Copy/paste table cell content for execution on a terminal

[JoAnn]

We need to copy/paste material out of a document and pop
it into a terminal and run it.

We can successfully do this with content taken from a
simple WORD doc but when we copy/paste several lines of
text from within a table cell it doesn't work. We have to
grab one line at a time (vs. a block of information) then
have to add a carriage return/Enter from the terminal to
execute it.

Anyone have any idea why? And, more importantly, is there
some workaround for this (i.e. embed carriage returns in
the content contained in the table cell - format it
differently within the table cell?).

FYI ... the lines are already terminated in the table cell
(using a carriage return)and are not at the end of the
cell but in the middle.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day JoAnn,

Forgive me for being pedantic, but there is scope for some
misunderstanding in your exposition.

For a 'copied string' to operate a terminal window immediately,
when pasted, it must be terminated with a Carriage Return (CR).

That it works with a "simple WORD doc" would indicate that
the 'copied string' is in fact a full (one-line) PARAGRAPH complete
with its paragraph mark (¶ = CR).

EXACTLY the same principal will apply within a Table. Please
note that the end of text marker in a cell is NOT a CR - you
must insert paragraph markers to ensure that each command
is a paragraph.

You may have more than one command (paragraph) per cell.

If the paragraph wraps within the cell, that will make no difference.
In the 'simple doc', you can force the text to wrap by (unnecessarily)
bringing in the right margin, and it will still work.
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Australia

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[JoAnn]

Hi, Pat-

Yes ... what you say is needed is what they are telling me
already exists -- the group of lines are already
terminated with the cr (¶)within the table cell when
copied but the individual command lines are not being
executed on the terminal.

So ... I wanted to be sure there wouldn't be any reason
associated with a table that could cause this problem
(they say it happens all the time).

But now that I know for sure that it should work as long
as each line is terminated with a CR, I will go back to
them for a test copy and see if there is some other reason
Thanks for your help!
JoAnn

 

[JoAnn]

Just adding an update to my earlier reply to Pat with new
information obtained from the end user ...

Verified that the table lines being copied/pasted are
terminated correctly (with a carriage return)and they are
including the last paragraph marker in the group when they
copy it. The copied text comes from the middle of the
table cell (not the end) so it shouldn't be grabbing some
kind of 'end of cell' marker.

If they paste it directly from the table cell into the
terminal -- it loses the crs/lfs and becomes all one
paragraph that cannot be executed.

If they paste it from the table into a blank Word
document, then copy/paste the exact same content without
any changes made to it(this time from the Word document)
into the terminal, it executes fine.

Any idea how to work around this? They need to have this
capability and would like keep using tables.

I'm researching all other possibilities -- i.e. corrupted
table cell but if anyone has any suggestions, I would
really appreciate it!

Thanks!
JoAnn

 

[Pat Garard]

Hi JoAnne,

In some way or another, you are being misinformed.

It would be useful to WATCH THIS HAPPEN.

When you talk about a 'group' of lines, they must
EACH form a paragraph (in or out of a Table):

sort AnyFile > AnyFile.sort ¶
mv AnyFile.sort AnyFile ¶
lp -d laser2 AnyFile ¶

When pasted into the terminal window, they will
operate in the manner of a batch file (I have done
this in the past).

I can see no reason why the stated procedure
would not work from a Table.
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Australia

______________________________________

 

[JoAnn]

I agree ... this makes absolutely no sense ... something
has got to be wrong somewhere else.

Found out the user with the problem is running a lower
patch level of WORD -- hoping an update solves the problem.
I've asked another user to test it (with latest Word
version/patch installed).

Thanks for all your help! Will let you know if that
solves the problem.

 

[Pat Garard]

Thanks JoAnne,

I'd appreciate knowing!

Keep at it!!
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Australia

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