How to Use the Preview Flyout

The shelf shows a small slice of each item — a truncated text preview, a thumbnail image, a file icon. For most quick paste operations that is enough. For the cases where it is not — a long error log, a high-resolution image, a multi-paragraph snippet, or a batch of items that need to be copied together — Edge-Drop's preview flyout opens a larger view. This guide covers how to open the flyout, what it shows, how to multi-select, how to batch copy or paste, and how to close it without collapsing the shelf. For neighbouring workflows see how to open links from Edge-Drop in your browser and how to launch Edge-Drop at login.

What the preview flyout is

The preview flyout is a secondary panel that opens adjacent to the shelf when you hover or click on a specific item. It shows:

• The full text of a text item, with wrapping.
• The full image of an image item, at native resolution up to the flyout's size limit.
• The full URL and (where available) the page title and favicon of a link item.
• The file path, file size, and (for images) a thumbnail of a file item.

The flyout is non-modal: it does not steal focus from the app underneath, it does not collapse the shelf, and it can be dismissed without affecting the shelf state. It uses the same WS_EX_NOACTIVATE style as the shelf itself, so click-to-paste from the flyout works the same way as click-to-paste from the shelf.

For the focus-stealing context, see how to click-to-paste without stealing focus.

How to open the flyout

There are two ways:

• Hover — dwell on an item for a short period (typically 300-500 ms). The flyout opens automatically. Move the cursor away from the item to close.
• Click — click the item's expand indicator (typically a small ... or arrow icon on the item). The flyout opens and stays open until explicitly closed.

The hover behaviour is useful for quick inspection; the click behaviour is useful when you need to interact with the flyout (multi-select, copy, paste) without it closing when the cursor moves.

To close the flyout:

• If opened via hover: move the cursor away from the item.
• If opened via click: click the expand indicator again, or press Esc, or click anywhere outside the flyout.

Closing the flyout does not collapse the shelf. The shelf remains open and the cursor remains in the trigger zone.

Multi-select in the flyout

The flyout supports multi-select for batch operations. To multi-select:

1. Open the flyout for an item (hover or click).
2. Hold Ctrl and click additional items on the shelf. Each clicked item is added to the multi-select set.
3. Hold Shift and click an item to select a range.
4. The flyout updates to show the count of selected items.

Once multiple items are selected, the flyout offers batch operations:

• Batch copy — copies all selected items to the clipboard, concatenated in shelf order. Text items are joined with newlines; image and file items are not included in a text-only batch copy.
• Batch paste — pastes all selected items into the previously foreground window, in shelf order. The target app receives one paste per item, in sequence. This is useful for pasting a multi-line code block where each line was copied separately.
• Batch delete — removes all selected items from the shelf.

Multi-select is the right tool when you have several related items — a sequence of SQL queries, a set of URLs to open, a multi-line error log captured as separate copies — that you want to handle together.

Batch paste: how it actually works

Batch paste is a sequence of paste operations, not a single combined paste. The flyout:

1. Identifies the previously foreground window (the window that was active before the shelf opened).
2. For each selected item, in shelf order:

a. Places the item on the clipboard. b. Posts a paste to the target window. c. Waits a short interval (typically 50-100 ms) for the paste to land.

1. Optionally restores the original clipboard content after the last item.

The short wait between pastes is necessary because some apps process paste asynchronously; pasting too fast can drop items. The wait is conservative — long enough for most apps, short enough to feel instantaneous for batches of 5-10 items.

For batches larger than 10 items, batch paste may take a second or more. The flyout shows a progress indicator during the operation.

Failure modes for batch paste

• Target app does not accept rapid pastes — some apps (notably some Electron chat clients) throttle paste events. Items pasted after the throttle window are dropped. If you see this, paste in smaller batches.
• Target app changes focus mid-batch — if the user clicks elsewhere during the batch, subsequent pastes go to the new foreground window. Keep the cursor still during batch paste.
• Elevated target window — if the target is running as Administrator and Edge-Drop is not, paste is blocked by UIPI. See how to click-to-paste without stealing focus.
• Password fields — password fields reject synthetic paste. Batch paste into a password field will skip those entries.
• Large images — batch-pasting multiple large images into an app that does not handle paste-as-image well (e.g., pasting into Notepad) will produce nothing for those items. Use a target that accepts image paste — Word, Slack, an image editor.

When to use the flyout vs the shelf

The shelf is for fast, single-item access: hover, click, done. The flyout is for inspection and batch operations. A few patterns:

• Inspect before paste — for a code snippet that looks similar to several others on the shelf, open the flyout to verify it is the right one before clicking to paste.
• Multi-line text — the shelf truncates long items; the flyout shows the full text. Useful for verifying a long error message before pasting into a ticket.
• Image verification — the shelf shows a thumbnail; the flyout shows the full image. Useful for picking the right screenshot from a batch.
• Batch paste a sequence — multi-select several items and batch-paste them into a document in order. Faster than pasting one at a time.
• URL inspection — for a URL with tracking parameters, the flyout shows the full URL so you can decide whether to clean it before pasting. See how to copy a clean link without tracking parameters.

For most quick pastes, the shelf alone is enough. The flyout is for the cases where the shelf's preview is too small or where batch operations save time.

How the flyout interacts with filters

Edge-Drop's filters — All / Text / Links / Images / Files — apply to the shelf, not to the flyout. The flyout shows whatever item it was opened for, regardless of the current filter. Multi-select respects the current filter: you can only multi-select items that are currently visible on the shelf.

For example, if the filter is set to Images, multi-select picks only image items. To multi-select across filters, switch the filter to All first, then multi-select.

For the filter workflow, see how to filter text links images and files.

What Edge-Drop does not claim

• The flyout does not edit items. To change an item's text, copy it out, edit in a text editor, and re-copy.
• The flyout does not persist its state across sessions. Closing Edge-Drop or restarting the machine clears any open flyout and any multi-select state.
• The flyout does not support drag-out. Drag-out is from the shelf, not from the flyout. See how to drag an item out of Edge-Drop into any app.
• The flyout does not search. Search is on the shelf via the search box. See how to search clipboard history in Edge-Drop.
• The flyout does not show item metadata (source app, capture timestamp) by default. Some versions may surface this on hover or via a context menu; check the current behaviour in the app.

Summary

The preview flyout is the larger-view companion to the shelf. Open it via hover (quick inspect) or click (persistent). Multi-select with Ctrl and Shift to batch-copy, batch-paste, or batch-delete. Batch paste sends a sequence of paste events to the previously foreground window with short delays between them; it works well for batches of 5-10 items and may need smaller batches for apps that throttle paste. The flyout does not collapse the shelf and does not steal focus. For most quick pastes the shelf alone is enough; the flyout earns its keep on long text, large images, and batch operations.

Related reading

• How to Open Links From Edge-Drop in Your Browser
• What Edge-Drop Does With Password Manager Copies
• How to Install Edge-Drop on Windows 10 and 11
• What Local-First Software Means for Clipboard Apps

Sources

• Microsoft Learn — WS_EX_NOACTIVATE extended window style — documents the no-activate style that lets the flyout stay non-modal
• Microsoft Learn — Clipboard operations reference — official documentation for the clipboard operations the batch paste uses
• Microsoft Learn — Multiple-document interface and child windows — reference for how Windows handles non-modal secondary windows like the flyout
• Electron — BrowserWindow documentation — the Electron API Edge-Drop uses to create the flyout window with the correct styles
• Microsoft Support — Keyboard shortcuts in Windows — reference for the Ctrl, Shift, and Esc shortcuts the flyout uses for multi-select and close

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