Copy disabled

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agilefalcon
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Copy disabled

Post by agilefalcon »

I am writing a newsletter and it seems that this document and any other that I open have a problem: I can no longer copy any section of text or a table to paste it elsewhere.

I've opened several documents and none of them have a contextual menu that permits me to copy the text!!

Any ideas?

Chris
credneb
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by credneb »

Every now and then Nisus also stops responding to any keyboard input for me. I have never been able to correlate this to any specific action I have taken, but the problem has been resolved by quitting and restarting Nisus. I have usually been able to quit using the mouse, and when not, cmd-escape to force quit works -- but curiously it does NOT report Nisus as not responding (hung).

Using NWP 3.01 on a mid-2014 MBPro with OSX10.11.6.
adryan
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by adryan »

G’day, Cliff et al

I think these sound like two different problems.

Since upgrading to Mojave, I have noticed frequent (but unpredictable) annoying intervals of keyboard unresponsiveness; however, it is not confined to Nisus Writer. The period of unresponsiveness resolves itself within (say) 5 seconds, without any intervention on my part. The keyboard buffer has been working in the interim because its contents (including any commands represented) are then dumped into the current document or executed. I get the feeling that some sort of autosaving process is in operation, but I have Time Machine turned off and I can’t see where else I might be able to stop this behavior.

I note that Cliff is using El Capitan rather than Mojave; I never used El Capitan. It’s hard to know whether his and my problem are related somehow, but I thought it was worth mentioning, in case someone else had some words of wisdom on the subject.

To me, Chris’s problem sounds different. It might be helpful (but probably not to me!) to know the specifications of computer, operating system and NWP version. In the first instance, I would restart the computer, relaunch NWP, and see whether the behavior persisted. If it did, I would reinstall NWP.

If contextual menus are also absent in other applications besides NWP, I’d suggest reinstalling the operating system.

I should perhaps mention that, on a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, Control-clicking on a Finder selection does not seem to reveal a contextual menu as it did in previous models. To see contextual menus, you need to single-click with two fingers simultaneously. This is the “Secondary click” in System Preferences… > Trackpad > Point & Click.

Cheers,
Adrian
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martin
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by martin »

Hello Chris: we're sorry you're having trouble copying. We'd like to help but need a few more details to narrow this down. A few questions:

1. You implied the copy command was both "disabled" and/or perhaps missing. Is the command entirely missing or just disabled?
2. You said this was a problem with the contextual menu. Do you see copy commands on the main menu under Edit > Copy?
exegete77
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by exegete77 »

I have had this problem for the past 2-3 months. I use Paste Text Only (OPT + SHIFT +CMD + V). When I use the mouse and select the menu, it works, but with the key command, nothing happens.

Mojave 10.14.4

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martin
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by martin »

exegete77 wrote: 2019-04-18 14:54:07 I have had this problem for the past 2-3 months. I use Paste Text Only (OPT + SHIFT +CMD + V). When I use the mouse and select the menu, it works, but with the key command, nothing happens.
Does your keyboard shortcut always fail? If so can you please check and verify that your keyboard shortcut is properly set in the "Menu Key" preferences? I normally use Command + Shift + V for Paste Text Only, but setting your shortcut worked properly for me:
prefs.png
prefs.png (65.93 KiB) Viewed 21585 times
exegete77
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by exegete77 »

Well, after many attempts to fix it, I think that the app Copy’em Paste hijacks or prevents any kind of past in NWP. So I disabled it and had no problem.
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waltzmn
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by waltzmn »

Just to confirm that this problem is at least semi-real: I too have assigned keyboard shortcuts to copy text only and paste text only, and I've had a lot of trouble with them. Two observations, for what they are worth:

First, for me, the problem is MUCH worse when dealing with outside programs (typically FileMaker Pro and Excel). NisusWriter is good at handling its own clipboard, much worse (it appear) at handling external clipboard.

Second, the problem seems to be worst when I first launch NisusWriter. My most typical first operation of the morning is to paste a big block of text from FileMaker into NisusWriter, and my informal estimate is that this fails about 50% of the time. NWP will ignore the keyboard command. If I just plain paste, this often solves the problem; after that, the keyboard commands tend to work. Might NWP not be loading its key map? (I notice that it sometimes fails to load all my own macros; I have to quit and relaunch.)
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martin
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by martin »

exegete77 wrote: 2019-05-04 15:18:34 Well, after many attempts to fix it, I think that the app Copy’em Paste hijacks or prevents any kind of past in NWP. So I disabled it and had no problem.
Have you contacted Copy’em Paste about the problem? I haven't used that app, but Nisus Writer doesn't do anything exotic with the clipboard. When you paste in Nisus Writer we access the clipboard using longstanding standard methods provided by Apple.
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martin
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by martin »

waltzmn wrote: 2019-05-05 18:26:40the problem seems to be worst when I first launch NisusWriter. My most typical first operation of the morning is to paste a big block of text from FileMaker into NisusWriter, and my informal estimate is that this fails about 50% of the time
I wonder if this isn't a problem with FileMaker not vending the copied data immediately? If it's a large data set you copied, perhaps FileMaker is spending some time processing or exporting it, before it's made available to the system (and thus other apps). Have you ever tried your morning routine, but instead of switching into Nisus Writer, try pasting into TextEdit?
Might NWP not be loading its key map?
Keyboard shortcuts are loaded by Nisus Writer at launch. Once you're interacting with an open document window, your shortcuts are loaded and ready.

There is one caveat: keyboard shortcuts won't necessarily be displayed on the menus right away. That is, you might not see a shortcut like ⇧⌘C listed immediately on the main menu. Those displayed shortcuts are updated in the background as processing time is available. But regardless of that keyboard shortcuts will work right away.
(I notice that it sometimes fails to load all my own macros; I have to quit and relaunch.)
Do you mean that you don't see all your macros on the menu? If so, that does sound like a potential bug. Are your macros stored anywhere exotic? For example, on a removable drive, Dropbox, etc.

The next time your macros fail to load and display, perhaps you can send us a feedback report using the menu Help > Send Feedback. Please be sure to checkmark the options to send us log files.
waltzmn
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by waltzmn »

{I wrote} the problem seems to be worst when I first launch NisusWriter. My most typical first operation of the morning is to paste a big block of text from FileMaker into NisusWriter, and my informal estimate is that this fails about 50% of the time
{Martin replied} I wonder if this isn't a problem with FileMaker not vending the copied data immediately? If it's a large data set you copied, perhaps FileMaker is spending some time processing or exporting it, before it's made available to the system (and thus other apps). Have you ever tried your morning routine, but instead of switching into Nisus Writer, try pasting into TextEdit?
I haven't with FileMaker and NisusWriter and TextEdit, but I have done it with Excel and NisusWriter and BBEdit. (I have the same problem with Excel as with FileMaker: NisusWriter won't paste styled text.) BBEdit pastes the unstyled text just fine. Go back to NisusWriter, and it still won't paste. I know this in detail because it caused some data damage on a job I did before I realized what NWP was doing. :-(

I mentioned this once before, and you told me (paraphrasing, perhaps slightly inaccurately) that NisusWriter, even when choosing "Paste Text Only," grabs the formatted (RTF?) clipboard rather than the plain text clipboard, and gave reasons why this was logical -- to get around it, you would need THREE paste options, not just two. I wish there were a preference, or something, that would use let me use the plain text clipboard for pasting plain text. I'm getting used to pasting through BBEdit when I have to. :-(
{I wrote} (I notice that it sometimes fails to load all my own macros; I have to quit and relaunch.)
{Martin replied} Do you mean that you don't see all your macros on the menu? If so, that does sound like a potential bug. Are your macros stored anywhere exotic? For example, on a removable drive, Dropbox, etc.
To clarify: The Macro menu appears as expected. At the top is "New Macro" and such. Then we get to the macros themselves, starting with NWP's supplied macros -- Application ►, etc. As best I can tell, the macros shipped with NWP always appear. But, sometimes, the Macro menu is short, and has only those pre-supplied macros, not the ones I have added. (I won't swear that all the NWP macros appear; I know that none of mine do.) My macros are all in the folder that appears when use the "Show Macros Folder in Finder." Unless there are two macros folders, one of them a pristine folder of macros supplied by NWP and the other the one I have modified, my macros just aren't found

I agree, it is REALLY strange. I've never had it happen twice in a row; re-launching always fixes it. It doesn't always happen -- it didn't today. I will send feedback and log files the next time I'm in a position to do so.
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martin
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by martin »

waltzmn wrote: 2019-05-08 05:02:01 that NisusWriter, even when choosing "Paste Text Only," grabs the formatted (RTF?) clipboard rather than the plain text clipboard
That's correct, Nisus Writer will obtain formatted text from the clipboard if available, even when pasting as plain text. That's because Nisus Writer does special kinds of conversions that might be beneficial, eg: converting footnotes so their content is not lost.

If I recall correctly from our private correspondence, you were having trouble with this conversion taking a long time, due to importing and converting whatever formatted content FileMaker was vending via the clipboard. That's a different problem than paste not working at all.
I wish there were a preference, or something, that would use let me use the plain text clipboard for pasting plain text
That's an idea, but I'm not sure it sounds better than having 3 different paste commands. I could see users wanting both behaviors available, depending on where the content was copied. Maybe we really do need another command, something like "Paste Raw Plain Text" or "Paste Unconverted Plain Text". I'll file it as a potential enhancement in our issue tracker.
As best I can tell, the macros shipped with NWP always appear. But, sometimes, the Macro menu is short, and has only those pre-supplied macros, not the ones I have added. (I won't swear that all the NWP macros appear; I know that none of mine do.) My macros are all in the folder that appears when use the "Show Macros Folder in Finder."
That is odd and naturally should not occur. Are your macros in the folder that shows when using "Show Macros Folder in Finder", even when the problem occurs? If Nisus Writer has trouble accessing your preferred macros folder for any reason (eg: permissions) then it will fall back to an internal folder that only includes the default macros. That could explain the behavior.

The next time the problem occurs I would:

1. Use the command "Show Macros Folder in Finder" to verify that the desired macros folder is still being used.
2. Use the command "Choose Macros Folder" to re-select the desired folder. This will also re-obtain permission to access the folder.

Unfortunately there seem to be more permissions problems now with sandboxing. We have seen intermittent reports from users randomly losing access to perfectly valid files and folders. It happens rarely, but it does occur. I personally feel there are bugs lurking in Apple's sandboxing feature, but it's all very hard to diagnose. Apple locks it down by design, in order to provide security. We really don't have much influence over it.
waltzmn
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by waltzmn »

{Martin wrote:} If I recall correctly from our private correspondence, you were having trouble with this conversion taking a long time, due to importing and converting whatever formatted content FileMaker was vending via the clipboard. That's a different problem than paste not working at all.
Sometimes it was more than slow. On occasion, it took down the system -- the conversion consumed the entire system memory (not just NWP's memory), so the OS started shutting things down. Without letting the programs shut down. Just force quit them. This has happened at least twice -- the second time, I saw it happening and managed to save most of my files while force quitting the ones I could. I grant that this is probably a system problem, since it's evidently taking place outside the sandbox, but it cost me some significant work. That was one of the things that pushed me to use BBEdit as an intermediate step for the text-only pastes. I wish there were some warning when it's going to happen, but there isn't -- the OS just starts to force quit things!

But there are two issues here. One is this memory hog/crash problem -- which, I grant, seems only to occur when pasting very large chunks of data (100K+, as a wild guess). The solution for this, for the time being, is to run all data through BBEdit. The other issue is when I choose paste text only, with relatively small selections, and nothing pastes. That's why I commented on this thread. I've had this happen with data from both FileMaker and Excel. Seems to happen more with Excel, but that's just my feeling, not proof. It is intermittent, and once a "good" paste happens, it seems to stop, at least with FileMaker. Not sure about Excel.

I offer this as data in case it helps. If it doesn't help, ignore it. :-)

[ ...missing macros... ]
That is odd and naturally should not occur. Are your macros in the folder that shows when using "Show Macros Folder in Finder", even when the problem occurs? If Nisus Writer has trouble accessing your preferred macros folder for any reason (eg: permissions) then it will fall back to an internal folder that only includes the default macros. That could explain the behavior.
If they aren't in the macros folder, it's not because I moved them. :-) But I can't say with certainty; I never tried. I will put your suggestions on file for the next time the problem occurs and try to offer more information. It doesn't happen very often; my mind says maybe two days out of seven, but it's probably less, because I am more likely to remember the times when it happens and I have to figure out a way to save my data so I can restart NWP. :-) I will take the best notes I can, the next time it occurs; I was just living with it, until now. NWP is worth occasional glitches like that.
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martin
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by martin »

The problem some users had with Copy or Paste commands being sometimes incorrectly disabled should be fixed in Nisus Writer Pro 3.0.2. The bug occurred when checking whether the keyboard shortcut should be enabled or not. If you tried to trigger certain copy/paste commands using the keyboard before you'd ever shown the associated menu on screen, the shortcut could fail and just beep.
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martin
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Re: Copy disabled

Post by martin »

waltzmn wrote: 2019-05-08 05:02:01NisusWriter, even when choosing "Paste Text Only," grabs the formatted (RTF?) clipboard rather than the plain text clipboard, and gave reasons why this was logical ... I wish there were a preference, or something, that would use let me use the plain text clipboard for pasting plain text
Nisus Writer Pro 3.0.2 grants your wish 🧞‍♂️ You can now use this menu to bypass all filtering during paste:

Edit > Paste > Paste Raw Text Only

Using that new command will have Nisus Writer paste whatever plain text is on the clipboard as-is, ignoring any rich text content the copy source may have provided.
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