Can't copy help contents using keyboard shortcut

Hi everybody, I'm using Matlab 2013b in windows 7, I can't copy the contents of help browser to the clipboard using keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+c). I changed it in the preferences, and only (Ctrl+insert) works for me. (Ctrl+c) is not defined for any other action, it's just for copying. Now I defined both (Ctrl+c) and (Ctrl+insert) for copy but (Ctrl+c) works everywhere except in help browser and (Ctrl+insert) works everywhere. But I want to be able to use (Ctrl+c) in the help browser. What's wrong with this?

[Star Strider]

I can’t reproduce your error (in R2015b, Win 10), but I’ve never encountered that problem on other machines and with other versions of Windows. Does rebooting solve it? (This also seems an OS problem.)

[Andy Johnson]

Well, it's been like this for about two years, and I've been using (Ctrl+insert) till now, but I've got a new keyboard and it's a bit hard to use (Ctrl+insert) instead of (Ctrl+c) in the new one. I know I'm lazy. I'm lazy because I didn't fix the problem at the first place and I'm lazy and that's way I want to fix it now, but please help me out if you can.

[Star Strider]

There’s always the possibility that a new keyboard (especially if it’s a gaming keyboard) requires one or more specific drivers. Windows should have gone online to look for the driver and downloaded and installed it automatically, but you may have to do that yourself if it didn’t.

[Andy Johnson]

The new keyboard's functionality is just like the previous one, and in both of them I need to use (Ctrl+insert) to copy from Matlab's help browser. It's just about the position of the keys on the board that made me feel I need to fix the problem. In the new one there is more distance between 'Ctrl' and 'Insert' rather than 'Ctrl' and 'c'.

[Thomas Vanaret]

Executing an example from the help by selecting its code and then press F9 doesn't work either. Really annoying...

[Image Analyst]

When you're interacting with help, it's almost like a different application. The help is not designed or set up do execute code within the help application. I mean, if you highlighted code here in Answers and hit F9 you wouldn't expect it to do anything (like create plots or whatever) would you? Those application(s) just are not designed to recognize that an F9 means to execute MATLAB code like the MATLAB code editor or command window are.

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Yes, that was a bug that was introduced back around then and lasted a version of two, though for some reason it does not appear on the bug report list. Probably for this reason:

We had to use control-insert to copy help documentation text into the clipboard. I agree, it was very annoying. It has since been fixed and no longer exists in current versions. If you want the fixed MATLAB version, you'll have to upgrade to the current MATLAB version.

[Image Analyst]

For reference, see these links:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/104546-why-does-the-help-window-cause-matlab-to-hang-and-why-do-right-click-and-ctrl-c-not-work-in-the-hel

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/108732-copy-things-from-the-documentation

[Andy Johnson]

Thank you :D

So I should pay money then Mathworks let me copy from documentation by Ctrl+c? It's not fair! But thank you for your help.

[Image Analyst]

Yeah, it would be awesome for us users if all software manufacturers would give users the next version for free if any bug were found in the current version. However the world does not work that way.

Answer 2

[Thomas Vanaret]

The boring work around :

"You can also work around the Ctrl+C issue by using Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Insert to copy and paste text."

From : Matlab answer 104546

Bug Report : 1019537 (Oct 2014)