Any way to extend Quick Look so you can copy text from it?

Question

I find quick look really handy, but I know you can't copy text from files without opening them. I wonder if there is any way around this, or if it would be possible to do with a plug-in?

Oh yeah baby... let's plug it up and make quick lock stop being quick! :P — cregox, Apr 12 '11 at 23:40
being able to grab a snippet of code/whatever quickly from a file without having to open it in a separate program would be faster on the whole system (and quicklook already has to have the text in order to display it), so i think it wouldn't be too much of a sacrifice — Damon, Apr 14 '11 at 03:51

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

3

Check this tip:

Select Text in Quick Look Windows

To activate the setting, open a Terminal window and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE;killall Finder
The changes take effect immediately. To deactivate the setting, open a Terminal window and type the following:
defaults delete com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection;killall Finder

It works only from Finder windows. Which I guess is what you're after. Confirmed on Lion.

edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

Community

1

answered Nov 29 '11 at 16:16

tomvo

131
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**qlmanage -r** should suffice instead of killing finder itself. – Lake Apr 17 '13 at 11:01
Great tip; does anyone know how to make this work on the command line, with the `qlmanage`utility's `-p` command? – mklement0 Jul 29 '13 at 22:17

Any way to extend Quick Look so you can copy text from it?

1 Answers1

Select Text in Quick Look Windows