PastePlop documentation

A native clipboard manager for Mac. Press ⌘⇧V and you get a translucent grid of everything you've copied — text, images, files, links, even hex colours. File items into categories, search by what's actually inside the picture, drag whole groups into other apps. This page covers every surface, every shortcut, every modifier.

Installation

PastePlop comes two ways. The direct download from bendansby.com/apps/pasteplop is a standard .dmg — open it and drag PastePlop.app into your Applications folder. The Mac App Store version installs and updates the usual way. Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later; universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel).

On first launch, PastePlop asks permission to monitor the clipboard (built in to macOS) and adds itself to the menu bar. The DMG build checks for updates on its own; you can force a check from PastePlop → Check for Updates….

Opening the overlay

The overlay is the main surface — a translucent grid that floats above whatever you're working in. Three ways to open it:

• Hotkey — ⌘⇧V by default. Reassignable in Preferences (at least one modifier required).
• Menu-bar icon — click the clipboard glyph. If you've toggled "Click menu bar icon to show MiniPlop as a menu" on, a left-click drops the MiniPlop menu instead and a right-click shows the standard menu.
• Show PastePlop menu item — same as the hotkey, from the menu-bar menu.

The overlay always opens on the active display. Press Esc or click outside to close.

Item types

PastePlop captures everything copyable. Each item is rendered as a tile sized to its content:

• Text — plain and rich. RTF, HTML, and app-specific flavours round-trip on paste so the destination gets exactly what the source produced.
• Images — PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP. GIFs stay animated. Original byte format is preserved (no re-encode on paste).
• URLs — web links get a preview tile (OG image + title + domain) via Apple's LinkPresentation framework.
• Files — copies from Finder show up with the file's icon and name. Pasting drops the file reference.
• Hex colours — text matching #RRGGBB or bare hex auto-renders as a full-tile colour swatch with the code label.

Navigating the grid

The grid is keyboard-first: arrow keys move the focused tile, ↩ pastes the highlighted item, ⌫ deletes it. Mouse works too — single-click selects, double-click pastes. Shift-click and ⌘-click extend or toggle the selection.

Marquee selection works in the empty space between tiles. Hold ⇧ while starting a second marquee to add to the existing selection rather than replace it.

Tile sizing

The slider in the toolbar scales every tile from compact (0.7×) to comfortable (1.5×). The grid re-flows columns as the size changes. While you're dragging the slider, tiles render as cheap pastel placeholders so the resize stays smooth even with hundreds of items in view; the real previews snap back when you let go.

Search

Type any printable key while the grid has focus and the search field auto-focuses with that character. ⌘F jumps to the field explicitly. Matching is case-insensitive substring across:

• Tile text (for text and link items).
• OCR'd image text — see Image OCR below. Searching for a phrase you remember reading inside a screenshot finds the screenshot.

Search is scoped to the active tab (History or whichever category you're on). Clear with the × button or ⌘A + ⌫.

Pasting an item

Several ways, pick the one that fits the moment:

• Click — single click + ↩, or double-click. The overlay dismisses and the item lands in the previously-focused field.
• Keyboard — arrow keys to highlight, ↩ to paste.
• Multi-paste — select multiple tiles (⌘-click or marquee), then ⌘↩ pastes all of them in display order, separated as the destination expects.
• Quick Look — highlight a tile, press Space for a full-size preview without pasting. Space or Esc dismisses.

Deleting items

⌫ or ⌦ removes the selected tile(s). When you delete from a category, the items are removed from that category only — they remain in History. Deleting from History removes them everywhere. After a delete the focus moves to whichever tile now occupies the deleted slot, Finder-style.

Organising into categories

Categories are user-defined buckets that live alongside History in the sidebar. Useful for things you reach for repeatedly — snippets, brand colours, signatures, often-pasted addresses.

• Create from a tile — drag one or more tiles onto the + button. The category is created seeded with those items and drops into rename mode.
• File an existing tile — right-click → Add to Category → pick one. Or drag the tile onto a category row.
• Rename — double-click the row, type, ↩ to commit, Esc to cancel.
• Delete a category — right-click the row. Items in the category stay in History.

Tabs & shortcuts

The sidebar slots map to ⌘+number:

Categories past the 8th have no shortcut; reach them with the mouse.

Drag out

Click and hold any tile, then drag it into another app and drop. PastePlop stays open while you drag.

Multi-drag: select several tiles of the same kind first (all images, all files, all links, or all text), then start the drag from any selected tile. The whole group travels together.

Drop onto Finder

Drag an image tile onto a Finder window and you get a real Image.png file. Text tiles drop as Text.txt. The image extension follows the actual bytes — PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, or WebP — so screenshots stay PNG and animated GIFs stay animated. Pasting (⌘V) into a focused Finder window does the same thing.

Multi-select first and the whole batch lands as numbered files in one drop: Image.png, Image 2.png, Image 3.png, Text.txt, Text 2.txt, and so on. One drag, N files.

Drag in

Drag files, images, or text from Finder, Notes, Mail, or any other app onto MiniPlop to add them to history without going through the system clipboard. Drag onto a category row to file directly into that category. Drag onto the + to seed a new category.

What MiniPlop is

MiniPlop is an always-visible tray of frequently-used clips — separate from the main overlay, designed to stay on screen while you work. Each chip is a thumbnail (image, hex swatch, file icon, link glyph, or text) with a label.

• Click a chip to paste it.
• Drag a chip to drop its contents elsewhere.
• Right-click for Copy or Remove.
• Clear All wipes every chip.

Inline, floating, or menu-bar dropdown

Three presentations:

• Inline — pinned below the sidebar inside the main overlay. Toggle from the overlay's … menu or from Preferences.
• Floating window — detached, always-on-top panel. Click the MiniPlop badge in the overlay to pop it out. Drag the window to position it; it self-clamps inside the visible screen bounds after every show and after every drag.
• Menu-bar dropdown — left-click the menu-bar icon opens MiniPlop as a menu. Enable in Preferences → General → "Click menu bar icon to show MiniPlop as a menu". Right-click still shows the standard menu in this mode.

Float a single tile

Right-click any tile → Float. The tile pops into its own borderless, resizable window with a frosted vibrant background. Useful for parking a reference snippet or screenshot over another app while you work.

• Resize from any edge; images scale aspect-preserving, text reflows.
• Dismiss with Esc, ⌘W, or the close button that appears when you hover near the top edge.
• Open as many floats as you want — they cascade.
• For image floats the whole window is draggable (grab the picture). Text and link floats have a drag handle at the top so you can still select text inside.

Scroll-to-fade

Two-finger scroll on a float fades its opacity. Up reduces to 25% (still readable, close button still reachable); down brings it back to fully opaque. Lets a reference window sit over what you're doing without blocking the view.

Image OCR

Every screenshot or image you copy is OCR'd in the background using Apple's on-device Vision framework. No network, no API key, no delay you can feel. The extracted text becomes part of the tile's searchable content, so typing a phrase you remember reading inside a screenshot finds the screenshot.

OCR runs retroactively against existing history the first time you launch a version with OCR support, so older screenshots become searchable a moment after launch.

Pause capturing

From the menu-bar menu or the overlay's … menu, Pause Capturing stops clipboard monitoring temporarily. Useful for pasting sensitive material (passwords, bank details) that you don't want sitting in history. A first-time explainer shows up the first time you toggle it; subsequent toggles are silent. Use Resume Capturing to start again.

Apps on the Ignored Apps list (Preferences → Ignored Apps) are always skipped — clipboard activity in 1Password, bank apps, etc. never lands in history regardless of pause state.

Preferences

Three tabs. Open with ⌘,.

General

• Keyboard Shortcut — customise the overlay hotkey (at least one modifier required). Reset restores the ⌘⇧V default.
• Menu Bar — show or hide the menu-bar icon. With the icon shown, the sub-toggle "Click menu bar icon to show MiniPlop as a menu" routes a left-click to MiniPlop and a right-click to the standard menu.
• Open at Login — launch PastePlop on startup.
• Sounds — soft tick on copy, soft drop on paste. Off by default.

History

• Clear All — wipes every item across History and every category.
• Limit Days — auto-purge items older than 7 / 14 / 30 / 60 / 90 days, or Never.

Ignored Apps

• List of bundle IDs or app names PastePlop refuses to capture from. Pre-seed with sensitive apps. Add or remove inline.

Keyboard shortcuts

Global

Inside the overlay

Float windows

License & trial

Two distribution paths:

• Mac App Store — purchase and updates handled by Apple. No license keys to enter.
• Direct download — licensed via Lemon Squeezy. Buy a key from PastePlop → Buy License…, then enter it via Enter License…. Activation is online; the result caches locally and stays valid for up to 7 days offline.

Unlicensed direct-download copies show a one-screen reminder roughly every tenth overlay summon after a 7-day grace window. No features are locked, no work is held hostage — the reminder offers Buy, Enter License, or Maybe Later.