How do I copy and paste only the columns I want?

Copy from what? A Word document, a PDF, a web page…?

@Jeruba Let’s say from this here dialog box.

@Jeruba I want to do it from anywhere really, so it is not a Fluther question. When I try to copy the LLL and NNN it insists on including the OOOs and the MMMMs.

If it is a spreadsheet you may “hide” the columns you don’t want and copy the ones you do then paste the copied columns to a new part of the sheet or a new sheet.

@Tropical_Willie I was hoping to find a fast way, not involving Excel etc.

The source makes a difference. The method would vary depending on what you’re copying from.

It would be easy to do from a Word document, for example, if the page is formatted in columns or the information is structured as a table. Not so easy if it’s a PDF.

Depending on how a web page is structured, it might or might not be fast and easy.

Asking for a single simple solution is kind of like asking how you move a bookcase out of your house. If it’s a separate, free-standing piece of furniture, just pick it up and move it. If it’s built into a wall, not so easy. The same answer will not do for both situations.

@Jeruba So, it is not possible to copy the Ls and the Ns from my detail part of the OP and paste it in this box?

The items in your details are not really in columns; that’s why you can’t isolate the Ls and the Ns. You can copy and paste the Ls alone and then the Ns but not both at once.

If you had worded your question in a way that would have permitted understanding from the outset, we could have gotten here much quicker. You’re not attempting to copy “columns” of letters, but “groups”. There’s a big difference.

With Windows, all you need to do is double click anywhere on the group of Ls from your question box, which will “select” the group, then hit Ctrl-C to “copy” them to the clipboard, and when you have moved your cursor to the destination file, dialog box, open document or whatever, hit Ctrl-V to “paste” them where you want them. Repeat the process for any other group of letters [words] (or groups of groups – phrases). The way to copy a phrase is to double-click the first “word” (group of characters) and hold the Shift key down while you click the final “word” (group of characters) that you want to include in the copy block.

As others have noted, different source documents and different software have differing functionality. The technique I’ve described is “plain Windows”. Office software (Word, Excel and others in the Office Suite) have additional functionality, but will still use this technique for “plain text”.

Are you saying you’d like to be able to draw an arbitrary rectangle around text (like in a drawing program’s Select tool) in order to select that text? If so, then so would I.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, no window manager or desktop environment supports this. (I could be wrong, as there are hundreds of them out there I haven’t looked at.) Blame interface designers. Better yet, pick a particular interface designer and pester that person until they implement it.
Of course, by “pester” I mean “file a wishlist bug on their project’s bug tracker” or use their existing feature request infrastructure. No stalking, k?

How could that be an interface issue? Being able to treat a particular block of text as a graphic and as discrete literal characters is a bit tricky. The way characters are stored and the way they’re displayed are two different things. You want the storage functionality to see it the way you see it on a screen, and it just doesn’t. That’s not a bug.

@Jeruba No, it isn’t a bug- just a feature request. Some bug-trackers have a “wishlist” category for such things.
Granted, graphics and text are different things. I know it’s possible to implement a two-dimensional select of arbitrary objects, because I’ve just done it in a file manager (Thunar.) To GTK, text characters are objects. I don’t have time to implement the feature myself, but I can fairly clearly see how to do it. If I get time to hack on it within the next year or so I’ll give it a shot.
I’m sorry that my “Blame the interface designer” crack didn’t come across as flippantly as I meant it. There’s no blame in not implementing features you haven’t thought of.

At least on OS X when you press option in Cocoa apps it gives you a cross-hair so you can select a rectangle of text. After you select one rectangle you can command+option to select a different one. The thing is when you paste it isn’t what you would expect.

Very interesting.
Thanks everyone.

Are the list of questions and reference # in different columns in the following page?
“here”: http://www.computerhope.com/apple.htm
or are they in groups?
And how do I make the distinction?

Those are columns in a table. I can tell by what happens when I highlight the content.

I can highlight the table text from beginning to end, use Ctl-C to copy it, and Ctl-V to paste it as is into a Word document. It formats as a table. From there I can use the Table>Select function to pick up just one column.

I can then paste that column elsewhere (for example, beneath the table) and then convert it from table to text and have just a list. I could also simply delete one of the columns and convert what remains.

The links remain links in my version of Word.

Here are the two sections, as separate lists:

Column 1

Apple
CD-ROM
Hard drive
Keyboard
MODEM
Memory
Mouse
Network
Printer
Security
Sound card
Video card
Shortcuts
History
News
Apple
CH000563
CH000643
CH000737
CH000975
CH001238
CH001264
CH001326
Forum

Column 2

Dictionary listing of terms relating to Apple computers
CD-ROM help and support.
Hard drive help and support.
Keyboard help and support.
MODEM help and support.
Memory help and support.
Mouse help and support.
Network help and support.
Printer help and support.
Computer security help and support.
Sound card help and support.
Video card help and support.
Apple keyboard shortcuts.
The history of Apple Mac OS.
Apple related news.
Apple company contact information.
How to install fonts on my computer.
How do I determine what operating system I’m using?
Do Macs get viruses?
Help and tips with ripping an audio CD with Apple iTunes.
Mac vs. PC
Are Apple Macs good with gaming?
How do I count how many files are in a folder?
If your question is not listed here try our computer help forum.

So, nothing visual that indicates whether it is a grouping of text or if they are columns?

@flo If you look at the page’s source code (Crtl-U) you can see that the fields in that table are enclosed in a <table> HTML element. On the page itself you can see that the fields are surrounded by border (the faint gray lines.) Not all tables have a border, but the <table> element’s style is what specifies that border.

@rexacoracofalipitorius “On the page itself you can see that the fields are surrounded by border (the faint gray lines.)”
Does that mean that it should allow vertical copying? According to my past experience, anyway, that was the case, except this time.

By the way, does that makes them “cloumns” or what is the other term “grouping of words”?

@flo The way that table is coded doesn’t explicitly identify columns. W3C’s table element specification does include a col element for specifying columns. I would not expect the browser to “know” that the columns are columns unless the table was coded in that way (using the col element).

In HTML a vertically-integrated group of words can be a table column, a list, or just a bunch of words separated by line-breaks. I would not expect the browser to allow vertical copying unless the group was a list or table column.

Thanks @rexacoracofalipitorius of course I have no idea what that means, meaning it is too technical for me.

@flo Let me try to make it clearer: The text you’re looking at is part of a table. A table has rows and columns, so you should be able to select within a row or column, right?
But no, because the person who made the table did it in such a way that it’s actually a series of rows. It looks like it has rows and columns, but your web browser doesn’t know about the columns because the person who made the table didn’t specify them.
This might be why you can’t select within the columns- because the browser thinks they are just a bunch of words.

@rexacoracofalipitorius thanks.
If I were to pick an interface designer as you suggested:
(“pick a particular interface designer and pester that person until they implement it.
__Of course, by “pester” I mean “file a wishlist bug on their project’s bug tracker” or use their existing feature request infrastructure.“_)
how would I word the feature request?

Dear interface designer,
”...........”

Regards

@rexacoracofalipitorius I’m looking for the key words and phrases, so I’m thinking it would be maybe one short sentence?

@flo I’d caution you first to make sure you are contacting the right person. I don’t know what specific program or system you’re looking at, so I hope you do.
I’m also not sure specifically what feature you have in mind. If it’s the one I mentioned about the arbitrary rectangle, then I guess you could phrase it the way I did:
”...draw an arbitrary rectangle around text (like in a drawing program’s Select tool) in order to select that text”

You could call it “select text inside bounding box” or something like. It might help you to google up some sample feature requests and bug reports so as to give you an idea of how to format and phrase things.
Here’s a nice article about reporting bugs and requesting features in MediaWiki – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bug_reports_and_feature_requests

I hope this is helpful.

@rexacoracofalipitorius thank you. It is helpful.