Changes

The clipboard has become a staple in any modern operating system.  Nonetheless, its implementations have changed little, if at all, in decades. The clipboard has one "page", to which you can copy  to, cut  to, and paste from, and in most cases this hypothetical page remains invisible: to see what's on it, you've got to paste its contents.  While this isn't strictly true (On Mac OSX, for instance, an item at the bottom of the 'Edit' menu allows you to 'View Clipboard Contents'), most users are oblivious about viewing its contents, as one must explicitly seek it out.  This basic model, while simple, often falls short of many use cases.  Thus, OLPC has extended the traditional clipboard, empowering the user with added functionality without increasing complexity.

The clipboard has become a staple in any modern operating system.  Nonetheless, its implementations have changed little, if at all, in decades. The clipboard has one "page", to which you can copy  to, cut  to, and paste from, and in most cases this hypothetical page remains invisible: to see what's on it, you've got to paste its contents.  While this isn't strictly true (On Mac OSX, for instance, an item at the bottom of the 'Edit' menu allows you to 'View Clipboard Contents'), most users are oblivious about viewing its contents, as one must explicitly seek it out.  This basic model, while simple, often falls short of many use cases.  Thus, OLPC has extended the traditional clipboard, empowering the user with added functionality without increasing complexity.

On the laptops, the clipboard takes the form of the left-hand edge of the frame.  This region serves as temporary storage for objects - a paper, an image, a sentence, a URL - facilitating their transfer among activities and, perhaps more importantly, among the various zoom levels.  Any type of object that can be stored in the Journal can likewise be transported via the clipboard.  A child may place an object on the clipboard in a couple of convenient ways.  First, keyboard shortcuts will provide an interface for simple cut, copy, and paste functions in the way already familiar to us.  Additionally, since objects support direct manipulation, she may simply drag a photo, file, or selection onto the frame in order to copy it, and may then drag it out to paste it in another location, such as within another activity, on a friend, or to a [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/The Laptop Experience/Bulletin Boards|Bulletin Board]].  As items are placed on the clipboard, they are arranged temporally in a push-down stack, the most recent clipping appearing in the upper-lefthand corner of the frame.

On the laptops, the clipboard takes the form of the left-hand edge of the frame.  This region serves as temporary storage for objects - a paper, an image, a sentence, a URL - facilitating their transfer among activities and, perhaps more importantly, among the various zoom levels.  Any type of object that can be stored in the Journal can likewise be transported via the clipboard.  A child may place an object on the clipboard in a couple of convenient ways.  First, keyboard shortcuts will provide an interface for simple cut, copy, and paste functions in the way already familiar to us.  Additionally, since objects support direct manipulation, the child may simply drag a photo, file, or selection onto the frame in order to copy it, and may then drag it out to paste it in another location, such as within another activity, on a friend, or to a [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/The Laptop Experience/Bulletin Boards|Bulletin Board]].  As items are placed on the clipboard, they are arranged temporally in a push-down stack, the most recent clipping appearing in the upper-lefthand corner of the frame.

With the presence of a clipboard which contains multiple items, it becomes necessary to add a means for selecting an active clipping as the source for any paste command.  Since the usual copy/paste keystrokes will quickly become familiar to all, any invocation of the cut or copy shortcuts will automatically place the resulting clipping at the top of the stack, selecting it as the source, so that a subsequent paste command behaves as expected.  When not using these traditional shortcuts, however, a single click on any object in the clipboard will select it, visibly indicating it as the new source.  Of course, keyboard shortcuts will also provide a method for cycling through the currently selected clipboard item.

With the presence of a clipboard which contains multiple items, it becomes necessary to add a means for selecting an active clipping as the source for any paste command.  Since the usual copy/paste keystrokes will quickly become familiar to all, any invocation of the cut or copy shortcuts will automatically place the resulting clipping at the top of the stack, selecting it as the source, so that a subsequent paste command behaves as expected.  When not using these traditional shortcuts, however, a single click on any object in the clipboard will select it, visibly indicating it as the new source.  Of course, keyboard shortcuts will also provide a method for cycling through the currently selected clipboard item.