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repeat paste or duplicate at designated offset
Thought this was one of the simplest concepts in design software about pagemaker 1.0 but I cannot find the repeat paste or duplicate commands in either Illustrator or Indesign.
Concede it has been some years since I regularly ran these programs but I’ve spent an hour searching forums, documentation, etc. with no success. The closest I can come searching on this great forum is that you can repeat a transformation but unclear if that transformation can include copying and pasting at offset or it is just a transformation of the orginal item. This would be a possible but clumsy way to accomplish what I want by pasting in place and then repeatedly transforming a greater number of times each time to gain further offsets. But I still don’t see how you just copy something and then select repeat paste or duplicate and put in the number of copies and the offset which I thought was the standard of the industry.
Maybe I’m just being grossly obtuse. Happens to me all the time so I hope I am quickly set straight and it was so intuitive I’m just over thinking.
I gave up on posting at the Adobe forums where I have an account because it proved more difficult to figure out how to post a thread there than it has been to find out how to multiple paste in Illustrator.
Glad to find this resource as an alternative. I often find that the forums run by the software creators are absolutely the worst. NOt sure why that is but I digress.
I’m running fairly antiquated versions. Illustratio 12.0.1 CS2 and Indesign 4.0.5 CS2 on an antiquated Mac G4 running 10.4.11.
Thanks to anyone who can make this simpler for me.
Brian
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4 Replies
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no disrespect… but i’m confused… what are you trying to do? i just want to make sure we are all talking about the same thing. if you can show a screen grab example in pagemaker that might help. i no longer run that version of AI on any of my systems but i might be able to give you a work around if you can wait until this evening.
Ty
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I’m not exactly sure what you are trying to accomplish, but from what I understand, please try the following:
InDesign. Choose your object and then “Edit>Step and Repeat…” Enter the number of repeats along with offsets.
Illustrator. Choose your object and duplicate it. Place these two items at the start and end of your repeat area. Select both and choose “Object>Blend>Blend Options…” Either enter specified number of steps or specified distance. Then choose “Object>Blend>Make”
Hopefully that works for you.
Tech-T Productions
http://www.tech-t.com -
Not sure what you are doing, but you can repeat any paste, transformation of any kind, etc. using command-option-3 in illustrator. Example: create an object. Doesn’t matter what (say a rectangle or a giant, detailed drawing). If you’re looking to duplicate something offset, make sure you offset the original and hold down option during transformation to make a copy. When you hit cmd-opt-3, it will create a copy along with the transformation.
If this doesn’t help, please reply with specifics on what you’re looking to do along with an example image where available.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
Thanks for reading my question. I am trying to copy an object and paste it at an offset repeatedly. My version of Illustrator and Indesign do not have Step and Repeat in the edit menu, or anything like it. (Illustrator 12.0.1, its labeled CS2 whatever that menas and Indesign 4.0.5 — I lied, my version of Indesign does have it, I didn’t look as thoroughly when I booted that after failing to find it in Illustrator).
That is why I was perplexed. I did experiment with the Move command under the Object>Transform>Move hierarchy and that is reasonably similar except it does not allow you to enter a number of copies but only make a single copy. Then by using the Repeat Transformation command, you can accomplish a step and repeat. Not to hard and I only needed about 20 repeats so fine for now.
I’ve been running CAD and not graphic design and step and repeat or repeated copy with specified offsets is just par for the course. Now that I’m running Illustrator again for a project I seem to recall this workaround but it took me a search of your forum and some experimentation. That is what I get for being rusty.
Brian
PS had a question about choosing simulated metallic colors and whether that is possible but its so off topic I’ll post separately.
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