Every time I copy paste something out of one layout to another, Filemaker (Mac 5.0) always positions it about 20pixels to the upper/lower left, or right from it's original position. Is there a way to avoid this because I have tons of layouts and I'm waisting valuable time trying to align all the objects to match the other layers so that the transition from one layer to another would be seamless. Object grid also seems to vary from one layer to another. This might be a stupid question but I can't think of one logical reason why this would be considered a feature rather than a minor bug.

TIA...

Good question, and one that I, too, would like the answer to. In my experience, a pasted object seems to center itself on where the mouse was last clicked. Not the best reference. My solution when pasting objects from layout to layout is to use the T-square aligned to the top right of where I want the object to align, click nearby, and move the object to it. I hope someone else out there has the secret. Likewise, I hope FileMaker reads this, fixes it, and documents it.

Sorry I can't answer the question, but I share your frustration.

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Originally posted by Moon Mullins:

Good question, and one that I, too, would like the answer to. In my experience, a pasted object seems to center itself on where the mouse was last clicked.

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It's not just in your experience, that is exactly what it is doing and i've read it some where in some FM book so it is documented. The T lines thing is the quickest solution i've used also. Turn on the rulers and guides and you can usually find exactly where to click for the center. Also if you are copying and pasting a lot of items. Select them all, group them together whether you need them grouped or not and no matter how close together they are. Copy, ungroup, go to the next layout, paste, position using the T guides, ungroup. Bada Bing, Bada Boom, a bunch of items in the exact positions.

Enjoy

Jeremy

My solution to this has been to nestle a small, borderless rectangle with no filling into the top left corner of the layout. Then, when I want to copy elements from that layout to another, I include the hidden object in the selection. After pasting into the new layout I move the whole pasted selection up and left as far as it will go. When the invisible rectangle is stuck in the corner that's as for as things will go and they are in place. It can then be discarded -- or forgotten with little consequence.

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Originally posted by Fuper:

My solution to this has been to nestle a small, borderless rectangle with no filling into the top left corner of the layout. Then, when I want to copy elements from that layout to another, I include the hidden object in the selection. After pasting into the new layout I move the whole pasted selection up and left as far as it will go. When the invisible rectangle is stuck in the corner that's as for as things will go and they are in place. It can then be discarded -- or forgotten with little consequence.

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Cool! Another one of those "I wish I had thought of that" ideas. Thanks!

Great tip about the transparent rectangle in the top corner!

Here's what I've been doing. I simply select the objects and take a look at the object size palette and memorize the location of the top and left sides (example: 45px, 130px) of the objects. Now that I paste the objects to another layout I simply enter those numbers quickly using tab to the 'object size' palette and they are perfectly in place.

I'm not sure but I think that this could even be automated quite a lot using a macro program like quickeys etc. Anyway, I'm sure you guys were familiar with this tip but I thought I'd post it anyway.