Select Text in Quick Look Windows
Quick Look is one of the better little features of Mac OS X, but a new hidden option in OS X Lion makes QuickLook even better by allowing you to select and copy text directly from the windows.
This awesome tip was sent in by Keir Thomas, the author of a new book called Mac Kung Fu and the guy who discovered the cool iTunes “Now Playing” notification that has since become popular on the Mac web. Without further ado, here’s the trick directly from Keir:
If you use Quick Look to view any files that feature text—such as PDFs or Word documents—you’ll notice that you can’t click and drag to highlight text. Clicking anywhere on the Quick Look window simply moves it around.
However, a secret setting will let you click and drag as usual to highlight text, and you can use the standard key combination of Command+C to copy text. The Quick Look window can still be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging its title bar, as with any other program window.
To activate the setting, open a Terminal window and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE;killall Finder
The changes take effect immediately. To deactivate the setting, open a Terminal window and type the following:
defaults delete com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection;killall Finder
Why on earth is this not enabled to begin with?
I do not believe it is disabled by default!!!!!
THANKS FOR THE GREATEST TIP!!!!!
This tip isn’t working for me. I’ve tried copying and pasting into terminal as well as typing it in. I’m running Mac OS X 10.7.2 on a 2.5 Ghz Intel Core i5. I’m obviously not doing something right.
Nice tip! Same it doesn’t work in OS 10.6.8.
There are 20 tips available in the extract from Mac Kung Fu: http://media.pragprog.com/titles/ktmack/tips.pdf
Best … tip … ever!
As an aside, why the hell doesn’t Apple document stuff like this? You keep hearing things like “300 new features” at new OS X releases, and then they don’t tell anybody what they are…
RAD!!!!!!
doesn’t work for me either
Looks like a cool tip, not working for me though, OS X 10.7.2
We tested it in OS X 10.7.2 it should work fine, make sure you get the entire command in one line?
Confirmed, over here it works just fine under 10.7.2
Ah yes and THANKS for sharing this great tip!!
Command is all in one line in the terminal window before entering. I notice that your example has “Open with TextEdit” in the right hand upper corner, but my window still says “Open with Preview” even after trying it several times. 10.7.2 also. ??
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Hail to the king, baby!
It’s finder feature, not Quick Look
In Finder it’s work fine, but in ForkLift… 
the select feature is awesome but is there any way of editing a document in quick look? like pasting something or typing in the quicklook preview. it would be so much better, especially for making small changes in a txt file without opening text edit.