The most likely issue here is that the software you are using to access your Tag download page either does not support the ‘COPY’ button, or it is configured to block our page’s access to your clipboard buffer as a security risk. In either event the result is the same – the ‘COPY’ button is not copying the Tag, and therefore ‘paste’ is pasting what was previously held on the clipboard (which may be nothing).
There may be ways to overcome the security issue, but we would not recommend these, particularly since it is very easy to manually copy the Tag, and thereby avoid compromising your browser security.
To manually copy a Tag, simply drag your cursor over the Tag image, and type ctrl-c. Dragging your cursor involves depressing the select button on your mouse when the cursor is positioned top left in the Tag image, and then moving the mouse with the select button still depressed until the cursor reaches the bottom right of the image – shading will appear over the selected area (Tag). You can then release your mouse button, and the selected area will remain selected, as shown right.
With the Tag selected, depress and hold the ‘Ctrl’ key on your keyboard (‘Command’ key on Apple computers) while typing the letter ‘c’.
In some situations, you may also be able to copy the selected Tag by ‘right-clicking’ it and then clicking ‘copy’ in a pop-up menu. Some trial and error may be required here.
This occurs for a number of reasons, the most common of which are because either the Tag has been pasted as one complete image, or because the Tag is in ‘edit’ mode.
There are a number of options for pasting the contents of your clipboard, as you can see if you right-click and look at the choices that are available to you (see the image on the right) but sometimes the default choice does not paste everything you need. For instance, it may paste all of the faces in your Tag as one composite picture, and retain no (or just one) hyperlink, rather than as six separate images each with their own separate hyperlink. In this case, the Tag may look normal, but it may not behave correctly when clicked. If this is the case, take a look at what paste options are available to you in your software, and select an option that keeps as much of the source formatting as possible. You may need to apply some trial and error to getting this right, or you may find that you can get it to work with some browser/application combinations, but not others. Try varying the selection area – for instance try it with just one face and then with others and see if there are any clues to what works and what doesn’t. Because software sometimes gets ‘stuck’, you may need to restart your application, or even your computer, to eliminate this as part of the issue.
Some software, particularly graphics software, works in edit mode, inasmuch as clicking a Tag is by default simply a means of selecting it and moving it around (as is the case with other graphics on the page). For instance, when you open Word or PowerPoint, or even begin composing a new email, it defaults to edit mode because it is expecting you to begin by arranging things as you want to see them. In these cases, clicking a Tag, or any other hyperlinked graphic, has no effect, but you may see the message ‘Ctrl+Click to follow this link’. If you are planning to circulate your finished and Tagged document as a finished email, or a slideshow, or a webpage or pdf document, your software will automatically switch out of edit mode, and your recipients will be able to click Tags directly as intended. But if you plan to circulate your document in editable form, we would recommend that you flag up to them that they will need to depress the ctrl key on their keyboard to engage with clicking your Tag – perhaps with a label over the Tag which states ‘Ctrl+Click a face to provide feedback’.
This is a common occurrence within PowerPoint, OneNote and some other graphics software. It occurs because unlike text-centric software, there is no automatic assumption of things being linked together in a line, and so the software either pastes all images in the same place, or as a column, or sometimes staggered slightly to aid individual retrieval. Luckily however, the software is usually in edit mode when it does this (see the section immediately above) and this allows you to select and move your Tags into a more appropriate arrangement.
In OneNote or in web-page editors, both of which retain some text rules around their graphic elements, you may find it more of a struggle to simply drag Tag images to where you want them (it sometimes seems almost as though the software is fighting you). In the case of OneNote, you will find it easier if you drag the graphics outside of any text element and work there. In the case of web-page editors, you will find the widget a very useful solution. In the case of other software, you may need to apply a bit more trial and error.
On occasion, you may find that the Tag gets pasted as massively over-sized faces occupying the whole width of the page. This is fairly rare and is usually caused by a temporary glitch of some type. If you do encounter this, or similar, problems it often helps to restart things so that everything is starting again from scratch. If the problem persists, try pasting the Tag into a different situation that you know works, and then re-copying and pasting the Tag from there. If the problem consistently resists these attempts to fix it, please get in touch with us – we are looking to work with something repeatable in this area so that we can obtain a better grasp on what is actually happening. Hopefully we can fix the issue together.
You may well experience this issue if you have opt for a Text link, and select ‘Send a star’ or custom text, and you click the copy button to obtain the Tag you have created. Under these circumstances, the Inspirometer creates an HTML version of the Tag, which works great in some situations, but not in others. To obtain a version of your text, with the link as an embedded hyperlink, simply drag your mouse over the text to select it, and then use ctrl-c to copy it to your clipboard. You should then be able to paste it into your document and have it appear as your text, but with a hyperlink to your Tag.
As software continues to develop, and new technology and operating systems evolve, we envisage that new issues will arise which we have not yet encountered – such is the nature of IT. Panta rei – all is flux – you cannot step into the same river twice.
As we do encounter new issues and new solutions or work-arounds, we will update this page. If you encounter a problem of downloading your Tag which is not listed here, we would encourage you to use trial and error to identify exactly what works and what doesn’t. If you find a solution, please let us know so that we can learn from it and share it with others. If you don’t find a solution, please contact us anyway, and we will try and find a solution for you.
