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  2. Question about retaining formatting on the web when copying to the clipboard

Re: Question about retaining formatting on the web when copying to the clipboard

Jason White
 

It’s worth noting that some programs – Microsoft Office applications in particular, but perhaps others as well – let you choose whether to preserve font attributes and styles when pasting into a document. You can keep the original fonts and styles from the source text, merge them with the style of the document into which you’re pasting, or keep just the text (excluding the original formatting entirely).

 

It’s a good idea to be careful which option you use, and to make sure that the styles and formatting of the resulting document are as you want them to be after pasting into it – otherwise, it’s likely to look poorly formatted.

 

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Walker, Michael E
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2018 3:11 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] Question about retaining formatting on the web when copying to the clipboard

 

Thank you for pointing out copy from page. I never dug deeply into this. I just pressed CTRL+C in JAWS to copy, and it worked out of the box, so no more troubleshooting was needed on my end. I just assumed NVDA would be seemless like that.

 

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf Of Gene
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2018 1:46 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] Question about retaining formatting on the web when copying to the clipboard

 

However, until perhaps eight or ten years ago, JAWS didn't have a copy from page feature.  The only option while in the Virtual PC Cursor was to copy from the Virtual PC Cursor.  This is a comparatively new feature in the period of time JAWS has been available.

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Friday, August 17, 2018 1:39 PM

Subject: Re: [nvda] Question about retaining formatting on the web when copying to the clipboard

 

On Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 02:28 PM, Gene wrote:

JAWS has a copy from clipboard option and, as I recall, copy from page is the default option.

The following is not hair splitting, or at least not intentionally so.

These three objects/areas are used by JAWS (and, the equivalent, by NVDA):  Virtual cursor (buffer), clipboard (Windows system clipboard), and the actual page as presented.

I would definitely say, based on my years tutoring JAWS, that copies are, by default, not done from the virtual cursor, but from the page.  Copy and paste has always, even when what was being copied is not visible (as JAWS makes no effort to keep actual visual page and location in the virtual cursor synchronized for text), formatted as it appears if I can see it.  Anything copied, when copied, gets placed on the clipboard, which is utterly independent of the screen reader itself.

So far as I'm concerned, this is the most reasonable option, because any screen reader loads its virtual cursor when it gets its hands on something and the fact that the probability that one is likely to be primarily and exclusively communicating with individuals for whom visual formatting is "insignificant" is very, very small.  Maintaining WYSIWYG is, as has been pointed out here as the crux of the topic, very largely essential for communicating effectively with those not using screen readers, which I doubt that anyone here would argue is a far larger chunk of the world's populace than those that do.
 
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Brian - Windows 10 Home, 64-Bit, Version 1803, Build 17134  

    A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all humankind.

           ~ Richard Dehmel

 

 
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