Pasting Links as Markdown

Issues
1

Until very recently, copying a URL from my browser (Edge) and pasting it into Drafts resulted in getting a Markdown formatted link. Now, on both my Macs the link is just posting as a naked URL. I sure would like to get the old functionality back. Any ideas on how to do so?

2

I don’t have Edge installed at the moment; maybe there is a change at their end?

Draft has a paste HTML as Markdown feature that would convert links on Markdown links if there was HTML in the clipboard. This is usually what you get if you copy selected text from a browser window in most browsers – but not what you get if you copy the URL from the address bar. In that case, you typically just get the URL as a string in the clipboard, which is pasted into Drafts.

Maybe it’s possible Edge was putting HTML in the clipboard and changed that behavior? That seems unusual, however. When it was doing this for you, what kind of Markdown link did you get? I’m not sure what it would be using for the link’s text (between the [ ]) if you were only copying a URL.

3

What I used to get was the Window title in the brackets with the URL in parenthesis. Here is an example from a document I created earlier in the month.

Who’s the Greatest Actor in Movie History? A Statistical Analysis (statsignificant.com)

Sort out your life! 100 tiny tricks to help with everything from digital overwhelm to lumpy sugar and unpaid bills | Time management | The Guardian

Who Was the Falling Man from 9/11? - Falling Man Identity Revealed (esquire.com)

4

I can confirm that Edge does put more than just plain text in the clipboard when copying a URL from the address bar. After I copy a URL from the address bar in Edge:

  • If the destination program accepts formatted text, it will paste as hyperlinked text (the text will be the web page title). Of course, in the case of Drafts, it represents that in Markdown format.
  • If I paste as plain text, or paste into a field that only accepts plain text, I just get the URL.

I don’t normally use Edge, but I’ve noticed this behavior before, and it is still doing that for me now on Edge version 129.0.2792.65 on Windows 10.

I’m not sure why the behavior has changed in OP’s case, but I just wanted to confirm what you are thinking along these lines. @amerpie , what happens if you paste a URL (copied from Edge) into another app (other than Drafts) that can accept formatted text?

5

It looks like the functionality has been removed from Edge. i found an extension that will mimic it however, so I’m good. Thanks for helping me realize that I wasn’t crazy.

6

Not exactly related, but if you do find yourself with URLs in Drafts, you can use this action to lookup the title off the web and convert it to a Markdown link.

1 Like
7

Thanks, that’s helpful too.