Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[David Reitter]

> I'm very new to emacs and I wonder how I can copy some text from my
> webbrowser into an emacs buffer?

This depends on the distribution you're using. We have put together a  
distro that lets you use the same keyboard shortcuts that are  
standard on the Mac:

http://aquamacs.org

It comes with a number of customizations, but the underlying platform  
is an up-to-date GNU Emacs.

You can just copy & paste text over from another application with  
Command-C, Command-V as usual.

Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[francisrammeloo]

Hi all,

I'm very new to emacs and I wonder how I can copy some text from my
webbrowser into an emacs buffer?

(I use GNU Emacs on Mac OS X )


Best regards,
Francis

Re: Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[Friedrich Laher]

just select th portion of text in the browser window with the mouse ( 
mouse-1 down, move over the text )
then
in the emacs-window click mouse-2

(that way it works for me, netscape 7.1, SuSE Linux 9.1, KDE )

francisrammeloo@hotmail.com wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I'm very new to emacs and I wonder how I can copy some text from my
>webbrowser into an emacs buffer?
>
>(I use GNU Emacs on Mac OS X )
>
>
>Best regards,
>Francis
>
>_______________________________________________
>Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
>Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
>
>  
>

Re: Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[Sébastien Kirche]

At 08:08 on Aug 11 2005, francisrammeloo said :

> Hi all,
> 
> I'm very new to emacs and I wonder how I can copy some text from my
> webbrowser into an emacs buffer?
> 
> (I use GNU Emacs on Mac OS X )

Specifically, you can select and copy you text as usually with cmd-c and
to insert into Emacs ctrl-y. For the opposite : cmd-w and paste into any
other application as usual. If Cmd-y seems not to work, try Opt-w

If you are very new to Emacs,  i suggest you to type "Ctrl-h" then "t" :
it will launch the Emacs tutorial and should make you more familiar with
the keyboard strokes and general handling & behavior of Emacs.

BTW : in the tutorial the META  key is either the mac option or command,
it  depends on  the Emacs  configuration of  the mac-command-key-is-meta
variable.

-- 
Sébastien Kirche

Re: Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[Pascal Bourguignon]

Sébastien Kirche <sebastien.kirche.no@spam.free.fr.invalid> writes:

> At 08:08 on Aug 11 2005, francisrammeloo said :
>
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I'm very new to emacs and I wonder how I can copy some text from my
>> webbrowser into an emacs buffer?
>> 
>> (I use GNU Emacs on Mac OS X )
>
> Specifically, you can select and copy you text as usually with cmd-c and
> to insert into Emacs ctrl-y. For the opposite : cmd-w and paste into any
> other application as usual. If Cmd-y seems not to work, try Opt-w

All wrong!  (Sorry).

Well, ctrl-y is correct, but it's written C-y in emacs-speak.

cmd-w is Command-w = Apple-w = MS-Windows-w. Nothing to do with C-w

Opt-w is Alt-w and has nothing to do with (Meta-w) M-w which can also
be typed as ESC w. It's true that on keyboards lacking a Meta key, Alt
is often mapped to Meta, but this is not necessarily the case.

> If you are very new to Emacs,  i suggest you to type "Ctrl-h" then "t" :

Write it: C-h t

> it will launch the Emacs tutorial and should make you more familiar with
> the keyboard strokes and general handling & behavior of Emacs.

> BTW : in the tutorial the META  key is either the mac option or command,
> it  depends on  the Emacs  configuration of  the mac-command-key-is-meta
> variable.

Ah!  You see?  Meta can be mapped to Command instead of Alt!

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

Nobody can fix the economy.  Nobody can be trusted with their finger
on the button.  Nobody's perfect.  VOTE FOR NOBODY.

Re: Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[Sébastien Kirche]

At 11:08 on Aug 11 2005, Pascal Bourguignon said :

> All wrong!  (Sorry).
> 
> Well, ctrl-y is correct, but it's written C-y in emacs-speak.
> 
> cmd-w is Command-w = Apple-w = MS-Windows-w. Nothing to do with C-w
> 
> Opt-w is Alt-w and has nothing to do with (Meta-w) M-w which can also
> be typed as ESC w. It's true that on keyboards lacking a Meta key, Alt
> is often mapped to Meta, but this is not necessarily the case.
> 
> > If you  are very new to Emacs,  i suggest you to  type "Ctrl-h" then
> > "t" :
> 
> Write it: C-h t

Sorry Pascal, but i don't agree.

I am afraid that the terminology you use would be completely obscure and
unfamiliar to a Mac user who said himself that he is very new to Emacs.

With  Mac, you  talk about  the  Ctrl key,  Option key  and Command  (or
"Apple") key. 

You are  right about the  correct names for  the keys and the  usual way
emacs users describe  the combos C- S-  and M-, But i guess  that the OP
could have asked then what means M- or Meta.

Once he  will read  the tutorial,  I suppose it  will be  ok to  use the
common terms.

-- 
Sébastien Kirche

Re: Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[francisrammeloo]

I've read through the tutorial. I'm a little familiar with killing and
yanking already, although it feels really unnatural since I grew up in
a Windows environment with easy copy/paste mechanisms.

The reason I'm learning emacs is because I couldn't find a Ruby editor
on Mac that has debugging functionality. Emacs doens't appear to be the
easiest way...

Re: Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[Pascal Bourguignon]

francisrammeloo@hotmail.com writes:
> I'm very new to emacs and I wonder how I can copy some text from my
> webbrowser into an emacs buffer?
>
> (I use GNU Emacs on Mac OS X )

To paste is called yank in emacs.

So normally you copy or cut as usual in MacOSX, then you switch to
emacs and type: C-y  to paste.


(To copy is called kill-ring-save M-w and to cut is called kill-region
C-w, but if you use emacs on X, then everytime you select (mark) a
region, it's automatically "copied").

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
Until real software engineering is developed, the next best practice
is to develop with a dynamic system that has extreme late binding in
all aspects. The first system to really do this in an important way
is Lisp. -- Alan Kay

RE: Newbie: Copy&paste text from native application into emacs?

[Drew Adams]

    > I'm very new to emacs and I wonder how I can copy some text from my
    > webbrowser into an emacs buffer?

    To paste is called yank in emacs.
    (To copy is called kill-ring-save M-w and to cut is called kill-region
    C-w, but if you use emacs on X, then everytime you select (mark) a
    region, it's automatically "copied").

Helpful answer - the vocabulary can be confusing.

This kind of question (basics, terminology etc.) is dealt with very well in
both the Emacs manual and the newbie page on EmacsWiki.

Suggestion - How about adding a one-line footer automatically to each post
here:

  Newbie info: 1) Control-h i Emacs 2) http://www.emacswiki.org/

It would add 62 bytes of traffic to each post, but it might cut down on lots
of newbie Q&A, and, more importantly, it would help teach people to fish for
themselves (instead of teaching them to feed here).

Don't get me wrong. All questions about Emacs are welcome here, no matter
how basic. My point is that this could help people by steering them to
existing explanations of some stuff. (We can also update the wiki with the
useful Q&A that arises here - anyone can contribute.)

[The text quoted above is an example of a newbie Q&A, even though the
complete thread shows that this particular Q&A is not so simple as it might
appear - Apple key sequences etc. My point here is a general one.]