Keyboard only navigation

[kurdin]

Keyboard Navigation Guide

This guide provides an overview of keyboard shortcuts for navigating and interacting with the clipboard history and boards in the application.

Note: Shortcuts may vary between Windows and macOS. Where applicable, both versions are provided.

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Item Selection & Action

Use these shortcuts to select and act on items in the clipboard history:

• Arrow Up / Arrow Down: Navigate through the list of clipboard history items. Navigation begins with the first item.
• Arrow Left / Arrow Right:
  • When viewing the history list:
    • Arrow Right: Opens a larger view of the selected history item.
    • Arrow Left: Closes the larger view if it is open.
• Enter: Copies the selected item (from history or a board) to the clipboard.
• Alt + Enter (Windows) / Command + Enter (macOS): Pastes the selected item directly.
• Del: Press once to mark a history item for deletion, then press again to confirm deletion.
• Alt + Arrow Down: Displays the context menu for the selected history item or clip.
• Esc: Exits keyboard navigation mode and returns to the default mouse mode.

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Navigation Context Switching

These shortcuts help you switch between boards and navigate their contents:

• Tab: Moves focus to the next board.
• Shift + Tab: Moves focus to the previous board.
• Arrow Up / Arrow Down: When a board is focused, navigate through the items on that board.
• Arrow Right: Opens a detailed view of the selected clip on the board.
• Arrow Left: Closes the detailed view of the clip.

Pinned Items

• When focused on the first board after switching from the history list (e.g., by pressing Tab), if there are pinned items, press Arrow Up from the first item to move to the pinned items section.

Board Tab Switching

• Alt + Number (1-9, 0) (Windows) / Command + Number (1-9, 0) (macOS): Switches to the board tab at the specified position (1-9, 0 for the 10th visible tab).

Direct History Copy

• Ctrl + Number (1-9, 0) (Windows) / Option + Number (1-9, 0) (macOS): Copies the history item at the specified position directly to the clipboard.

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Global Search Navigation

Search across the application using these shortcuts:

• Ctrl + K (Windows) / Command + K (macOS), Alt + K, or /: Opens the global search modal.
• When the search input is focused, keyboard navigation for history and boards is disabled to avoid conflicts.
• Arrow Down: Selects the first item in search results if none is selected, or moves to the next item.
• Arrow Up: Selects the last item in search results if none is selected, or moves to the previous item.
• Tab: Switches to the next search category (Clips → Boards → Menus), cycling back to the first.
• Shift + Tab: Switches to the previous search category (Menus → Boards → Clips), cycling back to the last.
• Enter: Copies the selected search result item to the clipboard and closes the search modal after a brief delay.
• Esc: Closes the search modal.

Note: Search results start with no item selected; press Arrow Down to begin navigating the results.

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Mouse + Keyboard Helper

Combine mouse actions with keyboard shortcuts for additional functionality:

• Ctrl + Mouse Click on a history item: Selects the item. Click again to deselect. Select multiple items and press Del to delete them.
• Ctrl + Shift + Mouse Click on a history item: Sets the keyboard focus to that history item.

[kurdin]

implemented in #283

[simonc]

Hi there.

As a long time Flycut user, I'm always looking into more elaborate alternatives and I think PasteBar is a pretty good candidate, congrats one this awesome tool ❤️

Given a key selling point is "work faster", I'd like to suggest an alternative navigation for the Quick Paste Window, let's called it "turbo charged" for now ^^

The idea would be that instead of having the global hotkey toggle the QPW visibility, it could open it and keep it open as long as the meta key (cmd/ctrl) is held.

While the QPW is open:

1. typing meta-shift-V selects the next (older) item in the list
2. typing meta-V selects the previous (newer) item in the list
3. typing ESC toggles the window without pasting
4. releasing all keys pastes the selected item

That allows for a very fast, one-hand, pasting navigation for day-to-day things.

Say you set your hotkey to cmd-shift-V, then pasting a username & password you just copied can be done with a set of 3 keys

1. copy username
2. copy password
3. switch windows
4. focus username field
5. cmd-shift-V opens the QPW, cmd-shift-V to select username, release
6. focus password field
7. cmd-shift-V opens the QPW, cdm-shift-V to select password (since order has shifted), release

I now it seems long said like that but as compared to opening the QPW, using arrow keys to navigate then enter to paste, you need both sides of the keyboard and multiple different keys to press.

This is just a suggestion to open a reflection about it. At the end of the day it's your tool, and if it fits your needs as-is, you can just ignore all this ^^

All the best 😊

[kurdin]

Thank you for using PasteBar and for the detailed suggestion. I’m afraid a multiple-actions solution on the same Cmd–Shift–V hotkey won’t work well. Typically, one hotkey can be assigned to an OS-level action (e.g., opening a new History window). Inside that window, I can only use app-level hotkeys to navigate and perform copy/paste actions.

I understand what you’re looking for. I’m not sure it’s worth the complexity—most users still primarily use the mouse—but I could add local hotkeys such as Meta+A (next item), Meta+Q (previous item), and Meta+S (copy/paste the active item). I’m happy to prototype this if you think you could live with left-hand-only navigation in the Quick Paste window. Let me know what you think @simonc

[simonc]

Hi @kurdin, thanks for taking the time to answer.

I'll be honest I'm a Ruby dev so I have no idea of the complexity that would involve, especially in a multi-OS app 😬

I mentioned Flycut in my original message as it is, to my limited knowledge of the field, the only paste manager that offers this simplicity. It allows you to define a single hotkey which defaults to cmd-shift-v, and then it follows the behavior I described, which has been a gigantic daily time saver over the years.

Regarding your proposed solution, it would definitely be an improvement to be able do navigate one-handed (even just for overall accessibility). My only fear is that one would need to learn the navigation keys which is a big friction for adoption, so I wouldn't want you to spend precious time on this if it only makes life easier for one person 😅 My suggestion was to provide a no-brain-overhead feature, if constraints make it impossible maybe it's not worth it.