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Intelligent Cut and Paste
Intelligent cut and paste is a set of editing features that takes into account the need for spaces between words. (Note that the features described in this section don't apply to all languages; for example, the Thai, Chinese, and Japanese languages don't contain spaces.) To understand why this feature is helpful, consider the following sequence of events in a text application without intelligent cut and paste:
- A sentence in the user's document reads
Returns are only accepted if the merchandise is damaged.
The user wants to change this to
Returns are accepted only if the merchandise is damaged.
- The user selects the word only by double-clicking. The letters are highlighted, but neither of the adjacent spaces is highlighted.
- The user chooses Cut from the Edit menu, clicks just before the word if, and chooses Paste.
- The sentence now reads
Returns are accepted onlyif the merchandise is damaged.
Note the extra space between are and accepted and the lack of a space between only and if. To correct the sentence, the user has to remove the extra space between are and accepted and add one between only and if.
If your application supports intelligent cut and paste, follow these guidelines:
- If the user selects a word or a range of words, the selection itself is highlighted, but spaces adjacent to the selection are not highlighted.
- When the user chooses Cut, if the character preceding the selection is a space, cut that space along with the selection. If the character preceding the selection is not a space, but the character following the selection is a space, cut that space along with the selection.
- When the user chooses Paste, if the character to the left or right of the current selection is part of a word (but not inside a word), insert a space before pasting.
If the left or right end of a text selection is a word, follow these rules at that end, regardless of whether there's a word at the other end. Figure 10-28 shows two examples of intelligent cut and paste.
Figure 10-28 Intelligent cut and paste
Note that the selected text is not necessarily exactly the same range that will be cut and, eventually, pasted. The range may include a space character.
Intelligent cut and paste should be used only if the application supports the definition of a word, described in "Selections in Text" beginning on page 290, rather than the definition of a word as "anything between two spaces." These rules apply to any selection consisting of one or more whole words, no matter how the user made the selection.
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