without styles with the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+V .
Would make the example redundant

~~~
dchest
Indeed; not only Gmail, it's a Chrome feature (right-click > Paste as plain
text).

~~~
mijoharas
As far as i was concerned this is standard practice, it's implemented in
Thunderbird and Microsoft office products too if my memory serves.

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mercnet
For anyone looking for a clipboard manager for Windows and Linux, check out my
Python and PySide (Qt) application at
[https://bitbucket.org/scottwernervt/clipmanager](https://bitbucket.org/scottwernervt/clipmanager).
I really liked Ditto but I couldn't find a similar app on Arch/Ubuntu.

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joncalhoun
On most Google products (docs & gmail for sure) cmd+shift+v will paste minus
the styling. It doesn't cover all use cases, but I have found the keyboard
shortcut to be very useful.

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shpx
What the difference between this and the already built in shortcut on osx

⌘-⇧-⌥-V - Apply the style of the surrounding text to the inserted object
(Paste and Match Style)

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abluecloud
CMD + ALT + SHIFT + V in OSX. Sort of a pointless app.

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jbackus
Can we get the source for this extension? It gets access to all website data
so there really should be some verifiable source included.

~~~
hughes
I keep the Chrome Extension Source Viewer handy for exactly that.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-
extension-s...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-
source-v/jifpbeccnghkjeaalbbjmodiffmgedin/)

~~~
jbackus
This is great. Thank you.

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jsvaughan
CTRL-SHIFT-V in Ubuntu also

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franklinho
On a mac, to pase without style simply hit:

Command + Shift + v

