---
title: "Opening the Junk Yard from the screen edge"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/opening-the-junk-yard
category: "Junk Yard"
tags: ["junk yard", "curtain", "clipboard"]
summary: "Push your pointer against the right edge of the screen (or the top, if you choose) and a slim curtain of your Junk Yard scraps slides out. Click a scrap to copy it; move the pointer away and the curtain rolls back."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:36:11.000Z
---

# Opening the Junk Yard from the screen edge

Push your pointer against the right edge of the screen (or the top, if you choose) and a slim curtain of your Junk Yard scraps slides out. Click a scrap to copy it; move the pointer away and the curtain rolls back.

Push your pointer against the edge of the screen and a slim, see-through **curtain** of your Junk Yard scraps slides into view. Click a scrap to copy it, then paste it wherever you're working. Move your pointer away and the curtain rolls back on its own. It docks to the **right** edge of the screen unless you choose the top.

## Opening and closing it

```mermaid
%% caption: How the edge curtain opens and closes
flowchart TD
  A[Pointer pressed against the docked edge] --> B{Still there after the open delay?}
  B -->|No| C[Nothing happens]
  B -->|Yes| D[The curtain slides in]
  D --> E{What do you do?}
  E -->|Click a scrap| F[It is copied and the curtain closes]
  E -->|Move the pointer away| G{Back within the close delay?}
  G -->|Yes| D
  G -->|No| H[The curtain rolls away]
  E -->|Click the eye on a tile| I[A large preview opens and the curtain stays open]
```

*Flowchart — How the edge curtain opens and closes. Outline:*

- Pointer pressed against the docked edge
  - leads to Still there after the open delay?
- Still there after the open delay?
  - No: leads to Nothing happens
  - Yes: leads to The curtain slides in
- The curtain slides in
  - leads to What do you do?
- What do you do?
  - Click a scrap: leads to It is copied and the curtain closes
  - Move the pointer away: leads to Back within the close delay?
  - Click the eye on a tile: leads to A large preview opens and the curtain stays open
- Back within the close delay?
  - Yes: leads to The curtain slides in
  - No: leads to The curtain rolls away

- **To open it,** move the pointer right up against the edge the curtain is docked to and rest it there for a moment. The areas near the corners of the screen don't count, so reaching for a corner won't set it off.
- **To close it,** move the pointer away. Clicking a scrap also closes it once the scrap has been copied.
- There's no keyboard shortcut for the curtain itself, and pressing Esc doesn't close it. Esc does close the large preview.

By default the curtain waits a tenth of a second before sliding in and a tenth of a second before rolling away. Moving back in quickly keeps it open.

## What you can do in the curtain

- **Click** a tile to copy that scrap, then paste with ⌘V.
- **Two-finger tap** (secondary click) a tile to delete it. Pinned scraps are protected and never deleted this way. You can turn this off with **Two-finger tap deletes a scrap**.
- Hover a tile for its **trash** button, or click its **eye** to open the large preview. The curtain stays open and follows along as you page through scraps in the preview.
- **Scroll** by moving the pointer towards either end of the row — the closer to the end, the faster — or scroll with two fingers.
- The **filter icons** cycle as you click them: once to show only that kind of scrap (blue), again to hide that kind (red, struck through), and a third time to clear it.
- The **＋** button starts a new note, and the blue button opens the full board.

## Top or right

In Settings → **Junk Yard** → **Edge curtain**, **Dock to** chooses **Top** or **Right**. The **Toggle dock position (Top ↔ Right)** shortcut, ⌃⇧D by default, flips it instantly and briefly shows the curtain in its new place. See [Junk Yard shortcuts](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/junk-yard-shortcuts).

## Making it quicker or slower

Settings → **Advanced** → **Junk Yard Edge Curtain** has:

| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open delay | How long the pointer must rest at the edge before the curtain slides in, up to 1,000 ms |
| Close delay | How long after the pointer leaves before the curtain rolls away, up to 3,000 ms |
| Panel background | How see-through or solid the curtain looks |
| Scroll speed | Three sliders — Edge auto-scroll, Pointer movement, and Trackpad & scroll-wheel — from slow up to 5× |

**Reset to defaults** puts them all back. If the curtain pops open when you're only reaching for the menu bar, raise the **Open delay**.

## Turning the edge trigger off

If you'd rather not have the curtain at all, turn off **Open a strip of scraps when the pointer hits the screen edge** in Settings → **Junk Yard** → **Edge curtain**. Everything else in the Junk Yard keeps working. You can still open the full board:

- from the **Junk Yard** tab in the main window, or
- with the **Open the Junk Yard** shortcut, ⌃⇧J by default, which opens it in a window of its own.

The curtain also stops responding while Storage Studio is in **Minimum** [performance mode](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/performance-modes), which you choose yourself to keep it to core work only.

If the curtain doesn't open at all, see [The Junk Yard won't open or stops capturing](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-junk-yard-wont-open).

See also: [The Junk Yard](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/junk-yard) · [Clipboard capture, pins and how long items last](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/clipboard-capture) · [Searching and editing Junk Yard items](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/searching-the-junk-yard)

## What links here

- [Clipboard capture, pins and how long items last](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/clipboard-capture)
- [Junk Yard shortcuts](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/junk-yard-shortcuts)
- [Searching and editing Junk Yard items](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/searching-the-junk-yard)
- [The Junk Yard](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/junk-yard)
- [The Junk Yard won't open or stops capturing](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-junk-yard-wont-open)