Reports copy to clipboard copies entire webpage

Hi there,

after updating to 20.9.52, function Copy to Clipboard for general ledger summary copies entire webpage code instead of table content:

Urgent solution needed as accounts are being audited at the moment and must be submitted within a days for controlling body.

Balance sheet and PL has the same problem.

Thanks
S

This is the way it has always been. Copying reports copies the HTML that displays them. But instead of pasting into a word processing document or text editor, paste into a spreadsheet. Most spreadsheet applications have the ability to parse the HTML into spreadsheet cells, sometimes with an import wizard or special paste function, sometimes automatically. See this Guide: https://www.manager.io/guides/19000.

ok, I get it, but the way it used to be was perfect - why this had to be changed? Now it is just another level of complication added. When I do data export, I don’t need formatting, I need figures to work it and and copying csv data to clipboard was perfect. Now I have to 1) save the file 2) open it with excel 3) convert it to digital format (Libreoffice doesn’t do conversion on opening). What took usually seconds to achieve now became minutes. Not the tragedy, but definitely not the progress.

ok, i understand that some may wish to keep formatting, that’s fine, but why then scrap csv to clipboard copy option? most accounting programs have few export options and as a excel, txt/csv comes together as a standard not one or other.

I guess this becomes my problem. I’ve tried to copy according to instructions, but that doesn’t work with LibreOffice. To make it work, I have to save it to a file, then open it. Plain figures imported ok, but with signs are imported as text, so for me it happens to walk longer way.

It hasn’t. You previously had two methods for getting data from reports: copying to the clipboard or exporting. Copying reports to the clipboard always copied the HTML—as I already told you. Exporting produced a TSV file. After a recent change, the Export button is replaced by a Copy to Clipboard button for lists and eliminated for reports.

Your complaint was that something has changed when copying a report to the clipboard. It has not.

Exact procedures for pasting data have always depended on the application you are pasting into, the version of that application, and sometimes the region of the world your copy of the application was tailored for. Different spreadsheet applications have different features for importing and parsing text files.

@Solnce the export is available in my version 20.8.96. Bottom right hand corner.

@Tut , if you are saying that Export button is no longer available in Reports in later versions then this is another reason why program update changes need to be clearly documented in the forums as they occur
For my purposes this is a surefire reason NOT to update.

@VACUUMDOG, you are roughly 60 versions behind, and the change I described was within the last few versions.

But understand this. The functionality is still there. The label on one button changed. And a duplicate function was eliminated. The major change was eliminating dragging and copying.

Well, removing the ability to copy reports to excel just totally stuffed this program for me!
Every response in the forums that says to copy the data to a spreadsheet and manipulate the data from there is now totally irrelevant!
This would have to be among one of the most inane changes that @lubos has made.

@VACUUMDOG here is the thing. I can still copy the entire report by selecting the text and pasting into Excel. It works. When I click on the button Copy to Clipboard and paste it to Excel. It works again.

I need to test in LibreOffice what’s the situation but copying to Excel is not broken.

For the third time, @VACUUMDOG, the functionality is still there. You are complaining about the loss of something that is not lost in a version you have not tried.

Copying an internet table and paste into a spread sheet or word processing document is a task used in many applications and as such there are general purpose solutions.

An immediate user option is to use web browser third party table copying extensions.

  • Open Manager in the browser of the users choice
  • install a table copy browser extension
  • use it to copy the html table in Manager and paste into the spread sheet program of choice

Lubos may develop another solution however the above works now

Edit
I believe the issue is programs recognising clipboard data type without a data type specifier.
Comma separated text is very widely recognised, other formats less consistently and import results are variable.

Manager has never produced CSV data. It produces TSV or HTML, depending on what is being copied.

@Tut
For your information I did download the latest version 20.9.53 and try it!!! I don’t recall posting that I hadn’t.

It DOES NOT function the same, as negative values are not pasted correctly into the spreadsheet like they were. I have text included in cells (Dr & Cr) which I don’t want to appear after creating my custom reports in my spreadsheet program.
After spending so much time setting up my spreadsheet program to do what I want with the reports again, I now have to go and change everything and, as always lately, hope that it doesn’t get changed again.
I don’t recall anyone requesting the removal of the Export button which leads back to the problem of frequent changes ‘breaking’ expected functionality for seemingly no gain.

Oops, you are correct Manager has supported tab separtated text data in the clip board in the past.

I suppose the underlying issue is the different tasks different users are intending to achieve

  • Raw data for analysis → tab separated text is best

  • Partly formatted table to touch up → Html may get most the way there

This is valid argument. And you could have said it earlier instead of claiming that ability to copy reports have been removed which I couldn’t understand myself.

The issue is that we had two buttons Copy to clipboard and Export which seemingly did the same thing. But they didn’t. One would copy report as HTML, the other would copy report as TSV.

I found that Export button at the bottom is redundant considering you can just select the report and copy it. I didn’t consider Dr & Cr suffixes which are on one report only (general ledger summary). But this is why we have a forum. Issue is raised and solution will be found.

@lubos, yes I probably should have stated " removing the ability to copy reports to excel in TSV format"

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but the fact that you found it redundant does not mean the the thousands of users of the program found it redundant.
Would it not be better to advise the users on the forum of proposed changes like this and then make the changes based on users reactions?

You may not recall, but you wrote in post #6 above:

which was before the change. Later in the same post, you wrote:

You never wrote anything to the contrary until after my comment. In fact, v20.9.53 had not yet been released when I wrote post #10. So you could not have downloaded it before writing your initial complaints.

This will probably be an unpopular post but I would recommend almost the opposite.

[rant]

  • Design by a committee results a very poor product in my experience. Design decisions are best based on a deep understanding of the implications and product directions, something which is beyond a committee or other large groups capabilities.

  • No design decision has universal acceptance so not making a change because someone doesn’t want to change from something which has worked for them in them past is also a poor reason.

That is not to say a designer shouldn’t concern themselves about what has broad support, or a decision which has a significant impact on a niche market. Informed decisions based on weighing the pros and cons is what good design is all about.
[/end rant]

Many users identifying the implications of changes on their work flow is an excellent idea.

2 Likes

@Patch
I agree basically with what you are saying but in this case it could have been of benefit to the users to post along the lines of “I’m looking at removing the Export button as it duplicates the Copy to Clipboard button.”
Users could then have responded with the differences and their requirements allowing the developer to either ditch the idea or implement in a way that is acceptable.
I’m not saying every development should be presented before implementation, just those that take away functionality that users rely on and could be left there without causing any problems.
I was lucky I could roll back to a previous version and forward to the latest version and back to the version I’m using now to check this as I would have been p****d off at the end of the month when I came to do my monthly report.
I rely heavily on the export button :wink: :wink: :wink:

Lubos, not everyone is using Excel, I am using LibreOffice and such switch is huge regress for me. It now required substantial amount of time to get figures to work with.
I cannot paste directly to Calc file, I got this then:
image

I have to save to a file, open it and do the conversion. It is ok, but then is that one:

I have to process all that by removing CR and DR and replace that with - where appropriate. That’s is not cool at all, this is a regression for me and a nightmare you would not like to have when 10 days left to submit the reports and audit is constantly asking to provide with reports and breakdowns.

What is the way to go back to previous version of data export or workaround for that?

Thanks
S