copy and past image into another box same size and location

[rickaz1]

Indesign CS5 Mac

Have a lage document with portraits - 1 of the portraits needs to come out and need to shift them over. In Quark you could copy and past image into another image box and get same scale and X&Y location. I have tried the direct selection tool copied the image and paste into the empty box next to it but the scale is off.

Is there a work around this in Indesign.

[Joel Cherney]

Not a workaround, but a tool: use Edit -> Paste in Place

[rickaz1]

Past in Place pastes in on top of the original image and not in the box that I want to paste it into

[Joel Cherney]

Oh, I misunderstood entirely. Nevermind! I try to avoid scaling raster images in ID, so I have no idea whatsoever how you'd do this, or if it's even possible.

[Peter Spier]

I'm confused. Why not just move the image in the existing frame? You don't have to move the frame to move the content inside it.

[rickaz1]

My question is: In Quark you could copy and past image into another image box and get same scale and X&Y location. I have tried the direct selection tool copied the image and paste into the empty box next to it but the scale is off. IS there a way for InDesign to copy an image and past it into a new box and have the same x & y and scale size?

[Peter Spier]

I'm not able to get the scale to change when I paste into, but I haven't tried really hard. You'd have to do something atypical for scale to change, or do something after you paste. When you paste into another frame, the content should be centered.

But I will ask again. WHY do you need to paste into a new frame? It sounds to me as if you need to either crop the image or shift it in the existing frame.

[rickaz1]

I would just like to copy one image and paste it into another box and get the same X&Y coordinates and have the image scaled the same. In Quark it was a copy and paste. In InDesign from all the different posts on this issue it doesn't look like you can. Checking if anyone has a way to do this or if InDesign is adding this in the future.

[Peter Spier]

InDesign, thankfully, is not Quark. If you would explain clearly what you want to accomplish, we could tell you the best way to do it in ID. And tell us which version you are using.

[Joel Cherney]

Perhaps our intrepid original poster is unfamiliar with InDesign's handy Fit Content to Frame and Fit Frame to Content tools...

[CindyShields]

Our intrepid original poster is being very patient and polite yet nobody is helping. It is very true that Quark will easily handle moving imported graphics around by allowing them to be cut from one frame and pasted into another without losing track of the original image directory. This saves a the work of re-importing and "fitting to frame" which isn't necessarily how the image has been sized anyway! I would love to learn if InDesign can handle this because it would simplify the job considerably if a situation occurs such

as the orignal poster described.

[Peter Spier]

I don't believe there is anything new to say...

[Nina_Storm1]

What Joel says is explained:

http://indesignsecrets.com/how-frame-fitting-options-affect-paste-into.php

Using the eyedropper tool on the frame of the source picture can fix it.

I have been struggling with this issue as well.

As proposed using the selection tool and "paste into" seems to do the job.

However it paste the entire frame into the new frame, which is not always what you want.

A clever person made a script (I cannot find his name) which do the job (behind the scene it pastes into and removes the original frame):

___

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"
    activate
    set mydoc to active document
    set myFrame to selection
   
    --make sure there is a selection
    if myFrame is {} then
        display dialog "Select a frame and try again"
        return
    end if
   
    --make sure the frame has been copied
    try
        paste into
    on error
        display dialog "Clipboard is empty, copy a frame with an image and try again"
        return
    end try
   
    --the pasted item
    set myItems to all page items of item 1 of myFrame
   
    --test for a frame with an image 1 means an image or an empty frame
    if (count of myItems) is 1 then
        delete item 1 of myItems
        display dialog "Copy a frame with an image and try again"
        return
    end if
   
    --item 2 is the image
    select item 2 of myItems
    copy
    --delete the image's frame
    delete item 1 of myItems
    --select the original frame
    select myFrame
    paste into
end tell

___

[Indy The Adventure Dog]

Edit>Paste Into

[emmett_h]

I know what you are asking. I am a long time user of Quark and this cut and paste of content of a picture box is very useful but doesn't quite work the same in InDesign.

In Quark you simply have to cut and paste the content from one box into another - the paste replaces the original content immediately.

I have discovered that in InDesign you can cut as usual the content from your first picture box, but after selecting the target picture box you need to firstly delete the file that is there and then use 'Paste into…' which is ALT & CMD & V.

[rob day]

In CS1 you could do it but in newer versions you need a script. If you try to copy an image from frame 1 to frame 2, and frame 2 is inside the copied image's bounds, pasting into positions the image to the original bounds:

The script puts the image at the same bounds relative to the target box, which might be preferable:

If the target frame is outside of the original's bounds then the image gets centered, which might force you to reposition the image:

[greenrookie]

Hi Rob,

Do you still have your earlier version of the script available for CS4?

The above works great in CS5 but for IDCS4 it comes up with the dialog "Copy a frame with an image and try again"

Much Appreciated,

GreenRookie

[rob day]

Try this for CS3 or CS4. With CS5 images are page items, but in CS3 they were in a seperate graphics class, which is why the CS5 script breaks.

This version works the same way, with the black Selection tool you need to select the source frame, select the destination frame and run the script

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS3"

    activate

    set myDoc to active document

    set myFrame to selection

    --make sure there is a selection

    if myFrame is {} then

        display dialog "Select a frame and try again"

        return

    end if

    --make sure the source frame has been copied

    try

        paste into

    on error

        display dialog "Clipboard is empty, copy a frame with an image and try again"

        return

    end try

    -- check for page items inside of the pasted item

    set myPasted to all page items of item 1 of myFrame

    --if there are none it's an image so delete and show message (this changes in CS5 where a page item can be an image)

    if (count of myPasted) is 0 then

        delete item 1 of myFrame

        display dialog "Copy a frame with an image and try again"

        return

    end if

    --the selection is now the the frame we pasted into, so select the inside frame

    select item 1 of all page items of item 1 of item 1 of selection

    cut

    --paste in place gets the correct position

    paste in place

    --get the temporary paste which we need to delete

    set temp to selection

    --in CS3 to select an image it's item 1 of all graphics and not page items

    set selection to item 1 of all graphics of item 1 of temp

    --cut the image, delete the temp and paste into

    cut

    delete temp

    select myFrame

    paste into

end tell

[greenrookie]

This works great for me and I hope it will help others using CS3 or CS4.

Thank you so much Rob!

GR

[Woteva]

The perfect simple solution from emmet_h. As another traveller from Quark I was puzzled by how to do this simple task but you have solved it for me. Thank you.

As an afterthought and as a new poster. Why when asking for advice from others are some posters so rude? Design may be a pressured business but still no excuse imo.

[CAC-DC]

I went for a search looking for this same solution, and I can't believe how rude people are.

Let me elaborate... I started using the first version of Pagemaker in 1987, switched to Quark from about 1998 until about 7 years ago when I switched using InDesign. Yes, I've been doing this for 30 years, I have master's degree in publishing, own my business, and pay a mortgage doing it. Now, anyone want to give me a hard time as to why I wish to do the exact same thing the "intrepid" OP did?

What a barrel full of jerks with a very overinflated sense of their own abilities...

[BobLevine]

And so to make your point that other people are rude you start calling people jerks.

Yeah, that's the world sucks today. Congrats.

[CAC-DC]

Ganging up on and bullying someone who is seeking a solution to a simple question is what sucks.

Standing up to bullies does not make the world suck -- unless you're a bully.

[Team22758987cmzd]

This is the answer I was looking for, thank you!

I have discovered that in InDesign you can cut as usual the content from your first picture box, but after selecting the target picture box you need to firstly delete the file that is there and then use 'Paste into…' which is ALT & CMD & V.

By @emmett_h

[Barbara_-_Chess_addict]

I was also shocked by how rude some people were in their responses to the OP's question. Aren't we all civilised professionals here?

I've recently switched from Quark XPress to inDesign CC2014. This forum was started 3.5 years ago and STILL there hasn't been any simple solutions shown here. It's a basic and common step needed.

I tried using 'Paste Into' but it won't highlight.

This is a real pain as I cut and paste from picture boxes into new picture boxes so many times a day.