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Copy and paste in Mail problem

Since upgrading to OS Lion I have had a problem when I try to copy and paste text in Mail. The copied text ends up above or below the desired space I want it pasted, making it impossible to use the copy/paste function.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 12, 2011 10:10 PM

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26 replies

Aug 12, 2011 11:43 PM in response to johnfromthomastown

Okay so there is a clue there it has to do with formatting since in Plain text it is okay. It is possible that chrome is attaching some format or blank space.


Try this, past the url, if it is above or below the point you clicked, then place your cursor at the begining of the pasted text and hit delete once, does that bring it to the place you originally intended? or it just deletes one character?

Aug 20, 2011 2:47 AM in response to johnfromthomastown

Hi all,


I've had the copy and paste problems since upgrading to Lion too.


I was typing a lengthy email and decided to rearrange some paragraphs within the message.
So I 'cut' a sentenace and tried to 'paste' it at the end of a paragraph above, but it appeared at the top of the paragraph.


I can try pasting any content from the message I'm writing and it always appears a line above the paragraph I am pasting into.


It happens all the time and is really annoying!


Any ideas?


Thanks,


Pablo

Aug 28, 2011 4:36 PM in response to Pablo70

Hello people, just thought I'd jump in here as this is an age old problem not just something that has developed since the Lion upgrade.


I first experienced this whilst using Tiger probably around three years ago. I kept thinking the next major OS upgrade would fix it but no.


I too posted a discussion about it here...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3271179?answerId=15965503022#15965503022


It is localised to Mail signatures and the work arounds are to chuck in a load of returns and effectively create some 'space' around the pasted text then delete the superfluous returns. Amateur to say the least!


We really need to get Apple on this case to solve this as it is immensely frustrating.


Has anyone else noticed how some of the formatting in your signature are altered after pasting in some text? My name is Bold type but after I paste some text it 'occasionally' (not every time) it changes to Regular weight. Maybe someone can explain that little conundram as well.


David

Aug 29, 2011 7:10 PM in response to johnfromthomastown

please add me to the list of the "cut and paste bug" victms


apple phone support x2 suggested generic troublehsooting, but really were clueless


Jenner2 sums it up perfectly .........this bug is "immensely frustrating"!


for me this bug makes mail so unreliable it now unusuable in my business


great shame after i moved all my business mail across, now moving it all back to entourage


groan......

Aug 30, 2011 3:39 PM in response to johnfromthomastown

I have been afflicted with this problem as well - here is the way out of it:


This happens when Mail thinks you are adding text to an area that it understands is the signature area. Since you can't paste into the signature, it applies it up into the body text at the top.


The way to avoid this is to start typing on the very top line of the email, not the second line. Since I have started doing this it works fine. Also, this will allow you to switch signature (assuming you have more then one) in the middle of composing an email without losing any text.


Good luck.

Aug 30, 2011 4:35 PM in response to looper222

It's comforting to know other people are going through the same grief but most of the time I need to paste into my signature because I have nearly thirty sigs that I use as templates for messages and quotes I send out. Pasting into the top line does mean it goes where the cursor is located but only because there is nowhere else for it to go above it. I'm guessing this will only work if your signature goes at the end of the message, for me, the signature IS the message (after I've modified the content).


One thing to beware of the top line where you are typing, which is effectively outside the signature, this text might appear to have the formatting of that looks correct, font, style, weight, size etc. but in my experience text that is outside of the signature can take on a raw text format which defaults to your end user's default font on their computer. That's fine if my receipient wants to use Comic Sans but if I send a font in Helvetica, i want them to see it Helvetica (I said Helvetica to sound like a stuck up typographer but I actually use Arial as that's next best thing in a cross platform sense). One of the reasons I like to type directly formatted RTF signature.


Come on APPLE are you reading this?

Fix it before we start a revolution!


Dj

Aug 31, 2011 2:05 AM in response to johnfromthomastown

I'm having the same problem and, bizarrely, it's happening on both my laptop and on my iMac, using Snow Leopard.


Not only am I having this weird cut and paste problem (exactly as you describe) but my fonts aren't working either. When I send emails to PCs, and the person replies, the font changes from Verdana to Times and is in all different sizes. Very professional.


This only happened in the last upgrade, everything was working fine before then. There has always been an issue with font sizes/weights changing when emailing to PCs -- many have written about it -- and Mac have never done anything about it. It's as bad now as it was years ago. But I've never experienced this cut and paste problem before.


I've used Macs for years and I love them... but I HATE MacMail. It's a very poor mail client for such a great operating system. I'm off to Postbox.

Aug 31, 2011 2:11 AM in response to looper222

Thanks for explaining why it's happening. The only problem with this workaround is that, to avoid fonts not displaying properly when being read on a PC, I have had to create a signature with a full point (period) at the beginning, set up in my signature, and set to the correct font. Then, when I create an email, I start typing after that full point so that the font displays in my chosen font, for the recipient. It has worked up to now (even if it is clumsy, inelegant, and not the standard we'd expect from Apple).


It's absolutely ridiculous that we are all having to trawl through forums and create workarounds like these. If I type an email in Postbox it works absolutely fine. No font problems or copy and past problems at all. Why can't Apple manage it, I wonder?

Sep 21, 2011 2:37 AM in response to johnfromthomastown

So folks... possible solution is to NOT use the signature as a workaround for font rendering. How, without suffering the silly formatting problems for recipients?


I found a little plugin after much searching - this issue really is rediculous. It's designed for Lion and I have no idea if it will work in other versions, but thought it worthwhile offering up. It solved all of my font rendering issues.


http://noware-it.zxq.net/


Also, does it make any difference if you select the option to place signature above quoted text?

Copy and paste in Mail problem

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