Copy Paste onto Pages doesn't yield text but images: a lot of Question-marks in boxes.

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Copy Paste onto Pages doesn't yield text but images: a lot of Question-marks in boxes.

If I Copy text from an email and paste it onto a new Pages document, no words appear, only symbols : a whole page full of Question-marks-each-in-a-box. I used to be able to put text into a new email and use the T/ [strikethrough] to remove formatting, but suddenly that does not work. 1. How to get the T/ back? 2. How to get Pages to recognize the Pasted words from a gmail email. Using Chrome on Mac book Pro.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.4

Posted on Apr 22, 2024 7:19 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 23, 2024 11:46 AM in response to abondanza

Interestingly, one can copy the contents in a GMail directly to MS Word v16.84 on macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 and it pastes correctly with text attributes as they appeared in GMail (e.g. bold).

Having more time than yesterday, I decided the beneficial thing to do is create a Shortcut app that allows one to select the text in GMail in a browser and then with a keyboard shortcut, copy that content to the clipboard as Rich Text. Then, it is a simple paste operation in Pages v14 without needing TextEdit or a Text box for assistance.

The Input: field is Clipboard, though curiously, it is not displayed by Shortcuts. The Shortcut can be installed in the local Shortcuts on your Mac by clicking this link. Note the keyboard shortcut to use in GMail after selecting text to be sent to the clipboard: option+shift+G. I used ISO-8859-1 codeset because it preserves ümlauts and UTF-8 does not.

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Answer 2

Apr 22, 2024 9:58 AM in response to abondanza

Copy and paste the content from GMail into Apple's TextEdit (which understands HTML), and if that works, select/copy/paste the TextEdit contents to the Pages document. Does TextEdit still reflect boxes with question marks for the pasted content?

Every application is designed to accept certain data types from the clipboard, or place them on the clipboard, and what GMail is doing is incompatible with what Pages expects.

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Answer 3

abondanza Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 22, 2024 1:01 PM in response to abondanza

Yes, VikingOSX, that did work but in Apple TextEdit the C+P DOES appear as a page of [?] in boxes also. C+P those onto a new Pages document and regular words appear, as you expected, as they were from the email. Thank you, I didn't know about that App. I found two other solutions: 1. C+P the text of email onto a new page in Pages, which comes out as all [?] as before, highlight the [?], go to STYLE on the right menu of that same page, see TEXT > click on UPDATE > from the drop down menu, click on ‘Body’. The [?] boxes all turn into the correct text. 2. I cleared a lot of cookies from unused sites and shut the computer down and re-started it. Now the TextEdit in gmail does work again on c+p readonly text into a new email and clicking on the 'T-remove formatting' icon at the bottom. Dunno if that actually helped. Let me know if you think that was useful. Online I saw I should block javascript, which I did to no effect a few days ago, then clicked Allow today . Did that do anything? who knows. Thank you!

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Answer 4

Apr 22, 2024 1:33 PM in response to abondanza

You can copy the GMail content to the clipboard. Then insert a Text box in Pages, double-click inside the Text box and then paste. Regular text appears and not a myriad of boxed question marks. Eliminates TextEdit and the Terminal conversion with iconv.

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Answer 5

abondanza Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 22, 2024 2:59 PM in response to VikingOSX

I think you are trying to reduce the number of steps in this procedure, GREAT idea. I finally found out how to 'insert a Text box in Pages' - maybe obvious to those who already know - but the box is very small and the content cannot all be seen. How to expand the edges of, or get rid of, the Text box? just click and delete after keep the words by another c+p from box to Pages page? More steps.

MAYBE DON'T NEED A_TextEdit: I also find that I can just copy the Qboxes in AppleTextEdit now, then paste onto a new Pages page and the text appears directly as words,(Works #1 below) without inserting a Textbox at all.

but that does require opening the AppleTextEdit and entering a paste.

And sometimes just C+P works simply putting words onto Pages. Sometimes it gives lots of Qs.

No Go: Your method of 1:33 pm did not work at all many times: 'copy the GMail content to the clipboard. Then insert a Text box in Pages, double-click inside the Text box and then paste' - that still yields myriad [?] which cannot be c+p onto Pages for any change . A few times, using commandV, not right click, for paste into the inserted text box, I got words. Mostly I got a myriad ?in boxes / NOT words, and those [?] cannot be c+p onto Pages - all I get is more [?].

Sometimes it did work to get words, mostly I got Qboxes.

WORKS: 1. highlight GMAIL text, paste into AppleTextEdit , gets Qboxes, and that can be then c+p onto the Pages to get words.

2.Highlight GMAIL text, paste into Pages page, gets words.

TOO many Steps: >copy GMAIL. >finder >Edit >show clipboard. >rightclick in pages Textbox = yields Qboxes. Not words, 6 steps.

Thanks for offering solutions. This does not seem perfectly rule-bound.

It took me a while to discover that highlighting text makes it automatically appear in clipboard, not obv as clipboard disappears as soon as I open anything else after I followed your plan:

>finder >Edit >show clipboard, so I do not have to OPEN clipboard for the highlighted text to be held there.

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Answer 6

Apr 22, 2024 3:43 PM in response to abondanza

The problem is that Chrome/GMail does not paste Rich Text content on the clipboard and Pages expects that format in its paste. That is what the detour through TextEdit does. If the GMail content were formatted as Rich Text (RTF) on the clipboard, then neither TextEdit, nor a Pages text box would be necessary and a simple paste would deposit the expected legible plain text into the Pages body text.

You can create a quick tool to ensure that the copied GMail text is converted to RTF and placed back on the clipboard for Pages with the following solution.

In a plain text document that you name GMail2RTF.command and place on your Desktop, add the following:

#!/bin/zsh

: <<"COMMENT"
Convert content on the clipboard to RTF and then place back on the clipboard. Then,
simply use the Paste in Pages to deposit the clipboard contents as plain text into
Pages.

Usage. Once you have copied the GMail content to the clipboard, double-click this
command script in Finder. It will flash a Terminal window and be done. Then, in Pages
simply paste.
COMMENT

/usr/bin/pbpaste | /usr/bin/textutil -stdin -stdout -convert rtf | /usr/bin/pbcopy &
exit

In the Finder, press shift+cmd+U to open the Utilities folder and double-click the Terminal application. At the command line in the Terminal:

cd ~/Desktop
/bin/chmod +x ./GMail2RTF.command

Now, you can quit the Terminal.

Tested: GMail web mail in Brave Browser on macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 and Pages v14.0.

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Copy Paste onto Pages doesn't yield text but images: a lot of Question-marks in boxes.

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