Copy and Paste in Email

[RoberMR]

Hi All,

New here - been lurking for about a week. Got Optimus S last week. New to Android, too.

I have already found a lot of answers to my newb questions in this great forum. So far, I like the phone and Android.

The phone is stock, not rooted or flashed, with a bunch of apps and widgets that I installed. My previous phone was a Windows Mobile 6.1 so that's my reference point.

Today, I got stumped, though. I got an email from a friend of mine who I am going to have lunch with. He put the address of the place where we'll meet in the email. What I wanted to do was to copy the address in the email and paste it into the navigation program to get directions. I tried everything I can think of, but I can't select text in the email and copy it to the clipboard. When I highlighted a phone number, it brought up the phone app to dial it, which is nice. But I want to copy the address.

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

Rob

 

[Nick7]

Hi All,

New here - been lurking for about a week. Got Optimus S last week. New to Android, too.

I have already found a lot of answers to my newb questions in this great forum. So far, I like the phone and Android.

The phone is stock, not rooted or flashed, with a bunch of apps and widgets that I installed. My previous phone was a Windows Mobile 6.1 so that's my reference point.

Today, I got stumped, though. I got an email from a friend of mine who I am going to have lunch with. He put the address of the place where we'll meet in the email. What I wanted to do was to copy the address in the email and paste it into the navigation program to get directions. I tried everything I can think of, but I can't select text in the email and copy it to the clipboard. When I highlighted a phone number, it brought up the phone app to dial it, which is nice. But I want to copy the address.

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

Rob

Hey Rob,

Long press the text field and select copy. To paste long press a text input field and select paste.

Hope this helped.

 

[RoberMR]

Hmmm, thanks for the suggestion. I tried this and it didn't work. Here is what the text looks like in the body of the email message:

123 Main St.
San Jose Ca 95118
Phone: 408-555-1212

When I long press the address, nothing happens. When I long press the phone number it gets highlighted with a green border. Then if I tap it, the phone app comes up.

Similarly, if I long press an email address in the email, it gets the green highlight and then a new email message comes up for me to type into.

It's just that it doesn't know how to copy general text, it seems.

Rob

 

[verwon]

Did you try seeing if there is a menu in the email app and an option to select text in there?

I just discovered that this is how it works in the gmail app.

Sent from my eVo

 

[RoberMR]

Did you try seeing if there is a menu in the email app and an option to select text in there?

I just discovered that this is how it works in the gmail app.

Sent from my eVo

Yes I checked the menu. I don't see anything like a select or copy.

Rob

 

[guzzler]

In gmail app hit menu - more - select text.....then select the text..... it will automatically copy it.....then go to a text edit field where u want to paste it.... long hold and click paste..

Just fyi...if ts an address just tap it to map it on google maps

Yes I checked the menu. I don't see anything like a select or copy.

Rob

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

 

[RoberMR]

In gmail app hit menu - more - select text.....then select the text..... it will automatically copy it.....then go to a text edit field where u want to paste it.... long hold and click paste..

Just fyi...if ts an address just tap it to map it on google maps




Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

I guess I neglected to mention that I am using the built-in Android email program to access my two POP email accounts. I have a Gmail account but it's only for the purpose of having an account so I could get set-up.

Rob

 

[KSmithInNY]

I don't believe the default email app (not gmail) offers a copy and paste from an email that your not typing. What i mean is this ....

If someone sends you an email, you cannot copy out of it. But if you are typing an email, you can long press in the email and it gives you the option to copy and or paste.

Hope that helps.

 

[RoberMR]

I don't believe the default email app (not gmail) offers a copy and paste from an email that your not typing. What i mean is this ....

If someone sends you an email, you cannot copy out of it. But if you are typing an email, you can long press in the email and it gives you the option to copy and or paste.

Hope that helps.

Yea, I tried that. I replied to the email I received which had the text I wanted to copy and tried to long press the text ... Still no luck. So, I guess the hope now is to see if the next version of the email program in Android (Gingerbread?) will have that function.

Thanks to all of you who replied to my question.

Rob

 

[hamagc]

You can always check the market for copy and paste apps

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

 

[apinkel]

I don't have any email accounts setup with the default app so I'm not sure if it supports editing, but if it does you could try the swype editing keybaord...

If you are in edit mode with the swype keyboard, swipe from the Swype key to the SYM key to bring up the editing keyboard. For more info check out the "Editing Keyboard" section on the swype help page:
Swype | Text Input for Screens

 

[RoberMR]

You can always check the market for copy and paste apps

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

Yes, I did check the market but didn't see anything that gives me the equivalent of a simple "highlight text anywhere - copy to clipboard - paste it anywhere" functionality similar to what we've had for decades in OS's like Windows, Linux and the rest. My old Windows Mobile phone had this feature. Yes, I understand that Android is a relatively new OS and it will mature over time, and let's hope that it will.

Actually, I am surprised that Apple's iPhone OS just recently got this functionality and MS released Windows Phone 7 without copy/paste. I used to be in the field of SW development, support, training and marketing for over 30 years and there was always "it will be in the next release" line of thought. But also, we learned (maybe the hard way) that it's better to have the basics (blocking and tackling) taken care of before a product is released instead of spending time and resources on flashy fancy features.

Having said that, I am actually totally blown away with how much developers are able to do these days with the kind of limitations that these resource constrained devices.

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions.

 

[richardah]

I can't believe this. Copy and paste is such a basic feature. It's like making a phone that has a lot of great features but it can't make calls. I want to move to Android from Blackberry and little things like this are deal killers. I guess I was right thinking this phone cannot be used for business. Companies use their company email addresses not GMail. Forwarding to Gmail then responding from Gmail would not be very professional. Is there no way around this? Am I right in assuming that Android is meant to be used with your Gmail account and everything else is secondary?

 

[chardog]

anyone know if this feature will be in gingerbread?

 

[gldnbear]

I recently started using K-9 mail to replace the email app. This has the copy-paste feature. It also allows you to store all the emails on you SD card. It also has a select all function. If the standard email app has a select all function, I could never find it. So far, I haven't found any issues with it.

 

[richardah]

I recently started using K-9 mail to replace the email app. This has the copy-paste feature. It also allows you to store all the emails on you SD card. It also has a select all function. If the standard email app has a select all function, I could never find it. So far, I haven't found any issues with it.

I'm not too familiar with Android devices. Does the K-9 mail app pull mail in seperately from the default mail app or is it stored in the same location as the default app so you can see the email by opening either program? Do notifications work the same way? Do you lose any other functionality by using something other than the default app?

Thanks.

 

[RoberMR]

Well, I installed K-9 mail this afternoon, set up my 2 accounts tested it some and so far so good. The biggest advantage over the standard email is the ability to empty the trash folder. Copy/paste seems nicer than the standard email app, but I haven't tested it much. I do have it set up to store the folders on the SD card, but so far I am unable to find them on the card.

Notifications work similarly to the standard email app. You can set it up to check your accounts every n minutes. When you get new mail, it shows the notification with a sound.

So, at this point, I can say with limited testing that it has every function that the standard email app and then some.

I hope this helps.

Rob

 

[Disaster]

Some questions/comments on K-9.

1. Don't see an option to move K-9 to the SD card.

2. Can you make it the default email program...or do you still have to use the default Android "Email" app for that?

Right now I've got 3 email apps....Gmail, the stock Email app, and K-9.

Bumbled around a bit before I found where you could change the mail storage to the SD card (long press on account, choose storage.)

 

[RoberMR]

I haven't figured out how to "disable" or uninstall the standard email app. So, I set the frequency to check mail to "never" or "manual" so it will basically be dormant. When I commit myself fully to K-9, then I will delete my accounts form the standard email app and see what happens.

Rob

 

[richardah]

These little things are what scare me about switching to Android from Blackberry. It seems like Android was meant to be used primarily with a GMail account. If that's true, then fine. But it will never be more than a toy not to be used for serious business. It's sad. I really want an Android phone. On my Blackberry, creating a Blackberry email address is optional and the device will function the same with any email I setup on it. It would think this is a basic function.

The other thing I'm trying to figure out are notes and tasks. For notes, I can get around it by using my Evernote account. So far I haven't found an app for that which is a HUGE disappointment. It's the one thing I should expect. The more I look into this, the more it seems that Android phones really are not meant to be used for business at all since they don't have the basic components to do so. For business, I mean were your business relies on communication provided by your phone to run your business. Not just being able to receive a work email that could have waited until you got into the office.

I've spent all weekend looking for a decent solution to basic needs but it just looks like an Android phone isn't even going to come close to cutting it for me. That's a shame.

Thanks RoberB for your input and letting us know how it worked for you. That was a big help. Now I have to think about what I should do. Blackberry or Android? To top it off, I'm a Linux guy so that's another reason I wanted an Android phone.