Patent Abstract:
A system and method is provided to address the aforementioned challenges. A “paste to” function is provided in a source application from which data is being copied. When the user selects the “paste to” function, a list of potential target applications is provided. Potential target applications includes other open applications as well as different windows (e.g., documents) of a common application, such as a word processor. When the user selects one of the potential targets from the list, data is written to the “entry point” of the target application. If the user wishes to paste the same data to several different target applications, the user selects the “paste to” function as many times as needed in order to paste the data to the various other applications.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Technical Field  
         [0002]     The present invention relates in general to a system and method for copying clipboard data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method to paste data selected in one application directly to another application.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Modern computer systems generally use multitasking operating systems in which it appears that multiple applications are running simultaneously. Multitasking operating systems are used as both single user operating systems, as well as multi-user operating systems. Examples of multitasking operating systems include IBM&#39;s OS/2™ operating system, IBM&#39;s AIX™ operating system, the Linux operating system, the UNIX™ operating system, Apple Macintosh™ operating systems (e.g., Apple&#39;s OS X™), and various operating systems provided by the Microsoft Corporation, including Windows XP™, Windows ME™, as well as other versions of Windows style operating systems.  
         [0005]     Many of these multitasking operating systems provide a graphical user interface that provide containers (i.e., windows) for various applications running simultaneously on the computer system. Windows can either fill the entire display screen (“maximized”), fill a portion of the display screen, or be hidden (“minimized”), in which case the visible reference to the application is a small icon or item in a task list. Modern computer systems provide increasing amounts of memory and nonvolatile storage allowing more applications to be run simultaneously. Moreover, modern operating systems provide virtual memory and paging algorithms which increases the virtual address space allowing for even more applications to be run simultaneously.  
         [0006]     When a user is using multiple applications, it is often advantageous to “copy” data from one application and “paste” it into another application. One way that this is performed is by having a system “clipboard” which is a memory area used to store “copied” data so that it can be “pasted” to another application by reading the copied data from the clipboard and writing into the other application. To accomplish this task, a user selects data in a first application from which data is being copied by using the keyboard or selection tool (e.g., mouse, track-point, etc.) to select the data. The user then instructs the application to write the selected data to the clipboard by using a “copy” or “cut” operation. As the names imply, a copy operation leaves the data in the first application, while a cut operation deletes the data from the first application.  
         [0007]     The user then navigates to a second application to which the data is to be pasted. This navigation often utilizes a graphical user interface to select the second application. Once the second application has been selected and activated, the user positions the cursor in the application at the position where the data is to be pasted and requests a “paste” operation to be performed by the second application. The paste operation responds by reading the data from the clipboard and writing it to the second application, typically beginning at the cursor position.  
         [0008]     A challenge with moving (or copying) data between applications using traditional methods is that it is tedious to move between the applications using the graphical user interface and using the various menus encountered to locate the appropriate commands (i.e., copy, cut, paste, etc.). This challenge is exacerbated when data needs to be copied from one application into several different applications, causing the user to have to both navigate to the other applications as well as locate and execute the “paste” command in each of the other applications.  
         [0009]     What is needed, therefore, is a system and method for copying data to other applications without needing to navigate to the other applications and user menus or other commands in the target applications. What is further needed is a system and method that simplifies the copying of data from one application to multiple target applications.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0010]     A system and method is provided to address the aforementioned challenges. A “paste to” function is provided in a source application from which data is being copied. When the user selects the “paste to” function, a list of potential target applications is provided. Potential target applications includes other open applications as well as different windows (e.g., documents) of a common application, such as a word processor. When the user selects one of the potential targets from the list, data is written to the “entry point” of the target application. If the user wishes to paste the same data to several different target applications, the user selects the “paste to” function as many times as needed in order to paste the data to the various other applications.  
         [0011]     The user begins by opening various applications, such as a word processor, a spreadsheet program, and an email program. Various files are opened using the applications. For example, the user might open a sales forecast document and a sales summary document using the word processor, a sales history spreadsheet and an expected sales spreadsheet using the spreadsheet program, an email message received from a salesperson, as well as a new email message directed to a sales manager in the email program. If the email message received from the salesperson includes data, such as recent sales numbers, that are needed in many of the other opened applications, the user simply selects the sales numbers, copies the data to the clipboard, and uses the “paste to” function available from the source document. In one embodiment, the “paste to” function pastes the last data written to the clipboard to the target application, while in another embodiment, using the “paste to” function while data has been selected at the source application causes the data to be both written to the clipboard and pasted to the target application.  
         [0012]     The “paste to” function retrieves a list of opened applications and displays a window with a list of the opened applications. The user selects a target application from the displayed list and the sales numbers are pasted into the target application. In this manner, the user is able to select data and paste it into a number of other applications without ever leaving the graphical interface provided by the source application. In one embodiment, when the user selects a target application from the “paste to” list, the data is pasted to the selected target. In another embodiment, the user is able to select multiple targets from the “paste to” menu and, upon the user&#39;s request, the data is pasted into each of the target applications.  
         [0013]     The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present invention, as defined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limiting detailed description set forth below.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]     The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings.  
         [0015]      FIG. 1  is a screen diagram showing data being selected from a source application and copied into the clipboard buffer;  
         [0016]      FIG. 2  is a set of screens showing data being pasted into a target application based upon the user&#39;s request;  
         [0017]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart showing the steps taken in performing a directed paste operation;  
         [0018]      FIG. 4  is a flowcharts showing the steps taken in retrieving locations for the directed paste operation;  
         [0019]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart showing the steps taken in selecting paste to targets and pasting data;  
         [0020]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram of a computing device capable of implementing the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0021]     The following is intended to provide a detailed description of an example of the invention and should not be taken to be limiting of the invention itself. Rather, any number of variations may fall within the scope of the invention, which is defined in the claims following the description.  
         [0022]      FIG. 1  is a screen diagram showing data being selected from a source application and copied into the clipboard buffer. The source application includes visible user interface window  100 . Visible user interface window  100  is used to display application data in window  130 . In the example shown, text block  125  has been selected by the user by using the keyboard or a pointing device such as a mouse, track point, etc.  
         [0023]     Visible user interface window  100  also includes menu bar  105  that includes one or more menu items. In the example shown, edit menu  110  has been selected and, within edit menu  110 , copy function  120  has been selected. As shown in the edit menu, a shortcut exists allowing the user to press a key combination (“control”+“c”) to select copy function  120 . The copy function results in selected text block  125  being written to clipboard buffer  150 .  
         [0024]      FIG. 2  is a set of screens showing data being pasted into a target application based upon the user&#39;s request. Edit menu  110  has been selected from menu bar  105  after selected text block  125  was written to clipboard buffer  150  as shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0025]     In  FIG. 2 , the user selects “Paste to” menu item  220  which results in Paste to menu  230  being displayed. In addition, the user could have used the shortcut key combination (“control”+“t”) to select the “paste to” function. Paste to menu  230  includes an menu item for each potential target application/window currently opened in the computer system. If multiple data files are currently opened with the same application, then each of the data files is shown in menu  230  so that the user can select which of the application windows should receive the data. In the example shown, there are four potential targets: a WordPro document entitled “test.lwp” ( 260 ), a WordPro document entitled “sample.lwp” ( 270 ), an untitled document opened in the Notepad application ( 280 ), and an email note to “JohnDoe@ibm.com” ( 290 ).  
         [0026]     The user selects one or more items from paste to menu  230  and, when all desired items have been selected, presses “go” command button  250  which is included in menu  230 . In the example shown, item  240  (the Lotus Notes email note) and item  245  (the WordPro document entitled “sample.lwp”) have been selected. When the user selects “go” command button  250 , data that was copied to clipboard buffer is pasted to the selected applications and appears as new text  275  in the WordPro document and as new text  295  in the Lotus email message.  
         [0027]     The embodiment described above allows the user to select multiple target applications/windows before pressing the “go” command button. In an alternate embodiment, there is no “go” command button and, when the user selects one of the items from menu  230 , the data is pasted to the corresponding application/window. In this alternate embodiment, the user can paste data into multiple target applications by repeatedly displaying menu  230  and selecting a different menu item each time the menu is displayed.  
         [0028]     In one embodiment, data is written to clipboard buffer  150  as a result of a copy or cut operation, as shown in  FIG. 1 . In an alternate embodiment, when the “paste to” function is used a check is made to determine whether data in the source application has been selected (i.e., selected but not yet copied to the buffer). If data has been selected, then the data is copied to the clipboard buffer for pasting to one or more target applications/windows. As used herein, the term “application” means an application associated with a data file, unless otherwise noted. Using this definition, in  FIG. 2  there is one source application ( 100 ), and four potential target applications ( 260 ,  270 ,  280 , and  290 ). Each of the potential target applications corresponds to a paste to menu item shown in paste to menu  230 .  
         [0029]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart showing the steps taken in performing a directed paste operation. Processing commences at  300  whereupon, at step  310 , the user selects the “paste to” command. In  FIG. 2 , it was shown that the “paste to” command could be invoked by selecting the “paste to” menu item from the edit menu or by selecting the command&#39;s shortcut (i.e., “control”+“t”).  
         [0030]     A determination is made as to whether data is currently selected in the source application that has not yet been written to the clipboard buffer (decision  320 ). If there is currently data that has been selected by the user in the source application but not yet written to the clipboard buffer, then decision  320  branches to “yes” branch  325  whereupon, at step  330 , the selected data is written to clipboard buffer  150 . On the other hand, if data is not currently selected in the source application, decision  320  branches to “no” branch  335  bypassing step  330  so that the last data written to clipboard buffer  150  will be used in any paste operations.  
         [0031]     The potential target applications that are capable of receiving data from a paste operation are then retrieved (predefined process  340 , see  FIG. 4  and corresponding text for processing details). At step  350 , the potential target applications are displayed to the user in a “paste to menu.” 
         [0032]     The user uses the displayed “paste to” menu to choose which application(s) is/are to receive data from the clipboard buffer (predefined process  375 , see  FIG. 5  and corresponding text for processing details). The result of predefined process  375  is one or more copies of the data in the clipboard buffer are written to one or more applications  390 . Processing thereafter ends at  395 .  
         [0033]      FIG. 4  is a flowcharts showing the steps taken in retrieving locations for the directed paste operation. Processing commences at  400  whereupon, at step  410 , the “paste to” menu is initialized with no items as no items have yet been added to the menu. At step  420 , the first application is selected from an operating system table, such as system tasks  425 , that includes a list of opened applications.  
         [0034]     A determination is made as to whether the selected application is “paste-able” (decision  425 ). In other words, a decision is made as to whether it is possible to paste data into the selected application. Some applications do not have a user interface and others, such as a read-only help screen or application, have a user interface but do not have an entry point for data entry. The decision as to whether the application is “paste-able” can be made in a few different ways. One way is for a check to be made of the selected application&#39;s application programming interfaces (APIs) to determine if a “paste” or data entry API exists for the application. Another way to determine if an application is “paste-able” is by checking a list of default or user-selected applications into which the user would like to be able to paste data.  
         [0035]     If the application is not paste-able, decision  425  branches to “no” branch  426  which bypasses steps taken to process a paste-able application and determines whether there are more applications to process. On the other hand, if the application is paste-able, decision  425  branches to “yes” branch  428  whereupon processing of the paste-able application commences.  
         [0036]     Processing of a paste-able application commences by selecting the first (or only) window of the selected application from selected application&#39;s windows  440 . At step  450 , a menu item is created based upon the name of the window (i.e., the name of a document or spreadsheet file) and the name of the application and inserted into the “paste to” menu. A determination is made as to whether there are additional windows (i.e., documents, spreadsheet files, etc.) that are currently opened using the selected application (decision  460 ). If there are additional windows, decision  460  branches to “yes” branch  465  whereupon the next window for the selected application is selected (step  470 ) and processing loops back to create the menu item name and insert it into the “paste to” menu. This looping continues until there are no more windows associated with the selected application, at which point decision  460  branches to “no” branch  475 .  
         [0037]     A determination is made as to whether there are more applications that need to be processed and possibly added to the “paste to” menu (decision  480 ). If there are more applications to process, decision  480  branches to “yes” branch  485  whereupon processing loops back to select and process the next application from system tasks  425 . This looping continues until there are no more applications to process, at which point the “paste to” menu is complete and decision  480  branches to “no” branch  490  whereupon processing returns to the calling program at  495 . See  FIG. 3  for steps that occur before and after processing of the steps shown in  FIG. 4 .  
         [0038]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart showing the steps taken in selecting paste to targets and pasting data. Processing commences at  500  whereupon, at step  505 , a multiple target enablement flag is read that indicates whether the user has requested that multiple selections can be made from the “paste to” menu, or whether the user has requested that a single selection can be made from the menu.  
         [0039]     A determination is made as to whether multiple targeting is enabled (decision  510 ). If multiple targeting is not enabled, decision  510  branches to “no” branch  515  whereupon single target processing is performed. Single target processing commences at step  520 , whereupon the user selects a “paste to” target application menu item from the displayed ‘paste to” menu. At step  525 , data is read from the clipboard buffer, and at step  530 , the data read from the clipboard buffer is written to target application  540 . Single target processing thereafter returns at  595 . See  FIG. 3  for steps that occur before and after processing of the steps shown in  FIG. 5 .  
         [0040]     Returning to decision  510 , if multiple targeting has been enabled, decision  510  branches to “yes” branch  545  whereupon, multiple target processing is performed. Multiple target processing commences at step  550  with the user selecting a “paste to” menu item from the “paste to” menu. A determination is made as to whether the user selects the “go” command indicating that selections are finished (decision  560 ). If the user has not pressed the “go” command button, decision  560  branches to “no” branch  562  whereupon processing loops back to have the user select his or her next “paste to” target from the menu. This looping continues until the user presses the “go” command button, at which point decision  560  branches to “yes” branch  565  for processing of the selected “paste to” targets.  
         [0041]     At step  570 , data is read from clipboard buffer  150 . At step  575 , the first item selected in the “paste to” menu item is identified. The data read from the clipboard buffer is written to identified target application  540  at the identified target application&#39;s insertion point (step  580 ). The insertion point is typically the current cursor location in the target application when the application is activated. At step  585 , an attempt is made to identify the next item selected in the “paste to” menu item. A determination is made as to whether a next item is identified (decision  590 ). If a next item is identified, decision  590  branches to “yes” branch  592  whereupon processing loops back to process the newly identified item and write the data from the clipboard buffer to the target application that corresponds to the identified item. This looping continues until all selected targets in the “paste to” menu have been identified and processed, at which point decision  590  branches to “no” branch  594  and processing returns at  595 . See  FIG. 3  for steps that occur before and after processing of the steps shown in  FIG. 5 .  
         [0042]      FIG. 6  illustrates information handling system  601  which is a simplified example of a computer system capable of performing the computing operations described herein. Computer system  601  includes processor  600  which is coupled to host bus  602 . A level two (L2) cache memory  604  is also coupled to host bus  602 . Host-to-PCI bridge  606  is coupled to main memory  608 , includes cache memory and main memory control functions, and provides bus control to handle transfers among PCI bus  610 , processor  600 , L2 cache  604 , main memory  608 , and host bus  602 . Main memory  608  is coupled to Host-to-PCI bridge  606  as well as host bus  602 . Devices used solely by host processor(s)  600 , such as LAN card  630 , are coupled to PCI bus  610 . Service Processor Interface and ISA Access Pass-through  612  provides an interface between PCI bus  610  and PCI bus  614 . In this manner, PCI bus  614  is insulated from PCI bus  610 . Devices, such as flash memory  618 , are coupled to PCI bus  614 . In one implementation, flash memory  618  includes BIOS code that incorporates the necessary processor executable code for a variety of low-level system functions and system boot functions.  
         [0043]     PCI bus  614  provides an interface for a variety of devices that are shared by host processor(s)  600  and Service Processor  616  including, for example, flash memory  618 . PCI-to-ISA bridge  635  provides bus control to handle transfers between PCI bus  614  and ISA bus  640 , universal serial bus (USB) functionality  645 , power management functionality  655 , and can include other functional elements not shown, such as a real-time clock (RTC), DMA control, interrupt support, and system management bus support. Nonvolatile RAM  620  is attached to ISA Bus  640 . Service Processor  616  includes JTAG and I2C busses  622  for communication with processor(s)  600  during initialization steps. JTAG/I2C busses  622  are also coupled to L2 cache  604 , Host-to-PCI bridge  606 , and main memory  608  providing a communications path between the processor, the Service Processor, the L2 cache, the Host-to-PCI bridge, and the main memory. Service Processor  616  also has access to system power resources for powering down information handling device  601 .  
         [0044]     Peripheral devices and input/output (I/O) devices can be attached to various interfaces (e.g., parallel interface  662 , serial interface  664 , keyboard interface  668 , and mouse interface  670  coupled to ISA bus  640 . Alternatively, many I/O devices can be accommodated by a super I/O controller (not shown) attached to ISA bus  640 .  
         [0045]     In order to attach computer system  601  to another computer system to copy files over a network, LAN card  630  is coupled to PCI bus  610 . Similarly, to connect computer system  601  to an ISP to connect to the Internet using a telephone line connection, modem  675  is connected to serial port  664  and PCI-to-ISA Bridge  635 .  
         [0046]     While the computer system described in  FIG. 6  is capable of executing the processes described herein, this computer system is simply one example of a computer system. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that many other computer system designs are capable of performing the processes described herein.  
         [0047]     One of the preferred implementations of the invention is a client application, namely, a set of instructions (program code) in a code module that may, for example, be resident in the random access memory of the computer. Until required by the computer, the set of instructions may be stored in another computer memory, for example, in a hard disk drive, or in a removable memory such as an optical disk (for eventual use in a CD ROM) or floppy disk (for eventual use in a floppy disk drive), or downloaded via the Internet or other computer network. Thus, the present invention may be implemented as a computer program product for use in a computer. In addition, although the various methods described are conveniently implemented in a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would also recognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware, or in more specialized apparatus constructed to perform the required method steps.  
         [0048]     While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, that changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention and its broader aspects. Therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of this invention. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is solely defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those with skill in the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such limitation is present. For non-limiting example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim elements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an”; the same holds true for the use in the claims of definite articles.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6