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How to copy, paste, and duplicate objects in Adobe Captivate Classic

Last updated on Oct. 9, 2023 | Also applies to Captivate

After you have created an object, you can copy that object and paste it onto the same slide, a different slide in your project, or several slides in your project at the same time. This can save you a great deal of time, especially if you create intricate objects with specific sizes, colors, and formatting.

Note:

You can also copy and paste objects between different projects.

Note:

To reuse media objects that appear in the Library, simply drag the object from the Library onto the slide.

When objects from a slide are copied into a slidelet, the following properties of the objects are modified:

If timing for the object is specified as Rest Of Slide or Rest Of Project, it is changed to Rest Of Slidelet.
The option Synchronize With Project loses its validity for FLV files.

Copy an object to a different slide

Open the slide that contains the object.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Copy.

Copy object option
Open the slide to which you want to copy the object.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide and select Paste.
To copy slides, righ-click, click Copy, and then right-click, and click Paste.

Copy slide

Copy an object to multiple slides

Open the slide that contains the object.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Copy.
In the Filmstrip, select the slides to which you want to copy the object. Hold down the Shift key and click consecutive slides, or hold down the Control key and select any slides, even if they are not consecutive.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a selected slide and select Paste.

Copy objects from other projects

You can copy and paste objects from other projects. This strategy can save you a great deal of time. For example, suppose you have created a detailed object in another project. Simply copy and paste the object into any new projects you create.

Note:

To reuse media objects from another Adobe Captivate Classic project, open that project Library from within your current project Library. Then drag objects directly onto a slide or into the current project Library for easy reuse.

Open the Adobe Captivate Classic project that contains the object you want to copy.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object, and select Copy.
Open the Adobe Captivate Classic project to which you want to add the object copied in the previous steps.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide to which you want to add the object.
Select Paste.

Note:

You can also copy Advanced Actions and Shared Actions associated with the objects. To do so, copy the objects referenced from within these actions in addition to the parent object to which the actions are assigned.

Duplicate objects

Duplicating objects is an easy way to reuse content. For example, you can duplicate a detailed caption and change some of the text to quickly add more information to your project.

Note:

To reuse media objects that appear in the Library, simply drag the object from the Library onto the slide.

Open the slide that contains the object you want to duplicate.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Duplicate.

The object you selected is duplicated and the new object is placed on the slide. You can edit and work with the new object just like the original object.

Copy-Paste Appearance

Copy Paste Appearance

In Update 2 of the 2019 release of Captivate Classic, you can copy and paste the appearance of one object to one or more objects. The workflow is similar to the Format Painter feature in MS Word, where you can copy the style of a text or an object and apply the style to other objects without creating a style.

Using this feature, you can quickly apply similar formatting, such as color, font style and size, and border style, to multiple pieces of text or objects.

Copy Text Style

To copy text appearance and paste to another text object, follow the steps below:

Create a project. On the toolbar, click Text > Text Caption to insert a text object.

Text object
Insert a second text object that has different text properties.

Second text object
To apply the appearance of the text in the first text object to that of the second one, right-click on the first object, and click Copy Appearance.

Copy appearance
After the text style gets copied, right-click the text in the second object, and click Paste Appearance.

Paste appearance
After you have applied the text style of the text in the first object, the text in the second object becomes similar in appearance to the text in the first object.

Copied appearance

Copy Object Style

Like copying and pasting text styles, you can copy the styles of an object and paste them to a second object.

To copy and paste the appearance of an object, follow the steps below:

Create a project. On the toolbar, click Shapes, and insert any smart shape object.

First smart shape object
Insert a second object that has different display properties.

Second smart shape object
To apply the appearance of the first object to that of the second one, right-click on the first object, and click Copy Appearance.

Copy smart shape appearance
After the style of the object gets copied, right-click the second object, and click Paste Appearance.

Paste smart shape appearance
After you have applied the style of the first object to the second text object, the second object becomes similar in appearance to the first object.

Copied smart shape appearance

Copy Appearance of Button States

As with text and objects, you can copy the appearances of the states in a button and paste to that of a second button. The new button will have similar looking appearances to its states as that of the source button.

Insert a smart shape and convert it into a button. To convert the smart shape into a button, select the button, and on the Property Inspector, enable the option Use as Button.
Insert a second smart shape and convert the shape into a button.

Smart shape as button
To the first button, add states as shown below.

Button states
Once you have added the states for the first button, exit the State view, and return to the stage.
Right-click on the first button and click Copy Appearance.
On the second button object, right-click and click Paste Appearance. This action will paste the appearance of the states in the first button to the second one, as shown below:

Paste appearance of object
For the second, if you navigate to its state view, you can see that all states that were defined for the first button are now copied to the second one.

States for the button

Note:

If you add a Custom state to the first button and apply the style to the second button, the visited state does not get copied to the state of the second button.