Paste Image Into New Frame with Same Cropping Offsets
Shawn wrote:
Is there a way to get paste into to place an image in exactly the same relative position as the frame it came from? (same X/Y coords), not centered in the new frame?
This question didn’t come from our In Box, but rather as a comment at the end of this post regarding the Paste Into feature. It’s an excellent question, and I had to bang my head on the desk a few times before I came up with a solution. It seems like it should be easy. Why is there no option to “remember offsets when using paste into”? But there doesn’t appear to be such a beast. So, we must rely on a workaround. (If someone can show me an easier way, please do… maybe I’m just being blind!)
Here’s what you can do if you want to cut or copy an image from one frame and paste it into another frame with the same offsets: First, don’t cut the image with the Direct Selection tool as you normally would; instead, cut or copy the whole frame. Now, paste it on top of the frame in which you want to put the image, select both frames, and use the Align panel (or better, the Align buttons in the Control panel) to align the top and left edges of the two frames. Finally, choose Object > Pathfinder > Add to merge the two frames together. It sounds really slow and clunky, but it actually doesn’t take long at all once you get the hang of it.
(Actually, Pathfinder > Add — which you can also find faster in the Pathfinder panel — only makes sense if the old frame is smaller or the same size than the new frame. If it’s taller or wider, then you may want to use Intersect instead. Or just resize the old frame before using pathfinder.)
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This behavior was possible in CS2 and previous versions of InDesign. It strangely disappeared from CS3.
But a good news is coming soon… ;-)
Well, this used to be a 4-click operation in CS2, now it’s a 10-click operation in CS3.
with Selection tool click on the first frame.
cmd+c to copy it
click on new frame
cmd+opt+v to paste into (now you’ve got a nested frame)
press a to get the direct selection tool
cmd+x to cut the image
click on the new frame
press delete (this kills the nested frame)
click on the new frame again
cmd+opt+v to paste into
It’s 10 steps, but once you get the hang of it, it’s 5 seconds.
There’s also a script floating around the InDesign user forums.
Hmm, Mike’s process (2nd post) doesn’t work for me. Having cut the image from the nested frame (step 6) and deleted said frame (step 8), on pasting the image back into the ‘new’ frame (step 10) it pastes in at the same ‘visual’ position on the page that it sat when the nested frame was still inside, i.e. not preserving the offsets from the previous frame (clunky explanation, but hopefully you follow). Any idea what am I doing wrong and are others having the same result?
Mike and Lisa: I think the multi-step operation that Mike outlined only works when the two frames are the same size.
Oops! My bad. When I was playing with this I think I drew a second frame that was very similar to the first and didn’t check other sizes/shapes. Sorry for mis-tipping y’all.
OK, can I get one more crack at this? What if we sort of combine my method and David’s?
Copy and paste the old frame with image.
Bring the copy to the front.
Align it with the new frame.
Press a for the Direct Selection tool.
Click on the image.
Cut it.
Click again and delete the old frame.
Click on the new frame.
Paste into.
It works on every size and shape that I’ve drawn. And unlike the Pathfinder methods, it doesn’t change the new frame.
I think this is what you want….
1. Select the image with the “selection” tool & copy/cut
2. Select the target frame with the “direct selection tool”.
3. Right click and select> container.
4. select the “paste into” command.
Nope, sorry Nelson, I’ve fallen at the ?right click and select>container? hurdle. I don’t get the ?container? option under ?select?; which version of CS are you running?
Mike, great, that one works but I’d rather not have to go through the whole Align rigmarole to complete this very basic requirement, one that… dare I say it, gulp… Quark does as a matter of course. Can’t think of a good reason why this shouldn’t be InDesign’s default behaviour too.
On a less whiney note, can I just say that this site rocks. It’s done everything to make my transition from Quark to InDesign quite painless! A big thank you to all the gurus who give it so much of their time.
hmm tough one i will try and crack this if i can
I think i have found a quick solution,
Cut the image with the normal selection tool (so you cut the frame it is in as well) and then change the content of the desired frame to text and paste the image as an anchored object, this puts it in the same position (the top left corner).
Hi all.
Trying out to find a better solution than David?s or Mike?s (no, I did not find any) I found out the rule of all this (yes, there is a rule!):
(1) An empty frame is trying to take in a copied picture with its (not: with the frame?s) position regarding to the page (!). (Try out: Have a frame with a picture in it which is taller than the frame. Create an empty frame above the effective area of the picture. Copy the picture, paste it in the empty frame, activate the picture: It is exactly aligned to the picture in the first frame.)
(2) Create an empty frame outside the effective dimension of the picture. Paste the picture in there. It?s center is aligned to the center of the frame.
So far the explanation (hoping not to carry coals to Newcastle). The outcome is a second small trick. You want to show up an exactly aligned picture in two or more frames without merging them via Object > Pathfinder > Add? Do it like described in (1). The procedure for moving one of these frames relativ to the position of the picture is in both cases ? added frames or “loose” frames ? the same: Select the anchor points via Alt-click on the frame with the Direct Selection tool.
Thanks to all for your great work here.
I found this post because I was having a problem and searched. This thread is related to, but doesn?t exactly solve my problem.
I had some text which, because I wanted the effect of a stroke on the text that stands out from the text, a placed a copy of the text immediately on top of the original. I gave the top-most text a stroke of ?paper? colour and gave the lower text a stroke in the desired colour but thicker so that it showed out around the white stroke of the top-most text. Then a grouped the two text boxes to form a single object. So far so good.
Then I wanted to mask some of that text so, using the pen tool, I created a shape that would surround the text but cover some bits of it. Then I selected the (grouped) text, cut, and then used paste into.
The text appeared inside the shape and was masked by it but was nowhere near the right position. Indeed, most of the text disappeared under the top edge of the shape. Problem: there seemed to be no possible way to move the (grouped) text object within the new irregularly-shaped frame.
Any help would be appreciated.
Furry, you can select the top most object with the Selection tool, then choose Object > Select > Contents to “select inside” the object. To move it, you can drag its black centerpoint handle.
Thanks, David, but I find that when I try this, I can only select the top-most text block, even though there are two text blocks in the group. When I drag, again, only the top-most text block moves.
@Furry, then it sounds like you may need the Object > Select > Next Object / Previous Object features. Does that help?
Hmmm. Not a lot, I?m afraid, David. That still selects only one of the text blocks at a time, even though they are grouped and should behave as a single object.
I got around the problem in another way by screen-snapping the two text blocks together at 400% magnification, turning the resulting graphic into a 280dpi .tiff and replacing the original text blocks with that. But I always felt it was a second-best solution.
As I pointed out in the most recent edition of InDesign Magazine (issue 31), the easiest way to accomplish this is probably just to move the original graphic frame over on top of the one you want to copy the image to.
For example, if you want to take the image out of A and put it into B, but maintaining the same cropping, move graphic frame A over (or under) frame B, in such a way that the image looks right — that is, if it were in B, it would be cropped properly. Then use the Direct Selection tool to cut the image out of A (you can then delete or move the empty frame A), then select frame B and choose Edit > Paste Into.
This works because the image remembered the image’s page position when you cut it. Because the image was overlapping frame B, InDesign places it back in exactly the same location.
I think I have found it.
It’s called “Paste in place” (in german “An Originalposition einfügen”, translated should it be called “Insert at original position” – but another article called it “Paste in place”) in the right-click-dialog… and it works.
//I’m using CS3
I think this is a horrible change of behavior by Adobe, and makes no sense at all. While it may be of use in some instances, I only see it in a rare case.
That said, I have been searching, and have not found an (easy) answer elsewhere. So I experimented, and I think I FOUND AN EASY WORKAROUND :
With the selection tool, option-drag a copy of the source frame to the pasteboard. Double-click this frame to select the content, and COPY. Double-click the target frame ON the page (to select the content) and press Cmd-Opt-V (Paste in Place). Voila!
I think this copying to the pasteboard “disconnects” the inherent overlap that InDesign uses to position the object.
On the object styles panel you may define “Basic Graphics Frame” as the default.
Go to Object Styles Window > Options > Default graphics frame style and select “Basic Graphics Frame”
It should solve the problem because it does not define any relative position when pasting.
Cheers :)
Ugh. In Quark Xpress, this was so easy. Just copy-paste.
Hi David,
I did this, to solve this problem:
On the object I want to paste the image: Object > Fittting > Clear frame fitting options,
then the other object is pasted in the exactly same place!