

The most straightforward way to select text is to click and hold at the beginning of your selection, drag the cursor until the entire text you need is selected, and then release the mouse button. The first thing you need to do if you are trying to either Copy or Cut text is to select it. To check your version, read What version of macOS do I have? First things first: Selecting text on a Mac The features shared in our guide may not work on older versions of macOS. NOTE: This guide covers macOS Catalina or newer. Bonus: Find out what text is currently in your clipboard.How to Cut and Paste text using the Kill and Yank keyboard shortcuts How to Cut, Copy, and Paste text using the mouse How to Cut, Copy, and Paste text using an app's Edit menu How to Cut, Copy, and Paste text using the right-click menu How to Cut, Copy, and Paste text using keyboard shortcuts First things first: Selecting text on a Mac.But you can get to it by right-clicking (or control-click) on the service and select “show in finder”…ĩ. It is in a hidden “Library” folder in your user folder. To remove a service, you have to locate the file on Finder. To do the paste command, you create a new service like before, but use “v” instead of “c”. But I have an external keyboard plugged in that has F13 and F14 function keys which I was able to assign.ħ. Like I said, most (if not all) the key on the Mac are occupied. You have to find a key on your keyboard that is not already being used and that can be assigned. Press the key you want assigned to perform this copy. Find the “copy” service (shown above) and click “add shortcut”.Ħ. If you select the menu “Services Preferences”, it brings up keyboard shortcuts for services. Now a new service named “copy” shows up in System Preferences…ĥ. Perform a Save and give it the name “copy”. This script effectively presses Cmd-c for you.Ĥ. As the first script step select “Run Applescript” and set service receives “no input” in “any application” …ģ. Launch Automator, and create a new “service” document …Ģ. Because the Mac keyboard simply doesn’t have enough keys, all keys are being used.ġ. But this technique only works if you have an external keyboard with extra keys that you can assign to copy and to assign to paste. On Mac, you can use Automator and a bit of Applescript (both comes with Mac). On Windows, I can do it with the free AutoHotKeys. And a single key that I can press for paste. I want a single key that I can press for copy. How to have a single key copy and single key paste on MacĬmd-c and Cmd-v are used so frequently that the double keystroke combination is hard on the hands.
