Ctrl-V or Cmd-V alternative - pasting only the plain text with Shift-Cmd-V

date-created:: 2023-10-17

Overusing my pet phrase, I "stumbled upon" again a neat trick that will save me millions of annoying keystrokes and transfers: a way to paste only the plain text without the fancy HTML formatting when I copy something from a web page, a dominant source of information for most of us.

Despite how simple this is, I thought this is something that would require installing some browser extension/plugin and what's worse using the mouse to accomplish. Turns out it's readily available at one's fingertip!

Instead of Ctrl-V for Windows or Cmd-V for Mac, use Shift-Cmd-V instead. This will take practicing and repeating enough times to build the "digital" memory, not to mention it needs both my hands to pull off. But I'm all for creating a tiny habit.

I bid farewell to this web-to-Anki copy-and-paste nuisance. 慢走不送！

Copy from a web page (e.g. ChatGPT)

!300

Pasted in the traditional way (Ctrl-V/Cmd-V) into Anki:

!300

This is how it'll be going forward (Shift-Cmd-V):

!300