What's Up With Copy/Paste Inside Tool Configurations?

[cbridges]

Ever tried to copy a field rename from one select tool to another, or from one summarize tool from another.

Have you noticed that it doesn't work?

I think it should. 🙂

i.e., if you click on the rename box ("Total") and enter ctrl-c, when you enter ctrl-v in the other tool, it pastes this:

Field2 Sum Total

not just the name "Total"

Instead of just the renamed field "Category", the select tool pastes this:

True Field1 String 1 Category

[markp201]

When using the Select tool, I need to paste/copy just the Rename column.  For example, the input changes so I need move new name to another row but when I select the rename column and ctrl-C.   When I select the row to paste and use ctrl-v, I get the entire row (checkbox, field, type, size and rename.   It works with the mouse-copy but not the keyboard.   Some methods are faster with the keyboard.  Thanks.

[mandycgray]

Hi Cathy,

Totally agree this is weird. Would be nice to be able to copy one cell at a time or multiple if I dragged across them, rather than defaulting to the whole line.

We often have lengthy demographic field names coming through that are a pain to replicate in other places (like a text input tool for a quick manual edit, or as a layer name or descriptor in the map tool), and this copy/paste issue means we often type things in manualy :(

[tom_montpool]

I agree that it is strange that the CTRL+C/CTRL+V works as it does. It makes it a bit messy to handle renaming a small set of fields.

Once I have to rename more than about 10 fields, I tend to jump over to the Dynamic Rename tool in the Developer toolbox.

I can't get over the flexibility of the Dynamic Rename tool -- in Amanda's case, I would probably have an 2-field input table

1. field names in my table
2. what I want the field names to be

Then I'd use the "Take Field Names from Right Input Rows" option.

The best thing is that you probably already have to send this 'concordance' file to another user anyway!!

Not directly related to this is the post:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Checkbox-to-Disable-Append-Action-in-Summariz...

This would remove the need for a ton of renaming...

[simon]

Have you noticed Ctrl-C acts different than right click mouse and click Copy? The latter copies the cell in question rather than the whole row. 

[cbridges]

Well done @simon! That will make my life a LOT easier while I wait for keyboard shortcuts to work as expected. Thank you!

[craigbloodworth]

Can I vote for this 10x? It's so frustrating and I don't see any reason for all the extra info in the clipboard.

[patrick_mcauliffe]

I wish I had more stars to give this post.

[FredericP]

I agree, would be a great productivity boost for daily users...

That and a smarter auto select in the formula tool. Even the one in Beta 11 makes it excruciatingly hard to select elements of a formula to copy...

[Balders]

@markp201, I've just starred this as its something that frustrates me to no end when working with lots of fields with similar name stems. I did not know about the mouse copy and paste option working so thank you for that nugget!