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How to reliably copy/paste content _with_ new lines, _without_ quotes

  • September 11, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 59 views
H
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Hi,

I have a rollup field that uses 

 
ARRAYJOIN(values, "\n")
 
to create text with new lines. I want to copy and past that text to another application.
 
I'm think this worked at one point, but now my options seem to be:
 
a) Copy from the field in the grid view, in which case I get the new lines, but the whole text is surrounded by quotes that I don't want, or
 
b) Copy from the expanded view of the field, or the field in the expanded record view, in which case I get the text without quotes, but all run together without new lines.
 
Neither of those behaviours seems right, and the behaviour being different in the two locations seems odd too.
 
Hamish
 
 

2 replies

S
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  • Sho
  • Inspiring
  • 560 replies
  • September 12, 2023

Hi @hamishharvey,

When copying multi-line text (text with line breaks) from an Airtable, there are two states
If you single click on a field and copy it, it will be enclosed in (").
If the field is in edit state (text cursor is blinking in the field) and all selected and copied, it will not be enclosed in (").

I guess copying from the extended view is the same as the edit state.

H
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  • hamishharvey
  • Author
  • New Participant
  • 1 reply
  • September 12, 2023

Hi @hamishharvey,

When copying multi-line text (text with line breaks) from an Airtable, there are two states
If you single click on a field and copy it, it will be enclosed in (").
If the field is in edit state (text cursor is blinking in the field) and all selected and copied, it will not be enclosed in (").

I guess copying from the extended view is the same as the edit state.


Thank you @Sho  - useful to understand that the quoting behavior matches an editable field.

I wonder what the logic of that is. Why add quotes for me - if I wanted quotes I'd have added them...

Further investigation says the new line issue is specific to the helpscout message editor. If I copy/paste the (unquoted) text anywhere else, I get new lines.

But! If I copy paste editable multi line text to the same place, new lines come through. And if I copy text with new lines from anywhere else to helpscout - fine. And if I copy the generated text from airtable to elsewhere, then copy and paste from there to helpscout - fine.

So the reason this behaviour changed recently is a change at helpscout - they released a new message editor. 

But it seems there's a difference in what airtable puts on the clipboard between editable long text and the text I've generated with \n new lines. That difference is ignored by some other tools, including the Gmail

 


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