* Copy & Paste from Onenote into Family Historian notes

[Adjer]

Have just started to collect family data in Onenote, but cannot find a way to install the edited items into Family Historian 5 without re typing it. The Copy & Paste in the Edit File don't appear to do anything.

[AdrianBruce]

1. Select the text in One Note; copy it to the Clipboard (e.g. by Ctrl/C);

2. Go to the record in FH; go to the Note for the Fact that you want to add the new text to; click in that note and paste. (Or do an Add Note if you want to add the text to a person rather than to a Fact for a Person, then click in that note again and paste).

The menu item Edit / Paste in FH won't do anything unless you've got an empty Note item selected and your cursor is in it.

[tatewise]

Just to clarify, the Note box you want to Paste into does not have to be empty.
Jut put your cursor where you want the text to appear, then either right-click > Paste or use Edit > Paste or Ctrl-V.

The Note box can be anywhere: in the Main tab of Property Box, under a Fact in the Facts tab, in the Sources For pane, or anywhere else.

You do NOT have to add an empty Note box, except in the Notes tab where you must use the Add Note button.

[Adjer]

Thanks for your replies & help. Sorry to tell you I still cannot Copy & Paste text from Onenote into F.H. & have never been able too. No problem doing it to M S Word & other programs. I cannot do it from M S Word to F H either. Is it me or F H???
Mainly I need to transfer text clipped from the internet to F H Notes in the Property Box. I am using Add Note in F H for this but Paste is always "greyed out". I have also tried it to the Individual Records pages to no avail. Also tried it to the Facts tab with no success.
Any other ideas welcome. Thanks, Adjer

[LornaCraig]

Have you tried simply placing the cursor in the required note field and then using right-click>paste? or using Ctrl-V?
I agree there does seem to be a problem with Edit>Paste but I had never noticed that because I never use that route.

[mjashby]

I believe this has come up before; and the problem is usually connected with attempting to copy and paste formatted text entries from Word-processing applications into applications that can only accept plain text. One workaround with Microsoft Word/OneNote is either save a copy of the document as Plain Text; or to first copy the required extract to NotePad and remove any remaining proprietary text formatting codes before re-copying and pasting to Family Historian.

With web pages I believe success may be dependent on the capabilities of the Browser being used, as text needs to be copied/converted into plain text before being pasted into another app. There is a small free utility app called "Puretext" which helps with copying formatted Web page Text content as plain text, which can then be pasted directly to other applications.

Mervyn

[LornaCraig]

Yes, I think there has been an issue raised in the past about copying and pasting formatted text. However I don't think that is the problem here. It may just be a case of using the wrong method. Adjer started by saying the Copy and Paste options in the Edit menu don't appear to be working, and in a later post said the Paste option is 'greyed out'. I too find that it is greyed out, but can paste without difficulty using right-click>paste, or Ctrl-V.

BTW: I think the Copy and Paste options in the Edit menu are misleading. They seem to be for copying records or fields from within FH and then pasting. The Help file says:

Copy: Copy the selected item to the clipboard. Any field can be copied. Records can be copied too, but only as text (e.g. to paste into a document or email)

Paste: Paste a previously copied item.

[AdrianBruce]

... Adjer started by saying the Copy and Paste options in the Edit menu don't appear to be working, and in a later post said the Paste option is 'greyed out'. I too find that it is greyed out, but can paste without difficulty using right-click>paste, or Ctrl-V.
...

I'd agree with Lorna's suggestion. Even after I've clicked in a text part of the note where I want to paste, the item Edit / Paste is not available. As Lorna suggests, just click in the area and use Ctrl-V or whatever.

I'm not sure quite why Edit / Paste isn't released to be available once you've clicked in the text box. Maybe there's a fear that it's not clear where the pasted text is to go (because you've moved the cursor out of the text box to click the menu-item), whereas if your cursor is in the text-box when you Ctrl-V, then it's clear.

Curious that I'd never noticed - normally I use menu-items and never keyboard shortcuts - but I do use Ctrl-C/V/X all the time.

By the way, pasting via Notepad etc to lose the formatting, makes no difference - I tried.

By the way 2, if you try to copy & paste from One Note into Evernote, you get an image of the text, not the text. I think there are several versions of stuff on the clipboard at any one time and OneNote's order puts the kibosh on Evernote's order of checking. Or vice versa.

[davidm_uk]

Works fine for me just using "mouse right-click copy" and then "mouse right-click paste".

Copied various sections from this thread to various note fields in FH with no problem, I didn't even need to resort to "mouse right-click paste as plain text". I prefer mouse actions, as I've already just used the mouse to select the text I want to copy, so I don't have to move my hand from mouse to keyboard, (or persuade my left hand to do ctrl-v ).

[Adjer]

Again thanks every one for your help. Yes I have tried right click for copy & paste (before I started this conversation) but as I say it is "greyed out". I recently switched browser from Firefox to Edge to get easy access to OneNote. The idea was to make internet clipping simpler. Perhaps I should mention I am still on F H 5, if that is an issue. I am reluctant to upgrade.
This problem has been going for many years & I think it is time for it to be sorted. Easy entry of text from internet to F H should be standard by now. New versions with the complicated bells & whistles is not what I want. Lets make it simple. Not all Family Historians want to be computer buffs but need an easy tool to do the job. Sorry for the grouse. Adjer.

[AdrianBruce]

... Easy entry of text from internet to F H should be standard by now. ...

But it is standard.... We must all be missing something because everyone else can just use sequences like click into the text area in FH, then Ctrl-V or right-click into the text area in FH, then right-click-menu-Paste. (Unless v5 looked at the Clipboard in a different fashion, but that seems unlikely to me).

1 - I have been assuming that when you said, "from One Note", you meant from One-Note the desktop-program. If I understand you correctly, you mean that you are running One-Note in a browser, presumably logged onto OneNote Online. Nevertheless, I have just tried copying text from OneNote Online, running in Edge, into FH using click in the text area in FH, then Ctrl-V - and it works fine.

2 - I am beginning to wonder, therefore, if the issue is with how you are picking up the stuff from OneNote - not necessarily what you are doing but potentially with what OneNote is putting on the Clipboard.

3 - Can you paste the same "text" into something like Notepad?

4 - Where does the text in OneNote come from and how did it get into OneNote? It is possible that what you have in OneNote is actually simply the image of some text and that won't go into FH or Notepad....

Not totally sure what other diagnostic questions I can think of right now....

[davidm_uk]

I've just tried copying and pasting from OneNote (used mouse to select text then right click and Copy):

OneNote.JPG (59.42 KiB) Viewed 12458 times

Now in FH Sample Project individual record, facts tab, select birth, use mouse to position cursor in Note: box, mouse right click and paste (also worked with Ctrl V):

FHNote.JPG (98.02 KiB) Viewed 12458 times

No problem. OK the Paste Fact button (and Paste in the Edit menu) are greyed out, but as said above maybe they are only intended for internal pasting within FH. I really don't see that as "complicated bells & whistles".

[LornaCraig]

I don't use OneNote but Adrian and David have both confirmed that they are able to copy and paste from OneNote into FH without difficulty. Like them, I am baffled and don't know what else to suggest.

Adrian wondered whether what you have in OneNote is simply an image of some text rather than actual text. However I see that in your second post in this topic you said "I cannot do it from M S Word to F H either" so it is not specific to OneNote. In my experience right-click>Paste will only be greyed out (disabled) if there is nothing in the clipboard. I cannot understand how it can be disabled if you have just copied some text from MS Word. What happens if you use Ctrl V? Does it do nothing at all?

[johnmorrisoniom]

I have occasionally had the problem where the computer's clipboard became disabled, so it was impossible to copy and paste any text from anywhere to any where. (Apart from copy and paste of sources or events, which use FH's own clipboard).

This was usually cured by turning said computer off and on again. This has not happened recently though. I never found out what caused the problem in the first place

[Adjer]

The copy & paste problem goes back a long way, in my case back to my Windows XP days. It's been discussed here before.
As far as I know nothing was done about it unless it is dealt with in FH v6. Have a look at this. It's about Windows/FH clip-boards.
Copy/Paste in the Property Box (14380)
Tatewise may know the answer?
Thanks for all your contributions. I am trying out all your suggestions. Adjer.

[Adjer]

Adrian, I am using Microsoft's new browser Edge which has OneNote incorporated in it. (An excellent tool) I had hoped it would solve my problem. Paste to Word Pad works but not to Notepad. Adjer.

[Jane]

As far as I can see that thread is about copying FACTS, that involves specially formatted data not text.

If you can't paste into Notepad that suggests what is in your clipboard is not "text", but some custom format are you sure when you paste into Wordpad it's coming in as text and not as an embedded object?

[Adjer]

Bingo!
Have found how to Copy & Paste from M S Edge browser to F H notes.
1. When on internet & text has been highlighted it is essential to place the cursor at the top of the highlight before L clicking copy. Any other position & the clipboard does not load & Paste in F H is "greyed out".
2. Copy & Paste from saved texts in OneNote, to F H notes. The saved notes are displayed in a box. To copy, R click in box but do not L click Copy. L click Picture which brings up another menu. L click Copy text. In F H Paste is active & will accept text in F H notes.
Problem solved.
Thanks to all for your help. Adjer.

[tatewise]

I may be wrong, but it sounds like OneNote did have a Picture image of text, rather than editable Text.
That would explain why FH could never Paste any text.
A OneNote trick is it can use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert an image of text into editable text.
I suspect the Picture option to Copy Text From Picture is performing that OCR conversion.

Can you confirm my guesswork, and if so I can add advice to our how_to:copy_paste_and_drag_drop|> Copy & Paste and Drag & Drop.

[davidm_uk]

A OneNote trick is it can use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert an image of text into editable text. I suspect the Picture option to Copy text is performing that OCR conversion.

If it is performing an OCR conversion, it would be wise to check the information that's pasted in to FH. OCR isn't always 100% accurate, so maybe something important doesn't come across correctly, unlike copy and pasting text.

[Adjer]

Mike Tate.
I think you are correct about the notes held in OneNote. They are in a dotted box that does not allow the text contained inside to be edited. As you say, a picture of the text. I have not noted any errors in the transfer process (C & P)
up to now but I will keep an eye on this. Regards Adjer.