TextMagician

A lightweight macOS menu bar utility that transforms the clipboard and pastes the result into the active app. Triggered by a global hotkey (default ⌃⌥⌘V), it shows a floating popup with keyboard‑ and mouse‑navigable actions; selecting one rewrites the clipboard, simulates ⌘V, and then restores the original clipboard contents.

Built with SwiftUI for macOS 14+ (Sonoma, Sequoia, Tahoe).

Features

• Global hotkey (default ⌃⌥⌘V), configurable in Settings.
• Floating popup with three navigation modes:
  • ↑ / ↓ to move the highlight, Return to confirm.
  • 1–9 then a–z to pick an item directly by its badge.
  • Mouse hover + click.
• Esc or click outside the popup cancels.
• Reads plain text or RTF/RTFD/HTML from the clipboard, applies the transformation, pastes the plain text via simulated ⌘V, then restores the previous clipboard so other apps don't see the change.
• Built-in actions: Remove formatting, UPPERCASE, lowercase, camelCase, snake_case, Clean URL (strips tracking parameters like utm_*, fbclid, gclid, Facebook __cft__*/__tn__*, Amazon pf_rd_*/pd_rd_*, etc., with host-specific rules for YouTube, Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Spotify, Reddit, and Amazon). Facebook group "multi-permalinks" feed links are rebuilt into the canonical /groups/<id>/posts/<id>/ direct link.
• Optional Dock icon (default ON) rendered programmatically, with a right‑click menu mirroring the menu bar item.
• 8 selectable popup themes.
• Settings window with a live shortcut recorder.

Project layout

TextCleaner.xcodeproj           Xcode project
TextCleaner/
  TextCleanerApp.swift          App entry
  AppDelegate.swift             Lifecycle, status item, hotkey wiring,
                                Dock menu, Accessibility prompt
  AppIcon.swift                 Programmatic Dock icon
  AppSettings.swift             Observable user prefs (Dock toggle, theme)
  HotKeyManager.swift           Carbon RegisterEventHotKey wrapper
  KeyboardShortcut.swift        Shortcut model + display string
  HotKeySettings.swift          UserDefaults persistence
  TextAction.swift              Actions + transformations
  URLCleaner.swift              Tracking-parameter stripping for Clean URL
  PopupTheme.swift              Theme palette
  PopupView.swift               SwiftUI popup UI
  PopupWindowController.swift   NSPanel host, key routing
  PasteSimulator.swift          Clipboard snapshot/restore + Cmd-V
  SettingsView.swift            Settings UI
  SettingsWindowController.swift  Hosts SettingsView in a custom NSWindow
  ShortcutRecorder.swift        NSView-based shortcut recorder
  Info.plist
  TextCleaner.entitlements

Building

open TextCleaner.xcodeproj

Then build and run with ⌘R.

The first time you build, set a signing team to keep the binary's code signature stable across rebuilds:

1. Select the TextCleaner project in the Project Navigator.
2. In the project editor pane, select the TextCleaner target.
3. Open the Signing & Capabilities tab.
4. Tick Automatically manage signing and pick your team in the Team dropdown (a free Personal Team works).

Without a stable team, every rebuild produces a slightly different signature and macOS revokes the Accessibility permission you granted to the previous build.

First launch / permissions

The first time you trigger an action, macOS prompts to grant Accessibility permission, which is needed to post the simulated ⌘V keystroke to other apps.

System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → enable TextMagician.

If the hotkey doesn't fire, check System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts for a conflict with the default ⌃⌥⌘V, or change the shortcut in the app's Settings window.

Notes on design

• Global hotkey uses Carbon's RegisterEventHotKey, still the recommended approach on modern macOS for non‑sandboxed utilities. It works without Accessibility permission.
• The popup is an NSPanel with .nonactivatingPanel, so opening it doesn't deactivate the front app. The previously frontmost app is also remembered explicitly and re‑activated right before posting ⌘V, which makes paste reliable even when the Dock icon is visible.
• After posting ⌘V, the simulator restores every original pasteboard item (plain text, RTF, HTML, images, etc.) so the user's clipboard appears untouched.
• App sandbox is disabled in the entitlements — required to post events to other apps via the HID event tap.