InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by WayneK on 2017/05/12 17:57

I know this has been discussed multiple times but I don't think it's been implemented yet. I needed to reverse a cut/paste operation but was unable to do so, and lost all the cells I'd just cut (50+ cells of text).

I thought I'd lost a big chunk of work but I think I've recovered it using the back up but I'm still not sure and it was a lot less convenient than just "undoing".

I was in the process of cut/copying text from one column to another. It was tedious so I started adding more on more cells to each operation. In every case, it was pasting the cut cells as intended. But then I got the paste dialogue which would have created extra rows I didn't want. Without thinking, I canceled out of the paste operation, and in so doing, lost all the cells I'd just cut.

Side issue: if anyone knows a better way to transfer thousands of cells of text from one column to another, please let me know.

Wayne

Comments

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for inquiring about Undo. It is planned but requires significant changes so it will not come in the next few versions.

Regarding the cut command, you should be able to undo it. When I try it now, it only does undo for the first selected cell. I'll fix it in v97a

As for a quick way to copy content from Column1 to Column2 you could, in the field property for Column2:

add a row equation: =[Column1] and press the refresh button
if you don't want to overwrite content already present in Column2, use: =iif( isnull( [Column2] ) ,[Column1],[Column2])
Once done, remove the row equation (unless you want this permanent)

There are other ways to do it, but that should work

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

More Undo is a good idea, no question there.

Note, if I cancel out of the paste dialogue, what I copied is still on the clipboard -- okay, if I copy something else, it is then gone.

On that note I would recommend a clipboard manager:

everything you cut/copy gets saved.

I know, and use, two that are very good over at donationcoder.com:

Clipboard Help & Spell (my main one)

and

Ethervane Echo (not in active development but still a great app -- I just been using it when working on one particular project)

Very helpful advice. Interesting that the equation doesn't stay active (ie you can go back and delete the original cell text and it doesn't delete it in the new cell). That's what I want.

I tried the copy/cut/paste routine again and it did retain the clipboard info after canceling out. Not sure what happened that one time.

Yes, I do need to get back to having a clipper active. I've used them off and on over the years but seem to always fall out of the habit.

Wayne

[quote=WayneK]Interesting that the equation doesn't stay active (ie you can go back and delete the original cell text and it doesn't delete it in the new cell). That's what I want.[/quote]

I dont follow that (do you mean you want to create new items?)

> I do need to get back to having a clipper active. I've used them off and on over the years but seem to always fall out of the habit.

I'd really miss one, but you can generally set them to start with windows and then forget they exist, until you need them.

Only caveat would be to be sure they are not copying/saving sensitive data e.g passwords

At first, I thought it might work like a formula in Excel, which remains active. In this case, it would always display the contents of the first cell. If the first cell contents were deleted, the 2nd cell would go blank, too. That's not the case in InfoQube. Once the copy operation is done, the "formula" is gone and no longer functions. That's what I want, since I go back and delete the first cell after the transfer.

It appears you can't do multiple cells at a time unless you copy multiple instances of the formula.

eg, I have this:

Item col. Narr-1 col.

Row 1: (blank) text-1

Row 2: (blank) text-2

Row 3: (blank) text-3

I want this:

Item col. Narr-1 col.

Row 1: text-1 text-1

Row 2: text-2 text-2

Row 3: text-3 text-3

But if I copy/paste "=[Narr-1]" into the three item cells, I get this instead:

Item col. Narr-1 col.

Row 1: text-1 text-1

Row 2: text-1 text-2

Row 3: text-1 text-3

To make it work, I have to copy/paste three separate lines of "=[Narr-1]". Not as convenient as pasting a single instance several times because you have to always match the exact number of lines, which constantly varies.

Not sure this was worth explaining but there it is. I need to learn the coding language so I can work these things out myself. I could also deal with using shortcuts and my clipper and/or phrase expander software.

Wayne

[quote=WayneK]

At first, I thought it might work like a formula in Excel, which remains active.

[/quote]

It remains active if you enter the equation in Field Properties > Row Equation

It used to work in the Properties pane but recently de-activated until a setting is added to choose how to interpret = at the beginning of a text field

You can also of course, use Copy / Paste, without using any equations

HTH !

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[quote=WayneK]Not sure this was worth explaining but there it is.[/quote]well I'm learning from it (thanks!)