This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Echekwara usoro a. Biko jụọ ajụjụ ọhụrụ ma ọ bụrụ na ị chọrọ enyemaka.

Firefox copy-'n-paste of html isn't consistent accross platforms

sirlark
sirlark
more options

Firefox 31 doesn't copy and paste consistently across platforms, and never copy and pastes perfectly on any platform. I've tried various test cases always using a fresh install of firefox or a new profile and copying from the same web page.

Case 1: copy from FF 31 (fresh install) on windows 7 (VM) -> paste to MS Word 2007 on windows (VM) 

 Pastes as a table with font formatting (bold is preserved) but no border lines or background colours come across

Case 2: copy from FF 31 (fresh install) on windows 7 (VM) -> paste to MS Word 2007 on Linux using Wine 

 Pastes as plain text with the first rows cell each on a line on their own

Case 3: copy from FF 31 (new profile) on Linux -> paste to MS Word 2007 on windows (VM) 

 Pastes as plain text with the first rows cell each on a line on their own

Case 4: copy from FF 31 (new profile) on Linux -> paste to MS Word 2007 on Linux using Wine 

 Pastes as plain text with the first rows cell each on a line on their own

I realise there are likely issues cutting and pasting between a host and a VM, and also I know there are issues with cutting and pasting to programs running via wine on Linux (http://wiki.winehq.org/CopyAndPaste), but those are more to do with acquiring buffers/selections, rather then mime-types. Still even Case 1 isn't perfect. Chrome copies everything, colours, fonts, cell borders, etc perfectly. It seems that firefox isn't offering the right mime-type(s) for Word to recognise?

I'll try it with LibreOffice, which I am installing now.

Firefox 31 doesn't copy and paste consistently across platforms, and never copy and pastes perfectly on any platform. I've tried various test cases always using a fresh install of firefox or a new profile and copying from the same web page. Case 1: copy from FF 31 (fresh install) on windows 7 (VM) -> paste to MS Word 2007 on windows (VM) Pastes as a table with font formatting (bold is preserved) but no border lines or background colours come across Case 2: copy from FF 31 (fresh install) on windows 7 (VM) -> paste to MS Word 2007 on Linux using Wine Pastes as plain text with the first rows cell each on a line on their own Case 3: copy from FF 31 (new profile) on Linux -> paste to MS Word 2007 on windows (VM) Pastes as plain text with the first rows cell each on a line on their own Case 4: copy from FF 31 (new profile) on Linux -> paste to MS Word 2007 on Linux using Wine Pastes as plain text with the first rows cell each on a line on their own I realise there are likely issues cutting and pasting between a host and a VM, and also I know there are issues with cutting and pasting to programs running via wine on Linux (http://wiki.winehq.org/CopyAndPaste), but those are more to do with acquiring buffers/selections, rather then mime-types. Still even Case 1 isn't perfect. Chrome copies everything, colours, fonts, cell borders, etc perfectly. It seems that firefox isn't offering the right mime-type(s) for Word to recognise? I'll try it with LibreOffice, which I am installing now.

All Replies (3)

sirlark
sirlark Jụọ onye nwe ya ajụjụ
more options

Hi, I just tried with LibreOffice on Linux, copying from FF 31 on the same OS, and it pastes similarly to Case 1, i.e it pastes as a table with font formatting (bold is preserved) but the font-face is not preserved, border lines are lost and no background colours come across.

So clearly FF is providing the right mime-type(s) but isn't actually conveying all the styling information.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Firefox won't copy style rules that are applied from a style sheet to the clipboard. You only get inline style rules that were added via the style="" attribute.

sirlark
sirlark Jụọ onye nwe ya ajụjụ
more options

Thanks for the response, but I'm getting some styling (and it's all in CSS). For example the bolded text is specified in CSS, unless it's coming through purely because <th> tags are bold by default in Firefox.