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Paste directly to other applications

In order to paste clipboard history and pinboard items directly to other applications, you’ll first need to allow Paste to access the accessibility features of your Mac. Paste will guide you through that process. Alternatively, you can set it up manually.

How to allow Paste to access the accessibility features

  1. Open System Settings
  2. Select Privacy & Security in the sidebar
  3. Scroll down and select Accessibility in the Privacy list
  4. Find and enable Paste (if it’s not in the list, click the + button and add Paste from your Applications folder)

Enable Direct Paste

It says that Paste will control my computer, what does this mean?

Accessibility features allow apps to perform multiple user actions (e.g., button clicks) programmatically. If you allow Paste to access the accessibility features, it will not actually “control your computer”. Paste will simply be allowed to send the following system shortcuts to a frontmost application:

  1. ⌘ CmdV for Direct Paste to paste current clipboard contents to the active application;
  2. ⌘ CmdC for Paste Stack to copy selected data to the clipboard.

What happens if I don’t let Paste the permissions?

In this case, you won’t be able to use the Direct Paste and Paste Stack features. However, you’ll still be able to use Paste without any other limitations. Paste will copy selected items back to the clipboard so you can paste them to any applications yourself using either the ⌘ CmdV system shortcut or the system context menu. You can always enable the Direct Paste and Paste Stack features in Preferences later.

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