Pasting Desired

[Center]

I know dBase DOS 4.2 is not an ole program. But I run it in a windows box, which gives some icons at the top. The Mark box works (you can select an area of type with mouse). The paste box works great. All that's lacking is the "copy" box not working. Anyone know a workaround, even if inconvenient, as I often want to move some type with scientific names long, and very hard to spell?

 

[dbMark]

First method, in order to copy anything to the clipboard you first have to choose Select All. Once you've done that then you can Copy. But be forewarned, all text in the DOS window from the top of the window to the current row will be selected, perhaps a bit more than you wanted, right?

Second method, have you tried opening the DOS window's properties (right-click on the window's top bar) and in the Options tab placing a check in the box for the QuickEdit mode? That should enable passing marked text to Windows when you right-click on the top bar of the window. Once it is turned on, though, be careful clicking the mouse. Right-clicking the mouse within the DOS window will immediately paste whatever's currently in the clipboard without showing any menu list! And a mouse left-click does not move the cursor anymore.

Let me know how this helps. Not elegant, but it does work after a fashion.

dbMark

 

[ormsk]

Hi

I sometimes use the mark, copy and paste from a DOS window. When you mark text, I presume you have tried hitting the Enter key to 'copy' the text?

 

[Center]

Thank you both for writing, but win95 does it different or I'm too dumb. Hitting enter makes the selected area unselected. Can't find a place to choose Select All on my screen. Windows programs paste great to my fields but can't copy from the fields. When I "select" with curser, the dbase copy icon goes live from gray but it still won't copy--when try to paste selection I get a box that says clipboard is empty. Tried selecting quick edit and then when I select I get a diamond curser but can't seem to get it to grab anything.
A rather strange thing, anything I select immediately gets printed on my printer even though haven't set print on or hit ^P.
Thanks again for writing.

 

[ormsk]

Hi

I am answering this from work (W2000), but the answer may be still relevant.

in the top left corner of the DOS box, you can click there and normally Move or close, but there should be an option to Edit.

This menu should open and allow you to Mark, Copy and Paste etc.

 

[dbMark]

Here's how to access the procedures mentioned above. I don't have Windows 95 at hand, so possibly it is limited in these capabilities. So try them, maybe Win95 does have it after all? [Windows 98 or Millennium or XP are much more solid products than Win95, so feel free to upgrade. Unfortunately, each new version of Windows moves farther away from the DOS world.]

To access the Copy/Paste/Select All features, right-click on the opened DOS window's top bar, the blue "drag" bar. The Edit item has a submenu with Mark and Copy and the other options are disabled. In order to get Copy enabled you must first Mark a block of text.

In order to find the QuickEdit checkbox, right-click on the DOS icon on the desktop. Is it shown there on the Properties option, Misc tab?

Personally, I'd recommend using the first method and avoiding messing with the QuickEdit mode.

dbMark

 

[dbMark]

Ormsk is correct. You can right-click anywhere on the top bar of the DOS window or simply click on the upper left corner of the DOS window (on the colorful MSDOS corner) to get the Edit menu. All the options for Mark, Copy and Select are on Edit's submenu.

 

[Center]

Clicking on the MS dos icon in upper left corner of the box gives a menu. One choice is copy enter. I have tried just copying and also using an enter. Then the menu gives the choice paste. When I click it I get "Clipboard is Empty.

 

[MiggyD]

Hey Center,

Let me see if I've read your responces correctly (and hopefully provide a suggestion.)

1) you copy FROM a window's program TO a Db program -- and this works fine.

2) you try to copy FROM Db program TO a window's program -- and this doesn't work because it says the clipboard is empty.

--------

try this first (let us know if it works or not):

> have the following started:
a] dBase,
b] your windows program, and
c] MS-NotePad (or MS-Write)

> using dBase; click on MASK and select ONE (1) short word (ex: fix) and click COPY.

> using NotePad; right-click anywhere in the text area (a popup menu should appear) and select PASTE -- if this works, then press the return key and try this again to make sure your word IS ON the clipboard.

> now, using your windows program, place the cursor on any INPUT area (usually this is a white box, if there's a different color then it could be a label and you will not be able to PASTE anything there) then right-click in that INPUT area and see if PASTE SHOWS UP--if it does, see if it works.

(presumming the above works, try a larger and larger words)

let us know if this helps or not.
--MiggyD