How to paste text to a bullet list?

[Thomas Lohrum]

Often i want to paste some text to an existing bullet list.

Example:

• aaaaaaaa
  bbbbbbb
  ccccccc
• <--- paste text here
• dddddddd
  eeeeeee
  fffffffffff

Text to paste:

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3

Each line is separated by CR + LF.

After pasting i want my text like this:

• aaaaaaaa
  bbbbbbb
  ccccccc
• Line 1
  Line 2
  Line 3
• dddddddd
  eeeeeee
  fffffffffff

But what i get is this:

• aaaaaaaa
  bbbbbbb
  ccccccc
• Line 1
• Line 2
• Line 3
• dddddddd
  eeeeeee
  fffffffffff

Please be aware this is reproducible only, when inserting text that has been copied by a different editor. When you copy the text from inside CN it will paste the text without bullets at all.

Does anyone have an idea how to achieve this easily?

Does it actually require a new feature, such as converting text to paragraph?

Thanks.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

Hi Thomas,

I guess this is why you've added this request to the roadmap?

Short answer is yes, it requires a new feature, because it requires replacing CR+LFs with vertical tabs which are used to separate sub-paragraphs within one list item.

However, the fastest way to do it would be to use a tool such as AutoHotKey. I guess it should be possible to assign a hot key to an action "take text from clipboard, replace CR+LFs with \v, put back to clipboard, paste".

[Thomas Lohrum]

Hi Alex,

Hi Thomas, I guess this is why you've added this request to the roadmap?

Yes.

However, the fastest way to do it would be to use a tool such as AutoHotKey. I guess it should be possible to assign a hot key to an action "take text from clipboard, replace CR+LFs with \v, put back to clipboard, paste".

I don't want to install extra software. I coded an application which gets the clipboard content, replaces CRLFs and copies back to the clipboard in one step. Created a link to the exe within the Start Menu folder and assigned a global shortcut to it. It's a workaround.... waiting for the feature to be implemented natively inside CintaNotes. CintaNotes does things other applications don't support, that is why i like to use CintaNotes very much.

Thomas

[Thomas Lohrum]

Alex,

after using my workaround for a day i better understand the issue. While creating a paragraph composed by a number of lines is one requirement, i also have the need to append more lines to an existing paragraph. I realized that pasting is actually all it takes.

Rules:

• In case the caret is positioned inside a paragraph, which is only possible in bullet lists, add the content from the clipboard as a paragraph. In that case Cr+Lf must be replaced by vertical tabs.
• In case the caret is positioned outside a paragraph, paste the text as is. This is the current design.

After all it does not require a new function. Actually this is a natural extension. When pasting text to a paragraph, add it as a paragraph. The change does not affect the current design of creating bullet lists. Thus it should be rather easy to implement.

I checked with MS Word. It does create separate bullet lists, regardless whether a bullet already exists or not. Imo, my suggestion is smarter, because it does handle both cases. To create a bullet list for each line, first paste the text, select it, then create the list. To append as a paragraph, first create the list, then paste the text.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

Thanks for the clarifications! However, the rules that you specified are not 100% clear to me, namely:

In case the caret is positioned inside a paragraph, which is only possible in bullet lists

Why is that? It is very possible that the caret is positioned inside of a paragraph which doesn't have the "bullet list item" style. Also, vertical tabs are possible not only in lists.

Maybe you really meant "when pasting text containing CRLFs into a paragraph which is part of a bullet list"?
In this case, what do we do with the "tail" of the text (suppose we paste somewhere in the middle of the list item).
And what to do when I do want individual lines of pasted text to become separate list items (example: grocery list)?

[Thomas Lohrum]

Maybe you really meant "when pasting text containing CRLFs into a paragraph which is part of a bullet list"?

Yes!

Thanks for your clarification, too.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

Great, what about my questions then?

In this case, what do we do with the "tail" of the text (suppose we paste somewhere in the middle of the list item)?
And what to do when I do want individual lines of pasted text to become separate list items (example: grocery list)?

[Thomas Lohrum]

Not sure i understand, but i think nothing should happen with the tail. It remains part of the paragraph.

Hm, that actually makes sense

Turn off bullet list, paste, select text and create the bullet list.

No, this is too backwards. By default CN should work the same as Word and Wordpad. It's the new function that should require some extra action on your side. Perhaps a separate shortcut like Ctrl+Shift+V?

[Thomas Lohrum]

Not sure i understand, but i think nothing should happen with the tail. It remains part of the paragraph.

Hm, that actually makes sense

Alex,

something is broken with the thread. Obviously your answer got mixed with mine. Nevertheless, to answer your last question:

Turn off bullet list, paste, select text and create the bullet list.

No, this is too backwards. By default CN should work the same as Word and Wordpad. It's the new function that should require some extra action on your side. Perhaps a separate shortcut like Ctrl+Shift+V?

Just because MS Software is standard does not imply, it is any useful If Word would do the job better, i might as well store my notes there. It is CintaNotes which supports unique features and demonstrates software can do better. Rather than introducing a new shortcut, it might be more interesting to add an ini-setting. Something like "Editor.PasteAsParagraph=0|1". I'd turn it on as default, because i think it better meets user expectation.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

something is broken with the thread. Obviously your answer got mixed with mine.

That's my fault, sorry. By mistake I pressed "Edit" instead of "Reply". But I think it should be no problem to still follow the discussion.

Just because MS Software is standard does not imply, it is any useful If Word would do the job better, i might as well store my notes there. It is CintaNotes which supports unique features and demonstrates software can do better. Rather than introducing a new shortcut, it might be more interesting to add an ini-setting. Something like "Editor.PasteAsParagraph=0|1". I'd turn it on as default, because i think it better meets user expectation.

Ok, let's have this setting, it's no problem. But by default CN should follow established standards and principle of least surprise. Especially because CN is not a word processor and text editing is not intended to be its competitive advantage.

[Thomas Lohrum]

Ok, let's have this setting, it's no problem. But by default CN should follow established standards and principle of least surprise.

Ok, thanks Alex.

Especially because CN is not a word processor and text editing is not intended to be its competitive advantage.

Maybe it is not intended, but writing with CN is really productive. Using sections as chapters and manual sorting to organize notes order, it can even be used to write handbooks. With its HTML export CN offers (limited) CMS capabilities. There is so much you can do with CN, besides taking notes. Even use it as a lightweight project management system, by using tags efficiently. CN is an allrounder and editing is smooth. Ever tried to organize and edit text in MS Word using bullet lists? It's a pain, whereas CN is a joy.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

Ok, thanks Alex.

Final wording of the task:

Code: Select all

Add option "editor.lists.paste.alwaysintoitem" with default value of zero.
1. On pasting, if caret is inside of a list item, and "editor.lists.paste.alwaysintoitem" is 1, convert CRLFs into vertical tabs.
2. Add context menu item "Paste Into List Item Ctrl+Shift+V", placed after "Paste",
and visible only when caret is inside of a list. It should do the convertion of CRLFs to vertical tabs regardless of the aforemetioned setting.

Maybe it is not intended, but writing with CN is really productive. Using sections as chapters and manual sorting to organize notes order, it can even be used to write handbooks. With its HTML export CN offers (limited) CMS capabilities. There is so much you can do with CN, besides taking notes. Even use it as a lightweight project management system, by using tags efficiently. CN is an allrounder and editing is smooth. Ever tried to organize and edit text in MS Word using bullet lists? It's a pain, whereas CN is a joy.

That's all well and good, really But most of all we need something what we can use as our competitive advantage for marketing purposes. Being a nice all-rounder and thus pleasing everyone is a road to nowhere, unfortunately.

[Thomas Lohrum]

Final wording of the task:
Add option "editor.lists.paste.alwaysintoitem" with default value of zero.
1. On pasting, if caret is inside of a list item, and "editor.lists.paste.alwaysintoitem" is 1, convert CRLFs into vertical tabs.
2. Add context menu item "Paste Into List Item Ctrl+Shift+V", placed after "Paste",
and visible only when caret is inside of a list. It should do the convertion of CRLFs to vertical tabs regardless of the aforemetioned setting.

In general this is fine. Please be aware though, there already exists special pasting functionality with other applications. Chrome uses Ctrl+Shift+V to paste plain text (it removes formatting of the text). Word and Outlook support Ctrl+Alt+V to paste special, also including an option to remove formatting.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

In general this is fine. Please be aware though, there already exists special pasting functionality with other applications. Chrome uses Ctrl+Shift+V to paste plain text (it removes formatting of the text). Word and Outlook support Ctrl+Alt+V to paste special, also including an option to remove formatting.

Yes, I'm aware of these pasting options, thanks. Probably in the future we'll implement "Paste special" as well. But for now let's settle with the current task definition.