Forum Discussion
MicrosoftAnnouncing a new way to paste URLs, Link format!
Recently, we wanted to dig into how users feel about copying and pasting a URL from their browser. We looked to understand what they do when they copy and paste URLs, as well as the pain points they experience.
What did we find?
We found that one has to regularly edit the URL they copy to make them understandable for sharing or remove seemingly extra parameters. This led us to what we call Link format, an easily readable URL that also preserves the details of the URL.
We also learned that nearly everyone, at one point, wants the full, plain-text URL exactly as it was copied. When one first copies a URL, it’s not always obvious that the full text is needed. Other times, it’s desired to have both a readable format and the plain-text version.
With both in mind, we are excited to not only introduce Link format for URLs but also options in the context menu that lets you paste both styles of URL regardless of your default paste setting!
How can you use it?
Starting this week, you should see Link format available on Windows devices running the Canary channel of Microsoft Edge. When you copy from the address bar and right-click to paste, you will see that Paste now has a fly-out menu and that plain-text URL pasting is now Ctrl+Shift+V.
Jump list options from right-click, hovering over "Paste as" to show new options for pasting, "Plain text", "Link (Default)", and "Change default".
If you want to revert this change, you can head to edge://settings/shareCopyPaste (or navigate through the … menu > Settings > Share, Copy & Paste) and select Plain text as the default for your URLs. Once you do that, Ctrl+V will be for the plain-text URL.
Screenshot of the settings page for edge://settings/shareCopyPaste
What’s next?
Right now, this feature is only available on Windows devices. We are working on bringing this to Mac. Additionally, it’s important to note that this only works for URLs copied from the address bar at this time. Link format support will be available for in-page links soon.
There’s a few things we’re aware of, too, and are working on getting these resolved:
- When Link format is default, pasting into a LinkedIn post is resulting only in the title appearing without a hyperlink. We’re working closely with the LinkedIn team to address this.
- When Link format is default, pasting into a Word document using Word Online is resulting only in the title appearing without a hyperlink. We’re working closely with the Word team to address this.
- In general, some sites or web apps may introduce their own formatting on paste. We want to know when you notice this, so please submit feedback letting us know what you’re seeing (Alt+Shift+I or … menu > Help and feedback > Send feedback).
In addition to the above, we want to know if you see encounter any issues with this feature! If you have it set to Link format as the default and notice anything amiss while pasting, let us know via the browser so that the team can dig into what might be happening.
Thanks!
- The Microsoft Edge Team
- Scott Arbeit
MissyQ I appreciate what this feature is trying to do, but having it run as the default for <Ctrl>-C just drove me insane trying to figure out what happened until I found this page. With 30 years of muscle memory for just plain copying-and-pasting, you're asking me (and a lot of other people) to remember that <Ctrl>-C works differently in Edge than in any other program in Windows (what gets copied is not what I just selected), and then you're also asking me to remember that <Ctrl>-V doesn't do what I'm expecting it to anymore in all of the other programs, and that I need to remember to use <Ctrl>-<Shift>-V.
On Mac and Windows, <Ctrl/Cmd>-Z|X|C|V|Y are well-known keystrokes that have meant the same thing for a really long time... I'd strongly suggest that you think long and hard before messing with that fundamental, baked-into-the-OS key combination. I've turned the new feature off on all of my computers for exactly this reason, but I'd use it if it were, for instance, <Ctrl>-<Shift>-C to get Link Format, and then I'd know that <Ctrl>-V would just do the thing that I intend, because I just copied it in the format I wanted.
Scott Arbeit Sadly, it never did what you describe of copying what you select. Try a URL with non-ASCII characters like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Białystok. What used to get put on the clipboard was the text https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia%C5%82ystok. Now you get this plus the following HTML as well as two new link formats.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia%C5%82ystok">Białystok - Wikipedia</a>
What bothers me more is that Win+V is deceptive. I see the following yet this isn't what is pasted. There is no combination of Win+V and Paste Special. Even Ctrl+Shift+V is Edge specific.
- JaredB81
Thank you, rshupak.
I'm not able to reproduce the behavior you describe on that URL (and I have tested other non-ASCII cases as well).
A few questions for you to better understand what you are experiencing:
- Which channel and build of Edge are you using? You can find both the build and channel in edge://version
- Where exactly (in which website, web app or Windows app) are you attempting to paste the URL?
- What is your default format setting in edge://settings/shareCopyPaste ?
- How are you attempting to perform the paste (ctrl+v, ctrl+shift+v or the right-click context menu)?
For example, when I use the "plain text" paste format here, I get: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia%C5%82ystok. as you described I should.
Thanks very much,
Jared
- JaredB81
Scott Arbeit thank you very much for the feedback, Scott.
Did you try to find a setting to change the default paste behavior prior to finding this article? If so, were you able to find it or did you have some difficulty finding it?
Thanks again,
Jared
- Scott Arbeit
JaredB81 I didn't search for a setting before reading this page. After the second time it happened, and I had to paste-and-copy-again from Notepad to get the bare URL, I remembered that I had just gotten the Edge Dev update and figured I'd check the release announcements. Not sure most people would understand what happened...
Scott Arbeit thank you for stating the issue so clearly. They clearly missed checking common sense before they decided to roll this out.
Thank you for sharing, this might seems like small feature but it would have great impact on productivity. I would like request to expand it for other links like email and call. For example, in a website it shows contact detail and there is a link and when you click on it, format is mailto:<email address> , so when copy and paste it , it shows like mailto:<email address> but I really only want the <email> address and not mailto: . It would be nice like it could be smart, like when I copy mailto:<email>?subject=<subject> into email like Microsoft Outlook, Outlook.com ,etc. it automatically format it like
To: <email>
Subject: <subject>
So we have two ways like paste it as it has been copy or smart paste where it place it into right location. This could be application to other formats like this one.
- JaredB81
Great suggestions, Reza_Ameri-Archived! Thank you. We'll consider this in the future. Right now we're laser focused on the quality of the URL experience, but these are great ideas and I'll add them to our list of ideas to consider for the future.
Thank you very much, I mentioned email example but it could be more general and support other formats like mailto too.
- JaredB81
Thanks, MissyQ!
Just a head's up to everyone that we're just beginning the rollout so you may not see it in your Canary channel just yet. It will take a few days to roll out completely as we want to make sure everything is working properly as it rolls out.
Once you see the new Link format when you paste, please let us know how it works (or doesn't) for you! We are listening 🙂
On behalf of the team working to simplify pasting of links, Thank You!Jared
JaredB81 Will there be an option to copy non-ASCII URLs as displayed in the address bar instead of URL encoded? For example, https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%81%D8%AA_%D8%A5%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%AC vs. https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/مايكروسوفت_إيدج. The former is unreadable while the latter is not, assuming you know the language.
- JaredB81
Thanks, rshupak. Good question! In our research, we actually looked at this (and other URL param parsing/culling options). We found that most people had some concerns about the URL content being manipulated. Though we haven't ruled it out as a possibility, it's not our initial focus.
Your feedback is exactly the kind of thing we're looking for, to help make the case to explore that line of improvement and simplification. If we see enough interest in this from this Insider forum, from the feedback tool within Edge, etc. we will definitely consider it.Thanks again for the feedback!
JaredB81 I just encountered a new complication. I copied a link to a bookmark within a Wikipedia page. The URL of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewYork%E2%80%93Presbyterian_Hospital#Weill_Cornell_Medical_Center when pasted as a link appears as NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital - Wikipedia which drops the visual indication that it is to a bookmark.
Rich
- JaredB81Thanks, Rich. Good catch on the bookmark indicator.
Also, I read your format questions above. I'll talk to the dev team. Thanks again for the feedback!
This looks like a great feature, as I'm reading I'm thinking how useful this could be if it was expanded to other areas of Windows, for example Office apps, are you planning to work with other Microsoft teams to introduce this functionality in other apps. Specifically I'm thinking that the this would really benefit me in the "OneNote for Windows 10" app.
Thanks,
-Aaron
- AaronMcHale This feature only works in Edge, although you could send feedback.
@JaredB81 I'll provide some blunt feedback about this... This feature is anti-user and breaks ~40 years of Copy/Paste functionality spanning back Xerox PARC.
Copy should not be "smart", per se. I've been fighting this new feature continually when attempting to copy a link (right click link -> Copy Link) to paste into plain text fields on another website which is using TextBoxFor controls. Instead of pasting the URI of the link, it pastes previously copied text from the clipboard, i.e. a value copied from TextEdit. Example sites of where this is occurring:
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4583559; copying links to the KB articles listed in this article.https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=102602; copying the download link ("click here to download manually").
I'm on macOS (Intel) Canary, current build as of today though this has been occurring for awhile. The behavior is unfortunately inconsistent. Sometimes it works and pastes the underlying copied link and sometimes it pastes plain text from a previously copied textual value (i.e. text in TextEdit).I have "Plain Text" set as the default copy/paste value in Edge Settings.
My request would be have a method to disable this new feature via the UI and perhaps disabled by default since it does break from established user experience.
Hi,
the links you provided need correction, there is an extra character at the end of them which makes them lead to nowhere.
best thing you can do is to submit a feedback using feedback button on Edge. not sure if there is a problem recording feature on Mac too but in the mini window of feedback, click on attachments, there should be a part that says "recreate my problem". press start recording, reproduce the problem, and then stop.
it should capture necessary data to help them solve the problem.
do you have an example for "TextBoxFor controls" that we can try and reproduce the issue?
- Thank you @MissyQ and team. This will be a huge productivity increase for me, as I regularly send out documents, presentations, e-mails, etc. with links attached. I always have to ask my self if I copied all of the text in the address bar, check/double-check to make sure the link works correctly, etc. Thank you!
MissyQ No, just no !
Pourquoi vous faites ça ?
Quand je partage un lien, je veux avoir l'image preview, le titre et la description pas juste du texte.
A quoi servent les twitter card, ... avec votre trucs ? C'est incompréhensible pour tout le monde.
Quand je partage un lien sur Slack, mes interlocuteurs ne savent pas où cliquer pour aller voir le lien que je partage. Avec une image, un titre et une description, c'était bien mieux.
J'espère vraiment que cette nouvelle façon de copier/coller des liens sera enlevé ou au moins qu'elle ne sera pas utilisé par défaut. Ctrl+V = Plain Text & Ctrl+Shift+V = votre f*** fonction.
Without seem better !- JaredB81
Nico_Popy Merci!
I will respond in English as my French is not the best (though I understood most of your post by reading it and the rest I was able to translate with Microsoft Translator on Bing).
As Missy points out in the original post, our research showed that many users prefer a human readable link than a long URL even with a preview. However, we also found that some users really do appreciate the preview that some sites generate, as you clearly do. You are not alone :).
In our testing, we have found that most sites that generate a preview image still do with the new link format. That's not 100% consistent however. Thank you for letting us know that you use Twitter and Slack and that you would appreciate previews for those sites as well, even with the new format.
We of course will follow up with Twitter and Slack regarding generating previews for the new Link format and we will follow up with other sites we find either in our testing or via feedback (so please keep the feedback coming)!
Finally, if you prefer the plain text format which will result in previews generated by Twitter and Slack, more often than you prefer the link format, you can always change your default back to Plain Text in edge://settings/shareCopyPaste
Merci boucoup!
Jared
Nico_Popy Looks like the latest version of Edge Dev (Version 87.0.637.0 (Official build) dev (64-bit)) fixes the normal "Ctrl + v" but broke "Ctrl + Shift + v"
- JaredB81
Thank you, dannydwarren. Would you mind describing how Ctrl + Shift + V is not working for you? What are your exact steps to reproduce the issue?
Thanks!
Jared
MissyQ I'm not loving this feature.
Too many times I want to paste the actual URL, but I cannot. One example is when pasting a URL from Edge into MS Teams. I think I'd prefer the option to "Copy as Formatted Link" and "Copy as Text". This would help when pasting into something that does not support "Paste as Text".
It would be nice if there were additional Share --> "Copy Link" options. One to copy the formatted URL and one to copy the content that ends up the email body when sharing via Outlook.
I realize there is a way to disable this feature, so I'm not complaining. Just giving feedback. Thanks!
rjpaulsen in MS Teams and some other apps I discovered that you can use the Control + Shift + V which pastes as the plaintext and so you get the raw URL, same if you copy some other formatted text from say MS Word, hopefully that helps you as well 🙂
- JaredB81Thank you for the feedback regarding options at copy time vs. at paste time. That's helpful to understand.
