Copy text in a markdown preview ?

[CorbeusUltra]

I know it is possible to copy text in other previews format like for a pdf but when I try to copy in markdown preview it just makes the error sound and doesn't copy the text.

Is it happening only for me ?

[cookesan]

It is not just you.

The Quick Look extension renders Markdown as HTML. On macOS 12+ it returns a data-based HTML QLPreviewReply, and the older path uses a WKWebView subclass that explicitly cannot become the key view / first responder. That means normal text selection/copy is limited by Quick Look/WebKit behavior here, unlike PDF previews where the system preview has native selectable text.

Workarounds are to open the file in an editor/viewer, or use QLMarkdown's HTML export/shortcut path and copy from the rendered HTML in a browser. I would treat selectable text inside the Quick Look preview as a feature request rather than a local configuration problem.

[CorbeusUltra]

I'm a newbie on GitHub so I don't know how to open a feature request elsewhere than in this discussion section
Is there a right way to do it ?

[sbarex]

This isn't entirely correct. Selection management is entirely up to the operating system and works in both very old versions that use WebKit and in more recent versions (from macOS 12 onwards). In my experience, selection always works, while copying via keyboard sometimes doesn't work, but it does work from the context menu. The fact that it doesn't work is a behavior completely unrelated to this application.