RFE: Ctrl + drag to copy text

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DIV
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RFE: Ctrl + drag to copy text

Post by DIV »

There are numerous software packages that use the convention of holding down the Ctrl key while dragging an object in order to copy that object to a new location.

More precisely, the sequence can typically be either
Ctrl-down, LeftMouseButton-down, (move mouse pointer), LeftMouseButton-up.
or
LeftMouseButton-down, Ctrl-down, (move mouse pointer), LeftMouseButton-up.
or
LeftMouseButton-down, (move mouse pointer), Ctrl-down, LeftMouseButton-up.
Ctrl-up happens after the copying is performed.

Currently Editor 9.0 does this with annotations, but doesn't do it with text objects (or text 'containers').

I am aware that there are other existing ways of copying text objects as per
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=35905&p=149058#p149058
but I am nevertheless a little surprised that the Ctrl & drag idiom is not included among them. Currently the pressing of Ctrl is completely ignored when dragging text objects, resulting in them being moved rather than copied.

—DIV
DIV
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Re: RFE: Ctrl + drag to copy text

Post by DIV »

FWIW, Ctrl+drag to copy comments dates from circa 2015 (or earlier)
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=23176

For more information, that's not for all types of annotations. It works for things like Comments, Notes, and the various shapes (arrows, ovals, rectangles, etc.) It — quite understandably — doesn't work for annotations that are tied to text, such as highlighting, underline annotation, and strikeout annotation.

—DIV
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: RFE: Ctrl + drag to copy text

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi, DIV

I cannot speak as to why exactly base content text is not currently copied with a ctrl+drag as many comments, are, but I will forward this request to the dev team for consideration.
[edit: for reference RT#5527: FR: Ctrl+Drag base content to copy]

I also wanted to offer a quick note in reply to your comment that this function:
DIV wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:00 am doesn't work for annotations that are tied to text
Despite all appearances, comments are not, and cannot actually be "tied" to text, they are entirely separate entities. The commenting tools will make use of the existing text to determine a coordinate base position to be placed at, and after that, there is no correlation between the two.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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DIV
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Posts: 252
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:47 am

Re: RFE: Ctrl + drag to copy text

Post by DIV »

Thanks for passing the suggestion on, Daniel.

Regarding your quick note, ...
there is more detail at
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=36121&p=149665#p149665
(as you have seen).
I agree that my description of specific varieties of annotation being "tied to [some underlying] text" is not entirely accurate. It is correct that they are associated with underlying text at the moment of creating those types of annotations (e.g. highlighting) in contrast to other annotations (e.g. circles) that are arbitrarily positioned by the user. It's then probably also the case that many users would assume that the notional association would persist in perpetuity. But I accept that in the implementation of PDF the positioning of text and annotations are relative to the page, not relative to one another (for all varieties of annotation).


Regards,
David
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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RFE: Ctrl + drag to copy text

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

:)
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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