Starting in macOS Ventura, Apple’s Mail app always embeds a preview of any link you paste into a message from the Clipboard. This may not be desirable, but Apple offers no option to disable the preview by default.
However, you can bypass the preview in sending messages in one of three ways. Let’s take a look
- Time to complete: 1 minute
- Tools required: Apple Mail app in macOS Ventura
Insert link
You can use a keyboard shortcut to enter a link that is inserted as linked regular text.
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Instead of pasting in a link directly, press Command-K to bring up an insert link dialog, paste the link into that field, then click OK.
Convert to Plain Link
Choose Convert to Plain Link to remove the preview after pasting the hyperlink into the message.
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Another option is to paste the link, and then when the preview appears, hover over the preview, click the downward-pointing arrow at its right, and choose Convert to Plain Link. For the remainder of that email message, whenever you paste a link in, Mail uses just the text of the link.
Plain Text Messages
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This last option is a little more extreme: Use plain text messages. You can set this as a default in Mail > Settings > Composing by choosing Plain Text from the “Message format” menu. However, plain text messages don’t automatically create a hyperlink for links pasted into outgoing email. But you can choose Format > Make Rich Text to enable linking and formatting in messages as you compose them.
This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Dave.
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Author: Glenn Fleishman, Senior Contributor
Glenn Fleishman’s most recent books include Take Control of iOS and iPadOS Privacy and Security, Take Control of Calendar and Reminders, and Take Control of Securing Your Mac. In his spare time, he writes about printing and type history. He’s a senior contributor to Macworld, where he writes Mac 911.