[comp.sys.mac.system] Grabbing text

ollef@sics.se (Olle Furberg) (10/08/90)

In <10592@goofy.Apple.COM> casseres@apple.com (David Casseres) writes:'

>I told him, "Just point anywhere in the word and do a double-click: hit 
>the button twice in rapid succession."  A look of pure technological 

 I like the easy way to select words in the Apple user interface. But there is
one thing I don't understand: why do we have to select commands (either by
menus or by a key-combination) to *move* text?

 Why can't whe just grab the selected text and drag it to the place we want to
put it? In some programs you could move paragraphs by dragging, but you 
can't find anything about it in the Apple Human Interface Guidelines (AHIG).

 In AHIG we could find the famous shift-click and the (almost) newer-
imlemented Apple-click (discontinius selection). But what's so wrong with a
<mysterious key>-click for grabbing/dragging text around?


   /Olle

barnett@grymoire.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) (10/08/90)

In article <1990Oct7.235950.7800@sics.se> ollef@sics.se (Olle Furberg) writes:
>Why can't whe just grab the selected text and drag it to the place we want to
>put it? 

OpenLook/XView does this. It supports the "drag-and-drop" metaphor in more
ways than moving text around. Files can be dragged to a printer, tape
or editor as well as a trash can or folder. If you run X windows on
your Mac, I suggest you experiment with it and see how you like it.

I personally like secondary selection better - you hold down the paste
key, and click on some text in the same or another window. When you
release the Paste key, the text is inserted in your current insertion
point. 
--
Bruce G. Barnett	barnett@crd.ge.com	uunet!crdgw1!barnett