PopClip extensions and modifier keys

I mentioned in a recent post that I was getting unexpected behavior when using modifier keys with PopClip. Quite a few of my PopClip extensions provide alternate actions when triggered while holding down Control, Shift, Command, or Option. But as of recent versions of PopClip, holding down Option is a global shortcut that displays the result in the PopClip bar, and holding Shift forces the result to copy to the clipboard instead of pasting, overriding extension preferences.

I spoke with Nick from Pilot Moon about this and he let me know that you can override this new behavior with a defaults write command in Terminal. If you want my extensions to function and provide all of their alternate options, open Terminal and paste this into it:

defaults write com.pilotmoon.popclip DisableAlternateActions -bool YES

Once you do that, extensions like BulletList, which creates numbered lists when you hold down Option, will once again provide the expected behaviors when modifiers are held.

Nick mentioned he’s considering some alternative options for providing multi-action extensions, which is really exciting to me. Having to remember even one modifier key per extension is a pain, and extensions like CriticMarkup, which has 4 different modes based on modifier keys, are basically impossible to remember well enough to get the right result on the first try every time. I look forward to what Nick does on this front — his ideas sounded very appealing.