Apple Mail Cut & Paste Problem...

When you say the same font, does that mean the same weight as well? My standard message setup uses Helvetica 12 regular. I tried this by creating a new signature and making sure it was all in Helvetica 12. The only varyant was the occasional use of bold. The same old problem occured as soon as I used this new signature with copied text apearing above the line I pasted it in.

If the workaround it to not use any fornt styling then it's pretty limited and we may as well go back to plain text as this would avoid the whole problem anyway.

Bug Fixed ...... NOT!

gpreite,

while I appreciate your attempt to "solve" this issue, your response does not seem to address the issue(s) implicit in this problem.

Your "solution" ignores the supposed very purpose of the signature feature by essentailly not allowing different formatting; in other words, why have a signature (that allows all sorts of formatting) if you are going to just use all the same font as the message ......

except perhaps for the ability to insert standard parts of an email. But you can do that with simple cut and paste from an email ......

Oh! Oops ..... tried both your "solution" and then doing a cut and paste ...... SAME OLD PROBLEM!!

Look, I don't mean to put you down for this attempt, but we're all I think just about at our wits end with this ridiculous problem that Apple so far does not seem to care about.

Thanks anyway!

I'm having the same sort of issue in Mac Mail and while I'm not certian the font formatting is the BUG FIX, I did find that when I selected all the content of the email and selected the same font, font weight and font size that I no longer had issues with cutting text from one place and then having the pasted text appear elsewhere. A previous post about WebKit seems to make sense, but is way more technically sophisticated than I can bear.

I've tried the font reformatting without a signature selected from the message window. The issue I experience is (even though NONE is shown in the pulldown and the preferences are set to NONE -- i.e., no signature is preselected) that the message is behaving as if the entirety of the text *is a signature*. Therefore, when I select a signature, ALL the text changes to the chosen signature.

I believe an earlier post stated that this happens once you try to edit a signature. That makes sense because I use signatures to expedite lenghthy responses. Therefore I might have several paragraphs and links whereby I only have to change a line or two rather than having to reinvent the wheel. That whole signature is where I've experienced the cut and paste jumping issue.

If I open a new message and type into it, THEN select a signature...I don't have those issues with either the newly typed text or the signature text. (and at which point, the font formatting shouldn't be the issue).

I hope this may be helpful in some way. KC

QUESTION has anyone tried a RE-INSTALL ? - if yes, did that solve the problems of cut and paste in the signatures?

AND after you did software updates, did the problems stay away or recurr?

I've gone to the a physical apple store and flagged up the problem (nobody there was aware of it) and the above is what they suggested.

Before I go through that trouble I wonder if any of you guys already went down that route?

Thank you.

Folks - Further to my message on 1 Feb, Apple has not yet called to follow-up my Apple Care case on this issue. I've scheduled a further Express Lane call for this afternoon. I suggest that everyone on this forum who has a mac that is under warranty also lodge an official technical support issue.

Okay, I bit further and did an experiment based on gpreite's potential "solution" and/or workaround. And, by the way, thanks for the clarification link.

I did several test signatures - one identical to what I would normally do with formatting and such WITHOUT any spaces above it. Then I did another with about 5 blank lines per gpreite's description.

Sorry, same thing occuring in both, no difference!

I cut a couple of different lines and then pasted them elsewhere in the signature after placing the signature in a new email. Both versions, the pasting portion "jumped" either above or below to some place OTHER than where the cursor was placed, seemingly no ryhme nor reason for where it went (though there must be something in the background that we aren't seening that interacts with what is being done).

I like the idea of pursuing further going to the "genius" bar at an apple store and demonstrating it to them and get them to FIX it!!!!!!!

A reinstall seems to be the pat answer when they don't have a quick answer because first no one really wants to go to that extent; and, it takes a bit of time, not to mention having to go back and then reestablish everything the way it was on your computer!

I wish I had the time to go, but my closest apple store is 45 miles away!

I'm about to scheule an appointment anyway if Apple doesn't get on this!!!

I've had a follow-up conversation with a senior advisor at Apple Care. She has been able to replicate the cut/paste behavior on Lion and Snow Leopard when a signature is used - with inconsistent results (like most of us) - sometimes pasting works / sometimes it doesn't... I understand that the issue is being escalated to Apple Engineering as a medium priorty issue. Further info should be available in another 2-3 business days.

I will post to this forum as I learn more.

BTW - I like Mac-Apple's suggestion of notifying the press. It may take public pressure to get this fixed!

I believe there is mis-understanding by gpreite, and some others offering simple fixes, about when this problem occurs. I hope I am not off-target but am going by my own experience. The problem occurs because we are not using signatures as just signatures i.e. a sign-off at the bottom of the email that is static and never changed in situ.

We are using signatures as email-stationery because this is MUCH quicker and more efficient thant using the stationery in later versions of Mail. The difference is that the signature is just a starting point and editing will always be needed within the signature text which is where the bug appears.

This is, and has been, common practice with heavy email users on all email clients and so it's not really an answer to just say "well don't do it".

Having said that, I believe users of this tequnique represent a small percentage of email users overall and this is why the problem is not widely known and presumably why it has not been on Apple's radar.

For us it is a daily, incapacitating frustration but most Mail users will be oblivious since most probably never use signatures at all and most of those that do, will use them in the orthodox way.

Matthew - sorry not clear what you mean.

My set up is unified inBox with 3 accounts

2 signatures allocated for use with 1 account only, in practice I only use 1 signature - this is text based with 3 different formats/sizes.

I never edit this text, it is just my signature at the bottom of the email.

I suffer a lot from the copy & paste issue - particularly in NOTES (where there is obviously no signature).

Anyway, I have now removed the signatures to see if the problem goes away (as it is hard to reproduce, I'll wait for a few days to see - the longer it doesn't reappear the more certain I will be!).

If this works, then for me, the work around will be to use a MACRO program to enter my "signature" on starting a new email. Not sure I can be bothered to wait months/years for Apple to fix this bug!!

Matthew,

Well said!

However, I have experienced the same thing (or similar at least) when using any stationary. Albeit, it is not a problem with the stationary itself.

I find it hard to believe though that even the simplest users of the signature feature have not had problems because I have had problems indeed with even the simplest signatures.

I think it may be perhaps an issue of people "too busy" to deal with it. As was I, initially, but signatures, as Apple has them with the ability to format, add photos, etc. is a GREAT feature that I use at least once every hour (which is a conservative estimate).

Guess this means I get frustrated at least 8-9 times a day!!!!!!!

sharae,

I almost fainted when I received notification of your latest input.

You mean there is a real live person at Apple that experienced this as well!!!!!

Yehhhhhhhhhh!

However ....... "medium priority"!??

Oh well, apparently us beggars can't be choosers.

I'd be happy to provide them with all kinds of examples of things that happen.

Let's all hope and pray that indeed one of Apples "genius' " gets this!

By the, sharae, Thanks VERY MUCH for your efforts in this. It really is for ALL of us.

Adding to the discussion on signatures vis-a-vis the cut/paste problem....

My signature is very simple: name, address, email, etc in Helvetica 11 font. The vast majority of my messages also use this font with no other formatting. In my signature, I've inserted two blank lines above my text so that I can start typing into new messages using this font. (This is a workaround for another annoying problem w/Apple Mail in that there is no way to specify a default font / style for outgoing mail - eg. what the receipient sees! There are numerous Apple Support Community threads on this issue too.)

Hi,

For what it's worth, I have been getting the same cut and past problems for over a 1 year. I have multiple signatures that I use for email templates all styled with Arial. My only work around is whenever I go to cut and past any copy, I have to past it in and out of Text Editor then past it back into my email and then it lands where I want it. Aaaarh!

I have hated the problem all this time but only now got around to searching for a solution and discovered so many other have the same unsolved problem.

I will keep in touch with this forum in hope.

Dissapointed, Dean

Hi

Have reported this in some detail to Applecare...

I deleted all my signatures - the cut & paste bug is still there (in my case it occurs mostly in the NOTES app in Mail).

Applecare advised me to upgrade to 10.7.3, so I did

I recreated the bug & kept the note, using this note I was able to keep reproducing the bug

I called Applecare again, they got me to do a bunch of stuff

- Verify HD, run repair Disk Permission

- Trashed the contents of the folder Library/Caches

- Reset System controller (SHUTDOWN, then press SHIFT/CTRL/ALT/POWER for 5 sec)

- Reset P-RAM (hold ALT-Command-P-R while starting - chimes twice)

After all this I was still able to reproduce the bug.

Next, logged out & logged into a new account on my Macbook

Set up mail from new & imported mail & notes from my me.com account

My notes were all restored as expected

I was still able to reproduce the bug in the new account.

Then I was escalated to Senior Advisor

He got me to do a screen video of the bug occurring & I also sent him a copy of the offending notes document.

He said that this will be analysed further & they will contact me.

Will provide further feedback when I hear more from Apple.

The more who report this to Applecare the more chance we have to get this resolved...