Windows Shortcuts
Learn the basics. It's worth it.
The shortcuts represent the fastest way how to perform many Better Clipboard actions. Typically you want to quickly activate the Better Clipboard window, select any of the stored clips and paste it back to the application where you left before.
Global Shortcuts to Show / Hide Better Clipboard window
Often you will experience a need to quickly show (activate) Better Clipboard window, perform some action and then hide (deactivate, minimize) it again. You can do it with the following shortcuts. These shortcuts work from any Windows application. That means if you are currently working with Notepad, Word, Chrome or any other app and press 2x Ctrl, Better Clipboard will pop up to be prepared to perform its actions.
Please notice! These global shortcuts do not work from applications that are ran with elevated permissions unless Better Clipboard itself runs with the same permissions. Read below how to solve this problem.
| Action | Shortcut 1 | Shortcut 2 | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show / Hide | 2x Ctrl | 2x Win | The ones in bold are enabled by default |
| Show / Hide | 3x Ctrl | 3x Win | Disabled by default |
| Show | Hold down Ctrl + C | Hold both keys for 1/2 a second and Better Clipboard will appear | |
| Show | Ctrl + Shift + Q | Your customizable shortcut - can be changed to virtually anything |
Local Shortcuts
These are the shortcuts that are effective only when Better Clipboard is the active window, i.e. the window you are working with in the very moment.
| Action | Shortcut 1 | Shortcut 2 | Shortcut 3 | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navigate down | ↓ Ctrl + ↓ | Ctrl + C | First mouse click or touch | |
| Navigate up | ↑ Ctrl + ↑ | Ctrl + D | First click / first touch | |
| Primary clip action | Enter | Num X | Double-click / second touch | Copy to clipboard by default Example: Press key 2 to copy item #2 to clipboard |
| Secondary clip action | Ctrl + Enter | Ctrl + Num X | Ctrl + double-click | Paste to the target app by default Example: Press Ctrl + 3 to paste item #3 into the target application |
| Tertiary clip action | Right-click | Paste to the target app and copy the item into the clipboard by default Example: Right-click the selected item and select 'To app & clipbaord' |
||
| Delete selected clip | Del | |||
| Start text filtering (search for a given clip) | Any letter | |||
| Stop filtering | Esc |
Typical Shortcut Sequences
Example 1: Open your text editor, press 2x Ctrl to show Better Clipboard, release Ctrl key and hit number 2. That will copy the item #2 to Windows Clipboard and you can manually paste it to the text editor or any other program.
Example 2: Do the same as above but keep holding Ctrl and press 2. That will paste the item #2 into the target application.
Example 3: Open your text editor, hold down Ctrl + C for 1/2 a second. Keep holding Ctrl and press C number of times to select the proper item. Still holding Ctrl you finally press V and that will paste the selected clip into the target program without Windows Clipboard being changed.
Please notice! Examples are based on the default selection of the primary, secondary and tertiary clip actions. If you swap those in the Settings dialog you should also expect the swapped functionality.
Elevated Permissions Problem
The global shortcuts mentioned above cannot work if you use them from an application launched with elevated permissions (‘Run as administrator’ option). Example situation: Better Clipboard is running in the background, you start Notepad, write something there and hit 2x Ctrl. That will activate Better Clipboard so you can easily paste any of its older clips back to Notepad. However if Notepad has been started with elevated privileges (‘Run as administrator’) the 2x Ctrl shortcut will not work, Better Clipboard will not appear. Neither the direct pasting works in this case.
To fix it, Better Clipboard itself must be also started with the elevated permissions.
- Right-click your Better Clipboard shortcut and select “Run as administrator”
- To make this selection permanent right-click the same shortcut, select Properties > Advanced… and tick the “Run as administrator” checkbox
