Expanded Services Support

Lorinda · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:01 pm Post subject: Expanded Services Support

I really appreciate the limited services support in NeoOffice. I'm wondering if it is possible/feasible to expand it a little bit?

I'm particularly interested in Services which work with a block of selected text in a document/app, and end by pasting a new text into that document/app.

One service I'm particularly regretting not having available is "Insert NRSV" from Joe Weaks' Accordance Services package.

Another service (with a wider audience, no doubt) that I miss having access to is the Reformat service from the free Word Service collection by Devon technologies.

Right now when I need those services, I'm firing up Text Edit, using the service there, and then copying/pasting into NeoOffice.

It may be wishful thinking, but I'd like to have access to these services in Neo.

Lorinda

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4588

This is something I'd support, too. I seem to recall Patrick mentioning that it was at the very least non-trivial to implement, though, if not impossible. Sad

"If wishes were horsesâ€¦" (or however that goes).

Smokey

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

ovvldc · Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:18 pm Post subject:

Sounds pretty useful Smile

.

rays · Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:17 pm Post subject:

I would be inclined to support investigation of the feaibility of this approach to extending services available to NeoOffice.

I'm always slightly uncomfortable when I read of users having to pass via an external use of TextEdit or TextWrangler to get where they want to be.

I must stress that this comment certainly does not apply to NeoOffice alone. There are many occasions I find myself pasting M$ Word sourced content into text-only TextEdit before re-copying and pasting into another application to get rid of all the hidden stuff that gets in the way of what I'm trying to achieve - usuallly pretty simple stuff without including formatting fluff - at that moment. At least NeoOffice allows us to choose to paste unformatted text which helps most of the time when it is the target application.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I can now say with some confidence that this feature is feasible and probably only a week's worth of work at most.

However, there is one small limitation: I will have to copy the text coming back to NeoOffice into the system clipboard first so that the text can be pasted over the selected text. In other words, the limitation is that you will lose the last copy action on your machine and using the Services menu in NeoOffice will be like doing a new copy.

Hopefully, that limitation is something NeoOffice users can live with when using the Services menu.

Patrick

Lorinda · Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:20 pm Post subject:

It's certainly not a problem for me. I use a utility (Butler) that remembers the last several clipboard contents, so I can always retrieve recent clipboards.

Lorinda

djpimley · Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 12:50 pm Post subject:

Wouldn't be a problem for me.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I think that I have implemented this new feature. When I was testing the feasibility of this feature, I found that once I copied the data that a service pushes back to NeoOffice to the system clipboard, pasting the system clipboard into the currently selected text was pretty simple to do.

Can any of you install the following test patch and tell us if the new feature works for you? I will give everyone a week or so to test this and if there are no obvious bugs, I will include it in NeoOffice 3.1.1 Patch 1:

Intel:
http://joe.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-3.1.1-Patch-0-Test-10-Intel.dmg

PowerPC:
http://joe.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-3.1.1-Patch-0-Test-10-PowerPC.dmg

Patrick

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4588

In early testing, seems to work well for what I usually do. It's a shame it's not possible to interface directly with the Services Pasteboard for pasting back in Neo, but that's life (or, that's life with OOo Wink

). Thanks again, Patrick!

Smokey

Lorinda · Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 6:02 am Post subject:

Just an FYI, I am away from home currently and won't be able to test until Wednesday at the earliest. Thought I should pipe up since I made the initial request.

Lorinda

Lorinda · Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 3:40 pm Post subject:

I tested it out with my most commonly used Services (the ones I mentioned above), and it worked well.

I've only had a chance to test on Intel. Not sure if I'll have time to test on PPC this week, but I'll post back if I do.

Thanks so much for this!!

Lorinda

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I have NeoOffice 3.1.1 Patch 1 staged for release with this new feature. I wanted to highlight the new feature on the main website so the following wording will appear in the main website's "news banner" section when I release the patch.

ovvldc · Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:30 pm Post subject:

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

FYI. This new feature is included in NeoOffice 3.1.1 Patch 1. You can download the patch from the NeoOffice patch download page.

I have also posted Oscar's Dutch translation on the main website.

Patrick