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How do I get unmodified text content from the clipboard? If you copy the following into the clipboard and use ClipboardNotebook[] \[IndentingNewLine] is interpreted as \n:

f[\[IndentingNewLine]]

and run 

FullForm@Catch[
  NotebookGet@ClipboardNotebook[] /. 
   Cell[r_, ___] :> Block[{}, Throw[r, tag] /; True];
  $Failed, tag]

"f[\n]"

Apologies if there is something in alternative to ClipboardNotebook, I haven't found it.

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  • $\begingroup$ So actually you need an analog of the MS Word command Paste Special ► Plain text, right? $\endgroup$
    – Alexey Popkov
    Feb 26 '16 at 22:24
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexeyPopkov Ideally yes although this question is slightly different. $\endgroup$
    – William
    Apr 5 '16 at 3:09
  • $\begingroup$ @Liam - what happens if you try to paste into a "Code" cell? If I create a code cell, and just hit Ctrl-v, then I get the same thing as if I manually type f[\[NewLine]] $\endgroup$
    – Jason B.
    Nov 1 '16 at 22:06
  • $\begingroup$ @JasonB code cell works but it isn't what I am after. I would like to programatically modify the clipboard. $\endgroup$
    – William
    Nov 1 '16 at 23:33
  • $\begingroup$ You say you need this for Linux but the question is tagged Windows. Can you correct this? $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Nov 2 '16 at 8:58
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The following works for Windows borrowed mostly from here.

Needs["NETLink`"];
InstallNET[];
LoadNETType["System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard"];
LoadNETType["System.Windows.Forms.TextDataFormat"];
System`Windows`Forms`Clipboard`GetText[System`Windows`Forms`\
TextDataFormat`UnicodeText]
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For completion here is how you do it in linux.

Import["!xsel --clipboard","Text"]
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  • $\begingroup$ Note that xsel is not installed by default on Ubuntu. $\endgroup$
    – Ruslan
    Nov 2 '16 at 18:34
  • $\begingroup$ @Ruslan do you have an alternative recommendation. $\endgroup$
    – William
    Nov 2 '16 at 19:47
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ No, it seems all X11 clipboard-related utilities are not installed by default. So you have to just warn the user that he may need to install xsel via (for Ubuntu/Debian) sudo apt-get install xsel for your answer to work. $\endgroup$
    – Ruslan
    Nov 2 '16 at 20:20
  • $\begingroup$ @Ruslan if you post answer I'll give you the bounty I can't give it to myself. $\endgroup$
    – William
    Nov 2 '16 at 20:27
  • $\begingroup$ It wouldn't add anything new: I'm just suggesting you to improve this answer by adding a note about xsel (which you use here!) being not by default installed — it can still be easily installed, but the user must actually do this. $\endgroup$
    – Ruslan
    Nov 2 '16 at 20:28
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And lastly OSX I haven't tested this on OSX yet but believe it should work.

Import["!pbpaste","Text"]
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