Mac Tip: Drag And Drop Text Almost Anywhere On Your Mac

This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.


How to: Drag And Drop Text Almost Anywhere On Your Mac

Did you know you can easily drag and drop a selection of text to various areas of your Mac?

Simply highlight the selected text then click and hold. After holding for a second, move the mouse pointer. You will notice the selected text will start moving in conjunction with the direction of the mouse pointer.

If you drag it to a folder or the Desktop you will notice a text clipping file will be created and will be presented with this logo:

The text clipping files can be opened, and content can be copied, directly in the Finder. In order to edit the file you will need to import the clipping into a text editor such as TextEdit.

Dragging text to different applications in the Dock will create different processes such as:

Mail: Will create a new compose message, with the text you are dragging and dropping being used in the body of the email.

Safari: Drag and drop a web address and it will load the site directly.

Stickies: You can drag and drop the text directly to a Sticky note so you have access to the content at a later date.

These are just a few examples and I’m sure, as you apply this technique to your workflow, you will find many more ways to drag and drop text around your Mac.

Mark Greentree

Mark Greentree is the principle blogger and podcast creator of Everyday Mac Support. His aim is to inform users at all levels of experience how to get the most out of the Apple hardware and associated software. He is the lead host of Not Another Mac Podcast, an Apple based round table discussion with Mac users and experts from all over world.