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BioDesk allows the user to copy & paste text between applications within the BioDesk environment as well as between other applications on your machine.
The Copy & Paste process can require a trick or two, and varies depending on the platform you are using.
Many of the applications within BioDesk (e.g. Notepad, Netscape, etc) have Cut, Copy, and Paste options available from the 'Edit' menu.
However, not all applications (e.g. GCG/SeqLab) use the same clipboard (a temporary storage space in memory), and the process of moving text in and out of BioDesk is not always seamless.
In general Xwindows behavior; the act of selecting text by click-dragging with the left mouse button (button 1, the only mouse button for Macs) places it into a clipboard.
It can then be pasted into a document at the current cursor position by using mouse button 3, or Shift-Insert.
This is different than on PCs or Macs where there is a 'copy' or 'cut' step involved in the process.
When attempting to paste into a BioDesk application from your local desktop, you may find it necessary to have an intermediate step.
For example, if I wanted to paste a sequence from Word, into SeqLab the process would be: - Launch Clipboard (from BioDesk menu), a small blank window appears.
- Select text/sequence in Word and 'Copy' it (Ctrl-C, or click on the copy button).
- Return to BioDesk, you will see the text you just copied already in the Clipboard window.
- Select the text in Clipboard (Button 1); this an all or nothing click, no dragging required.
- Launch SeqLab (from BioDesk menu), go to edit mode.
- Click on 'File' from the menu bar and select 'New sequence...', then DNA, or Text
- Position the cursor in the editor (button 1), and paste (button 3)
To paste from SeqLab into Word is basically the reverse of the process (i.e. you will still need to use Clipboard to properly capture the clipboard data for pasting.)
As you can see, this is a bit odd.
It will take some getting used to, and some experimentation to determine which applications are more paste friendly than others.
Platform Specific Mouse Issues PC Users PC users have another possible option; 2 or 3 button mouse.
Most Xwindows software is written with 3 button mice in mind, but there are a few simple work arounds.
If you have a 3 Button Mouse By default, the buttons are assigned as follows: - Left Button - Select text (click and drag)
- Middle Button - Paste text
- Right Button - Block text (from last mouse click to current position)
However, this may not work for everyone, especially if your middle mouse button is being controlled by mouse software (e.g. MS Intellimouse w/wheel). Click on the VNC logo in the upper left-hand corner of your BioDesk window. A drop-down menu will appear. Select 'Connection Options...' and you will get a following dialog box (note the Mouse options):
Since Paste is more commonly used than Block, you may want to swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
Alternatively, you can choose to ignore your middle mouse button by selecting 'Emulate 3 Buttons'.
We'll talk more about this under '2 Button Mouse'.
Most of the other options are best left to their default values.
If you have a 2 Button Mouse By default, the buttons are assigned as follows: - Left Button - Select text (click and drag)
- Right Button - Block text (from last mouse click to current position)
However, you'll notice a distinct lack of a Paste function.
Open the 'Connection Options...' dialog box (see above), and select 'Emulate 3 buttons'.
Your mouse buttons are now assigned as follows: - Left Button - Select text (click and drag)
- Right Button - Block text (from last mouse click to current position)
- Left & Right Buttons (Simultaneously) - Paste text
Additionally, you may want to 'Swap mouse buttons 2 and 3' if you have difficulty clicking two buttons at once. Mac Users
The Mac mouse (usually) only has one button, therefore some mechanism is needed to transmit left and middle combinations.
Pressing command + n will toggle the use of button n.
The current status of the button toggles is shown on the title bar of each connection.
Initially the only toggle set is button 1. This means when the mouse is clicked a button 1 click event is sent.
If you wanted to send a button 2 click you would turn off button 1 (via command + 1) then turn on button 2 (via command + 2) then click the mouse. To return to normal (button 1) use you'd need to untoggle button 2 (command + 2) and retoggle button 1.
In this way all 8 combinations of 3 button superpositions can be sent.
Admittedly this is a bit long winded if you only want to send a button 3 click (as you would for pasting in Unix) so command + 4 and command + 5 are set to send a single click for buttons 2 and 3 respectively. So, to summarize, Command + 1 Toggle use of button 1 Command + 2 Toggle use of button 2 Command + 3 Toggle use of button 3 Command + 4 Send single button 2 click Command + 5 Send single button 3 click Other modifier keys will work as normal so control shift or alt dragging can be done with any combination of mouse buttons. Other features: Keeping your finger on the Propeller key (sometimes called the Command key) when starting off brings up the extra preferences box. |
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