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Suggest how will you implement Cut/Copy/Paste on iPhone!

V

vilasgn

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 12, 2008
149
0
I know it has been months people want to see Copy/Paste on iPhone and Apple is not budging on it.

Just for a curiosity sake, I would like to see how you people think Apple should implement c/p (nothing to do with AppStore App).

What will be the best possible approach. I am asking this because, iPhone is a touch screen device and it has its limitations when it comes to "selecting/Copying/Pasting" text etc.

Let's put your ideas and see what is the best suggestion.


EDIT: Personally I don't care much about copy/paste availability. If it's there, then it's good.
 
My idea is:
- copy: left finger down at beginning of selection and hold, right finger drags out selection highlight (magnifying glass at the edge of highlight lets you select more accurately). Release to copy
- paste: double-finger single tap
- clear clipboard: triple-finger single tap, or drag and select new copy text

Implement that Steve, and I'll be happy! :)
 
If you want it that bad, jail break your phone and write the code to do it.

Some of you are really out of touch with how software companies run. Just because YOU think it's it's important doesn't mean it is. Money talks, and the money is saying they are doing fine without it.
 
trekkie604 said:
My idea is:
- copy: left finger down at beginning of selection and hold, right finger drags out selection highlight (magnifying glass at the edge of highlight lets you select more accurately). Release to copy
- paste: double-finger single tap
- clear clipboard: triple-finger single tap, or drag and select new copy text
Click to expand...

Reg Copy part, try that on your iPhone, you will see why it can't be done. The action you mentioned zooms the page.
 
I think a "tap and hold" approach needs to be taken, very similar to that of when you want to save photos from Safari or Mail.

Copy/Cutting: You tap and hold over certain text and two magnifying glasses appear at each end of the text, with everything but the text in the middle being grayed out (similar to when saving photos). When you do this options pop up from the bottom of the screen..."Copy", "Cut", and "Cancel" (cut would obviously not be there when you're doing this in Safari). You can also drag these magnifying glasses around if Apple's estimate wasn't exactly what you wanted. When you tap "Copy" or "Cut" a nice little graphic shows the text flying towards the toolbar into a little icon that appears representing a 'Clipboard' icon (similar to when you buy something in the iTunes store, it goes flying down to the downloads tab). This tells you that something is in the clipboard.

Paste: You could do the similar "tap and hold" and the two magnifying glasses appear as usual, but now that there is something in the clipboard (stuff from the clipboard gets erased everyday. You can save stuff in Notes if you need it any longer. Think realistically) one of the magnifying glass has a little red X at the top of it. When you tap this, that magnifying glass goes and away, as-well as the options for "Copy" and "Cut". Leaving only "Paste" and "Cancel". Now you drag the one magnifying glass to where you want to Paste and you're done.
 
nlivo said:
I think a "tap and hold" approach needs to be taken, very similar to that of when you want to save photos from Safari or Mail.

Copy/Cutting: You tap and hold over certain text and two magnifying glasses appear at each end of the text, with everything but the text in the middle being grayed out (similar to when saving photos). When you do this options pop up from the bottom of the screen..."Copy", "Cut", and "Cancel" (cut would obviously not be there when you're doing this in Safari). You can also drag these magnifying glasses around if Apple's estimate wasn't exactly what you wanted. When you tap "Copy" or "Cut" a nice little graphic shows the text flying towards the toolbar into a little icon that appears representing a 'Clipboard' icon (similar to when you buy something in the iTunes store, it goes flying down to the downloads tab). This tells you that something is in the clipboard.

Paste: You could do the similar "tap and hold" and the two magnifying glasses appear as usual, but now that there is something in the clipboard (stuff from the clipboard gets erased everyday. You can save stuff in Notes if you need it any longer. Think realistically) one of the magnifying glass has a little red X at the top of it. When you tap this, that magnifying glass goes and away, as-well as the options for "Copy" and "Cut". Leaving only "Paste" and "Cancel". Now you drag the one magnifying glass to where you want to Paste and you're done.
Click to expand...

Impressive.
 
i say they should make it simple as follows:

push and hold anywhere and get ur magnify cursor where u want it, push and hold the SHIFT key and drag to where u want it to end, all while mag glass is still up going along with u. when u let go of the mag glass everything is still highlighted, then when u let go of shift its automatically copied, to delete all that is highlighted simply hit delete key.

then to paste, place the cursor in the position u want it to show up, then jus push and hold the shift key for a few secs to place it there.

all assuming the cut/copy database or w/e will only hold one item.
 
Here's my version. It makes use of the "multitouch" capability of the screen.

Tap to get the magnifying glass up and drag to position where you want it. Now simply tap and release with another finger anywere else on the screen - this kicks it into "selection" mode. The magnifying glass or cursor should change to indicate you're in selection mode (maybe to a square instead of a circle). Now if you drag your first finger, the text will be highlighted.

Next, when you release your finger, you get a little dialog that has buttons for Cut/Copy/Paste/Cancel/Clipboard. Paste will be disabled if you haven't previously copied something.

Clipboard would have two buttons, Recent and Favorites. Recent would show last 10 items cut or copied. Edit button would let you copy a recent item to Favorites. Favorites would let you add/edit/remove Favorites.

So:
1. With right index finger, hold down until circle pops up, drag cursor to desired start location location, just like it works today.
2. Tap and release with another finger, now dragging right index finger selects text.
3. Releasing right index finger (or tapping again with second finger) pops up a Cut/Copy/Paste/Cancel/Clipboard dialog.

Simple, elegant, powerful. :D

Thoughts?
 
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