Basic Editing Tasks: Cut, Copy, Paste

Flash supports the standard cut, copy, and paste operations and also provides some special operations tailored for working with animated graphics.

To delete a selection:

1. Select the elements you want to remove.

2. From the Edit menu, choose Clear (Figure 3.27), or press the Delete key.

   Figure 3.27. The Edit menu offers all the basic cut, copy, and paste commands, as well as some special ones for working with graphics and animations.

   

   Flash removes the selected items.

To cut a selection:

1. Select the elements you want to cut.

2. From the Edit menu, choose Cut (Figure 3.27), or press -X (Mac) or Ctrl-X (Windows).

   Flash copies the selected items to the Clipboard and removes them from the Stage.

To copy a selection:

1. Select the elements you want to copy.

2. From the Edit menu, choose Copy (Figure 3.27), or press -C (Mac) or Ctrl-C (Windows). Flash copies the selected items to the Clipboard.

   After you cut or copy an item, it resides in the Clipboard until your next cut or copy operation. You can retrieve the Clipboard's contents with the Paste command.

To paste the Clipboard's contents in the center of the window:

• From the Edit menu, choose Paste, or press -V (Mac) or Ctrl-V (Windows). Flash pastes the Clipboard's contents in the center of the current view (Figure 3.28).

  Figure 3.28. Copy a selected graphic element (top) and then choose the Paste command. Flash pastes a copy of the element from the Clipboard to the center of the current view (bottom).

  

To paste Clipboard contents in their original location:

• From the Edit menu, choose Paste in Place, or press Shift- -V (Mac) or Shift-Ctrl-V (Windows).

  Flash pastes the Clipboard contents back into their original location on the Stage. The value of this command will become more apparent when you get into working with layers and animation, when it can be crucial to have elements appear in precisely the same spot but on a different layer or frame.

To duplicate a selection:

1. Select the elements you want to copy.

2. From the Edit menu, choose Duplicate, or press -D (Mac) or Ctrl-D (Windows).

   Flash creates a copy of the selected items. The duplicate appears on the Stage, offset from the original item (Figure 3.29). The duplicate is selected so that it doesn't interact with the original. (For more information on interaction between elements, see Chapter 4.) The Duplicate command doesn't change the contents of the Clipboard.

   Figure 3.29. The Duplicate command offsets a copy of the element from the original. The duplicate is the selected element.

   

Tip

• With the arrow or lasso tool active, you can Option-click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (Windows) and drag any selected element to create a copy.