The Mac clipboard holds one thing at a time, so to paste several items you either go back and forth between windows, or you use a clipboard tool that queues your copies. Toolnotch's Paste Stack does that: press ⌃⌘C, copy the things you need one after another, then each ⌘V pastes the next one, in the order you copied them. It's made for forms, spreadsheets and anything you fill field by field.
Below: what works without extra software, how the Paste Stack behaves, and the other ways Pasteback pastes several clips.
Without a clipboard tool
Copy and paste in pairs. The default: copy, switch, paste, switch back, copy the next. Fine for two fields, tedious for ten.
Copy the block, then split it. Copy all the lines at once and paste them into the first field, then cut each line into its field. Works when the source is one block of text; fragile in forms that refuse line breaks.
Spreadsheets. Copy a column in one spreadsheet and paste it into another: Numbers, Excel and Google Sheets paste the cells in order. That covers rows and columns, not web forms.
Spotlight's clipboard history (macOS 26 Tahoe). Once turned on (⌘Space, then ⌘4), it lists your recent copies so you can go back to an older one. You still pick each item by hand, every time.
Text expansion. For the same details pasted again and again (your address, company number, signature), a snippet you type as an abbreviation beats copying. It doesn't help with new content.
Clipboard managers fix this properly. Paste, for example, has a mode that pastes queued items one after another. The rest of this guide covers Pasteback, the clipboard history in Toolnotch, because that's the one I build and can describe exactly.
The Paste Stack, step by step
- Press ⌃⌘C. An island opens under the notch: « Stack · copy to add », with the ⌃⌘C key to remind you how to stop.
- Copy what you need, in the order you'll paste it. Use ⌘C as usual, in any app. The island counts: « Stack · 1 ready », « Stack · 2 ready », « Stack · 3 ready », with « next: » and a line of what comes first.
- Go to where it goes and press ⌘V. The first item is pasted. The island says « Stack · 1/3 pasted » and shows what the next ⌘V will paste, with a small progress ring.
- Move to the next field and press ⌘V again.
Tabin a form, a click, a new cell: each paste gives the next item. - After the last one, the island says « Stack done » for a second and folds.
It's first in, first out: the first thing you copied is the first thing pasted. While the stack runs, Pasteback doesn't show its usual « Copied » island for each copy; the stack's island is the one that counts.
Everything you copy still goes into your normal history too, so nothing is lost if you stop halfway.
Stopping a stack
- Press ⌃⌘C again, or click the island. It says « Stack stopped ».
- It stops by itself after a minute without a paste (« no paste for a minute »), when the Mac goes to sleep, or when you paste something else from the history (« replaced by another paste »).
- If the next item is a password or API key and it waits 30 seconds without being pasted, the stack stops (« secret left unpasted »), so a secret doesn't linger on the clipboard.
When it ends, your clipboard gets back whatever it held before the stack started, unless you've copied something newer since.
Where it works
The stack watches when an app actually reads the clipboard, so it works in browsers, native apps, terminals and spreadsheets, and in password fields too, where macOS hides keystrokes from other apps. Items keep their formatting, and pictures and files can be queued like text. A secret is pasted as plain text and masked on the island (first characters, then dots).
Picking several clips from the history
If the items are already in your history, you don't need to copy them again. Press ⇧⌘C, then select several clips with ⇧↑ or ⇧↓. Three ways to paste them:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ↩ | « Paste N in sequence »: pastes the first clip now; each ⌘V after that pastes the next, like a stack |
| ⌥↩ | Pastes all of them at once, one per line |
| ⌃↩ | Fills a form: first clip, Tab, second clip, Tab… It never presses Return, so nothing is submitted for you |
Filling a form types keys for you, so it needs Accessibility access and works with text clips only: a picture in the selection would shift every later value into the wrong field, so Pasteback refuses rather than guess. Afterwards your clipboard gets back what it held before.
More on the history itself in clipboard history on Mac.
Good uses
- Directory and marketplace sign-up forms: email, company, website, description.
- Moving contact details from an email into a CRM, field by field.
- Copying values from a PDF or a web page into a spreadsheet, cell by cell.
- Setting up an account: username, password from your password manager, recovery email.
- Assembling a message from pieces of several documents.
Limits
- The stack lives in memory: it's never saved, and quitting Toolnotch ends it.
- One stack at a time.
- ⌃⌘C is a fixed shortcut. If another app uses it, start the stack from ⌘K › Start paste stack in the history.
- Toolnotch needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later and has no trial build. The home page has a browser demo of the history, and refunds are open for 14 days.
FAQ
Can I paste several items at once instead of one by one?
Yes. Open the history with ⇧⌘C, select the clips with ⇧↑ or ⇧↓, and press ⌥↩: they're pasted together, one per line.
What happens if I copy something else during a stack?
While the stack is collecting, every copy joins the queue. That's the point: it's how you add items.
Does the order ever change?
No. Items are pasted in the order you copied them, or in the order they appear in the history when you pick them there.
Does it work on a Mac without a notch?
Yes. On a display without a notch, the island hangs from the middle of the menu bar.