No drag/drop?

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eolake
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No drag/drop?

Post by eolake »

I am a bit surprised to find that NWE apparently does not support drag/drop editing. Can this be true, or am I doing something wrong?
cchapin
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Post by cchapin »

I've been using drag and drop editing, so I'm not sure why it doesn't work for you. What specifically are you trying to do (and how, specifically, are you trying to do it)? I don't know that I will be of help, but I can try.

--Craig
dshan
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Drag and Drop Editing

Post by dshan »

Have you read the info on drag and drop in the manual?

"With Nisus Writer Express you can drag any selection and drop it somewhere else in any Drag and Drop compatible application.

1 Select the characters (either text or graphics, either contiguous or noncontiguous blocks) which you want to move. You can use Drag and Drop to move selections into another Nisus Writer Express document (or text editable window (the Clipboard or the Find & Replace drawer)), to the desktop as clippings or into other Drag and Drop compatible applications.
2 Move the mouse over the selected text.
3 Click and drag the text to where you want it.
4 Release the mouse button.
> Press [option] as you drag your selection, Nisus Writer Express places
a copy of your selection where you drop it."

It works as described above with the addition that you can also of course drag and drop text within a single NWX document, it doesn't have to be to another document or window. Dragging to another window/document/application copies the selected text whereas dragging to another place in the same document moves it (unless [option] is used to copy it instead).
eolake
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Hmmm, odd

Post by eolake »

(Good thing I asked.) Very odd, it sounds like it should work just like it does in almost every other Mac app I have used for ten years.
Only it doesn't. I can't grab the text. It is exactly like in Safari, if you try to grab a selected section, you just end up make a new, different selection instead.

... OK, I have now tested it on my G5 (I use a PowerBook for most purposes). It does not work there either. They both run the newest OS version.
Very strange, I can't imagine what could cause this...
dennisg
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Post by dennisg »

Until reading this post, I had thought that drag/drop didn't work in my version of NWE. But I went back to look at it again. Here's where I think the problem is: in most Mac apps, when you hover the cursor over selected text, the I-beam cursor changes to a pointer. By doing so, it tells you visually that the selected text is able to be drag/dropped. But in NWE, the I-beam cursor remains an I-beam cursor, which gave me the sense that I couldn't use drag/drop. Apparently, I'm wrong. Drag/drop works fine, although I'd rather have a traditional mouse pointer when I hover over selected text. Does this make sense to anyone?
- Dennis

"Is that your little friend in the wood chipper?"
cchapin
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Post by cchapin »

It makes sense to me, dennisg. My pointer doesn't change shape either, but I'm new to the Mac, so I didn't have any particular expectations as to what it ought to do. I've been dragging and dropping without difficulty.

But it sounds like eolake has actually tried to grab the selected text and drag it and has failed. Is that right, eo?

--Craig
eolake
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Post by eolake »

cchapin wrote:
But it sounds like eolake has actually tried to grab the selected text and drag it and has failed. Is that right, eo?

--Craig
That's right, Crai. :)
I've tried numerous times, since I can't really believe it.

Can the rest of you not drag text from Safari, either?
cchapin
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Post by cchapin »

I can drag text from Safari and drop it into Nisus Writer Express. I can drag text from NWE and drop it elsewhere in the same document or into a different NWE document. I'm using Mac OS X (10.3.5) and Nisus Writer Express 1.1.2.

I doubt this relates to your problem, but I sometimes get frustrated with my PowerBook's built-in pointing device. Even when I keep the button pressed down, it sometimes acts as if I've released it momentarily. This can cause text selection by dragging to go amiss, drag-and-drop to drop prematurely and so forth. But this is only an occasional problem, and your problem sounds like it's consistent.

--Craig
eolake
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Post by eolake »

cchapin wrote:I can drag text from Safari...
How friggin bizarre is this? I could never drag text in Safari, not on any of my machines. I can do it in Internet Explorer.
cchapin
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Post by cchapin »

Well, I'm stumped. Anybody else out there have an idea what's wrong?

--Craig
dennisg
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Post by dennisg »

This is a real longshot, eo, but I thought I'd ask anyway: do you, by any chance, have a wheel mouse that comes with its own software? If so, is it possible you have the behavior of the left button set on an app by app basis.
- Dennis

"Is that your little friend in the wood chipper?"
eolake
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Post by eolake »

dennisg wrote:This is a real longshot, eo, but I thought I'd ask anyway: do you, by any chance, have a wheel mouse that comes with its own software? If so, is it possible you have the behavior of the left button set on an app by app basis.
Good idea. I do have that.
But even though I have tried with an apple mouse, and dragging the mouse software out of Preference panes and rebooting, the situation has not changed.
Good try though, thanks. :)
charles
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Post by charles »

eolake:

To drag text in Cocoa apps, including Safari and NWE, you usually need to select the text, then click and hold on the selection for about a half second or more before you try the drag. Perhaps you are not waiting long enough before you start trying the drag? This is a subtle difference that can be easy to miss.

You can definitely to drag and drop in both NWE and Safari.

-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
eolake
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Post by eolake »

charles wrote:eolake:

To drag text in Cocoa apps, including Safari and NWE, you usually need to select the text, then click and hold on the selection for about a half second or more before you try the drag.
My god, you got it! That was it!

I can't believe it. Why don't Apple tell people something like this.
I am an experienced user, I work fast. It would never have occurred to me to sit and wait for half a second before doing something. Not if the interface did not indicate to me somehow that waiting was necessary.

Thank you very much.
cchapin
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Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

I wonder if the length of that delay can be adjusted. I have no idea where or how. I just wonder.

--Craig
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