How to Edit Documents in Quick Look on macOS 13

macOS 13 (Ventura) allows you to perform basic edits directly inside Quick Look previews, but only for specific file types such as PDFs, images, and multimedia. While you cannot directly modify the text within standard office documents like Microsoft Word, Pages, or plain text files, Apple’s integrated Markup tools let you annotate, sign, crop, and draw on supported formats without ever launching a dedicated application.

Supported File Types for Quick Look Editing

You can make direct modifications in macOS 13 Quick Look on the following file types:

  • PDF Documents: Add text boxes, insert signatures, highlight text, draw shapes, and rotate or reorder pages.
  • Images (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF): Crop, rotate, sketch, add text, and apply basic annotations.
  • Audio and Video (QuickTime, MP4, MP3): Use the built-in trimming tool to shorten clips directly within the preview.

Quick Look does not support inline editing for editable document types such as .docx, .xlsx, .pages, or .txt. These formats remain read-only preview files until opened in their native editing programs.

How to Edit Files Using Quick Look in macOS 13

To edit supported documents directly from Finder:

  1. Select the File: Click the PDF, image, or media file in Finder.
  2. Open Quick Look: Press the Spacebar on your keyboard to open the preview window.
  3. Activate Markup: Click the Markup icon (a pencil tip inside a circle) in the top-right corner of the Quick Look window.
  4. Apply Edits: Use the toolbar at the top to draw, add text, drop a signature, or crop the document. For video or audio, click the Trim icon to drag and cut the endpoints.
  5. Save Changes: Click Done in the top-right corner. macOS immediately saves your edits directly to the original file.

Working With Unsupported Documents

If you press the Spacebar on a document type that does not support Quick Look editing, such as a Word document or spreadsheet, click the Open with [Application] button located at the top-right corner of the preview window. This immediately launches the file in its default editor where full text editing is supported.