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Possible Cut Copy Paste Scheme

milani

milani

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 8, 2008
1,666
0
Well after thinking a lot about it, I came up with an idea of how Apple could effectively implement cut copy and paste without having to create new gestures. I had kind of been thinking of something along these lines for a while, but today I just decided to bust out Photoshop and make it happen, so to speak.

Note: this is in no way official, it's just my idea of how CCP might be implemented. Your comments, suggestions, or thoughts are welcomed. Hopefully if we keep talking about it - in a constructive way - it might inspire Apple to get the ball rolling. But please, don't turn this thread into a pro/anti-CCP thread. No one is interested in seeing yet another thread like that. This is meant to be constructive. That being said:

CCP within an application:

ccpanimationch7.gif


The first animation represents what a CCP scheme might look like inside any particular application, with selection of text, copying the text, and then pasting the text inside the application:

CCP between applications:

ccpanimation2ox3.gif


The second sequence represents copying text between different applications. Note the red dot signifies that there is data waiting to be pasted, and that that dot will be displayed in any and all applicable applications (example, between the SMS application and Mobile Safari). Note that the homescreen displays a small scissors icon, denoting that there is data being held in the cache to be pasted into an application.

It seems to me that this method would be the least complicated. Although it's some what counter intuitive, in that conventionally you would highlight text and then select cut copy or paste, this method is probably as close as you can get while keeping things simple.

To expand the idea, there could be a clipboard application created, and thus the CCP button could have a number system (like email or SMS), and include a button to go to clipboard to allow for multiple items to be copied to the clipboard and then pasted one at a time by the user.

Well, what do you guys think? Possible scheme Apple might adopt/have already thought of? (Oh, and please ignore the conversation in the SMS, it was a real conversation between my friend and I - except for the message subject to CCP - about John Frusciante, RHCP, and distortion pedals, so please ignore it, I didn't think to make a fake SMS conversation history for the animations :p!)
 
I think it looks alright, however, it looks like you would bump the new button whenever you attempt to press the spacebar or something around it. The only way that I would think that button would work is if you have to hold the button down, like you do to get special characters like é. Then it would be pretty slick.

PS: how do you have the magnifying glass up and press the new button? and how would you copy text from webpages that you didn't write since the magnifying glass won't show up?
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
PS: how do you have the magnifying glass up and press the new button? and how would you copy text from webpages that you didn't write since the magnifying glass won't show up?
Click to expand...
I'd think you'd need to press the button, select the function, then select the text or paste area, as opposed to the other way around.
 
jsw said:
I'd think you'd need to press the button, select the function, then select the text or paste area, as opposed to the other way around.
Click to expand...

I don't see a way to do that since odds are you would start selecting at the wrong place, That's why the magnifying glass was made, so you could zoom in to find where you want to drop your cursor by dragging your finger. A gesture is needed, even one as simple as touching the screen with a second finger when in magnifying glass mode.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
I think it looks alright, however, it looks like you would bump the new button whenever you attempt to press the spacebar or something around it. The only way that I would think that button would work is if you have to hold the button down, like you do to get special characters like é. Then it would be pretty slick.
Click to expand...

As to your first point, as soon as I posted the thread and watched the animations a few more times, I thought it would be a lot smarter to make the .?123 button a lot smaller - it really could be cut in half, and half that space given to the CCP button. Then people wouldn't bump it when going for the space bar.

TuffLuffJimmy said:
PS: how do you have the magnifying glass up and press the new button? and how would you copy text from webpages that you didn't write since the magnifying glass won't show up?
Click to expand...

That was my mistake in being lazy with the animation. I guess that when you take your finger off of the area to click the button the bubble would disappear.

As for the magnifying glass for text that you didn't write like webpage content, I haven't really thought that far yet. I was thinking something like pressing the + button in Safari, which would bring up a "CCP" prompt in the menu along with "Add Bookmark" and so on, and which in turn would prime the browser to allow you to view, highlight, and copy sections of webpage content. That part is a bit more complicated, but I have an idea so I might make an animation of how that might work as well.

TuffLuffJimmy said:
I don't see a way to do that since odds are you would start selecting at the wrong place, That's why the magnifying glass was made, so you could zoom in to find where you want to drop your cursor by dragging your finger. A gesture is needed, even one as simple as touching the screen with a second finger when in magnifying glass mode.
Click to expand...

Really good point. Perhaps this is a solution:

1. You tap the CCP button (which DOES NOT bring up the menu), but which primes the phone to know that you're going to be selecting text to copy cut or paste.

2. While the phone is primed, you can use a regular bubble to orient the cursor to the exact point you want, be it a starting point, a paste point, whatever. But since the phone is basically idling waiting for you to prep your position, it won't actually do anything, and thus allows people to correct their mistakes.

3. Once they've chosen the location of the starting point (thanks to the bubble), then then click and hold down on the CCP button, choose either cut, copy, and can drag across text to start to highlight whatever they want (their starting point already having been established), or just choose paste and the content will be pasted after the point you chose.

This two-step method has the added benefit of being a bit more logical in terms of order of operations. Although it's a bit more complicated, it might be a way to address the issue to some degree.
 
I have a solution to the hitting the copy/paste/cut button instead of the space bar...

You know when you double tap the ^ you get caps, how bout double tapping the .?123 icon enabling the copy/paste icon?

Just a suggestion...
 
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