Clipboard Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac
macOS gives you ⌘C and ⌘V. That is it. No shortcut to browse your history, no quick-paste for recent items, no way to paste without formatting. Here is how to get a full keyboard-driven clipboard workflow.
Option 1: Built-in macOS
- 1 ⌘C to copy and ⌘V to paste. That is the entire shortcut list.
- 2 No keyboard shortcut for clipboard history. You have to open Finder and click Edit > Show Clipboard.
- 3 No way to quick-paste a previous item without copying it again first.
Option 2: SaneClip Shortcuts
- ✓ ⌘⇧⌃Y opens your full clipboard history. Search, scroll, and paste. (Customizable in Settings.)
- ✓ ⌘⌃1 through ⌘⌃9 instantly paste items 1-9 from your history without opening a window.
- ✓ ⌘⇧⌥V pastes as plain text, stripping all formatting.
- ✓ ⌘⌃V pastes from your stack in order (FIFO or LIFO, configurable in Settings).
- ✓ ⌘⇧⌃V pastes with Smart Mode: auto-detects code, URLs, and regular text.
- ✓ All shortcuts are customizable in Settings. Remap any shortcut to whatever you prefer.
Inside the History Window
- ✓ ↑/↓ (or J/K) move through your clips — the list auto-scrolls with your selection.
- ✓ Home / End jump to the first or last clip; Page Up / Page Down leap ten at a time.
- ✓ Return pastes the selected clip. P pins or unpins it without losing your place.
- ✓ / jumps to search. Esc peels back — clears search, then filters, then closes the window.
- ✓ Works in the menu-bar popover and the floating resizable history window alike.