CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cocoaselectionhotkeysnseventnspasteboard
flohei
flohei

Reputation: 5308

Copy current selection on hotkey

I want to copy the current selection, even if it's in another application like Mail, when the user hits a specified hotkey like Cultured Code does it in Things when you create a new task. I got the hotkey working and I know how to place and get stuff on and from the pasteboard. But I have no idea how to get a current selection.

Anyone? Thanks!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 302

Answers (2)

Rob Napier
Rob Napier

Reputation: 299295

You do this with a Service Provider. See the Service Implementation Guide. For what you're talking about, it should work very well. You don't need to do your own hotkey code; it'll do that for you. You don't even have to be running; it'll launch you.

To @Josh Caswell's point about OmniFocus, they're doing stuff fancier than just "the current selected text." They also copy the message itself into the inbox item as an attachment. That's what the plugin is assisting with.

Upvotes: 4

jscs
jscs

Reputation: 64002

This is a job for AppleScript, which is why applications that do clipping like this only support certain other applications to clip from -- those other applications have to support AS.

You'll have to take a look at the Mail AS dictionary and figure out how to get the selected text, and I believe that unfortunately you'll have to do the same with each application from which you want to clip.

Another possibility: it sounds like OmniFocus uses a Mail plugin for this functionality -- from http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=13906:

Starting in 10.6, Mail.app will refuse to use plugins... install the Clip-o-tron from that updated release... "OmniMailMessageEnabler...".

Upvotes: 1

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