Copying and Pasting Objects and Charts

Copying Objects and Charts to the Clipboard

Additional Copy Options for Pictures

How Charts Appear When Pasted
Pasting Images into Charts

Multiple Page PDF Images in Charts
Resampling


Pictures in Charts

Editing Objects in Charts

Object Size and Information
Saving a Chart as a Graphic File

Media Window

Copying the Family View

Copying Objects and Charts to the Clipboard

The Macintosh Clipboard is a temporary storage area used to transfer information. You can copy objects in a chart or entire charts into the Clipboard and then paste them into a document in another application, such as a word processor, email, graphics, or page-layout application.

Using the Edit > Copy submenu to...

By default, all three copy commands move objects into the Clipboard in the PDF format, which provides for high resolution vector graphics and transparency. If you primarily paste into applications that support PDF files in the Clipboard, this is the best choice.

However, if you paste into other applications and nothing happens or you don't get the results you expect, check the menu item Edit > Copy > Use TIFF in Clipboard and then try copying/pasting again.

Depending on what app you're using when pasting, you may experience better compatibility using TIFF. When TIFF is used, a white background is applied, and there is no transparency. If you need a TIFF file with transparency, use the Save Graphic File feature, explained here.

Additional Copy Options for Pictures in Charts

To copy pictures to the Clipboard, hold down the Control key and click a picture (not pictures inside boxes). This will show a pop-up menu with special features that apply to pictures.

How Charts Appear When Pasted

When pasted into a...
expect this...
Drawing program (an object-oriented or vector application) such as Canvas...
Chart objects are handled independently — meaning individual lines, boxes, shadows, and text fields will be editable using the tools of the drawing program.
 
If the destination program treats the pasted chart as one big bitmap, it's because the destination program converted it to a bitmap.
Word processor or page-layout program...
The entire chart becomes one big object, but text and lines retain a very high resolution. In this case, you'll only be able to edit the entire chart — for example: scale, rotate, reposition, frame, etc.

Note: with some word processors, only the first page of a multi-page chart is pasted by the word processor.
Image-editing program such as PhotoShop...
The entire chart becomes one big bitmap at the screen resolution. The bitmap will look identical to the chart in Reunion on-screen, but when printed, it will appear low-resolution or "jaggy."

Before pasting a chart, you may need to open the destination program and create a new, empty document large enough to hold the entire chart. Otherwise, the chart could be reduced or cropped by your graphics program. In some page-layout applications, you'll need to create a "picture box" to paste a chart.

If you copy an entire chart to the Clipboard and then paste it into another chart, the pasted chart will retain all vector information (meaning it will be high-resolution, and objects on the pasted chart are not converted to bitmaps). However, other than resizing, no editing can be done to a chart that is pasted into another chart.

Pasting Images into Charts

Virtually any picture or graphic object that can be placed in the Mac Clipboard can be pasted into a chart. (Note: the Mac Clipboard is not the same as the Reunion Clipboard.) To paste a picture into a chart, follow these steps...

  1. In your graphics software (or wherever your picture appears), copy the picture or image to the Clipboard by choosing Edit > Copy (or Copy Picture).
  2. Bring Reunion to the front by clicking in a Reunion window or pressing Command-Tab.
  3. Open or create the desired chart in Reunion.
  4. Choose Edit > Paste. If the Paste menu item is gray (or disabled), it means one of two things...
    1. You don't have a picture in the Clipboard.
    2. You don't have enough memory (RAM).

Reunion supports transparent objects — meaning you can paste (or drag/drop) images containing transparency into charts.

Clipboard images in the PDF, PICT, and EPS format that are pasted into charts will remain in their native format. These are all vector image formats.

Any other object pasted into a chart will be stored in the TIFF format, which is a bitmap.

To find the format of a chart object, click and hold the mouse on the object and check the left side of the bottom scroll bar, as described here.

Multiple Page PDF Images in Charts

PDF images can be multiple pages. By default a multi-page PDF added to a chart (pasted or dragged) will show the first page only. Clicking on a multi-page PDF image will provide information about the pages in the status bar at the bottom of the chart window.

Control-clicking a multi-page PDF image in a chart will show a special menu item called Current Page which will allow you to choose which page is displayed for that image.

If you drag a PDF file to a chart, the entire PDF file stays in the chart, even if only one of several pages is showing. This could be a waste of space; so, you can remove the other pages by Control-clicking the PDF image and choosing Remove Unused Pages from the Current Page submenu.

Resampling

Redundant information may exist in chart images; for example, when a picture on a chart has been reduced in size or unused pages are removed from PDF data. When an image is resampled, redundant information is removed, making the chart file smaller and optimizing the chart for printing. Reunion will attempt to maintain as much image quality as possible; however, once an image is resampled, data may be removed that can't be replaced. (Note: resampling only affects the image data stored with the chart, not the original image files.)

There are three situations where an image is resampled...

  1. Dragging an image into a chart box.
  2. Choosing File > Save As with the Compact pictures button checked.
  3. Control-clicking a multi-page PDF image pasted in a chart and choosing Current Page > Remove Unused Pages — in this case, data is resampled into a single page PDF image.

When a PDF image gets resampled, Reunion will attempt to keep it in PDF format unless converting it to TIFF is more efficient.

Choosing any of the oval picture frames will display a TIFF (bitmapped) representation of the original image; however, the original image remains in its native format which will never again be displayed unless the ovaling options are turned back off.