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Paste Before / After

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".

11 Comments
BobSnyder85
8 - Asteroid
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
Alteryx
Alteryx
Status changed to: Coming Soon

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
8 - Asteroid

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
Alteryx
Alteryx

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
8 - Asteroid

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
Alteryx
Alteryx
Status changed to: Implemented

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
13 - Pulsar
13 - Pulsar

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...

 

joe_lipski_1-1578391296006.png

jpoz
Alteryx
Alteryx

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

 

paste after.png

 

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

Joe_Lipski
13 - Pulsar
13 - Pulsar

@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
Alteryx
Alteryx

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