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Idea #9871: Innovative idea for a new Copy/Paste

Written by svergeylen the 14 Jun 08 at 10:51. Category: Accessibility. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale

I would like to propose a new way to use copy/paste without the use of Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V and without right click.

I'm thinking about a way to copy one OR MORE files or folder to a temporary place which can be associated to "I've picked these files and there are in my hand". Then, you can release the group of files in a new location after browsing.

It will be thus possible to copy/paste more than one file/directory at one time :-)


Example :
- I want to copy home/me/list.pdf and home/me/subfolder/image.jpg to my usb key
- I go to home/me/ and I drag and drop list.pdf to the clipboard stack, which in represented in nautilus as a list (see
http://www.vergeylen.eu/stephane/uploads/divers/copyPaste.png )
- I can see that the clipboard contains list.pdf
- I navigate to home/me/subfolder and I drag and drop image.jpg to the same clipboard. This new file is added to the clipboard for further traitment.
- When I've chosen every files and folder I need, I navigate to my USB key (let's say, I click on its icon on the desktop, which opens a new window)
- In this new window, I see the same contents in the clipboard and I click "Copy to this place". I'm done


In summary, here is what is necessary to add to Nautilus to do this :
- A list (stack) which represent the contents of the clipboard
- An "Empty icon" to empty the clipboard
- An "Copy here icon" to copy all the clipboard in the present location
- An "Move to here icon" to move the clipboard in the present location

Furthermore, we can imagine that a Ctrl-C in another app (for example copy a text from firefox) could be viewed in the clipboard stack when opening nautilus an be pasted directly in a file...

See the screenshot I made with Gimp :
http://www.vergeylen.eu/stephane/uploads/divers/copyPaste.png

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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #9871
Written by svergeylen the 14 Jun 08 at 10:51.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #9871 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Comments
Warbo wrote on the 14 Jun 08 at 11:45
Sounds a lot like the "shelf" of NextStep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelf_%28computing%29

Eldmannen wrote on the 14 Jun 08 at 14:47
I don't we should add many toolbar buttons, it will be annoying and clutter.

I don't think we should introduce new concepts that people are unfamiliar with, it increasses the learning curve.
We should use well-established consistent concepts that works on all other operating systems.

Sidney wrote on the 14 Jun 08 at 15:25
I have two problems/questions with this concept:

First, you want a "list" where you put the files before pasting. Should all it's contents be pasted, or should it be pasted one by one? I.e. Can I only collect files for one destination (which will be pasted together) or for more (then each file has to be pasted individually)?

Second, why not develop this idea into a more generic clipboard, like using Glipper (if it ever works) as a clipboard bin to drag files into and out of?

flammon wrote on the 14 Jun 08 at 16:56
This idea is very similar to the way CD/DVD creator works. The suggested implementation might need some work but the concept is good and I'm interested in the spin offs of this idea.

svergeylen wrote on the 14 Jun 08 at 17:03
Thanks for your comments :-)

Sidney> All of the content of the list should be pasted. It will be too difficult to paste one file to one place and another to another place. I would like to keep it simple "I select a few files and I paste them at one place. slash dot"

Sidney> I don't know Glipper but a generic clipboard for Gnome/Nautilus is just what I was thinking about :-)

Eldmannen> I agree, this is a new concept, but "copy/paste" is known by everyone who uses a computer, and a temporary list to store the clipboard is already used in M$ Office, so I don't think this concept will be unatteignable :-)

droetker wrote on the 14 Jun 08 at 18:16
like many other things - this works fine in KDE, at least in 4.1:
You can select files one per one by clicking on a little '+' emblem at the file icon - and it selects it like havinc ctrl+clicked it.

Maybe it's not perfectly what you requested, but nearly. You can select files in different folders - at the end you have to press Ctrl-C and Paste all these files otherwhere.

But I agree with Eldmannen too: don't invent too many complicated new things - there are plenty of people I know that DON'T know you can copy & paste things with Ctrl+C/V.

You won't believe it there are plenty of people who don't know where to click and where to doubleclick.

That's the problem with computers/usability: Programmers often can't imagine that users can't imagine what programmers had meant ;-)

nevermind85 wrote on the 14 Jun 08 at 22:56
I've seen an idea like this before.
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/8424/

gazilla wrote on the 16 Jun 08 at 05:42
You almost have this already with the Places view in Nautilus. Assuming you want the files in "NewFolder" on your USB stick.

- Insert the USB stick and create NewFolder.
- Change to Places view in Nautilus.
- Drag NewFolder to an empty space in Places.
- Navigate to each file and drag into NewFolder to copy.
- Navigate and use shift-drag to move.
- When complete, right click on NewFolder in Places and choose Remove
- Voila!

One advantage of this (already existing) method is that you can create several folders on the USB stick, put each of them in Places, and sort through a bunch of files at the same time. The main disadvantage is that you have to keep your wits about you, and not confuse moving with copying.

Hayate wrote on the 24 Jun 08 at 03:47
This is a good idea, but it looks like there is some confusion among the comments?

What I would like is to be able to select some files, and press Ctrl+C or Ctrl+X to copy or cut, then select some more files and do the same which would add them to a list. When I finally press Ctrl+V, it should copy or move all files, not just the last-selected ones - copy those that I pressed Ctrl+C for and move those that I pressed Ctrl+X for. Perhaps Escape or some other obvious key should be used to cancel the file operation.

Of course, like everything else, this should be an option.

young wrote on the 29 Aug 08 at 18:03
i think it's an interesting idea. maybe it would be better to make it a screenlet of some sorts. Anyways, Nautilus will have tabs soon, so it will be much easier to copy/move files beetween folders :-)


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