Can you have a SINGLE object that is appears in MULTIPLE places?

[shiphen]

Hi

This may sound nuts but is there any way of making one object appear in multiple places?

The problem is that we are designing some objects (call them "buttons") whose design we have not finalized how they will look yet.
i.e. The shape, size, layout of components of these buttons is still undecided, although we know that they will be in use in a large number of places (on a large number of pages).

So what I want is to have a single master copy of the object that I can edit in one place, and for those changes to ripple out across multiple places on multiple pages.

Is this possible?

J


P.S. I thought Edit ==> Clone Shape would do this, but it appears to create separate, un-linked copies. In fact all it seems to do is in effect the same as Control/C and then Control/Shift/V!

[mwenz]

Live Copy is what you want.

[gwpriester]

Or if the objects appear in the same place on each page, Arrange > Repeat on all Pages.

[zaphodeist]

In fact all it seems to do is in effect the same as Control/C and then Control/Shift/V!

Except it's just CTRL+K

[ad1066]

Technically, Clone (Ctrl-K) bypasses the clipboard. That's been useful from time to time, if I wanted to copy a particular object (or group), clone some other object, then paste the original object on top.

-- Ben

[Gamerprinter]

Technically, Clone (Ctrl-K) bypasses the clipboard. That's been useful from time to time, if I wanted to copy a particular object (or group), clone some other object, then paste the original object on top.

-- Ben

Yeah, I use clone extensively in my work. If you save your final to Acrobat PDF format, Acrobat deletes any copies of cloned items and uses instances of the original item instead, to cut down memory use. The only time I copy to the clipboard is if I intend to paste into a new document.

[TomVan]

Is there any way of getting Live Copy to work with Soft Groups across multiple layers?

I'm working on an aircraft cockpit panel. It contains a push button, with multiple states (legends on, off, up down etc - 16 in total), each state is on a separate layer (for export purposes).

I'm able to ctrl-k clone the soft group perfectly which respects the layering. However, these clones obviously aren't linked.

It would be nice to be able to use the Live Copy functionality (often buttons are repeated across the panel). When I try to Live Copy a soft group it seems to only offer a Live Copy on 2 layers.....any ideas?

[wizard509]

Tom, I just tried it in a limited way and it appears like you can. Look in your page and layers gallery and unlock all the layers and make all visible. Now you can select all the relevant objects and live copy seems to work. I hope I am not wrong here, but if I am sorry.

[TomVan]

Were the layered objects soft grouped prior to the attempted live copy? If so, you've had more success than I.

The only workaround that I've found, albeit impractical, was to select my soft group and un-'soft group' it. Then individually select and make live copies of every object in their separate layers and then re-soft group them as two separate instances. The soft grouping seems to have to be done last but it does mean the panel buttons are soft grouped for ease of manoeuvre and layered for ease of export, plus I only need to update the one instance should errors be found.

The impractical part is that I have to go through this process every time I want a new direct copy. If I could just select the soft group and live copy it, I'd be laughing.

[wizard509]

Tom, I just tried it again, and Gary P's suggestion seems to work. Maybe I'm not doing exactly what you want but if you have multiple layers on multiple pages you may have to remove the soft group just so you can select the individual parts then with all layers visible and not locked select all and soft group again. This would only have to be done on one page, then Arrange/repeat on all pages.