Small request (option for "paste plain text" as default)

[drleper]

I find that when I'm using Mellel (for academic papers) I almost never want to paste text and retain the formatting. Could there be an option to make "paste as plain text" the default? Bookends has this option, and I find it very nice.

Sorry if this is already possible, I couldn't see any option in the settings.

Thanks.

[donb]

In the Edit Menu there is an item Paste Special. When you click on this, Plain Text can be chosen. The default keyboard shortcut is command-shift-option-v. If you want to make plain text the default paste style, you would have to change this shortcut using a macro program such as Keyboard Maestro.

Don Broadribb

[drleper]

Yep, I would like to be able to do that with Cmd-V (by default). Thanks for the tip on Keyboard Maestro, be great to see the option in Mellel though (Bookends has it already )

[suavito]

Cmd+v pasting rich text is a default of OS X so that's maybe why the Redlers did not want to change that in Mellel. It would be confusing.

An option to let the user choose of course is always nice.

But couldn't you change the paste behaviour already by setting cmd+v in the OS preferences to Paste Plain Text for either Mellel or all applications?

Besides from that you might give PTHPasteboard http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard/ a look. It is one of the many, many programs that offer a clipboard history. But PTHPasteboard does a lot more, it allows customized filters including an option to paste either rich text or plain text.

[drleper]

The only thing I could find on changing it at the OS level was this, and that didn't work for me (Mac OS 10.7.3).

I'd still like to see Mellel have a "paste-as-plaintext by default (⌘-V)" option! Alt-Cmd-Shift-V is a really nasty short-cut to use regularly :/

Actually retaining formatting when pasting into Mellel seems to go against the philosophy of the program, as you would normally be using styles rather than ad-hoc formatting. Pasting and matching to the current style would seem to suit the Mellel workflow more.

[shades]

I paste into most of my work. The key combo CMD+OPT+SHIFT+V is second nature, I don't even think about it (except when I use NWP, then it is CMD+SHIFT+V). And much of my work is academic.

[drleper]

I paste into most of my work. The key combo CMD+OPT+SHIFT+V is second nature, I don't even think about it (except when I use NWP, then it is CMD+SHIFT+V). And much of my work is academic.

Really? It's extremely awkward for me to achieve with just one hand. Anyways, here's a screenshot of Bookends' nice feature for this;



Can only hope, cheers

[suavito]

The only thing I could find on changing it at the OS level was this, and that didn't work for me (Mac OS 10.7.3).

I'd still like to see Mellel have a "paste-as-plaintext by default (⌘-V)" option! Alt-Cmd-Shift-V is a really nasty short-cut to use regularly :/

Actually retaining formatting when pasting into Mellel seems to go against the philosophy of the program, as you would normally be using styles rather than ad-hoc formatting. Pasting and matching to the current style would seem to suit the Mellel workflow more.

The TUAW tip shows the right way to change the keyboard shortcut. It is important that you use the exact name of the menu item. In Mellel (beta 3.0 that is, I can't check if in earlier versions this item is named differently) it is "Plain Text". If you use Mellel with a non-English user interface you have to have type the menu item name in that language.

[drleper]

The TUAW tip shows the right way to change the keyboard shortcut. It is important that you use the exact name of the menu item. In Mellel (beta 3.0 that is, I can't check if in earlier versions this item is named differently) it is "Plain Text". If you use Mellel with a non-English user interface you have to have type the menu item name in that language.

I'm on Mellel 2.9.1 and there's actually two shortcut items named "Plain Text". The first is under Edit->Copy Special, while the second is under Edit->Paste Special. Doing the TUAW tip sets ⌘-V to Edit->Copy Special->Plain Text. I tried to specify a submenu name as well, but couldn't get it working.

Are these menu names different in the Mellel 3.0 beta?

[rpcameron]

Are these menu names different in the Mellel 3.0 beta?

If they're not, perhaps this should be a wake-up call to the Redlers to either: a) allow the user to customize the keyboard shortcuts within the app; or, b) to ensure that Mellel cooperates nicely with the system's method for configuring shortcuts, and make every meny item distinct.

[kjmatthews]

Are these menu names different in the Mellel 3.0 beta?

They have not changed (as of yet) in Mellel 3.0 beta.

[suavito]

I'm on Mellel 2.9.1 and there's actually two shortcut items named "Plain Text". The first is under Edit->Copy Special, while the second is under Edit->Paste Special. Doing the TUAW tip sets ⌘-V to Edit->Copy Special->Plain Text. I tried to specify a submenu name as well, but couldn't get it working.

That's too bad, I wasn't aware of that. Apple wanted to make it simple—as always—and because of that you don't have to type the whole path of menu/submenu/item but just the menu item. This works as long as there are no two or more menu items with the same name.

I go with rpcameron, the Redlers have to change this in the upcoming version 3. Simply rename it to "Copy Plain Text" and "Paste Plain Text" and that's it. I would not recommend a preference for this in Mellel. The OS keyboard settings should be the one place where to set this for every program, and if you start with a keyboard setting for Copying in Mellel, then a lot of other requests like this will follow.