Introduction to Pasteboards Programming Topics

You typically use pasteboards in copy and paste operations, although pasteboards also provide the basis of system services (see System Services). NSPasteboard objects transfer data to and from the pasteboard server. The server is shared by all running applications. It contains data that the user has cut or copied, as well as other data that one application wants to transfer to another. NSPasteboard objects are an application’s sole interface to the server and to all pasteboard operations.

You should read this document to learn how to implement copy and paste in your application, and to learn about the different types of pasteboard

Organization of This Document

This document contains the following articles:

• “Pasteboard Fundamentals” explains how pasteboards work.

• “Implementing Copy and Paste” explains the basics of implementing copy and paste in your application.

• “Named Pasteboards” discusses the ability to name pasteboards to reflect their function and the data they contain.

• “Data Types” discusses the variety of data that can be placed on pasteboards.

• “Reading and Writing Font Data” describes how to work with fonts.

• “Reading and Writing RTFD Data” describes how to work with RTFD data.

• “Filter Services” discusses the ability of pasteboards to convert data from one type to another using filter services.

• “Providing a Filter Service” describes how to create a filter service.