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Does copy/paste work correctly on your device? Take this test

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dylane

Well-Known Member
Apparently a number of Android devices don't handle copy and paste completely as they should, removing line breaks when they shouldn't. I've seen this problem on some other Android devices that I've used in the past, but I just took this little test and found out that it seems to be working OK in the email app on my Note 2.

If you're interested you can read a little about it here and maybe take their test (they ask for an email address, but just so they can send a formatted email for you to copy and send back to them).

I have no relation to the company, just use their software for Outlook and would love to have an Android version.
 
lunatic59 said:
Without signing up to their spam list little survey, what's the test?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, this is just an honest developer that is trying to get information to develop their app for Android. The app allows you to copy a signature with contact info from an email, and automatically create a contact with the phone numbers, address, and email automatically filled out. Very useful on a computer, and indispensable on a mobile device.

Unfortunately, they have found that a number of Android devices don't preserve line breaks when doing copy and paste (something I've noticed a lot with Google, for instance when you try to copy an address into maps, and the lines all run together without even a space between lines). The test is they send you a preformatted email with line breaks, and you copy the email and paste it into a reply and they can see if your phone handles the breaks in a way that their software can interpret.

Obviously no need to do the test if you don't trust the developer with your email address, but I just thought it would be interesting to see what devices/software version handles this correctly and which ones do not. Hopefully this was just a bug in older versions of Android, that has been fixed in newer versions. I'm hoping it isn't something that is different for every device/mfg.
 
I'm not going to give someone my email so they can send me instructions. I've never had an issue copy and pasting with my SGSIII.
 
I struggle to copy from the body of e-mails, but I usually manage in the end. Otherwise, can't say I've had a problem - I can even paste phone numbers into the dialer on my N4. Couldn't do that on my Desire.
 
sure its spammy, but ive fooled with copy paste enough to know where this is headed. copying and pasting phone numbers in certain instances never work.. same for creating contacts... but i more blame the phone and contacts app than anything.. i just dont feel like getting another contacts and phone app.
 
I really don't have a problem helping developers with testing and providing feedback. I can also understand that they may wish to know who's providing that feedback, but I found it a little odd that the description spoke about generalities without any specific problem or solution and to find out such required submission of an email address.

I am sure many of the tech-savvy people they are look for will also be hesitant.

In any case, when I've used cut and paste, it's always worked.
 
I tested it with my spammy sina.cn email, which keep for things like this. I see what they're getting at, copy and paste didn't include line-breaks.

So something like:

1
2
3
4

becomes 1234.

Although I've never noticed that before, probably because I've never copied pasted anything that has line-breaks in it. .
 
mikedt said:
I tested it with my spammy sina.cn email, which keep for things like this. I see what they're getting at, copy and paste didn't include line-breaks.

So something like:

1
2
3
4

becomes 1234.

Although I've never noticed that before, probably because I've never copied pasted anything that has line-breaks in it. .
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I'd be interested in how the original message was composed. If it's plain text that could be an issue. If it's html formatted, then I'd wonder if they are <p> or <br> tags.
 
mikedt said:
I tested it with my spammy sina.cn email, which keep for things like this. I see what they're getting at, copy and paste didn't include line-breaks.

So something like:

1
2
3
4

becomes 1234.

Although I've never noticed that before, probably because I've never copied pasted anything that has line-breaks in it. .
Click to expand...

Thanks for testing this and explaining the issue in a clearer way then I've been able to. Can I ask you what version of Android your device is running, and what client you used to copy the email from?
 
boyo1991 said:
sure its spammy, but ive fooled with copy paste enough to know where this is headed. copying and pasting phone numbers in certain instances never work.. same for creating contacts... but i more blame the phone and contacts app than anything.. i just dont feel like getting another contacts and phone app.
Click to expand...

This isn't another contact or phone app. It is a utility that makes creating a contact easier without having to manually copy and paste each element of a person's contact information into the appropriate field in your contact app.

On Windows the way it works is you can highlight contact details anywhere you find them (email, browser, PDF, etc...) and press ctrl+c+c which copies to the clipboard and automatically creates a contact in Outlook (think it also works with some other programs, but I've only used with Outlook). You can then verify that it has put everything into the right place and save the contact. Saves a lot of time if you're like me and get a lot of new contacts daily that you need to save as part of your job.
 
lunatic59 said:
That's interesting. I'd be interested in how the original message was composed. If it's plain text that could be an issue. If it's html formatted, then I'd wonder if they are <p> or <br> tags.
Click to expand...

The email they send is an HTML email, but I'm not sure how to view the formatting tags from my email client.

You can probably test this yourself by sending an email to your Android device with line breaks like in mikedt's example, and see if when you copy it into a reply if you lose the line breaks.
 
dylane said:
Thanks for testing this and explaining the issue in a clearer way then I've been able to. Can I ask you what version of Android your device is running, and what client you used to copy the email from?
Click to expand...

Kliton I806, which is a cheapo Galaxy Note lookalike. ICS 4.0.4. The email client is whatever the default one comes with the phone, probably Chinese. It's not Google.
 
mikedt said:
Kliton I806, which is a cheapo Galaxy Note lookalike. ICS 4.0.4. The email client is whatever the default one comes with the phone, probably Chinese. It's not Google.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I just read on the developer's site that about 2/3rds of the responses they have gotten so far have this copy/paste bug. I'm curious if this is something based on Android version, or mfg. or specific email client being used.

My experience so far with Android gives me the impression that copy and paste is somewhat up to the app developer since different apps seem to handle it a bit differently...but I'm not sure if that is just UI or an actual underlying difference in implementation.
 
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