Copy and paste on a Chromebook uses the same Ctrl shortcuts as Windows. A Chromebook also keeps the last five things you copied in clipboard history, and one shortcut opens a small menu where you can paste any of them.
The steps below match the video. We copied a sentence, a photo, and a title from a web page in Chrome and pasted them into a Google Doc. The same shortcuts work in Gmail, the Files app, and most other apps. These steps match ChromeOS 154.
What you need
You need a Chromebook on a current version of ChromeOS. Clipboard history is built in, so there is nothing to install or turn on.
Clipboard history opens with the Launcher key. On current Chromebooks, the Launcher key has a circle on it and sits where Caps Lock is on other laptops. Older Chromebooks have a Search key with a magnifying glass in the same spot, and it does the same job.
Copy, cut, and paste text
Select the text first. Drag across it with the touchpad, or double-click a word. Then use these shortcuts:
- ctrl c copies the selection.
- ctrl x cuts it. Cut removes the text from where it was, so use it to move text instead of copying it.
- ctrl v pastes at the cursor.
In the video, we selected the first sentence of one of our guides and pressed ctrl c . Then we switched to the Google Doc in the next tab and pressed ctrl v . The sentence appeared at the cursor. If you prefer the touchpad, right-click a selection and choose Copy, then right-click where you want the text and choose Paste. Our right-click guide shows the two-finger tap and the other ways to open that menu.
Copy a photo from a web page
Images go on the clipboard too. Right-click a photo on a web page and pick Copy image from the menu. Chrome shows a short “Image copied” message at the top of the screen. Press ctrl v in a Google Doc or an email, and the picture pastes in.
Screenshots also go on the clipboard. When you take one, ChromeOS saves the file and copies the image, so you can paste it right away. Our screenshots guide covers the capture tool.
Open clipboard history
Press launcher v to open clipboard history. A small menu opens at the cursor, with the newest item on top. That top item is labeled Ctrl+V, because it is the one a normal paste uses. Text items show the first two lines of the text. Images show as a small thumbnail, and files you copy in the Files app show with their name.
In the video, we copied three things in this order: the sentence, the photo, and the page title. The menu showed the title on top, then the photo, then the sentence. To paste an older item:
- Press launcher v . The top item is highlighted.
- Press until the item you want is highlighted. tab also moves down the list.
- Press enter to paste it. You can also click the item.
Pasting an older item does not move it to the top. The order stays the same, and ctrl v still pastes the newest item. To close the menu without pasting, press esc .
Clipboard history holds up to five items. When you copy a sixth, the oldest one drops off the list. If the list is empty, the menu shows a short message that tells you to copy something first.
Paste with or without formatting
Text you copy from a web page keeps the website’s style. When we pasted the page title with ctrl v , it came into the Doc large and bold, with the website’s background color behind it.
Press ctrl shift v to paste as plain text. The text takes the style of the place you paste it, so in our Doc the title came in as normal body text. This works in Google Docs, Gmail, and most text boxes on the web.
You can also paste plain text from clipboard history. Open the menu with launcher v , arrow down to a text item, and press shift enter instead of enter . The item pastes as plain text. This works on ChromeOS 154, but it is missing from Google’s list of Chromebook keyboard shortcuts, so it may change in a later update.
Remove an item from clipboard history
Open clipboard history with launcher v and move the pointer over an item. An X appears in its corner. Click the X to remove that item. The other items stay in the list.
From the keyboard, highlight an item with the arrow keys and press backspace . Each press removes the highlighted item and moves to the next one. To clear the whole list, keep pressing backspace ; the menu closes after the last item. Removing the top item also takes it off the clipboard, so ctrl v pastes the next item instead. This is useful after you copy a password or an account number.
Make sure the menu is open before you press backspace . If the menu is closed, the key deletes text in the document instead.
Troubleshooting
The next line keeps the website’s style. After you paste formatted text into Google Docs, the text you type next can keep the same style, for example the gray background. In Docs, press ctrl \ to clear the formatting at the cursor. Or paste with ctrl shift v from the start.
Ctrl + Shift + V pastes code instead of a picture. If the newest clipboard item is an image you copied from Chrome, a plain-text paste can insert the image’s web code (a line that starts with <img src=) instead of the picture. Press ctrl z to undo it. Use ctrl v for images, and keep the plain-text paste for text.
Launcher + V does nothing. With an empty list, clipboard history shows a short message instead of items. If nothing opens at all, check the key. On older Chromebooks the shortcut uses the Search key with the magnifying glass. If you use an external keyboard made for Windows or Mac, the Windows key or the Command key works as the Launcher key.
An older item is gone. The list keeps five items. Anything older has dropped off, so copy it again.
More Chromebook shortcuts
For the rest of the keyboard, our list of Chromebook keyboard shortcuts covers windows, tabs, and screenshots. The Key Shortcuts app on your Chromebook also lists the clipboard shortcuts; search it for “clipboard”.
