By default, users can only view the content of the data in Quick Look, but a recent suggestion by Macworld shows how to enable the hidden feature, allowing you to copy text from the open data. Just a simple command is enough.
To select text in Quick Look, users only need to enable hidden Finder settings. Select and copy the code below, open Terminal (/ Applications / Utilities), paste the code into the command and press Return:
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE;killall Finder
After a second or two, Finder will restart. After booting, you can select the text in Quick Look and copy it to Clipboard for later use.
If you do not want to select text in Quick Look anymore, use the following command to disable this feature:
defaults delete com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection;killall Finder
If you receive an email message with a Mail attachment (OS X can read the attachment), you can click the Quick Look button in the top right corner of the message to view it.
Click the Quick Look button in Mail to see the attachment.
If there are multiple attachments, the arrow will appear in the top left corner of the Quick Look window; Click on one of them to see the next or previous attachment. You will also see the Open With Application Name button, allowing users to open the currently viewed file with an application. (With OS X Lion, you'll see this option in most cases when using Quick Look.)
When you have finished viewing the attachment, press the spacebar or click the close button to exit the Quick Look window.
If you use Sportlight to search for files on your Mac, you can access Quick Look's options when searching for results. Move the mouse over a search result to see the contents of the file. For example, scroll through a web page to see how it is, move the mouse over the video or music file, then move the cursor over the display and click the arrow to run it, move the cursor over word data. to see its content.
Scroll through the Sportlight results to see Quick Look display of a web page in a web browser.
Although it is not possible to use Quick Look in iTunes - choose a song and press the spacebar to run it - there is a way to access Quick Look-like features right inside the software. Using Have a Quick Look Apple Doug Adams script, you can view PDF and music files without leaving what is running. Besides, users can watch videos. Just select a news item in iTunes and access the script from the Script menu.
Wouldn't it be great to be sure that you have the right files before doing something with a script? Although you may not have thought about this before, it would be great to enable Quick Look from within Terminal, the OS X command line interface. Users can do this using qlmanage command.
You put a few files in Trash, but now you're wondering if you will miss something important. OS X does not allow opening files in Trash, so will you have to copy everything to a folder to check them out? Not required to do so. Just select the file and press the spacebar to view it with Quick Look.