FAQ

• How to preserve the order of copied items on copy or pasting multiple items?
• How does pasting single/multiple items internally work?
• How to open the menu or context menu with only the keyboard?
• Is it possible to hide menu bar to have even cleaner main window?
• How to enable logging?
• How to back up commands?
• Where are the notifications?
• How to reuse file paths copied from a file manager?
• How to paste as plain text?
• Where to find saved items and configuration?
• Why are items and configuration not saved?
• How to load shared commands and share them?
• How to open application window or tray menu using shortcut?
• How to omit storing text copied from specific windows like a password manager?

Questions and Answers

How to preserve the order of copied items on copy or pasting multiple items?

1. reverse order of selected items with Ctrl+Shift+R and copy them or
2. select items in reverse order and copy

See #165

How does pasting single/multiple items internally work?

Return key copies the whole item (with all formats) to the clipboard and -- if the "Paste to current window" option is enabled -- it sends Shift+Insert to previous window. So the target application decides what format to paste on Shift+Insert.

If you select more items and press Return, just the concatenated text of selected items is put into clipboard. Thought it could do more in future, like join HTML, images or other formats.

See #165

How to open the menu or context menu with only the keyboard?

1. use Alt+I to open the item menu
2. use the Menu key on your keyboard to open the context menu of an item

Is it possible to hide menu bar to have even cleaner main window?

Menu bar can be hidden by modifying style sheet of current theme.

1. Open Preferences dialog (Ctrl+P),
2. go to Appearance,
3. enable checkbox "Set colors for tabs, tool bar and menus",
4. click "Edit Theme" button,
5. find menu_bar_css option and add height: 0 so it will be something like:

menu_bar_css="
    ;height: 0
    ;background: ${bg}
    ;color: ${fg}"

How to enable logging under Windows?

• From CopyQ 2.1.0 there are two new environment variables COPYQ_LOG_LEVEL and COPYQ_LOG_FILE you can set. See #195
• Before CopyQ 2.1.0: If want to see console logs you have to redirect stdout and stderr with appending 1> logfile 2>&1 e.g. copyq.exe 1> server.log 2>&1

How to back up commands?

• From CopyQ 2.1.0 there are two buttons under the Commands tab in the preferences. Save Selected Commands... and Load Commands. Additionally you can copy and paste commands from the Commands tab in the preferences.

See #125 and #157

Where are the notifications?

The default values for Interval in seconds to display notifications and Number of lines for clipboard notification are 0. After increasing these values the notifications will be shown.

How to reuse file paths copied from a file manager?

By default only the text is stored in item list when you copy of cut files from a file manager. Other data are usually needed to be able to copy/paste files from CopyQ.

You have to add new data formats (MIME) to format list in "Data" item under "Item" configuration tab. Commonly used format in many file managers is text/uri-list. Other special formats include x-special/gnome-copied-files for Nautilus, application/x-kde-cutselection for Dolphin. These formats are used to specify type of action (copy or cut).

How to paste as plain text?

• In the Commands/Global Shortcuts dialog [F6] you can Add the command Paste clipboard as plain text and set the desired Global Shortcut.
• In the Commands/Global Shortcuts dialog [F6] you can Add the command Paste as Plain Text. You can now to paste an item as plain text from the item list with Shift+Return or with the help of the context menu.
• You can also disallow rich text storing (so Shift+Enter pastes plain text out-of-the-box) -- go to preferences, "Items" tab and uncheck "Web" checkbox under "Text" uncheck "HTML" checkbox. See #308

Where to find saved items and configuration?

You can find configuration and save items in:

• Windows folder %APPDATA%\copyq for installed version of the app or config folder in unzipped portable version,
• Linux directory ~/.config/copyq.

NOTE: Main configuration for installed version of the app on Windows is stored in registry.

Why are items and configuration not saved?

Check access rights to configuration directory and files.

How to load shared commands and share them?

You can stumble upon code that looks like this.

[Command]
Name=Show/hide main window
Command=copyq: toggle()
Icon=\xf022
GlobalShortcut=ctrl+shift+1

This code represents a command that can used in CopyQ (specifically it opens main window on Ctrl+Shift+1). To use the command in CopyQ:

1. copy the code above,
2. open Command dialog F6 in CopyQ,
3. click "Paste Commands" button at the bottom of the dialog,
4. click OK button.

(Now you should be able to open main window with Ctrl+Shift+1.)

To share your commands, you can select the commands from command list in Command dialog and press "Copy Selected" button (or just hit Ctrl+C).

How to open application window or tray menu using shortcut?

Add new command to open window or menu with global shortcut:

1. open Command dialog F6 in CopyQ,
2. click "Add" button in the dialog,
3. select "Show/hide main window" or "Show the tray menu" from the list and click "OK" button,
4. click the button next to "Global Shortcut" label and set the shortcut,
5. click "OK" button to save the changes.

For more information about commands see Writing Commands and Adding Functionality.

How to omit storing text copied from specific windows like a password manager?

Add and modify automatic command to ignore text copied from the window:

1. open Command dialog F6 in CopyQ,
2. click "Add" button in the dialog,
3. select "Ignore Password window" from the list and click "OK" button,
4. change Window text box to match the title (or part of it) of the window to ignore (e.g. KeePass),
5. click "OK" button to save the changes.