Copying in all iWorks apps often gives No Text in Clipboard

[ccstone]

@Tom

I don’t think it depends on the data types of the worksheet …

Hey Tom,

Numbers holds various data internally differently than what it displays.

The easiest way to work with that is to get the formatted value of a cell instead of the value.

-Chris

[ccstone]

Hey Folks,

James and I have worked pretty extensively on this problem off-forum, and here’s an example of what I’ve learned in exploring Numbers’ AppleScript dictionary.

AppleScripting Apple’s Numbers Spreadsheets

Getting the data directly spares us all problems related to using the clipboard.

-Chris

[jehrler]

Has @peternlewis confirmed this issue? I know that @Tom and I have both seen it in action.

[ccstone]

Has anyone compiled a detailed bug-report and sent it to the Keyboard Maestro support address?

While Peter reads the user forum, all serious support requests should be routed appropriately:

https://www.stairways.com/main/contact

-Chris

[peternlewis]

No, I have not investigated this issue. Without some sort of repeatable case or at least some way of duplicating the issue, I can’t really investigate it. I don’t use Numbers myself often enough to see any issue if there is one.

My first guess would be that you are selecting a cell and Numbers is putting information about the cell on the clipboard rather than the text, or that Numbers might be putting either an old style styled text or some iWork internal format on the clipboard and not plain or RTF text, but really there is not enough information for me to make any kind of a judgement on what might be the issue.

[Tom]

@peternlewis

Without some sort of repeatable case or at least some way of duplicating the issue, I can't really investigate it. I don't use Numbers myself often enough to see any issue if there is one.

I have sent you a mail with a minimal macro, a Numbers test file and instructions how to reproduce.

The odd thing is, as I tried it a couple of days ago, I got the same “No Text in Clipboard” also in Pages and Keynote. Today however it occurs only in Numbers.

[peternlewis]

I tried @Tom’s test and it worked every time (30+ times) for me.

So perhaps there is some other confounding part of the puzzle, maybe some other clipboard app or something else mucking around with the system.

[Tom]

@peternlewis

So perhaps there is some other confounding part of the puzzle

Yes, I think you can replace the “perhaps” with “without a doubt”.

I have quit the obvious suspects (LaunchBar, Typinator, and a couple of others) but this changes nothing.

But, finding third-party interferences is rarely a straight-forward thing

Since I’m not using any clipboard macros with Numbers, I will not invest more time in this. But, of course, if I find the cause someday by accident, I’ll let you know.

[peternlewis]

@Tom

But, finding third-party interferences is rarely a straight-forward thing

Options would be trying after Safe Booting and creating a new (or Guest) account and trying there.

That only really tells you how deeply the problem is situated though, but it may give some sort of lead if the problem does not appear in either of those cases.

[eurobubba]

For whatever it’s worth (probably not much), I can add that I’ve seen “No Text in Clipboard” when copying from applications other than the iWork apps — but I wasn’t logging my actions at the time and can’t recall exactly where.