Copying and Pasting Transformations

[Robert Schleif]

By analogy to editing text in Windows programs, it would be nice if one could right click on a transformation and then choose "Copy transformation" from the resulting popup menu, and then go to the desired target location, right click again, and choose "Paste transformation" from the resulting popup menu.
If the above is not feasible, the following would make the copying and pasting operation much easier for me. Retain the yellow check marks. In the browser specific icons, relabel the icon whose rollover message currently says "Copy selected images" to "Copy selected transformation(s)" and change its function from copying and pasting to just copying, and add a new icon whose message says "Click on desired paste location" and whose operation is as stated.

[jsachs]

Both the methods you suggest imply creating an invisible image tree to hold the copied transformations. By the time you paste, the original transformations could be gone and you might have forgotten what collection of images in what order are on the clipboard. Using the current system, everything is visible at the time you copy and no extra copies get made which then need to get cleaned up later.

[Robert Schleif]

I understand your point, although, I don't have trouble with this problem when I am working with text in a word processor.
The current procedure for placing a copy of a transformation somewhere else would be less confusing if the rollover message associated with the seventh button to the right in the buttons above the image tree were changed from "Copy selected images" to "Paste selected transformation(s)". (I have become accustomed the general property of programs that copying places the object in an internal and invisible buffer, and that pasting then transfers the object to the visible and selected position.) A similar change could be made in the confirmation notification.

[jsachs]

I have renamed the button captions and messages for the next release.

In all honesty, I have limited interest in tearing apart the copy code I recently finished writing and re-implementing at this point it as it is complicated and it took weeks to get the current version working reliably. Also, there are different sets of restrictions of what collections of images you can copy vs what collections you can close which makes the Copy/Cut/Paste metaphor tricky to implement. Personally, I prefer seeing everything I selected so I can visualize what copy or close is going to do just before performing the action. I think Copy/Cut/Paste works better for text which is linear than for editing a hierarchical tree.

[tomczak]

For what it's worth, the current PWP's Copy/Paste metaphor is not that different from copying and pasting cells within a spreadsheet. When you select a range of cells and press Copy, those cells are highlighted and then Paste clones these still highlighted cells into another location. If, after hitting Copy you change the range of cells, Paste reflects it (if you remove the highlight from the cells to be copied, Paste is disabled).

We all have been conditioned to expect that Copy must be followed by Paste, but if you think of the PWP Copy button as a 'Clone' or 'Duplicate' or 'Insert' the transformations that have been selected before to another location, the procedure is quite logical and transparent.

[Robert Schleif]

Thank you. Relabeling the button captions will help me a lot.