 
           # copy selected elements to clipboard
           selectionText = bufferText.slice listElements[cutStart].eltStart, listElements[cutEnd-1].eltEnd
-          atom.clipboard.write selectionText, @mkListEditMeta(separator)
+          atom.clipboard.write selectionText, @mkListEditMeta(openBracket, separator)
 
           if cutStart == 0
             if cutEnd == listElements.length

  # and column nr of opening bracket for handling empty/one elt insertions (column nr is only for multi line lists)


  mkListEditMeta: (separator) ->
    {id: 'list-edit-clip-meta', sep: separator}

  getListEditMeta: (clip) ->
    clip.metadata if clip?.metadata?.id == 'list-edit-clip-meta'

    else
      # TODO: For now assume clipboard comes from the same list as paste target
      @withSelectedList (editor, textBuffer, bufferText, selectionIxRange, elementList, [selStart,selEnd]) ->
        {startIx: listStartIx, endIx: listEndIx, openBracket: openBracket, sep: separator, elts: listElements} = elementList
        console.log "About to list-paste \"#{clip.text}\" at selection [#{selStart},#{selEnd}>"
        console.log "Opening bracket: #{openBracket}, separator: #{separator}"
        separator ?= if clipMeta.openBracket == openBracket and clipMeta.sep
                       clipMeta.sep # Use separator from clipboard only if it comes from a list with equal brackets
                     else
                       TextManipulation.getDefaultSeparatorFor openBracket

        if selStart != selEnd
          # if an element or a range is selected, all surrounding whitespace can be left untouched
