Clipboard Data Formats

TableText deals with two different types of data on the clipboard. The first is plain text, which can be copied from and pasted into almost any other Macintosh application. The second is its own private table format, which only TableText understands. The second format is required so that TableText is able to store information in the clipboard, such as cell alignment and dividers, that would otherwise be lost in plain text.

Copying

When copying the selection, TableText places both the above data types on the clipboard. However, the nature of the text data will depend on which option is selected in the Copy As submenu of the Edit menu. If Grid Text is selected, the text placed on the clipboard will be in its final, formatted form, including dividers, spacing and alignment. This should be used when copying the text for pasting into any text-only document. If Tabbed Text is selected, the text placed will be in tab-delimited format, which will retain the tabular structure of the text but will lose all other formatting. This should be used when copying the text for pasting into a spreadsheet or word processor table.

Pasting

When pasting from the clipboard, TableText first searches for its private table format – if that is not found, it searches for text on the clipboard. Text containing any tab characters is assumed to be in tab-delimited format – other text is automatically converted into a table, complete with dividers, column widths and cell alignment. Although the text scanning algorithm is fairly intelligent, it is impossible to guarantee that the results will be as desired since there may be ambiguities about how to interpret certain areas. If entire rows or columns are selected when pasting, dividers and columns widths will be replaced by those on the clipboard – otherwise, the table's dividers and column widths will remain unchanged.