Copy and paste across Google Slides

I wanted to copy slides from one Google Slide document to another. Half-expecting it to not work, I just copied slides in one document, switched to a different tab, hit paste… and it worked! Seamless and perfect.

It looks like when you copy slides, your clipboard actually saves a special payload that contains information about the slides you are copying, rather than the raw content. Then when you paste that into a Slides document, it retrieves the slide data from its servers and imports them to the second document. I imagine you have to be logged into the same Google account in both tabs for it to work properly.

You can actually look at the raw clipboard data by using a custom HTML page like below:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>Clipboard Viewer</title></head>
<body>
  <h1>Paste clipboard contents here (Ctrl+V)</h1>
  <pre id="output"></pre>
  <script>
    document.body.addEventListener('paste', async (event) => {
      const output = document.getElementById('output');
      output.textContent = '';

      const clipboardItems = event.clipboardData.items;
      for (let i = 0; i < clipboardItems.length; i++) {
        const item = clipboardItems[i];
        const type = item.type;

        output.textContent += `MIME Type: ${type}\n`;

        if (item.kind === 'string') {
          item.getAsString((str) => {
            output.textContent += `Content:\n${str}\n\n`;
          });
        } else if (item.kind === 'file') {
          const file = item.getAsFile();
          const text = await file.text();
          output.textContent += `File Content:\n${text}\n\n`;
        }
      }
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>

After copying slide data and pasting it to this page, I saw:

MIME Type: text/html
MIME Type: text/plain
Content:
<head><meta charset="UTF-8"></head><b id="docs-internal-guid-2b163f80-7fff-e9cd-4022-54d9d4edcc57" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal;"><span> </span></b>

Content:

That docs-internal-guid-* looks like the important bit. Copying multiple slides also results in a single guid, so I guess this is just a catch-all hash that saves all information about whatever it is that you had copied. Pretty cool.

Jul 15, 2025

Finally got to start reading Project Hail Mary. So far it seems to be The Martian 2.0 with a dash of Echopraxia, which is SO my jam.

Jul 10, 2025

To experience, rather than record

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/p/i-deleted-my-second-brain

I have never made any meaningful headway in deliberate note-taking, or knowledge management, or second-brain creation. Not for a lack of trying! There just seems to be something in my mind that resists this kind of rigor.

So a lot of points made in Joan’s piece here really resonated with me.

PKM systems promise coherence, but they often deliver a kind of abstracted confusion. The more I wrote into my vault, the less I felt. A quote would spark an insight, I’d clip it, tag it, link it - and move on. But the insight was never lived. It was stored. Like food vacuum-sealed and never eaten, while any nutritional value slips away.

When I first started using PKM tools, I believed I was solving a problem of forgetting. Later, I believed I was solving a problem of integration. Eventually, I realized I had created a new problem: deferral. The more my system grew, the more I deferred the work of thought to some future self who would sort, tag, distill, and extract the gold.

If some small scrap of information doesn’t stick in my mind, maybe it’s OK to forget it. Maybe recording everything is not the best way to engage with it.

I’m terrible at remembering to take photos. I just get so caught up in the moments that I don’t think to record them. But honestly, I prefer just being able to experience my life for myself, rather than always keeping a phone between me and the rest of the world.

My son’s kindergarten class put on a performance for parents in the spring. The parents were cautioned beforehand that in past years, adults were so busy photographing that nobody remembered to clap for the kids. I imagined being in the place of the kids, looking to see your parents’ faces and just seeing a sea of phones instead.

The kindergarten also hires a professional videographer and you can buy a DVD later. The prices are absurd, but it’s worth it if I can keep my phone in my pocket and make sure my son can always see my face. Every time our eyes meet, he beams.

Jun 30, 2025

My raincoat keeps the rain out, but it is so hot that I sweat an almost comparable amount 🥲

Jun 24, 2025

This beautiful swallowtail butterfly came out of its cocoon today!

A black and white butterfly rests on a bright green leaf held by a persons hand. Its wings are outstretched.

A hand holds a green leaf with a butterfly perched on it from the side, displaying black and white patterned wings with orange accents.

Jun 8, 2025

Releasing our little frog buddies today as they probably need better food than we can provide for them. They grew from tadpoles! Glhf my friends! 🐸

Two small frogs inside a clear plastic container on a gray surface. The frogs are dark-colored, and one is positioned near the center while the other is closer to the edge.

A small, dark frog sits in a glass case, facing the camera.

A small frog is seen on a clear plastic surface, its body partially inside the frame. The surface has some smudges and dirt. The frogs textured skin and distinct limbs are visible in the foreground.

A small frog camouflaged among dried grass and leaves in a garden area. The ground is covered with brittle brown leaves, green blades of grass, and small clusters of yellow flowers.

Jun 7, 2025

← Newer