Preferences

Search Settings

How the overlay's search ranks what it finds, how a word you type is matched, what it looks through, and the order the history is listed in.

The Search pane, third in Preferences, after Copy/Paste, changes how the overlay finds things. Everything starts as the overlay has always searched, so you only need it to change something. The settings sync to your other Macs, except Show copies in Spotlight, which is set on each Mac.

They apply to the overlay, the Trash and your saved searches, wherever those are listed. The API, the assistant tools and the Shortcuts app search the same way on every Mac, whatever is set here.

Results

Order of results is the order the groups come in once you type: Variables, Tags, Copies and Actions to begin with. Drag a group to move it, or use its arrows; Restore Default puts them back. ↩ takes the top row, so putting Actions first means a word runs an action. The Trash row goes with Tags. A variable found only by what it holds, rather than by its name, stays just above the copies wherever they are, since it was found the way a copy is.

Untick a group to leave it out when you type a search — Variables and Actions if you only ever want your history, Copies if you mostly use the bar to run actions and reach variables. Asking for one still works: $ and a name uses a variable, # offers tags, | and a name runs an action, and ⌘F → Variables lists your variables. Typing trash always offers the Trash row. With Variables unticked, Search what variables hold has nothing to search and is greyed out.

With Copies unticked, only a search of plain words leaves them out. An empty search bar still shows your history, and a #tag, a date, app: or a question still finds copies. So does a saved search, even when you type more after it.

With Tags ticked, as it is to begin with, typing ima offers #image above your copies, and #text is offered once you type #te. Unticked, a tag is only offered once you type a #, so ↩ on a word always takes a copy.

List the history is the order the overlay lists your copies in: Recently used first to begin with — what you copied or pasted last at the top — or Newest first or Oldest first by when each was first copied, Recently changed first, Most pasted first, Largest first or Smallest first. Your pins stay on top whichever you choose. A sort: typed in the search bar, or picked from ⌘F → Sort, lists one search another way. With an order other than the first, ↩ on an empty search pastes whatever is at the top of the list, which may not be the last thing you copied.

Keep pins on top while searching is off to begin with, so once you type a pin ranks by what it holds, like any other copy. Turn it on and the pins a search finds are listed first, best match first, then everything else it found. A #tag, a date or a sort: on its own keeps its own order; add a word and the pins lead. A question asked with ? is left in its own order.

Keep the last search is off to begin with. Turn it on and the overlay opens on whatever you last searched for, selected, so typing replaces it and ⌫ clears it. A question is asked again. A pipeline isn't kept, and the search is forgotten when you quit PasteDaemon or clear the history. With it on, ↩ straight after opening pastes the top row of that search rather than your newest copy.

Asking

Ask with ? is on to begin with: a ? and a question in the search bar — ?the wifi password — finds your copies by what they mean (see Asking a question). To do that quickly, the app keeps a note of what each copy means, made on this Mac, kept on this Mac and never synced; copies kept sealed, secrets and variables are left out of it. Turn this off and ? only brings back saved searches, Find Similar goes, and the note is deleted, along with the questions ↑ brings back.

Guess tags for new copies, in Copy/Paste, needs Ask with ?.

Remember what you paste is on to begin with. It keeps a record, on this Mac only, of which copy you pasted, when, into which app, and whether you picked it from PasteDaemon or pressed ⌘V — never the text itself. It is what suggesting your next paste will learn from in a coming update. Pastes are kept for 90 days, never synced, and forgotten when you clear the history. Forget Paste History empties it now, and turning the setting off empties it and stops recording.

Matching

Match words typed says where in a copy a word you type has to be:

  • Anywhere, to begin with: mail finds email and mailbox.
  • At the start of a word: mail finds mailbox and Mail.app, but not email.
  • As whole words: mail finds the mail came, but not mailbox.

A word is letters and digits, in any language, so punctuation — a dot, a dash, a quote — ends one. A word in quotes, "mail", is still found anywhere, for the one search that needs it. It applies to what copies hold, their descriptions and what variables hold; names of actions and variables are matched as below.

Match case says whether a capital you type has to be a capital in a copy — for searching code, where User and user are different things:

  • Never, to begin with: user finds User and USER, and User finds user.
  • When you type a capital: user still finds User and USER, but User finds only User. Each word goes its own way, so User id finds User ID but not user id.
  • Always: user finds only user.

Accents are still ignored either way, so Cafe finds Café. It applies to words, quoted phrases and /patterns/ — a pattern counts as having a capital only outside an escape, so /\d+/ doesn't. -word still leaves out anything holding word in any case, and names of actions, variables and tags match in any case whatever this says.

Abbreviations find actions and variables is on to begin with: rut finds remove-url-tracking, picking out the start of each word. Off, a name has to hold what you typed as you typed it — tracking still finds it, rut doesn't.

Advanced search is on to begin with, and turns on the search bar's operators:

  • invoice OR receipt finds either.
  • invoice -draft leaves out anything holding draft.
  • /inv-\d+/ is a regular expression.

Off, those are searched for exactly as you type them — OR is a word, -rf finds rm -rf, and /tmp/ finds the path. Worth switching off if you search for code or command lines and never use the operators. Quoted phrases still work, and so does everything ⌘F writes: #tag, app:, on:, sort: and the rest, including a - in front of one.

What is searched

Search back is All time to begin with. Set it to a week, 30 days, 90 days or a year and a search finds only what you copied or pasted in that time — a copy from years ago that you pasted yesterday counts as yesterday's — along with your pins. It is for a long history, where an old match keeps crowding out the one from last week. It applies to searches with words in them, to questions and to Find Similar; an empty search bar, or a #tag on its own, still lists everything.

When it leaves something out, a line under the search bar says how many older copies match, and a click on that line searches them too. ⌘⇧F switches the limit off and on again at any time — before you type, too — and while it is off the line says Searching everything. Closing the overlay puts it back. A date in the search — since:2024, on:"last year", or from last year in a question — looks back as far as it says instead.

Each of the switches below is on to begin with. Switch one off to stop the overlay finding things that way.

  • Search descriptions, apps and picture details: a copy's description, the app it was copied in, and a picture's type and size (900x600). These matches come after the copies that hold the words.
  • Search the text in pictures: the words read out of a screenshot or a photo. Off, a picture is found only by its details.
  • Search the text in copied files, off until you turn it on: PDFs, Word and RTF documents and text files you copy in Finder are read, and found by what they say. Unlike the switches around it, this one decides what is kept: off, PasteDaemon opens no file you copy, and forgets the text it read before. Files in Desktop, Documents, Downloads and iCloud Drive are read only with Full Disk Access, which PasteDaemon asks for when you turn this on — see Files.
  • Search what variables hold: a variable is found by its value as well as its name. Off, by its name alone.

Spotlight

Show copies in Spotlight is off until you turn it on. On, your copies can be found from Spotlight (⌘Space) as well as from the overlay — by what they say, the words in a picture, their description and their tags. Picking one puts it on the clipboard, ready for ⌘V in the app you were in.

Anyone using your Mac can search Spotlight, so think about that before you turn it on. Secrets and sealed copies never appear there. A copy you delete, or one that expires or is cleared, leaves Spotlight within a few seconds, and turning the setting off takes every copy out. The setting is kept on each Mac rather than synced, and each Mac shows only the history it holds.