Copy and Paste

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In Scene Composition (SC) mode, all on stage objects can be copied and pasted within the same scene or to/from a different scene. Much like in Timeline Editing (TE) mode, these productivity commands are carried out through a (right-mouse-click) contextual menu. They can be performed on a single object or on a selection of multiple objects.

Object Contextual Menu

To bring up an object's contextual menu, you right-mouse-click either on the selected object(s) or any place in the Compose window (depending on the task you are to perform). A drop-down menu opens at the click of your mouse with 5 rollover buttons in it: Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste In and Remove.

CUT object(s)

Use Cut button in contextual menu to cut a selection out of current scene into memory. This 'cut' copy includes all variables currently pertained to the selected object(s): size, position, color, text, and duration (the space between in-n-out marks) etc. The Cut out object(s) will disappear from the stage (onto the clipboard in memory).

COPY object(s)

Use Copy button in contextual menu to copy a selection into memory. This includes all variables currently pertained to the selected object(s): size, position, color, text, and duration etc.

PASTE object(s)

Use Paste button in contextual menu to paste a selection from memory to a desired spot in the same scene or of a different scene. The pasted copy includes all variables pertained to the copied object(s): size, position, color, text, duration and etc. If the available "frame-space" (the time space between the current frame and the last frame of the scene) is shorter than the memory copy, the original selection will be truncated to suit the available "space". Otherwise the pasted copy will occupy the same duration as the original selection started from the pasted-in frame counting forward.

For a paste in the same scene: move the frame slider to a desired starting frame and right-mouse-click on a desired spot to perform the paste. For pasting to a different scene: select a new scene from Timeline and find the frame you want the paste to start, then right-mouse-click where you want the paste to happen.

Tip: On a multiple objects paste, the pasted items stay selected after the completion of the command. Don't deselect them before you are certain that there is no object being out of stage in the selection. This is when you still have a chance to move the out-of-staged object into view. Once deselected, you may not be able to access it again.

PASTE IN object(s)

While sharing identical characteristic of a paste, the Paste In command differs from Paste's in that its pasted-in position will be exactly the same as its original copy's. That is: when using Paste In to do paste, regardless the whereabouts of your mouse click, the pasted copy will always appear at the same place as that of the original. This command is handy when you want to transfer a bunch of objects from one scene to another preserving the original attributes.

REMOVE object(s)

Remove button works just like the "Delete" button on an object's bounding box or the "Delete" key on your keyboard for removal of selected object(s).

NOTE: The object contextual menu becomes accessible only when there's object being selected or clipboard copy existed in the memory. Also, depending on circumstances, certain commands may not be available (dimmed out) at the time of your mouse click. For instance, when there's no clipboard copy in the memory the Paste and Paste In buttons are inaccessible. On the other hand, when there's a clipboard copy in memory but with no object selection on stage, the menu would open with only Paste and Paste In buttons alive (Cut, Copy and Remove buttons are dimmed out since there's no selection to be cut, copied or removed).