Copy and Paste information into Raiser's Edge Query - Blackbaud User Society

**julianbrelsford** · 03:47 PM

I'm sure I am not the only person who has wanted to copy and paste a list of names, importID numbers, etc into a query. Raiser's edge does not accept "paste" operations of more than one line.

But there's a workaround.

This macro looks for a query criteria window whenever you press control+v. If one is not found, the behavior of control+v is not changed; if one is found, then when you press control+v, it "pastes" in a way that the Raiser's Edge Query criteria window will understand. (it splits the lines up and pastes one line at a time, with lines separated by a simulated press of the "tab" key.) To the best of my knowlege, up to 500 items may be in a list using the "one of" operator in a Raiser's Edge query.

This code is written by me, and it is free and comes with no warranties of any kind. To use it, you will either need to either download AutoHotkey and use the code as an AutoHotkey script or download the program file (EXE) version. The code and the EXE file are available at:
Utility to (Copy and) Paste into Raiser's Edge Query

The code is this simple:

#singleinstance force
#noenv
sendmode, input

~^v::

ifwinactive, Edit Field Criteria
{
clipsaved := clipboardall
StringSplit, clip, clipboard, `n,`r

loop
{
if a_index = 1
continue
if clip%a_index%
{
send, {tab}
sleep, 25
clipboard := clip%a_index%
send, ^v
}
else
{
sleep, 25
send {tab}
break
}
}
clipboard := clipsaved
}

return

**fgrignon** · 05-06-2009, 08:07 AM

A+++ Thanks a lot for sharing! Fred

**cstevens** · 05-06-2009, 11:25 AM

Thank you so much for this. We are constantly getting lists of ID's and have to import a temporary attribute to produce a mailing list, etc. for these people. I just downloaded and ran your macro and it works great.

**julianbrelsford** · 05-06-2009, 05:26 PM

Glad you found it useful!

**SimonKoppel** · 05-07-2009, 06:00 AM

Wow. Just... wow! Do you have any idea how many hours of fiddly workarounds you have just saved? That is simply fantastic.

**ida** · 05-07-2009, 10:00 AM

Nice one! Thanks for this

**n1ugu** · 05-07-2009, 01:32 PM

Ditto to all comments above. Awesome!

**Katrina Brown** · 05-21-2009, 05:00 PM

Thank you so much, I have a question. I have never used Hotkeys before. I think I installed it and script properly but whenever I try to paste it does not pick up the first four values. It does this whether I copy from excel or word. I have tried with different value sets and it always seems to be the first four.

Can anyone help and tell me what am I doing wrong?

**SimonKoppel** · 06-05-2009, 04:43 AM

Katrina, I hadn't noticed before, but we've tried it out and it does the same for us too. It's easy to stick four rows of dummy data in, but it's a bit annoying.

Still a brilliant tool, though, even with that quirk.

**Katrina Brown** · 06-10-2009, 02:31 PM

I absolutely agree that while a tad irksome, the four rows missing has not stopped me from using the tool many times.

Thanks again you have saved me hours of work and double checking that I didn't accidentally miss some one

**ssandbach** · 06-12-2009, 05:34 PM

If you have autohotkeys open and you click on the icon in the toolbar and click on "pause script" it no longer chops the first four rows of data. I think it has something to do with the script reloading on itself, but I'm not sure. Anyways, it works for me.

**ida** · 06-15-2009, 03:29 AM

Hi

I downloaded the exe file and ran it but then when I tried the copy & paste, nothing happened. Is there something else I need to do?

Thanks
Ida

**nisaac** · 06-16-2009, 08:15 AM

Wow! You should get some kind of prize. Thanks so very much for this. Great job!

**mwittman** · 06-16-2009, 12:56 PM

julian, this is fantastic!!! Thank you for the creative hack and for sharing it.

**dk - regis** · 06-17-2009, 01:18 PM

My first day on the forum, and I've already struck gold. Brilliant! Thanks for sharing this, Julian!

**julianbrelsford** · 06-17-2009, 01:50 PM

Just returned from a month out of the country. Ida, to address your problem I think I may need more information. The tested use of the copy & paste utility is that you copy a column of data out of an excel sheet, and then press "control v" to paste when you are inside of a Raiser's Edge Query Criteria window (one whose title bar shows "Edit Field Criteria"; you'll need to set the criteria type to "one of" or "not one of" and then place the cursor in the first available row).

The source of data could be a plain text document with line breaks separating the data, instead of an Excel sheet - that should not make a difference. if you copy and past more than one row from Excel at the same time, it probably will not work. Using a similar spreadsheet program instead of Excel (for example, OpenOffice Calc) will probably work but I haven't tried it.

**julianbrelsford** · 06-17-2009, 02:14 PM

Here is a version of the code that I hope will work for people who are running in to the "missing the first four lines" bug. The cause of this bug, I think, is that your computer is "sending" the data to the "Edit Field Criteria" window before that window is ready to accept the data.

Please ask, if you'd like me to make this version of the script into a compiled EXE file. Note that since the bug you've mentioned doesn't show up on my machine, I haven't tested this version of the script to see if it works.

;;;;;; script begins here ;;;;;;
;;;; please ask before using this script in Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME;;;
#singleinstance force
#noenv
sendmode, input

#ifwinactive, Edit Field Criteria
^v::
{
sleep, 200
clipsaved := clipboardall
StringSplit, clip, clipboard, `n,`r

loop
{

if clip%a_index%
{
send, {tab}
sleep, 25
clipboard := clip%a_index%
send, ^v
}
else
{
sleep, 25
send {tab}
break
}
}
clipboard := clipsaved
}

return
;;;;;; script ends here ;;;;;;

**ida** · 06-22-2009, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by julianbrelsford

Just returned from a month out of the country. Ida, to address your problem I think I may need more information. The tested use of the copy & paste utility is that you copy a column of data out of an excel sheet, and then press "control v" to paste when you are inside of a Raiser's Edge Query Criteria window (one whose title bar shows "Edit Field Criteria"; you'll need to set the criteria type to "one of" or "not one of" and then place the cursor in the first available row).

The source of data could be a plain text document with line breaks separating the data, instead of an Excel sheet - that should not make a difference. if you copy and past more than one row from Excel at the same time, it probably will not work. Using a similar spreadsheet program instead of Excel (for example, OpenOffice Calc) will probably work but I haven't tried it.

I think that's what I've been doing but I'll have another go... Thanks.

**julianbrelsford** · 06-22-2009, 10:49 AM

ida,

my apologies if what I'm suggesting is really obvious to you.

This program must be actively running on your computer to work. If it is running you should be able to see an autohotkey icon among your system tray icons. If it is not there, you will need to double-click on the EXE file you downloaded in order to run the script.

**janahernandez01** · 06-24-2009, 05:48 PM

This ROCKS! Thanks!

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