Creating Copies of Objects


Once you've created something ‚ a simple, rectangular frame or a complicated graphic made up of several dozen objects ‚ InDesign makes it easy to reuse the original.

Here are your options:

  • Copy and Paste commands (Edit Copy, or z +C or Ctrl+C; Edit Paste, or z +V or Ctrl+V): Using these commands is a good choice if you have to copy something from one page to another or from one document to another. But if you need a duplicate on the same page as the original, the Duplicate command is quicker. A great option is Paste in Place (Edit Paste in Place, or Option+Shift+ z +V or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V) ‚ this pastes an object in the same place as the original object. It's very handy when copying an element from one page to another, since it places the copy in the same location on the new page, saving you the effort of having to move it. (When copying among documents, Paste in Place may not be able to copy the object to the exact same location, since page dimensions may differ ; in that case, Paste In Place will use the same X and Y coordinates as the original.)

  • Duplicate command (Edit Duplicate, or Option+Shift+ z +D or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D): When you duplicate an object, the copy is placed 1 pica below and to the right of the original.

  • Manual cloning: When you click and drag an object while holding down the Option or Alt key, a copy of the selected object is created. If you're a click-and-dragger, you may prefer this manual method to the Duplicate command.

  • Cloning with the Transform tools: If you hold down the Option or Alt key while using any of the Transform tools (Rotate, Shear, and Scale), a copy of the selected object is transformed. The selected item remains unchanged.

  • Control palette and Transform pane cloning: If you hold down the Option or Alt key when you exit the Control palette or Transform pane (by pressing Return or Enter or releasing the mouse after choosing an option from a menu), the transformation is applied to a copy of the selected item.

  • Step and Repeat command (Edit Step and Repeat, or Shift+ z +V or Ctrl+Shift+V): Think of the Step and Repeat dialog box (shown in Figure 13-1) as the Duplicate command on steroids. It lets you create multiple duplicates of selected objects and specify the horizontal and vertical offset of the duplicates. This command is handy if you have to create, for example, a vertical and/or horizontal grid of lines on a page. Simply draw a horizontal line at the top of the page or a vertical line along the left edge of the page. With the line selected, use the Step and Repeat command to place ‚ and evenly space ‚ as many additional lines as you need.


    Figure 13-1: The Step and Repeat dialog box.

Figure 13-2 shows a typical task that's easily handled with the Step and Repeat command. First, the top row was built by creating three copies of the original with an inch of space between each duplicate; the second row was created by step-and-repeating three squares in the top row; and finally the bottom six rows were created by step-and-repeating the top two rows. Voil ƒ  !


Figure 13-2: This checkerboard was created with three trips to the Step and Repeat dialog box.
Tip ‚  

If you need to use an object or a group of objects repeatedly, storing them in a library is a good idea. For example, if you've used InDesign to create a logo or a house ad, copy the objects into a library. Once you place something in a library, you can drag-copy as many clones as you want into any document. For more information about using libraries, see Chapter 7.




Adobe InDesign CS Bible
Adobe InDesign CS3 Bible
ISBN: 0470119381
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 344
Authors: Galen Gruman

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