Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
Why on earth would you want that many gazelles anyway?

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:
pass:
register,


             

Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register. Please log in or create an account.

TabPaste

Feature that lets you paste to a number of text boxes
  (+4)
(+4)
  [vote for,
against]

Simple idea, surpised there isn't a firefox plugin for this:

I have an excel sheet (eg):

Cow Dog Frog Horse

A web interface requires me to fill several text boxes:

Animal 1: Animal 2: Animal 3:

etc.

Since the tab order of the text fields is known, why can I just copy and paste in one action rather than having to go back and forth?

I know I could write a SQL script to import the list, but this would be handy, no?

not_only_but_also, Aug 08 2005

[link]






       erm. I didn't realise that there was a tab order in web forms - is that standard html ?

would you want it to delimit on commas or spaces ?
out of interest, what do you use your Excel sheet for ?
neilp, Aug 08 2005
  

       I think the action is not standard html, since what I find is that TABINDEX isn't always accepted (earlier MS and Netscape ... what about FireFox?) and some anchors are similarly unreliable, particularly with MSIE. I generally work with Acrobat, and I have to agree that my sheets won't cut and paste directly to forms with a tab order. I've thought at times it would be neat to be able to do it, however.
reensure, Aug 08 2005
  

       I just looked it up and it seems TABINDEX is standard HTML (4) and therefore supported in firefox. What you're asking for would be pretty easy to do, but.. well.. is it a common problem ?
neilp, Aug 08 2005
  

       Right [neilp]. By w3 standards it is. (me and books collide)   

       Here are scenarios:
1.  I want to copy & paste material from a page that included form data I've entered.
2.  I don't have a calculator, but I want to research data that has been entered across more than one area by a simple copy and paste
3.  I want the act of copy to automatically advance by tab and paste the copy to both (a.) my clipboard and (b.) my next spreadsheet field.
reensure, Aug 08 2005
  

       aah. the best we can do is to copy all the cells from the spreadsheet, and paste them all into a consecutive set in firefox. It that good enough ?
neilp, Aug 08 2005
  

       If the website anticipates this need, they can just provide a plain text box where you can paste your data with a Parse button. The button would parse each line as a separate record and populate the text boxes for you. If there’s just one particular site you need this for, you could try contacting the makers of the site and asking them to add this feature. Do you have any examples of when you would want to put spreadsheet values into text-boxes when the site is asking for something not spreadsheety in nature, and they therefore can’t anticipate your need for such a text box?
Rory O'Kane, Mar 01 2011
  
      
[annotate]
  


 

back: main index

business  computer  culture  fashion  food  halfbakery  home  other  product  public  science  sport  vehicle