Copying Text and Images with Ctrl+C

Copying Text and Images with Ctrl+C

When i used to use Avant Browser or IE when u press Ctrl+C it copied selected text and/or images if they were present, now when i press it or right click and copy it is just the text, any way to change and make opera copy everything i highlight?

_Tandy_

No, Opera doesn't include text formatting nor images when copying.

ok then, may i ask why?, seems like pretty logical idea doesn't it?

Tandy: I will ask a question. What do you do with such mixed formatted text and images? You can't put it in image browser like Irfan because it's not an image, if you paste it to Notepad only text would copy and formatting is lost, so what is this for?

Yes I know, coping to Word document. Well if you copy to Word you have to use a formating structure same as Word. Microsoft can do this, because he made it, other companies can't.

And for any other programs, problem stays the same, the structure must be defined somewhere to work between different programs.

Actually such structure exists and it is the HTML itself. So if you need a formated text with images, why don't you simply open a html file and make a selection there (or make a selection of source code and then save it as HTML)?

_{Firefox can do it. And a lot of people need it. For me it is one of the most important features of the browser..
Opera must do that definitaly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!1}

Originally posted by Trof:

Tandy: I will ask a question. What do you do with such mixed formatted text and images? You can't put it in image browser like Irfan because it's not an image, if you paste it to Notepad only text would copy and formatting is lost, so what is this for?

Yes I know, coping to Word document. Well if you copy to Word you have to use a formating structure same as Word. Microsoft can do this, because he made it, other companies can't.

And for any other programs, problem stays the same, the structure must be defined somewhere to work between different programs.

Actually such structure exists and it is the HTML itself. So if you need a formated text with images, why don't you simply open a html file and make a selection there (or make a selection of source code and then save it as HTML)?

From my investigation, for Opera to support copying of more than text:

1. Opera has to take the current innerHTML of the selection that you've made. (possible with JS right now, so it should be possible internally.)

2. Take that html and convert it to MS rtf format.
3. Send the rtf content to the clipboard.

AFAICT, #2 is the problem. There's probably no converting code implemented yet I'm assuming. It's one of those things like mht where you have to give it some time.

Copying just html code to the clipboard and then pasting it in into other programs doesn't work. It needs to be converted first.

As for the actual option, I'd hate it if the standard copy menu and keyboard shortcuts copied rich text. I'd rather have *separate* shortcuts for copying more than text and leave it at that. That way, you have both options.

Originally posted by burnout426:

As for the actual option, I'd hate it if the standard copy menu and keyboard shortcuts copied rich text. I'd rather have *separate* shortcuts for copying more than text and leave it at that. That way, you have both options.

I don't think this will be an issue. The windows clipboard can contain both rich text and plain text variants. Pasting in Notepad will give you the plain text, pasting in Word will give you the rich text, but Word and Excel give also the option 'Paste text only' to get the plain variant.

Originally posted by Rijk:

I don't think this will be an issue. The windows clipboard can contain both rich text and plain text variants. Pasting in Notepad will give you the plain text, pasting in Word will give you the rich text, but Word and Excel give also the option 'Paste text only' to get the plain variant.

Thanks.

That's true. However, I remember using IE + Word and wanting only plain text. I was severely annoyed by the "paste special" menu in Word just to get regular text. Of course that's the job of that app and others to make the paste special option more friendly.

Actually such structure exists and it is the HTML itself.

Exactly--IE provides a clipboard format called "HTML Format" [1] when copying part or all of a page, and Firefox also supports it (although not quite as well as IE since it doesn't include a title element). Use ClipSpy [2] or other clipboard utility to view the formats provided by different browsers (Opera provides only text format).

There are lots of uses for this, and it amazes me that Opera doesn't support it. Opera could (and should) continue to provide text format as well, which would still be used by apps that don't know about HTML Format (and tools like PureText [3] can be force text format even when others exist). I probably would have switched to Opera several years ago if it had this one simple feature (RTF format would be nice too [IE provides HTML, RTF, and text], but HTML is essential).

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/networking/clipboard/htmlclipboard.asp (actually, this document is a little out of date, the 1.0 version also includes the source URL--see the data IE generates for a reference)
[2] http://www.codeproject.com/clipboard/clipspy.asp
[3] http://stevemiller.net/puretext/

Originally posted by Rijk:

I don't think this will be an issue.

Thanks for the clarification. So what is the issue, then? Why do we not have this feature implemented?

Originally posted by neeraj_deshmukh:

Originally posted by Rijk:

I don't think this will be an issue.

Thanks for the clarification. So what is the issue, then? Why do we not have this feature implemented?

Would anyone from Opera care to answer this question? Or point to already given answers? IMO, Opera is clearly the best browser on the market - but is seriously crippled by the missing ability to copy in HTML- and RTF-format.

As always with feature requests, Opera has to decide what features to implement with the limited resources available. And this is not the kind of feature that makes visiting websites easier. I've never felt the need for it myself - if others in Opera feel the same, and if Sales isn't pushing for the feature, that also means less pressure to implement it. You all say it is enormously important, but I haven't seen any use cases presented here. (not saying there aren't use cases, just that I haven't seen them here)

This feature requires quite a lot of work for the team working on the Opera core. But maybe the work that has now gone into support for 'ContentEditable' in Opera 9 will be useful, if and when Opera gets around to supporting this. Maybe we can combine this with support for HTML Mail composing, another often requested feature that sees little enthousiasm internally

And this is not the kind of feature that makes visiting websites easier.

Right. But many Opera users want this feature implemented because for now they need to open different browser for such easy (and for someone maybe everyday) task.
All major browsers have this feature forever: IE for Windows, IE for Mac, Safari, Mozilla Firefox... all except Opera.

Originally posted by Rijk:

but I haven't seen any use cases presented here

When I used IE and OE, I would visit sites like arstechnica.com or hardocp.com or some other news site. If I found an interesting news post, I would select the post content, copy, paste it into OE and send it to friends etc. as text/html.

When I started using Opera, I noticed right away that when I pasted content copied from Opera into OE, all the links in that post would be just text and my friends would not get the links. I encountered the same thing when trying to copy to MS Word. I encountered the same thing when trying to print a selection.

Now, that's not really a problem because most sites provide a permanent link to the post and you can just send the link as text/plan and we have cute pdf writer for printing rich text, but back then, it was a big problem.

Of course, if I need to copy something from a web page and paste it into OpenOffice or MS word, I use something else besides Opera. I don't find myself doing that often though, but others might.

Hmm... Maybe I was right in linking this to HTML Mail composing support then

Is it just me, who thinks that copying a part from a webpage will often leave you with ugly formatting? How does this work when the page has a dark background image, for example? How does it work is you copy a few cells from a table? Without the CSS styles and HTML attributes of the container (TABLE, BODY), don't things get very messy very quickly?

I know that you guys will implement HTML/rich text copying in a smart way. I have faith in you!

Originally posted by Rijk:

Is it just me, who thinks that copying a part from a webpage will often leave you with ugly formatting? How does this work when the page has a dark background image, for example? How does it work is you copy a few cells from a table? Without the CSS styles and HTML attributes of the container (TABLE, BODY), don't things get very messy very quickly?

Yes, it can get really messy. Even if Opera copies rich text perfectly ( by computing styles so they can be added with style attributes etc. so you don't lose any formatting), the program you paste into will probably strip/reformat the code anyway.

Originally posted by Rijk:

Is it just me, who thinks that copying a part from a webpage will often leave you with ugly formatting? How does this work when the page has a dark background image, for example? How does it work is you copy a few cells from a table? Without the CSS styles and HTML attributes of the container (TABLE, BODY), don't things get very messy very quickly?

Sure, those problems do happen; and then I have to paste screenprints or SnagIt images. But when it does work, it's usually preferable to paste selectable/editable content. Anyway, I don't mind opening in IE for this.

Originally posted by Rijk:

Is it just me, who thinks that copying a part from a webpage will often leave you with ugly formatting? How does this work when the page has a dark background image, for example? How does it work is you copy a few cells from a table? Without the CSS styles and HTML attributes of the container (TABLE, BODY), don't things get very messy very quickly?

IE copies all HEAD tag contents (including styles) with selection to clipboard, as well as containers.

The lack of this feature is the only reason that I don't use opera. Firefox is so slow and leaks memory like a siv, but it has the copy features I need.

I read a lot of news online, and when I find something interesting, I copy the artical and email it to people. This may sound like a small thing, but when I send 10-20 news articals to my girlfreind and/or family a day, then i need this feature all the time. In firefox I can copy text, embeded links, and images in one fell swoop.

This is one feature that I use everyday, and cannot browse without.

I personnaly do not think this feature is nessecary. I hate the broken formatting you get when you copy something in IE. Luckily, Office 2003 supports the feature to paste it as plain text, but in older Office versions, I always pasted it first in Notepad. So, -1

@ Loki7000: Isn't it handier to save the webpage and mail that webpage to your friends and family? Try oBook.

Originally posted by Loki7000:

This is one feature that I use everyday, and cannot browse without.

Welcome to Opera and the forums...

Curious question -- why don't you just email them the URLs and let them browse those news articles directly, instead of going through all this?

Maybe restricted access.

I think Opera can start with copying only HTML markup without styles. It would be enough for good start.

Sometimes I can and do just email the URL, but that isn't always the best way. My mother isn't really the most computer savy person, so copy/pasting the artical is the only weay to get her to read it.

For other pages, sometimes I just want certain parts of a blog, knowing full well people arn't going to read through everything to find what I'm talking about.

Originally posted by Rijk:

As always with feature requests, Opera has to decide what features to implement with the limited resources available. And this is not the kind of feature that makes visiting websites easier. I've never felt the need for it myself - if others in Opera feel the same, and if Sales isn't pushing for the feature, that also means less pressure to implement it. You all say it is enormously important, but I haven't seen any use cases presented here. (not saying there aren't use cases, just that I haven't seen them here)

This feature requires quite a lot of work for the team working on the Opera core. But maybe the work that has now gone into support for 'ContentEditable' in Opera 9 will be useful, if and when Opera gets around to supporting this. Maybe we can combine this with support for HTML Mail composing, another often requested feature that sees little enthousiasm internally

I have often the case that I want to forward a html email exactly in the way I received it but M2 won't let me
So here you have an example for a use case

Originally posted by Nafcom:

I have often the case that I want to forward a html email exactly in the way I received it but M2 won't let me So here you have an example for a use case

Not quite. Forwarding an HTML message has nothing to do with copying to clipboard to include formatting.

It does relate to the other popular request that Rijk mentions in his post -- the one with rich text format in composing mail.

Originally posted by neeraj_deshmukh:

Originally posted by Nafcom:

I have often the case that I want to forward a html email exactly in the way I received it but M2 won't let me So here you have an example for a use case

Not quite. Forwarding an HTML message has nothing to do with copying to clipboard to include formatting.

It does relate to the other popular request that Rijk mentions in his post -- the one with rich text format in composing mail.

Anyway would both be cool

But hey, if implenting HTML-copying means that I also can compose rich-text emails, I vote +1

I use copy and paste on web pages a lot - to save the links. There is a lot of great information and links on the Internet and I like to save them for reading and reference later. Opera prevents me from doing this.

I also use copy and paste with OneNote (Which is probably the best program ever written by Microsoft). It automatically copies the part of the web page and all links/graphics but also inserts a link back to that original page.

Every other browser supports this feature (to copy and paste - links and graphics) - even old, old browsers.

I like Opera and would use it except for the lack of this feature

Originally posted by cpruszko:

A MUST HAVE feature ...otherwise it is not worth using.

I use that extensively to save webpages (information and links) for later reference.

OneNote supports copy and paste of links/graphics and also creates a refer-back link to that original page. OneNote is the most valuable program I have. It allows me to collect and organize information that I find on the Internet into separate notebooks. It also has great search and organizing functions.

If you are not familar with it, then you should be. It is a great tool

Originally posted by Vincent-Gerome:

_{Firefox can do it. And a lot of people need it. For me it is one of the most important features of the browser..
Opera must do that definitaly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!1}

Originally posted by Trof:

Tandy: I will ask a question. What do you do with such mixed formatted text and images? You can't put it in image browser like Irfan because it's not an image, if you paste it to Notepad only text would copy and formatting is lost, so what is this for?

Yes I know, coping to Word document. Well if you copy to Word you have to use a formating structure same as Word. Microsoft can do this, because he made it, other companies can't.

And for any other programs, problem stays the same, the structure must be defined somewhere to work between different programs.

Actually such structure exists and it is the HTML itself. So if you need a formated text with images, why don't you simply open a html file and make a selection there (or make a selection of source code and then save it as HTML)?

Originally posted by Trof:

So if you need a formated text with images, why don't you simply open a html file and make a selection there (or make a selection of source code and then save it as HTML)?

Don't be funny. Nobody will ever use this "solution" on daily basis. And moreover, most of the people don't even know how to view source and what is that means... I'm not talking even how to find something in the source...

There's another reason for this that I don't think has been mentioned. On some forums (not this one), pasting in text from a site that uses high-order ASCII for quotes, apostrophes, em-dashes and the like, results in something that looks like this:

Extremism runs through the BNP. From leader Nick Griffin’s Holocaust denial through to Tony Lecomber’s proposed eugenics plan for a purer white race, the party has expounded outrageous and downright dangerous views. Recently Mark Collett, leader of the young BNP was shown by channel 4’s Despatches to be an out and out Nazi sympathiser: “National Socialism was the best solution for the German people in the 1930s”, he told the cameras. “I honestly cannot understand how a man who’s seen the inner city hell of Britain today cant look back on that era [Hitler’s Germany] with a certain nostalgia”. Despite the BNP’s public denunciation of Collett, he remains a full-time party worker and Yorkshire Regional Organiser.

If you use IE to do the copy, it's fine.

look @ the discussin here
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=147894&t=1173295242&page=1

I'm working now on a document using Wikipedia and Openoffice. I can't copy text together with images. Firefox can do this easily : )))

Why such an obvious feature isn't still available? It's been 7 years?! Unbelievable!