Is it possible to have a clickable "copy to clipboard" feature in a PDF document generated by LaTeX?
Ideally in the form of a macro that also allows for graphical elements to be embedded inside it (to make, say, a custom button that, when clicked, copies something to the clipboard).
Edit: An Acrobat only solution will work too.
I'm happy to report that it is possible, even if with some limitations:
app.execMenuItem("Copy"); requires privilege.That being said, here's an MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{media9}
\begin{document}
\mediabutton[
jsaction={
var fld = this.addField("ToCopy", "text", \thepage-1, this.getPageBox({nPage: \thepage-1})); % Creates field named "ToCopy" of type "text" on the current page of the size of the current page
fld.value = "never gonna give you up..."; % sets the content of the field
fld.setFocus(); % selects the content of the field
app.setTimeOut("app.execMenuItem('Copy');", 1); % copies the selection. 1ms is the lowest pause that worked for me
app.setTimeOut("this.removeField('ToCopy');", 17); % removes the field. 17ms is the lowest pause that worked for me
}
]{\fbox{\strut Copy to Clipboard without Alert}}
\mediabutton[
jsaction={
var fld = this.addField("ToCopy", "text", \thepage-1, this.getPageBox({nPage: \thepage-1}));
fld.value = "never gonna let you down...";
fld.setFocus();
app.alert("Copied to Clipboard!");
app.execMenuItem("Copy");
this.removeField("ToCopy");
}
]{\fbox{\strut Copy to Clipboard with Alert}}
\end{document}
setFocus command requires a couple of milliseconds to work, and that, for some reason, the execMenuItem("Copy") command is executed before the former is done).You can actually also include this in a command of your own, as in e.g.
\newcommand{\createbutton}[2]{
\mediabutton[
jsaction={
var fld = this.addField("ToCopy", "text", \thepage-1, this.getPageBox({nPage: \thepage-1}));
fld.value = "#2";
fld.setFocus();
app.setTimeOut("app.execMenuItem('Copy');", 1);
app.setTimeOut("this.removeField('ToCopy');", 17);
}
]{\fbox{\strut #1}}
}
Now, as noted above, on my machine a pause between some of the commands is required, either via setTimeOut (which makes the function in its argument be executed after the given time has passed), or by making an alert pop up in between.
I believe my trying to minimize the pauses in the setTimeOut approach has a negative impact on reliability (I got it to, for example, not remove the form after some testing), so perhaps a slightly higher number would be more appropriate (also considering that different machines may require higher or lower pauses).
Please note, though, that this attempt was mostly a proof of concept; I doubt this is all that practical in the real world, at least not if the PDF is to be widely distributed. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong, especially by someone improving this answer. All the best!
Further reading:
\Acrobatmenucommand fromhyperrefpackage, but apart from printing, saving-as and open I did not manage to get other options working, although there are some of them, as written in thehyperrefmanual, amongst themCopyetc. Perhaps, H. Oberdiek knows more ;-) – May 01 '14 at 21:05acroread, maybe with javascript enabled. Like Christian Hupfer, I never had any luck getting this kind of thing working withhyperrefbut take a look - it is certainly a while since I tried it. – cfr May 04 '14 at 19:38Copycommand that you were referring to in thehyperrefmanual? – 1010011010 May 06 '14 at 16:08\Acrobatmenu{Copy}{Name of Button}, where you can change ofName of Buttonto whatever you like, but as cfr wrote: Most of the\Acrobatmenustuff does not work. – May 06 '14 at 16:35pdftotext? – phollox Jul 19 '18 at 15:37