Paste in front or similar

[Amy_Blankenship]

Hi, all;

Sometimes when I copy and paste an object in Captivate, it has the exact position as the original.  Other times, it is offset by a few pixels down and to the right.  I'd like to be able to control this, rather than having it be random--usually the opposite of what I wanted that time.

Some programs have a "paste in front" option, and others have a preference where you can set how far the copy is offset.  However, I have been unable to locate this option in Captivate.

Can anyone help?

Thanks;

Amy

[Captiv8r]

Hi Amy

For starters, all objects pasted should always paste in front as the newest object is always in front. If you are seeing different, you should perhaps consider filing a bug report.

I think that if you experiment you will find it works like this. If you copy something and paste it to a different slide, it is pasted in the exact location as it was on the slide where it was copied from.  But if you copy and paste onto the same slide, it is offset. If you really want to paste and have it be in the original location, try this.

Copy, then paste temporarily to a different slide. Perform some other action such as clicking a different object temporarily so focus is removed from the just pasted object. Then cut from this slide and paste back on the slide where you originally copied it.

You should also consider submitting a Wish Form to ask for the capabilities you mentioned earlier to be added to Captivate in a future release.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[Amy_Blankenship]

Hm, actually, when I say "Paste in front," I mean paste (directly) in front of the object (at the same x and y coordinates), and behind other objects that were in front of the object that was copied.

In the absence of this, is there something like the layers you can have in Flash (on the Flash timeline, there is a folder icon you can click to group objects in layers)?  This would make it less painful to reorder things when Captivate pastes it _all the way_ to the front.

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Copy/paste object on the same slide will offset the copy 10px to the right and 10 px down (referencing to the registration point, which is the top left corner of the bounding box). My work flow to get it in exactly the same position is using the shortcut keys SHIFT-UP and SHIFT-LEFT immediately after pasting and you'll have the object in exactly the same position, provided you have not turned snapping on.

I'm a shortcut freak, I tried to explain the moving and resizing possibilities long ago on my blog; scroll to the bottom of the post to 'My favourite sequence':

Moving and resizing objects

Lilybiri

PS just saw your answer: you can easily rearrange the priority in the timeline, drag individual timelines up/down

No folders, no grouping, one of the feature requests I already entered multiple times

[Amy_Blankenship]

Thanks :-).  This is very helpful.

[Amy_Blankenship]

Hi, Lillybiri;

I'm a little confused.  I see you say you can "easily" rearrange the priority on the timeline, but I am having a really hard time with this.  Having to drag and drop each one is very laborious and time consuming.  Do you have any wonderful shortcuts for allowing me to reorder several objects at one time?

What I'm finding is that when I try to drag multiple layers at once, the timeline flashes, but nothing happens.  The "Bring to front" and similar buttons aren't active with multiple objects selected.  I'm sure it's just something I'm missing.

Thanks;

Amy

[Lilybiri]

Hi Amy,

No special shortcuts for that goal, too bad.

If I have to put several objects (layers) somewhere else in the stacking order, I will often use the old windows trick:

• select multiple objects on the timeline by adding with SHIFT-arrow (if they are contiguous) or CTRL-click if not contiguous
• CTRL-X and CTRL-V and they will be pasted on top of the timeline

This will often be easier than drag/drop. Arrows work for navigation in the timeline stack. Other ideas about the timeline in this blog post (what did you think, I am lazy, so tried to cover a lot of common questions in my blog -  this is one of the more popular ones):

Tiny Timeline Tidbits

Another tip: drag your Timeline out of the dock at the bottom, you will be able to make it as big as necessary both horizontally and vertically.

Lilybiri

[lefthook77]

Sounds like you're working with master slides.

Ordering images on master slides can also be a bear, as there's no access to a timeline/layers for master slides. You may want to organize a slide in the filmstrip and copy it into master view.

I've also found that feedback captions can't be moved forward/backwards, and occasionally appear behind slide text in the filmstrip... However, when published, they appear normally.