Copy and Paste a Document (Outline Editor)

In addition to moving documents in the hierarchy, you can copy and paste documents to further refine the outline. When you paste a copied document, you can choose to paste it either as a link to the original document or as a copy of the original document.

You can use one of the following two Edit, Paste commands to paste copied documents:

• Paste - always pastes a new link to the original document(s). If the content of the original document changes, the changes are reflected in all linked instances of the document.
• Paste Special - presents options to either paste a new instance of the original document (Link), paste a copy of the original document as a new document but maintain links to the original related document (Copy), or paste a copy of the original document and all related documents as new documents (Duplicate).

When you duplicate a document that has child documents, all child documents are copied as well. For example, if you duplicate a section that has several topics, all topics are copied along with the section. Also, when you duplicate a document that has related documents such as web pages, packages, and glossaries, copies of the related documents are made.

Note: The Duplicate (selection and related) option does not create copies of templates, master role lists, sound files, and custom icon packages. The new, duplicated documents will reference the original documents of these types.

You can not copy documents from the Outline Editor and paste them into the Library.

Multi-user Considerations

You can copy a document regardless of its check in/out state. However, when you paste a copied document you may be prompted to check out the parent document.

A Check Out Parent Document message appears when you perform actions that impact a parent document that you do not have checked out such as linking a document, moving a document, pasting a document, deleting document links, and so on.

See Check In and Check Out Documents in Use the Developer in a Multi-user Environment for more information.

If you copy and paste a document checked out to another author, the Developer uses the latest document checked into the server.

If you copy and paste a document while working offline, the Developer copies the document in your local cache.

If you paste new copies of all documents using the Duplicate option of the Paste Special command, all new documents are automatically checked out to you. Document history from the original documents is removed and the version number is set to New.

To copy and paste a new instance of original document:

1. Select the document(s) that you want to copy.

   You can select multiple documents using the standard Windows selection keys (CTRL+click and SHIFT+click).

2. On the Edit menu, choose Copy.

   You can also right-click your selection and choose Copy.

3. Select the document where you want to paste your selection.
4. On the Edit menu, choose Paste to paste a new instance of the original document.

   You can also right-click the document where you want to paste your selection and choose Paste.

Note: You can also use the Paste Special command (from the Outline Editor) and choose the Link option to paste a link to the original document in addition to the options listed next.

To copy and paste new documents without related documents:

1. Select the document(s) that you want to copy.

   You can select multiple documents using the standard Windows selection keys (CTRL+click and SHIFT+click).

2. On the Edit menu, choose Copy.

   You can also right click your selection and choose Copy.

3. Select the document where you want to paste your selection.
4. On the Edit menu, choose Paste Special and select the Copy option to create new documents but retain links to the original related documents such as web page and package attachments, glossaries, and so on.

To duplicate documents:

1. Select the document(s) that you want to copy.

   You can select multiple documents using the standard Windows selection keys (CTRL+click and SHIFT+click).

2. On the Edit menu, choose Copy.

   You can also right click your selection and choose Copy.

3. Select the document where you want to paste your selection.
4. On the Edit menu, choose Paste Special and select the Duplicate option to create new copies of both the original selected documents and new copies of all related documents such as web page and package attachments, glossaries, and so on. Click the View related documents link to display a list of the related documents if you are not sure whether you want to duplicate related documents.