QuickLooks Most Powerful Feature Is Disabled By Default!

QuickLook is one of Apple’s best additions to OS X.  You can view all sorts of files, even if you do not have the correct program installed on your Mac.  Just hit the space bar while a file is highlighted.  I often want to look at a text file, copy something, and paste it into another document.  After running two Terminal commands, this is possible through QuickLook without ever having to open the document.  I’m not certain why Apple doesn’t enable this by default.

Open Terminal and enter these two commands:

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE
killall Finder

Now you will be able to highlight text and copy it directly from the QuickLook window.  This is especially useful if someone sends you a .docx and don’t have Microsoft Office installed.