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move a block from one view to another?

 

This is done using the Command Menu `Cut & Paste' button, which implements what we call `structure editing'.  This is editing which conceptually crosses an item boundary, such as deleting multiple items, cutting several items from one location and inserting them elsewhere, and so forth.

The mechanics are simple. First, bring up the structure editing menu by clicking on the `Cut & paste ...' button, which will bring up a window menu which looks like figure 3.12.

 


:  Cut & Paste menu window

Select the beginning and end of the area you want to copy or cut out (by clicking at the beginning and ending item using the left mouse button) and select either `Cut Region' or `Copy Region'. Thereafter, select the position where you want to paste the block and use either the `Paste after' or `Paste Before' in the Cut & Paste menu.

There is one additional field of interest in the menu: the field beginning with Paste:. By clicking on this line, you toggle through a series of options as to how the structure editing will behave. For the most part, structure editing tries to share objects as much as possible. However, if you truly want a copy that you can edit without affecting the source, you can change this line (by clicking on it to toggle) so that you can do so. The default option is to share the leaf items but copy inner items object-wise (option 1 below).

These options are:

  1. share leafs, copy detailed: means that the leaf objects (the visible ones) are shared in both the source composition and the destination where you paste it. It doesn't, however, copy the parts of the visible objects which are not visible (i.e. attribute values which aren't seen).

  2. share leafs, copy whole objects: again, this means that leaf objects will be shared between the source and destination. Objects that are not shared but copied are copied as a whole, including eventual invisible attributes and links.

  3. share all, copy detailed: means to always avoid copying when possible and instead actually use the same object. However, if the destination structure differs from the source structure so that some source object would need to be changed, then that object is copied rather than shared. Copying that must occur is detailed, i.e. only visible items are copied.

  4. share all, copy whole objects: means the same as option 3, except that also the invisible items are copied when copying occurs.

  5. share none, copy detailed: means that the source is copied into an entirely new object structure and only the visible items are copied.

  6. share none, copy whole objects: means that the source is copied into an entirely new object and that all parts of the source object are copied --- visible or not.

Caveats:



next up previous contents index
Next: have my own Up: How do I Previous: compare two different



Martin Sjolin
Mon May 29 19:53:45 MET DST 1995