kill-rectangle-as-text.el

;; http://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/3174 via xtreak on freenode
(defun youngfrog/copy-rectangle-to-kill-ring (start end)
  "Saves a rectangle to the normal kill ring. Not suitable for yank-rectangle."
  (interactive "r")
  (let ((lines (extract-rectangle start end)))
    (with-temp-buffer
      (while lines ;; insert-rectangle, but without the unneeded stuff
        ;; (most importantly no push-mark)
        (insert-for-yank (car lines))
        (insert "\n")
        (setq lines (cdr lines)))
      (kill-ring-save (point-min) (point-max)))))

(defun kill-rectangle-as-text (b e)
  (interactive "r")
  (progn (youngfrog/copy-rectangle-to-kill-ring b e)
         (delete-rectangle b e)))