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GreyGerber's avatar
GreyGerber
New member | Level 2
23 days ago

Code is not copying correctly from Dropbox

I am having a problem where if I try to copy code from a PDF or Word doc, Dropbox will parse the data incorrectly.

For example:

If I want to copy this code:

 

and I paste that code into a notepad, this is what I get in return:

<h1><span style="color: #333399;">Instructions</span></h1>
<span style="font
-
size: 18pt;">Step 1:</span>
<button id="take_quiz_button_48" data
-
title="Pre Test Quiz" data
-
alias="/education/courses?view=assessment&amp;tmpl=component&amp;id=48"
Intro Eval Code.pdf
class="quizButton btn btn
-
default" data
-
mediabox
-
height="700" data
-
mediabox
-
width="800" style="background
-
color: #0d3952ff; border: none; color: #a0ebc0ff; padding:
15px 32px; text
-
align: center; text
-
decoration: none; display: inline
-
block; font
-
size: 16p
x
!important; transition
-
duration: 0.4s; border
-
radius: 12px;"><span class="lizicon
-
quill"></span> Take the Pre Test </button>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<span style="font
-
size: 18pt;">Step 2:</span>
<a href="/education/courses/lesson/?id=206">
<button> Watch Content </button>
</a>
<style type="text/css">
#lesson
-
side>div {
display: none
}
#splms>div>div.row>div.col
-
lg
-
9 {
width: 100% !important;
}
</style>

 

As you can see, the code is being copied to Windows with extra spaces/lines.

This is on a Windows 10 machine.

3 Replies

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    23 days ago

    Hi GreyGerber, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

    Could you clarify how you're copying this from Dropbox? 

    Are you previewing the PDF or Word files on the Dropbox site when copying the text, or downloading the files to your computer and then copying and pasting them?

    This will help me to assist further!

  • GreyGerber's avatar
    GreyGerber
    New member | Level 2
    23 days ago

    Hi Jay​ ,

    I am copying the text directly from the Dropbox preview / open screen. Both of these screens lead to the same result.

    If I do download to my computer and open through Acrobat / Word (depending on file), the function performs as expected. 

    It is only on Dropbox Web that this problem occurs. (I do not have the Dropbox Application on Windows to test with).

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    23 days ago

    Thanks for the info. The Dropbox Preview window attempts to replicate the files for preview purposes, however, the previewed file itself might not contain the correct formatting when copying and pasting the contents of those files to another program.

    We appreciate the feedback on this matter and we take all comments into consideration when improving the Dropbox site and services.

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