How to copy text from on slide to another

[goddi]

Greetings,

In earlier versions, when I would copy/paste text from one slide to another slide, I thought that the pasted text would appear in the same relative location and the same font size in the new slide.

Maybe I am wrong about that. But, in a current slideshow I am making with Ver. 5.52, I am having great difficulty doing this. I am inserting text in one slide. I then want to copy this text to the next slide so that it appears in the same relative location and the same font size. I am getting mixed results.

Sometimes it seems to work. Most times not. One thing I noticed is if I copy text from a landscape image and paste it to a portrait image, it pastes way off the image. Some times the font size changes. I notice that if the image is selected in the original, and then I do a copy of the text, and then select the image in the new slide, and then do the paste, it sometimes works as I want.

Is there any trick to copying and pasting text from one slide to another slide and keeping the exact font size and pasted to the same relative location in the new slide??? I’ve tried using the settings in the Animation tab, but that does not seem to work to get the text to match. I’ve tried using the Grid, but that is not as exact as I need.

Thanks, Gary

[fh1805]

Gary,

As I said before, you do come up with different problems to most other folks!

Problems can occur when copying any object from one slide to another. Let's consider what the key factors are irrespective of the type of the object:

Q1. Is the object an independent object or a child of some other object?

Q2. Is the object's mode defined as "Original", "Fit to screen" or "Cover slide" in the Common tab of the O&A window

Q3. Is the object's position defined as "In Percents" or "In pixels" in the Common tab of the O&A window

These three factors work together to influence the final outcome. There are twelve possible combinations of these factors; the rest of this discussion covers the situation when the object's mode is "Fit to screen" and its position is "In percents" (the defaults in the as-shipped product).

If the object is an independent one then the pan/zoom values are determined by the setting that you have in Project Options---Screen. If you have "Fullscreen" then the pan/zoom numbers are relative to the full screen view. If you have "Windowed mode" then the pan/zoom values are relative to the defined window size. If the object is a child of another object then the effect of the pan/zoom values is modified by the "inherited" pan/zoom values of the parent.

To demonstrate this we'll use text as our object, but the principles are the same for all objects. Note that when I say "Select" an object, I want you to click on its name in the object list and not on the displayed object. As a brief aside, when you click on an object in the displayed area you don't always get the one that you thought you were going to. If you always select the object by clicking on its name you do get the one you wanted. Now let's go with the little tutorial:

- Create a slide that has on it a coloured rectangle (Use the Add rectangle feature).

- Add some text as a child object of this rectangle.

- Zoom the rectangle down to 50% and note the effect on the text

- Now add another slide with a different coloured rectangle leaving this rectangle at 100% (You can change the colour via the Properties tab)

- Copy the text from the first slide (Select the text object and then Ctrl+C)

- Select the rectangle of the second slide

- Paste the text (Ctrl+V)

- The text should show at the size it originally had on slide 1 before you zoomed the parent rectangle down to 50%

- Now zoom this second rectangle down to 50% and your text goes down with it

- Now delete the text item off this second slide

- Click in the empty part of the Objects list area until nothing is selected

- Paste the text

- Note how it appears at its full, original size because it is now an independent object

- Now zoom the rectangle to a new value (up or down, it doesn't matter which)

- Note how the text does not change because it has no relationship with the rectangle.

- Now zoom the text up or down

- Note how you have independent control of zoom on the two objects (the same would be true of pan)

- Go back to slide 1 and select the text object

- Change the zoom value (up or down)

- Note that you still have independent control of the zoom value for the object; but that it is conditioned by the zoom value of its parent as we saw earlier.

I hope this helps you to understand a little more of what is going on.

One final point: I would never copy and paste objects from landscape orientation images to portrait orientation images. Unless you have a really thorough understanding of just how all the factors interlink with one another, you are always likely to get results that are not quite what you expected. If you feel that you must do this (because you want to have the object pass unchanged across two or more slide) then make sure the object is an independent one on every slide.

regards,

Peter

[Barry Beckham]

If you create a text layer in the Objects and Animation screen and then do a Ctrl+C from that text layer, but use what is in the objects list, I can then skip to another image and hit Ctrl+V and the text drops in at the same size, colour and parameters.

I don't suppose it would drop in the same place with a vertical, but all else copies fine, or am I missiing the point

[goddi]

Gary,

As I said before, you do come up with different problems to most other folks!

Problems can occur when copying any object from one slide to another. Let's consider what the key factors are irrespective of the type of the object:

Q1. Is the object an independent object or a child of some other object?

One final point: I would never copy and paste objects from landscape orientation images to portrait orientation images. Unless you have a really thorough understanding of just how all the factors interlink with one another, you are always likely to get results that are not quite what you expected. If you feel that you must do this (because you want to have the object pass unchanged across two or more slide) then make sure the object is an independent one on every slide.

regards,

Peter

====================

Peter....

Yea...I feel a little wierd about asking all these questions about my problems. I hate to think I am the only one having these questions. But it is great to be able to resolve these little pesky things...

Your question #1, "Is the object an independent object or a child of some other object?" made me think a bit more about my problem. After reading your explanation (especially your last paragraph), it dawned on me that I was mixing up my parent and child relationships when I was doing the copying/pasting.

I just figured it out. Yes, I am using the default settings of "Fit to Slide" and "In Percents" in the Common tab. My problem was that I had the image selected when I did the pasting. I just did a test and when I did a copy of the text (that was originally an independent object), the pasting to a new slide that was unselected (whether it was landscape or portrait), was inserted in the same place and the same font size, as the original text.

So it seems that the key point to me is to never have the image selected in the new slide when pasting text, if you want it to be pasted to the same position in the new slide (actually not relative to the image itself, which can be moved around or be a different size, but relative to the 'Show safe TV zone' frame, for example, or the edge of the black background before you add the image.) Hope I didn't muddle this up...

Thanks much for the help... Gary

[goddi]

If you create a text layer in the Objects and Animation screen and then do a Ctrl+C from that text layer, but use what is in the objects list, I can then skip to another image and hit Ctrl+V and the text drops in at the same size, colour and parameters.

I don't suppose it would drop in the same place with a vertical, but all else copies fine, or am I missiing the point

====================

Yes, that is exactly what I was doing. But read what I said in my post to Peter. If I am doing this right, it appears that doing the copy/pasting of text will work (if you want to keep the text the same location and size) if you make sure to not have the image selected when you paste the text to the new slide. When you would paste it from a horizontal to a vertical, I would think all you had to do was use the left arrow key to slide it over so that the vertical position would not change (if you wanted the text to be actually in the image).

Gary