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Robert4

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 20, 2012
640
30
Hello,

How do I delete what is in Finder/Edit/Show Clipboard ?

How do I prevent anything new going to this listing ?

Thanks,
Bob
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,256
13,332
"How do I delete what is in Finder/Edit/Show Clipboard ?"

Copy something new to it.
Even a single character.

"How do I prevent anything new going to this listing ?"

I don't think you can.
I could be wrong.
 

Phil77354

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2014
1,927
2,036
Pacific Northwest, U.S.
Hello,

How do I delete what is in Finder/Edit/Show Clipboard ?

How do I prevent anything new going to this listing ?

Thanks,
Bob

This is needed because - why?

Clipboard is simply a place where anything copied in an application is temporarily stored. It is continually replaced as something new is cut or copied from an application.

It is refreshed when you restart the computer, I believe. Otherwise, it will hold the last thing placed there by an application.

You want to prevent anything new going to this listing - why? That would mean that the editing functions of apps that rely on cut and paste functionality would not work correctly. Which is just about any application on your computer. You're not going to be able to prevent the clipboard from collecting the most recent thing cut or copied, that would interfere with the necessary operation of your software.
 

Robert4

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 20, 2012
640
30
Hi,

Thanks for help and suggestions.

Needed, and/or desireable, as it would be coming from
a document that is private, and password protected.

The part that is copied, is apparently not password protected ?

All thoughts most appreciated.

Regards, stay well,
Bob
 

chabig

macrumors G4
Sep 6, 2002
11,452
9,323
 

Phil77354

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2014
1,927
2,036
Pacific Northwest, U.S.
Understood. If you don't want sensitive information being copied to the clipboard, then don't use the cut or copy functions, do it manually. Or copy something else to replace that info on your clipboard, as has been suggested above and in the other referenced thread.
 

Slartibart

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2020
3,145
2,819
You can use AppleScript to do that. The following will do what Fishrrman previously mentioned:

tell application "System Events"
try
set the clipboard to ""
on error err_message
display dialog err_message
end try
end tell

Call this after you finished copying&pasting your data. Otherwise: why don’t you just simply drag&drop the text from one window to the other (putting them side by side or CMD-Tab between them? Your using a Mac. I know this is old school ?, but this will leave nothing in the clipboard.

EDIT:
Also, Automator allows the same. You'll need to define a variable, double click on the name text to set it to null, and then drag in the set clipboard action before running / saving it. The benefit of using automator is that you can assign it as a service and then use system keyboard shortcuts to call it.

screenshot of automator setting the clipboard to null

if you copy always to the same program you can automate this service further e.g. you only have to select the text and it is automatically added/appended to your new document so you don’t even have to switch to the other program, etc....
 
Last edited:

Robert4

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 20, 2012
640
30
Hi All,

Much thanks for suggestions; very appreciated.
Great Forum, and folks.

Regards, stay well,
Bob
 
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