Paste Before / After

[cbridges]

When we copy and paste a tool into a workflow, we then have to drag the pasted tool into the workfow where we want it. It would be better if we could right click on a connector, select "paste", and have the tool paste into the flow where we put the cursor. Or to be able to right-click on a tool and select "paste after" similar to how we can "insert after".

[BobSnyder85]

I just was looking to suggest this. An alternative to the already good suggestion above would be to just simply left click to target the location after a copy on a tool. Keeping workflows nice and neat is a skill in and of itself, this promotes organization on the workflow and is a pretty simple value add for user experience :)

[jpoz]

Thank you for this suggestion! In an upcoming release you will have the ability to paste after a tool, as well as paste onto a connection.

[BobSnyder85]

Awesome! Will that be like a "Paste tool on Pointer" option basically? Sometimes the way the flow auto reorganizes when you insert as part of the flow can cause undesirable effects depending at where you are in your workflow development.

[jpoz]

It has similar functionality to the 'Insert After' context menu when you right click on a tool.

The flow auto reorganization is something that does happen automatically, it sounds like you would benefit from some way to control when/if that behavior occurs.

[BobSnyder85]

Alteryx work flows tend to bring out a certain level of OCD. Auto-reorganization is kind of like Autocorrect on a cell phone, I depend on it like crazy but when it makes a mistake its incredibly aggrevating. 

I think the easy way to avoid the above that I would enjoy would just be a "paste here" that doesn't try to auto connect or auto organize the work flow thats in the right click context menu. 

To be fair - most of the time just a standard copy and paste works without issue on smaller workflows, but when working on mature workflows, and potentially taking large portions or containers from one to another.  I often times want to paste in a very specific spot for this use case.

[jpoz]

Thank you for suggesting this! The ability to 'Paste in Connection' and 'Paste After' is available in the 2019.4 release (https://downloads.alteryx.com).

[Joe_Lipski]

Hey @jpoz,

I don't seem to have the ability to 'Paste in Connection' and 'Paste After' is available in the 2019.4 release, although I might be missing something...

[jpoz]

I downloaded 2019.4 and I was able to copy a tool, and then paste after/into:

Is it possible that it didn't install correctly? Try a re-install?

[Joe_Lipski]

@jpoz, looks like you can only do this for a single call, but not multiple tools... (e.g. I cannot cut a section of multiple tools and paste into into the connection somewhere else)  Would you like me to submit a new idea for this?

[jpoz]

@Joe_Lipski Sure! Multi-tool paste into/after would be a nice feature.