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 three 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. The Setapp version is a one-time purchase, not part of a Setapp Membership subscription; it installs through the Setapp client, with no separate license key and no trial. 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.
• Peek — highlight a tile and press Space (or right-click → Peek) to expand it in place, filling the window without pasting. Images render large; rich text keeps its formatting. Arrow keys flip through items while expanded; Space, Esc, or a click 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.

Sync to iPhone and iPad

Preferences → Sync mirrors your most recent clips and your saved categories through your own private iCloud database, where the free PastePlop companion for iPhone and iPad can show them. Tap a tile there to put it on the phone's clipboard. Search works on the phone too, including the text recognised inside screenshots.

Off until you ask for it. Clipboard history catches passwords and private messages in passing, so nothing leaves this Mac until you switch Sync history to iCloud on yourself.

One way only. The Mac writes and the phone reads. Nothing you do on the phone changes your Mac's history, and the phone's own clipboard is never captured or uploaded.

You choose what travels. Four separate switches under What to Sync — Text clips, Images, Saved categories and Text found in images. Turning one off also removes what has already been synced of that kind, not just future clips.

What never syncs. MiniPlop and pasteboard formatting stay on the Mac. History syncs its newest 100 clips; saved categories sync in full.

Taking it back. Synced Data → Remove from iCloud… clears everything PastePlop has put there and leaves sync on, so current clips sync again. Switching sync off removes it as well.

One Mac at a time

Only one Mac can sync to an iCloud account at once — two would spend their time deleting each other's clips. The Syncing Mac row names whichever Mac currently holds it, or reads This Mac.

Turn sync on from a second Mac and PastePlop asks first, naming the Mac already syncing and offering to switch over. Switching stops that Mac from syncing and replaces what it put in iCloud with this Mac's clips. Neither Mac's own clipboard history is touched either way.

Preferences

Four 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 it shown, Clicking the icon shows chooses what a left-click does: Activate PastePlop, Clipboard History, Saved Category (with a picker for which one), MiniPlop, or Application Menu. A right-click always gives the standard menu.
• Open at Login — launch PastePlop on startup.
• Sounds — soft tick on copy, soft drop on paste. Off by default.

Sync

• Sync history to iCloud, the account and Syncing Mac rows, the four What to Sync switches and Remove from iCloud… — see Sync to iPhone and iPad.

Ignored Apps

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

Advanced

• Erase History… — wipes the rolling clipboard list. Saved categories are left alone.
• License — View License… shows the direct-download build's licence details.

Keyboard shortcuts

Global

Inside the overlay

Float windows

License & trial

Three 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.
• Setapp. A one-time purchase through Setapp — bought outright, not part of a Setapp Membership subscription. No separate license key; Setapp handles the purchase and delivers updates automatically. The app runs through the Setapp client, so keep it installed and your Setapp account active.

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.