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How Copy and Paste Might Work (Video)

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,557
30,887


LonelySandwich.com took the time to mockup a video of how Copy and Paste might work on the iPhone with multitouch.

The process involves using the tap/hold text magnifying glass to mark the beginning of the select by tapping with a second finger. Then scrolling to the end of the text and tapping again. Once you text is selected, a dialog pops up to confirm the copy. Paste works similarly.

The author cleverly overlaid his mouth over the existing iPhone tutorial videos from Apple and preserved the style.

Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2007/08/08/how-copy-and-paste-might-work-video/
V

ventro

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2006
692
0
This video is absolutely hilarious. And not half bad, even if a bit complicated.
 
A

AAIMaui

macrumors newbie
Aug 8, 2007
1
0
If anyone knows of some sort of award for this type of thing, this guy should be nominated. Seriously, the effort that went into this is impressive. And funny without trying to be!

Well done.
 
spencecb

spencecb

Suspended
Nov 20, 2003
1,187
215
Haha, this made me crack up. And it's actually quite intuitive way of doing it. Apple should take note.
 
O

oclor

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2006
211
5
Boston
"I love you" haha. That was the funniest thing I've seen in a while lol. Great video and great concept
 
M

MACsimus19

macrumors member
Jun 18, 2007
70
0
This seems like a very reasonable/elegant way to handle the problem. I'm sure Apple software folk might make the copy procedure a bit less "tap-necessary" ... I could see highlighting with one finger by sliding over the text, but all in all its fantastic.

Brilliant video too, I'd love him too if the feature became a reality.
 
Hummer

Hummer

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2006
1,012
0
Queens, New York NY-5
The second time when he's pasting in the email, the gesture he uses to bring up the clipboard is the same he uses to go into select mode when he was going to copy. What if you'd like to copy again in the email or anywhere else? And one might say he did it in a blank area which made the gesture bring up a different function, but what if he wanted to paste in a text filled area using the insert function?
 
inkswamp

inkswamp

macrumors 68030
Jan 26, 2003
2,953
1,278
Hummer said:
And one might say he did it in a blank area which made the gesture bring up a different function, but what if he wanted to paste in a text filled area using the insert function?
Click to expand...

That's the way I understood this. Doing the gesture after having selected text would logically bring up the copy function whereas gesture without selected text brings up paste. But note that they appeared to be the same window, just used in different contexts which means what you're suggesting could be done.

Anyway, maybe I didn't watch it closely enough but when the clipboard window popped up, the user indicates pasting by tapping the desired text. Obviously, you could write such a thing to paste over selected text. Why wouldn't his concept work in that case too?
 
Cleverboy

Cleverboy

macrumors 65816
May 25, 2007
1,435
1
Pocket Universe, nth Dimensional Complex Manifold
Nice video, funny. The concept is flawed though. It suggests multiple clipboards, yet doesn't suggest any way to "copy" multiple things. Once there is something in the clipboard, according to the video, you can only choose/paste. Moreover, the loupe is not available on non-input box text, so copy and paste from a webpage would be a non-starter. I like the ability to preview the content, but for the most part the concept fails in some crucial usability areas. If Apple only let you copy/paste from an email or the notes app (or other text input areas ONLY) I'd personally be pissed and most professionals needing the feature would lose a lot of faith in them.

~ CB
 
J

joshysquashy

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2005
707
1
UK
no matter how apple handle this, it will make things more complicated.

the obvious option would be a contextual menu, but I know apple don't like and wouldn't do that.

im sure they will find a solution, but every option so far has its flaws, and is not very intuitive, i can imagine people screwing up and loosing text, or getting stressed when things pop up by accident, because they accidentally put another finger down.
 
yoman

yoman

macrumors 6502a
Nov 11, 2003
635
0
In the Bowels of the Cosmos
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C25 Safari/419.3)

The question is will Apple ever implement a copy/paste feature or decide it would just complicate things. Maybe they're not even trying.
 
chr1s60

chr1s60

macrumors 68020
Jul 24, 2007
2,061
1,857
California
Haha, the guy looked freaky, but that was a funny idea. As far as the copy/paste goes, this could work. It does seem like there could be an easier way, but I would settle for that method if needed. Hopefully Apple will get with it and put some new features like copy/paste on the phone soon.
 
K

kntgsp

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2004
781
0
Cleverboy said:
Nice video, funny. The concept is flawed though. It suggests multiple clipboards, yet doesn't suggest any way to "copy" multiple things. Once there is something in the clipboard, according to the video, you can only choose/paste. Moreover, the loupe is not available on non-input box text, so copy and paste from a webpage would be a non-starter. I like the ability to preview the content, but for the most part the concept fails in some crucial usability areas. If Apple only let you copy/paste from an email or the notes app (or other text input areas ONLY) I'd personally be pissed and most professionals needing the feature would lose a lot of faith in them.

~ CB
Click to expand...

That wouldn't be an end all. If you're trying to copy text from a web document, you could always just drop a hotlink in the email you're sending. I don't like reading 5 page long emails anyway.

Besides I'm sure there's an easy work around for that problem.
 
miketcool

miketcool

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2003
924
366
California
kntgsp said:
That wouldn't be an end all. If you're trying to copy text from a web document, you could always just drop a hotlink in the email you're sending. I don't like reading 5 page long emails anyway.

Besides I'm sure there's an easy work around for that problem.
Click to expand...

Let me know when the work around includes a bluetooth mouse and an iPhone.

Great video!
 
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