Direct image pasting onto attachment cell without additional dialogue

[Adam_Wolach]

I have a base that includes screenshots in an attachment field. It would save me significant time to be able to ctrl-V onto the attachment cell while the image is on my clipboard, without opening an additional attachments dialogue.

As of now I have to click the ‘+’ button, click to remove focus from main window, then ctrl-V, click upload, then wait for upload. A streamlined solution would save 3 clicks and perform uploading in the background. If the attachments are large waiting to upload prevents me from working on the table for significant time.

This was mentioned previously here but not directly addressed: Attachments: Ability to paste (cmd + v) a screen shot into the field from my clipboard.

[Allen_Moldovan]

+1 from me, probably would save me a days + worth of time over the course of a year.,

[Bill_French]

Allen_Moldovan:

probably would save me a days + worth of time over the course of a year.,

It’s why Coda works so well with image content (in some use cases).

[Dominik_Bosnjak]

This is just a theory, but here’s a train of thought based on your description of the problem:

>You’re taking the screenshots yourself
>you’re using a Windows machine
>Windows machines have Capture Settings
>Capture Settings can point to anywhere
>a local Box Drive installation is somewhere
>Airtable supports Box sync

This is the most direct no-code route toward your stated goal that comes to mind, though more convoluted band-aids are likely possible using this same template and will even give you extra style points for jumping through all those API-shaped hoops.*

I haven’t experimented much with Box itself and rarely work with attachments in Airtable, so I might be misremembering how cloud drive syncing works. It shouldn’t give you any trouble with JPG or PNG files, though.

Pinging @Allen_Moldovan as well based on their reply here.

Poe's disclaimer

the style points are sardonic, accumulation can lead to tears, migraines, and existential dread, not necessarily in that order. Do not accumulate them if you’re on any medication, pregnant, or not pregnant.

[Adam_Wolach]

I appreciate the thought. In short, I am keeping track of items in an ad hoc fashion as I review materials for an exam. Each item gets a new record, in which I have an attachments field where I can put any number of images or videos, some screenshot, some copied via right click from a browser, etc. I imagine it would take many seconds or even minutes for a newly grabbed screenshot to sync to box and then my table as a new record, which unfortunately would also interrupt any flow I’ve been able to bring to the process.

[ScottWorld]

I wonder if the web clipper app would help you.

Alternatively, if you’re on Mac, after you take a screenshot, your screenshot floats on the screen for 5 seconds. While it’s floating, you can just drag-and-drop it into your attachment field.

[Dominik_Bosnjak]

ScottWorld:

I wonder if the web clipper app would help you.

Alternatively, if you’re on Mac, after you take a screenshot, your screenshot floats on the screen for 5 seconds. While it’s floating, you can just drag-and-drop it into your attachment field.

Cheers, this works wonderfully on the iPad as well.

[Adam_Wolach]

Interesting, thanks. I’m check it out thanks. I still think the current UI could be streamlined but maybe this will work for my use case.

[Adam_Wolach]

Web clipper did work very well for my use case, thanks! Now to just get it on firefox lol.

[ScottWorld]

Also, I just discovered this very cool Screenshot API so you can programmatically take screenshots of websites and send them into Airtable:

apiflash.com

A simple and elegant screenshot API made with Chromium and AWS Lambda.

ApiFlash is an easy to use screenshot API for developers. It is powerful and cost efficient as it is operating on top of AWS Lambda and Google Chrome.

apiflash.com

ApiFlash documentation to use our website screenshot API.

This is the official documentation of our screenshot API. You can find a guide of how to use the API and details about all the supported parameters.

[ScottWorld]

Ha, it looks like there are absolutely no shortage of screenshot APIs on the web:

ConvertAPI:

convertapi.com

Web & HTML REST APIs - ConvertAPI

Convert webpages, HTM, HTML, and MHML files to multiple destination formats like a PDF, PNG, JPEG, etc. using our fast and reliable REST API conversion service.

CloudConvert website to PDF:
https://cloudconvert.com/save-website-pdf

CloudConvert website to JPG/PNG:
https://cloudconvert.com/website-png-screenshot

Looks like it would be incredibly simple to use any of these tools to automate the process of taking screenshots of websites and bringing those screenshots into Airtable.

p.s. If anyone needs help implementing any of the above, I am an expert Airtable consultant with advanced expertise in APIs. Feel free to reach out to me through my website at scottworld.com.