# Idea: Paste links in the editor **URL:** \ **Category:** UX\ **Tags:** pr-welcome\ **Created:** [July 11, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/idea-paste-links-in-the-editor/47125 "2016-07-11T20:57:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![JimPas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jimpas/32/148179_2.png) [@JimPas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JimPas)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 7:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/idea-paste-links-in-the-editor/47125/7 "2021-01-21T07:42:40Z")
In every editor I know of, if you jselect some text and paste from a clipboard, that text is `overwritten` by what’s in the clipboard. What you are suggesting would do away with the existing function of `replace text` with what’s in the clipboard. - Not selecting any text and pasting from clipboard is a simple `PASTE` action. - Selecting text and pasting from a clipboard is a `REPLACE TEXT` action with what is in the clipboard. `Inserting hyperlink` - using the already supplied button - is the easiest way to insert a link in whatever text you select by selecting the text first. Inserting a hyperlink _without_ text is clicking on the button, paste the link, click okay or hit `enter` or by just typing or pasting a link to a blank space. I don’t see why you would want to take the universal `Select & Replace Text` function and convert that into what the existing button already does without losing that function common to all text editors. What would happen if you wanted to replace text with other text if you lose the `Select & Replace` function? In Wordpress, what determines whether the text is `replaced` with what’s in the clipboard or `inserts a hyperlink` without overwriting the existing text using a simple select & paste as you suggest? Surely a simple highlighting of text and clicking paste cannot perform both functions or do one function without losing the other. Or am I missing something? As is already in Discourse, typing in or pasting a URL does turn it into a clickable link without having to use the `Insert Link` feature. Then you have the Onebox feature. And you have the `Insert Link` button already. `Paste` inserts text. `Select and paste` replaces the text. `Select and delete/back space` deletes the text. These are common functions of all text editors. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/idea-paste-links-in-the-editor/47125)._