Let the user select a text anywhere and launch FL search with that selected text without having to press CTRL+C and CTRL+V

[raindropsfromsky]

Currently, if we see any text in any app (e.g. browser, Word/Excel/PowerPoint/pdf file, etc), and if we want to search that in FL, we have to do it in four distinct steps:

1. Select the text
2. press CTRL+C
3. launch FL by pressing its hotkey (e.g. CTRL+SpaceBar)
4. press CTRL+V

Shorten this process as follows:

1. Select a text anywhere (in any application)
2. launch FL QuickSearch with a modified hotkey (e.g. CTRL+SHFT+SpaceBar).

We should not need CTRL+C or CTRL+V.

WordWeb has this feature: Select any text in any app and press CTRL+W. That launches WordWeb and loads the selected text in it, and WordWeb shows the meaning of that word. We can also use CTRL+RMB click for the same action.

[taooceros]

I like this feature, but the implementation is under consideration. I am not sure whether invoking clipboard and read from clipboard is a good implementation, but it is hard to have other implementation.

[jjw24]

I know the intention is CTRL + C is also not used, but I think this can be done easily via a plugin after pressing CTRL + C, after which the plugin then access the clipboard and grab the first item upon action hotkey trigger, similar to the Clipboard History plugin. User can map a custom query to this so it will be triggered with shortcut.

If we also not use CTRL + C, I am more curious how to detect the selected text in browser, Word/Excel/PowerPoint/pdf file, etc.

[raindropsfromsky]

Thanks for considering!

BTW even the SearchBar addon of Chrome has the same feature.
It can take the selected word and pop up any website as a separate tab (or same tab), with that selected text as search string.

But compared to WordWeb, it has a more limited scope of work: It can capture the selected word within the given Chrome window only.
But in our context, I am focusing on the way it can capture the selected text and process it.

[aghster]

Shorten this process as follows:

1. Select a text anywhere (in any application)

2. launch FL QuickSearch with a modified hotkey (e.g. CTRL+SHFT+SpaceBar).

We should not need CTRL+C or CTRL+V.

This is exacly what I am looking for too: #1135

[aurelio20000]

It would be good to have this feature of pressing control shift and space, after choosing a word or series of words and for FL to immediately send it to the text bar for modification, with the feature of being able to send it to a search engine predetermined by the user, without the need to declare it at every moment