Copy and paste objects
The Clipboard is useful for moving and copying objects from one place to another in your document, from one document to another, or even between Expression Design and another graphics application. To copy an object to the Clipboard, click Copy on the Edit menu, or press CTRL+C. To cut the object to the Clipboard (removing the object from your page), click Cut on the Edit menu, or press CTRL+X.
You can also copy a XAML representation of the selected object or objects by clicking Copy XAML on the Edit menu (or press CTRL+SHIFT+C). This action can be helpful when trying to copy a path or object into a XAML-editing program, or into a larger XAML project. Note that if you are planning on pasting your object into a XAML-aware application (such as Microsoft Expression Blend), the format of the XAML code is determined in the Clipboard (XAML) page of the Options dialog box.
Once you have an object (or objects) on the Clipboard, you can choose from among five different Paste features from the Edit menu.
- Paste When you choose Paste (or press Ctrl+V), the content of the Clipboard is pasted into the center of the view area (whatever part of the document is currently in the middle of your screen), on the current layer, at the top of the object stack.
- Paste in Front This feature pastes the content of the Clipboard at the same position in the document as the original objects, and places them at the top of the object stack on the current layer. However, if you select an object before choosing this feature, the content of the Clipboard is placed one step in front of that object in the stacking order. You can also press CTRL+F to activate this feature.
- Paste in Back This feature works the same as Paste in Front, but places the content of the Clipboard at the bottom of the object stack or (if an object is selected) immediately behind that object. You can also press CTRL+B to activate this feature.
- Paste with Layers Choosing this feature (or pressing CTRL+ALT+L) has Expression Design remember which layer each object was originally on. When you choose Paste with Layers, Expression Design places the object on the same layer. If those layers don't exist when you paste (such as if you paste into a new document), Expression Design creates the layers for you.
- Paste Special When the artwork on the clipboard was copied from another application, you can choose Paste Special to choose a Clipboard format. For example, if you copy an image from Microsoft PowerPoint and then choose Paste Special in Expression Design, you can specify whether the image should be pasted as a GIF or JPEG image.
Note that if you paste XAML code into Expression Design, it appears as text, and not as a graphic object.