Microsoft: Windows Phone 7 series 'will not initially offer copy and paste,' case-specific actions integrated into OS
By Ross Miller 
posted Mar 19th 2010 6:41PM
posted Mar 19th 2010 6:41PM
On copy and paste:
On the unlocked emulator:Windows Phone 7 Series will not initially offer copy and paste; instead, we try to solve the most common uses for copy and paste via single-tap action. For example, people often want to take an address and view it on a map, highlight a term in the browser and do a search or copy a phone number to make a call. Instead of the user manually doing a copy and paste in these scenarios, we recognize those situations automatically and make them happen with just one touch. In our early testing people have been pleased with this approach, but we're always listening to feedback and will continue to improve our feature set over time based on what we hear.
We are extremely pleased with the level of excitement we're seeing for Windows Phone Developer Tools. When we decided to provide a Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator as part of the tools, we anticipated that people would attempt to unlock and explore the code. We have been very clear that the emulator is based on early code and is not reflective of the final user experience. Windows Phone 7 Series is still under development. The UI has been disabled to avoid confusion and allow developers to focus on testing applications on the underlying platform. We continue to recommend that developers use the emulator as provided to avoid any issues and unpredictability that may be introduced by an unlocked version.
And that settles it. Implementing it now would just push back the release date. I for one, can do without copy and paste.
@GON Exactly. So the way this works out, they'll use smart-addressing for c/p links, numbers, and etc., while they work on getting a full-fledged clipboard function. This is the same thing that Apple did, and if I'm not mistaken, c/p is pretty good on the iPhone, no?
@N900, the iPhone had absolutely no copy and paste up until they implemented it. It didn't work the same at all. At least WP7 has some functionality (which tbh could be nice if it's implemented correctly).
@Templarian Oops. I wasn't aware of that. But still. It's c/p implementation is pretty fair.
@GON
I do not understand why it would be so difficult to implement C&P OS-wide. I use copy and paste on my Palm Pre all the time; I don't know what I would do without it, really.
@GON agreed.... make sure the base OS is as close to perfect as possible and add that stuff if needed later.
@Templarian And WP7 will have zero copy and paste functionality either.
What they are talking about is single touch capability, like if you touch a number in an email, it launches the dialer and dials the number for you.
You know. Exactly like the iPhone did.
@a dumb cat
Have you ever coded a textbox from ground up? That is, not just putting an box in your HTML, nor just dragging a textbox control over from the Visual Studio toolbar to the XAML. And if you can still follow me, what I meant is, to code a textbox from ground up including but not limited to:
- locating user's finger position
- decide the area and sensitivity of the rectangle for which text will be input
- trigger keyboard (animation, resize window correctly, system hooks, etc)
- lay out keyboard in a sensible manner
- finetune keyboard sensitivity
- intelligently detect user's words according to dictionary
- display text that is detected from the keyboard control
- display cursor in the correct position
- remember cursor position and insert text into the string where the cursor is
- remember the string that is input and send to other controls accordingly
Before you can code this whole thing in assembly in DOS, you don't really have the right to say it's "easy".
@RidleyGriff "And WP7 will have zero copy and paste functionality either."
not initally =/= no
@MMMM
I will agree that C/P probably isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, however ... this is Microsoft. They've been around for awhile. They should know how people felt about not having Cut and Paste on the iPhone so that they wouldn't leave it out with their software.
Is it the biggest deal in the world? No. Could they add that in for a future update. Probably. I copy and paste links all the time to people, so having this not there is kinda weird.
It's just surprising that it wasn't included from the start. It's as if they left out the R in R&D. However, they did change the entire interface from what Phone 7 was going to be, so maybe they are rushing it out and just forgot to include it.
@Templarian
You are just completely wrong: the mechanism MS describes for W7 is exactly the same available on the iPhone from the beginning.
MS follows exactly the same path as Apple with the iPhone.
Engadget comments are however quite different... go figure.
@majipoor Crap I didn't know that. I guess I was right the first time...
@MMMM Except no one's doing this in Assembly, or DOS. Sure a lot of the stuff is unique for a touchscreen environment (e.g. scrolling, hit areas, zoomability), but otherwise it's just an extension of the same textbox classes we've had forever. You'd be mad to code any sort of reasonable textbox in assembly, let alone a single-programming OS like DOS.
@davidmuful How does Apple seem old and stubborn when the iPhone OS will have more features than WMP7 will at launch, and how is MS getting it right leaving out essential features that we all use and need.
@majipoor, I took it as it allowed the user to click and a list of options would come up and the user would have the ability to copy or do other stuff with the value like call it or open it in a browser.
Hmm... either way I'm sure they will get it working correctly in the end and as a developer can't wait to mess with it.
@angermeans easy,
Zune -Check!
Xbox - Check!
Office - Check! but need to see more
Awesome Specs - Check!
different hardware - Check!
Copy and Paste - empty (there is one-touch though)
Multitasking - Half a check! (there is smart multi-tasking)
Does iPhone have Zune/Xbox/Office/ Different hardware?
@Templarian
This would be real copy and paste, wouldn't it?
@Dking7 You're basically asking, "Does the iPhone have this list of MS technologies?" Cause while it doesn't have those specific ones, it does have:
iPod - Music player. Same as Zune.
Gaming - One of the more interesting mobile game platforms to come out in years.
Office - Look in the store. There are apps to view/edit Office docs.
Awesome Specs - Check. Their specs are designed around their OS, and vice versa.
Different Hardware - iPod Touch? iPad? iPhone 3GS?
Copy/Paste - More than Windows Phone 7 Series will have at launch, seeing as how it has full copy/paste now. And WP7S current implementation is what the iPhone had at launch, too.
Multitasking - Same for both. 3rd party apps still can't run in the background. The stock apps can.
Ahh, they've saved the c/p issues for now. Sweet. Back to more apps developer coverage please!
@davidmuful I'm not judging it; in fact I think they're going about everything in a very logical manner ("single touch" is superior to copy and paste for the common use scenarios described on mobile devices, as the iPhone demonstrated).
What I'm judging is all the people here, who bashed Apple for making these decisions 3 years ago, now bending over backwards to justify how it's "different" that Microsoft is doing it. Give me a break.
You non-Apple fanboys are the worst.
@Dking7 .. WPS7 does NOT have multitasking. Stop trying to rewrite the facts. It is not NOT smart multitasking it is simply notifications to apps that it is being terminated to allow it to save state. The iPhone has done this since day 1.
@taligent Err, day 1 being 2 years later? Push Notifications weren't available until a few months after the iPhone 3GS was out. I know because that's one of the reasons why I decided to take the plunge and buy one.
Either way, the multitasking in WP7S is very different from multitasking on the iPhone. In WP7S, when you leave an application, it continues to run in a suspended state, meaning the scheduler doesn't allow it any time in the CPU and it basically can't do anything. If you return to the app, it recovers its state and continues like nothing happened. IMO, this is clever for both saving battery and performance (less noticeable "loading time" for the app).
In the iPhone, multitasking ONLY works with first-party apps. When you leave a third party application, it is completely closed. If you return to this application, it has to restart from scratch, and recover its saved state if the developer was savvy/attentive enough to add that functionality.
@saposmak Hmm, disregard the first paragraph, didn't realize you weren't talking about Push Notifications.
@s73v3r
Yes. It can have multitasking. It simply has the option of putting some apps into a stasis mode, or reduced cycle mode, so that they still can function, but won't take up so much processing power. The programmers apps can chose to ignore that mode, thus making them fully functional.
Android does the same.
@majipoor, nah in the example I gave it would only allow predefined regions (emails, urls, and phone numbers) to be clicked with the ability. No actual selection of text.
@a dumb cat
You don't understand because you don't have enough background of it.
- A service needs to be run always listening to all applications.
- All applications need to be able to communicate with that service.
- Data of different kind needs to be converted into specific formats because not every program understands all the formats. (eg. an example an image in different programs, html, audio etc.)
- Data is transferred to clipboard service and clipboard service keeps it in a separate memory (which can grow huge).
- By pasting the data in another program , data is transferred from clipboard to that program possibly with more conversions.
Now clipboard enabling all applications and running that clipboard service puts a lot of burden on the CPU and battery. If 1% of people use copy/paste then it is not wise to tax every WP7 user on their efficiency to provide that feature.
@GON "I think I'll see how this works out with copy and paste. I think right now they want to try something different, more optimized for a phone." Agree, Windows isn't that dumb, they know the consequences about this lack. Me? I am more curious of what's MS plans on putting behind this lack of features. Opinions: http://bit.ly/windows-phone-7-reactions-examined
@Templarian You have no idea if WP7S will implement it better or worse than any other phone. The arrogance of some of you guys is incredible.
@GON
I like how they are doing single touches to make it easier, but I hate that they are taking away choice.
They should've given option when you highlight words or phrases, it asks the user if they want to copy or to go straight to search,dial pad etc.
Extremely reasonable response to the emulator hack.
@UCFw00t
I agree - it strongly implies that they included the "unlockable" stuff intentionally, knowing that folks would try to hack it. This is slightly out of character for Microsoft, but I like it.
@UCFw00t
I think we all underestimate just how advanced copy and paste really is…*
*hint of sarcasm
Hopefully there is a copy button on the address bar many times I have to copy and paste a link into an SMS to show people thing. Really that is the only time I copy and paste.
@Templarian There is a 'Share' menu option for web pages
@burnblue There is a Share button for alot of things. Pictures, maps, directions, search listings, webpages. Basically anything they anticiapted you needing to manually copy the link and paste it they provide an easier way. I guess if they eliminate as many common scenarios as possible that would need traditional copy and paste, and people are still clamoring for it after launch, im sure they will oblige them.
@burnblue Well, that would be perfect for sharing data, say for instance RIGHT HERE IN THIS COMMENT. Oh, wait...
@Templarian
You're aware that since the iPhone had the same contextual tap thing from DAY ONE that MS is describing here, a lot of iPhone users said pretty much the same thing as you're saying right now?
iPhone users have ALWAYS had the ability to tap a phone number and have the phone dial it, or add it to the address book. iPhone users have ALWAYS had the ability to tap an address and have it open in Google Maps. We knew from the start that because of these features, that copy and paste was NOT as important as all the whiny Apple haters wanted it to be.
And now look at the hilarious backpedaling the same Apple haters are doing. "Oh on second thought, we don't think C&P is that important after all."
LOL. Just fucking LOL. I'm just saying.
@Templarian
How bout when you want to save an address as a contact instead of plotting it on the map?? Will that be an option? How bout when you want to send someone a phone number in a text instead of calling or texting that number? How bout rewording a text message?
There are countless numbers of things cut and paste is useful for that I highly doubt will be available from their hyperlinks. They should just stop trying to get fancy and give the people what they want.
I still don't know how I feel about this. i do this they should definitely enable copy & paste within office though.
@Brent1700 think*
@Brent1700 Onenote mobile will be a lot less useful if you cannot copy text, images etc. from web pages and paste into your notebook IMHO!
@Brent1700
"...we're always listening to feedback and will continue to improve our feature set over time based on what we hear."
I want copy/paste functionality for those times when it will be the most convenient solution.
CAN YOU FREAKING HEAR ME NOW?
Excel and Word desperately need Cut & Paste, but it should NOT be system-wide, the contextual hotlinking sounds much more attractive.
@Wodenborn "contextual hotlinking" +1
@Wodenborn So you thought Apple did it right before they added Cut and Paste?
Personally, I think having both is the best solution.
@RidleyGriff
Ditto. Rest assured Microsoft will implement it system-wide. Seems that the ground-up rewrite of WP7 is taking all of the available resources and they've made a bunch of compromises. Personally, I would rather they'd put a bit more focus on editability than some of the more superficial flashier features.
@RidleyGriff
I've not seen the iPhone recognize addresses in webpages.
Phone numbers, yes. But not addresses.
At least they arent freking out about the unlocked emulator
Obviously Microsoft wasn't gonna give the feature on a silver platter, but at least they have a brain.
You know, I think I'll see how this works out with copy and paste. I think right now they want to try something different, more optimized for a phone. However, they are leaving the window open if it turns our not so good and we will get copy and paste in the spring or next summer.
So really, our fears of 7's copy and paste situation is just us expecting the worst from Microsoft. We have been let down so often, that we rush to conclusions.
I think this new system will work. But I'll reserve judgment from any features until I buy one. And buy one I will, that is certain.