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monerap's avatar
monerap
Explorer | Level 4
6 years ago

How to turn off link previews on Paper?

Hello everyone,

I created a doc called "links". When I copy my links to doc, I want to see only URLs, not thumbnails. Is this possible?

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    6 years ago

    Not at the moment Bradloff - I'll be passing this on to our team though for their consideration. Thanks so much for your valuable feedback and helping us improve Paper!

    In the meantime, you can use a code block [by entering three backticks (```) to start, and then paste your URL into the block]  to paste your links into a Paper doc as text only. 

    I know it's not optimal yet I sure hope it helps to some extent. 

    Let me know if you have any more questions or feedback and happy new Year too!

  • Bradloff's avatar
    Bradloff
    New member | Level 2

    Is there a way to disable this feature permanently, or to click a link/preview and turn it into the other? These thumbnails appear randomly and it's a tad frustrating. 

    • Walter's avatar
      Walter
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Not at the moment Bradloff - I'll be passing this on to our team though for their consideration. Thanks so much for your valuable feedback and helping us improve Paper!

      In the meantime, you can use a code block [by entering three backticks (```) to start, and then paste your URL into the block]  to paste your links into a Paper doc as text only. 

      I know it's not optimal yet I sure hope it helps to some extent. 

      Let me know if you have any more questions or feedback and happy new Year too!

      • Ben O.'s avatar
        Ben O.
        Helpful | Level 6
        Please ask the team to make this optional. Being forced to see the previews without using the hack is enough to make me use something else.
  • Weem's avatar
    Weem
    Helpful | Level 5

    This is a follow up to the follow "Solved" posted - https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/How-to-turn-off-link-previews-on-Paper/td-p/320543/page/3

     

    Every time I paste a URL into Paper, I can't actually see the URL. Instead, a giant thumbnail of the website appears. I can't for the life of me figure out how to see only the link without using a code block.

     

    Please someone tell me that older post just hasn't been updated and there is a work around for this issue.

     

    What's very odd to me is that Dropbox would have to go out of their way to implement this functionality. Why would they think people want a giant thumbnail every time they paste URL, as opposed to just the URL itself?

     

    It's extremely disheartening that they were made aware of this issue over SIX months ago and there still is no fix. It seems like yet another big tech case of, 'we know what our customers want better than they know what they want' - I very much hope that's not the case.

     

    Thank you!

    • Ben O.'s avatar
      Ben O.
      Helpful | Level 6
      Just dump Dropbox. I did, and am happy using something else. They’re not going to make changes that normal consumers want. They’re trying to focus on business and “creatives.”
      • Weem's avatar
        Weem
        Helpful | Level 5

        The fact that the admins simply moved my post into this one instead of anyone actually answering the question speaks volumes to their commitment to customer service.

         

        What a trash way to handle a clear issue that we're all experiencing.

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey there monerap - thanks for using Paper!

    You can achieve this by inputting a space prior to pasting your links in this case.

    Let me know if you need anything else!

    • nalb's avatar
      nalb
      New member | Level 2

      ok, not great but better than accepted solution checked below. Should turn off this spammy thing by default. Graphics are a huge distraction when you just want a url.

      • jukka's avatar
        jukka
        Explorer | Level 4

        Yes. Please dropbox fix this. Your product is generally going to the wrong way,

        like the new ui on the desktop. Nothing useful, just distractions and can't find what you want. Classic shell already did everything needed.

  • Nikkura's avatar
    Nikkura
    Helpful | Level 5

    Hi everybody,

    I've pasted a list (column, one above another) of urls into a Paper file (my way of storing large about of bookmarks - with my comments, in order to quickly look through them) - but some of the links automatically have converted into strange "Preview" images - half of which dont even have a picture on it, but they hide the initial link and make the whole file like 5 times longer, making it very hard to scroll through. I've managed to remove the images but "cutting" the whole thing, then pasting in - and as it converts to image pressing "Cmd+Z" - one by one. But it takes forever. Is there a way to prevent those preview-images from appearing from links?

    So it should look like this

    • WebsiteName1
    • website.url
    • WebsiteName2
    • website.url2

    But now it looks like this:

    • WebsiteName1
    • HUGE IMAGE WITH BAD PREVIEW
    • WebsiteName2
    • HUGE IMAGE WITH BAD PREVIEW

    Thank you!

    • Walter's avatar
      Walter
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hey there Nikkura - I just moved your post under this thread as they seem to be related in order to ping you with some suggestions. 

      Take a look above for some additional information and please let me know if you have any more questions. 

      • Nikkura's avatar
        Nikkura
        Helpful | Level 5

        Thank you @Walter, I should have searched better

  • jukka's avatar
    jukka
    Explorer | Level 4

    I'm trying to give Db paper a second change and moving my notes from apples notes app to paper but this really sucks a**

    It messes up everything

    I can just guess that it does so with every other document also

    If this is still not have global disable option, it's a real fail.

    have to look another solution.

  • izgzhen's avatar
    izgzhen
    New member | Level 2

    I asked their support to make it optional as well -- but it seems a very low priority to them. I think they do understand that UX is bad. However, you will notice that they turned all links you pasted in as a redirection -- which means that Dropbox might track your clicks through that functionality. If you can switch it off by default, they can no longer track you.