Cutting or copying and pasting is practically as basic as you can get in graphics software. This past summer I was spending a lot of time working in Adobe Flash and got into the habit of using the "Paste in Place" command working between Flash and Illustrator.
I would create art on an Illustrator artboard sized to match my Flash stage so that any time I made a change to my Illustrator art, say the whiskers on this cat, I could just copy from Illustrator and Paste in Place in Flash. The whiskers would land perfectly in place on the cat's nose. I was amazed I had not used this feature in Illustrator after so many years working in the program, but when I investigated further, I found that Paste in Place has only arrived in Illustrator and Photoshop since version CS5.
If you're like me, and it's taken you a minute to catch on (hate it whan that happens!) jump on the Paste in Place bandwagon. The command is Edit > Paste in Place and the shortcut is command/control shift v, just like the regular paste command with the shift key added. When you Paste in Place your pasted object maintains the same x and y coordinates relative to the artboard.
I've been using it a lot to copy and paste objects precisely from one Illustrator document to another.
I also like using it for pasting objects and text precisely from one artboard to another. Just click on the artboard you want to paste the art to before using Edit > Paste in Place. When you click on a artboard it becomes the active artboard and it's outline is darkened.
To paste your object in place on every artboard in your file, use the command Edit > Paste on All Artboards.
For Flash and InDesign users, Paste in Place is nothing new, but I'm glad Illustrator and Photoshop CS5 have finally caught up, because command/control shift v is now one of my favorite shortcuts! Check out this blog post for the reason on why Paste in Place doesn't yet work between AI and PS.
LOL, I have this shortcut taped to my screen but have not used it yet! I never realised that it would also Paste in Place across a different Artboard.
BTW, I dislike shortcuts which uses 3 keys at once! :)
Posted by: Jacqueline | March 10, 2012 at 09:44 AM