The Copy Appearance Elements option in the QuickBuild menu allows you to copy bits of an objects appearance, and paste them into an object or group of objects. This option allows you to:
Copy individual Appearance Elements – there are many ways in which you can change the appearance of an object, the elements copied with this option are: Background, Border, Image, Rotation, Stretch, Skew, Deform, Transparency, Button appearance, Flare, Texture and Alpha Channel.
Copy Appearance Elements of one Object State at a time – the Appearance Elements can be different for different states of an object, this option will only copy the elements of the Object State that is currently displayed in the Opus Editor.
Select which Appearance Elements to copy – you may not want to copy all of the elements you have set for an Object State, this option also allows you to select which elements you do want to copy.
Add Appearance Elements to different Object Types – if you copy the Mouse Over state of a Button object with this option, you can paste the elements to any type of object, in other words, to other Button objects but also Text, Frame or Image objects as well.
The Copy Appearance Elements option is particularly useful when you want a consistent appearance for specific Object States of objects in your publication, for example, always having a flare and border appear when you mouse over an object in your publication.
Note:
All of the Appearance Elements are options on the object’s Properties dialog. For example, the Texture and Alpha Channel elements are part of the Effects tab while the Background element is set in the Background tab.
Create an object and change its appearance using the object’s Properties dialog – see Overview of Object Properties for more information.
Open the Properties dialog of the object you want to use with the Copy Appearance Elements option.
Select the Object State in the Object States panel whose Appearance Elements you want to copy – the Properties dialog will display the Tab Headings for the state. The selected object displayed on the page in the Opus Editor will show the appearance for the selected state.
Note:
For example, if you select the Mouse Over state for an Image object, only the Background, Image, Border and Effects tab will be displayed in the Properties dialog – see Explaining Object States for more information.
Select Copy Appearance Elements from the QuickBuild menu – this will open the Copy Appearances dialog box containing the elements for the Object State you have selected.
Note:
Only the Appearance Elements that you have set for the Object State are listed. For example, if you have NOT changed the background colour for a state, the Background element will not appear in the dialog, but if you have changed the border, the Border element will appear.
Tick the checkboxes beside the Appearance Elements you want to copy for the selected Object State. By default, all elements are selected and will therefore be copied. Click on the OK button to copy the elements or the Cancel button to close the dialog without copying the elements.
All the Appearance Elements you have selected in the Copy Appearance dialog are saved in an Appearance Clipboard (i.e. a memory storage area) and the Paste Appearance Elements option in the QuickBuild menu is enabled. You can now paste the elements into other objects – see Paste Appearance Elements for more information.
Note:
You can paste the elements to any Object Type. In other words, if the object copied is a Button object, you can still paste the elements to other types, such as Image, Text and Frame objects.
If you want to copy the Appearance Elements of a different Object State for the same object, repeat steps 3 to 6 above.
If you want to copy the Appearance Elements of a different object’s Object State, repeat steps 1 to 6 above.
Opus will only remember the Appearance Elements of the last Object State copied (i.e. the Appearance Clipboard works in a similar way to the standard Windows Copy Clipboard). However, at any time you can re-select an object’s Object State and use the Copy Appearance Elements option again when you need to paste an object’s elements into any new objects you create in your publication.
Note:
As well as the Copy Appearance Elements option, the QuickBuild menu contains a Copy Appearances option that allows you to copy any (or all) Object States of an object and paste them into other objects – see Copy Appearances feature for more information.
Also note, some objects you can add to a page do not have different Object States, such as the DocView object and therefore the Copy Appearance Elements option is not available for these types of objects.