Regarding the two issues:

1. [`chrome.tabs.query`][1] is asynchronous. If you don't understand this, read [this similar question][2]. The solution is to move `copyTextToClipboard(text);` inside the callback of `chrome.tabs.query`.
2. You're running `execCommand('copy')` on a textarea. The result is that only plain text is copied to the clipboard.  
Assuming that the HTML input comes from a trusted, you can use the following code to copy custom rich text to the clipboard:

    
    
        function copyTextToClipboard(html) {
            var tmpNode = document.createElement('div');
            tmpNode.innerHTML = html;
            document.body.appendChild(tmpNode);
    
            // Back up previous selection
            var selection = window.getSelection();
            var backupRange;
            if (selection.rangeCount) {
                backupRange = selection.getRangeAt(0).cloneRange();
            }
            
            // Copy the contents
            var copyFrom = document.createRange();
            copyFrom.selectNodeContents(tmpNode)
            selection.removeAllRanges();
            selection.addRange(copyFrom);
            document.execCommand('copy');
            
            // Clean-up
            tmpNode.parentNode.removeChild(tmpNode);
    
            // Restore selection
            selection = window.getSelection();
            selection.removeAllRanges();
            if (backupRange) {
                selection.addRange(backupRange);
            }
        }



  [1]: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs.html#method-query
  [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11688171/after-calling-chrome-tabs-query-the-results-are-not-available

I often want to save a whole group of links at a time with the url and title formatted into a single hyperlink
I'm working on a chrome extension that will copy the formatted url and title

**manifest.json**



	{
	  "name": "Copy Tabs",
	  "version": "0.1",
	  "description": "Creates a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + Shift + C) which copies links for selected tabs",
	  "permissions": [
		"tabs",
		"clipboardWrite",
		"clipboardRead"
	  ],
	  "background": {
		"persistent": false,
		"scripts": ["jquery.js","background.js"]
	  },
	  "commands": {
		"copy-tabs": {
		  "suggested_key": { "default": "Ctrl+Shift+C" },
		  "description": "Copy Selected Tab Links"
		}
	  },
	  "manifest_version": 2
	}

**background.js**



	chrome.commands.onCommand.addListener(function(command) {
	  if (command == "copy-tabs") {
		// declare text element
		var text = "";
	  
		// only look for highlighted tabs in the current window
		queryInfo = new Object();
		queryInfo.highlighted  = true;
		queryInfo.currentWindow  = true;

		// get tabs
		chrome.tabs.query(queryInfo, function(tabs) {
			// loop through tab results
			for (var i = 0; i < tabs.length; i++) {
				//add hyperlink to text
				text += "<a href='" + tabs[i].url + "'>" + tabs[i].title + "</a>";
			}
		});
		
		//copy text to clipboard
		copyTextToClipboard(text);
	  }
	});

**copyTextToClipboard**



	// Copy provided text to the clipboard.
	function copyTextToClipboard(text) {
		var copyFrom = $('<textarea/>');
		copyFrom.text(text);
		$('body').append(copyFrom);
		copyFrom.select();
		document.execCommand('copy');
		copyFrom.remove();
	}

**Issues:**

I have two problems:
When I construct the link from the tab properties, the copy won't actually work, but if I manually specify that `text = "<a href='www.google.com'>Google</a>";` everything works fine.  In the developer tools, the inline tool tip looks like the text is properly formed, but the local variable window looks like the text variable is still set as `""`.

![Inline Watch][1]
![Scope Variables][2]

Secondly, when it does paste, i don't get nice formatting.  

It just looks like this:

* `<a href='www.google.com'>Google</a>`

But what I want is this:

* [Google][3]


  [1]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/97KUb.png
  [2]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/QXch0.png
  [3]: http://www.google.com