The Paste inside Doesn't work properly

[Mustazy]

The Paste inside doesn't work properly it tends to send the layer to another page that you can see thorugh the pages panel...

[EmT]

Hi @Mustazy

I cannot recreated this, could you send us a screen recording of this behaviour in action.

[_Th]

I can confirm this. (Sorry, no screen recording, just the attachment for now.)

But I cannot get it to work correctly in v2. In v1, it works ... sort of. You have to have the image where you want it to be over the object before you copy and paste inside. Otherwise, it seems like it's not working as it pastes "in place" and you may not see that it did anything; can be quite confusing.

IMHO, the default behavior should be that it centers the photo within the object, with the initial size being equal to "cover" in CSS. That is, the photo should be (only) as large as necessary to fill the entire object.

Hope this is helpful.

[MikeTO]

I can't reproduce this either. Using Th's example, I drew a circle in the middle of a spread. I placed a photo to its right. I copied the photo to the clipboard and selected the circle. The layers looked like this:

Then I chose Paste Inside - nothing appears to change except the photo looks like it's now selected instead of the circle. But if you look at the Layers panel, you'll see that there's a second copy of the photo now pasted inside the circle. The problem is it's pasted in the same location as the original photo, not visibly inside the circle. I wish that the feature worked slightly differently and would centre the pasted image in its new frame but that's a quibble.

So I then just dragged the photo to the left and as it entered the circle the photo appeared there.

[_Th]

@MikeTO Thanks. I see you're on Mac. I'm on Windows, so that's one difference. (Though, in theory that shouldn't matter...) The way you show it in v2 is exactly how it works for me on v1. Even once they get it sorted on Windows, that behavior is not intuitive at all—at least in my limited cranium space. 🙄

 

[EmT]

Thanks @_Th

We've passed this over to the devs for investigation. 

[REALVIKINGNINJA]

I am also having this same issue in Affinity Publisher on Windows 10. Running version 2.3.0 at the end of 2023.

If I use the Paste Inside feature on page 1, works fine. If I use it on page 2, it pastes the object 1 page lower than it should (but the object IS inside of the object it is supposed to pasted within, just moved down a full page lower.) If I use Paste Inside on page 3, it pastes the object 2 full pages down from where it should be, and so on and so forth. It makes the Paste Inside feature too inconvenient to use, so I have to click and drag objects inside of each other in the layer panel instead when using Publisher.

[MikeTO]

4 hours ago, REALVIKINGNINJA said:

I am also having this same issue in Affinity Publisher on Windows 10. Running version 2.3.0 at the end of 2023.

If I use the Paste Inside feature on page 1, works fine. If I use it on page 2, it pastes the object 1 page lower than it should (but the object IS inside of the object it is supposed to pasted within, just moved down a full page lower.) If I use Paste Inside on page 3, it pastes the object 2 full pages down from where it should be, and so on and so forth. It makes the Paste Inside feature too inconvenient to use, so I have to click and drag objects inside of each other in the layer panel instead when using Publisher.

Whether the pasted inside object is on the same page or not depends on a combination of the clipboard object's position, the selected object's position, and whether the clipboard and selected objects are on different sides of a facing pages document. None of this makes sense to us as users but that's the way it works.

We expect the pasted object to be visible but depending on the position of clipboard object, it may be offset horizontally and vertically so that it's outside of the frame of the parent object. This isn't helpful and IMO should be changed. Also, Publisher does a facing pages adjustment when you paste an object to try to mirror the pasted object's position horizontally, and this can further offset the pasted object horizontally even though it's not relevant to pasting inside. IMO, there's no logical reason to apply a facing pages adjustment with Paste Inside.

The way I think it should work is:

1. If the copied object overlaps at all with the selected object, paste the copied object inside it without adjusting the X/Y coordinates. Trust that the user positioned the copied object as desired before copying or cutting it and paste it in the same position.
2. If the copied object doesn't overlap with the selected object, paste the copied object inside the selected object while adjusting the X/Y coordinates so that the pasted object is visible inside the selected object. i.e., set the pasted object's offset to 0/0 from the current Transform panel anchor.

[bbrother]

Windows 10 Pro (latest versions of Photo, Designer, Publisher)

The pasted image is corectly placed in the layers stack (inside selected circle) but the position on canvas is wrong.
It should have been pasted in the center of the circle instead it was pasted on second spread. Sometimes randomly after pasting it stays on the orginal postion.

In Photo and Designer instead of pasting in the center of circle the image stays in orginal posiition.

 

 

 

[MikeTO]

I can't duplicate that on macOS with the the same page/window/zoom setup but I can make it happen with different settings. But when it happens for me on macOS, the fact that it's Paste Inside is irrelevant - even Paste would paste it on the next page. Which means it's the general problem in that Publisher is trying to be helpful and paste it on the page below that is more visible even though the current page is the one above.

Regardless, I think Serif could fix this because Paste Inside doesn't work the way any of us want it to work.

[Hangman]

8 hours ago, MikeTO said:

But when it happens for me on macOS, the fact that it's Paste Inside is irrelevant - even Paste would paste it on the next page.

I can't replicate that... for me, a simple copy/paste will paste the object using the same X and Y coordinates as the source object but relative to the selected spread or page that is clicked on, on Canvas (not in the pages panel) since in doing so the zero Y value is set to that of the selected page.

As far as I'm aware, Affinity apps have always pasted the object in the same place... there are only two instances where Paste Inside will adjust the X, Y coordinates of the source object:

1. Using Paste Inside with a Picture Frame
2. Double-clicking the object in the layers panel before using Paste Inside

That's not to say that the behaviour couldn't be improved, it would clearly make far more sense if the Paste Inside behaviour for a Shape matched that of a Picture Frame...

[bbrother]

9 hours ago, MikeTO said:

the fact that it's Paste Inside is irrelevant

It's not irrelevant. This is crucial.

When you paste inside the image becomes a child layer and the circle a parent layer. In this case the image is clipped to the circle shape.
In another words the image is constraint to the bounds of circle. Therefore the image should be correctly positioned relative to the parent layer (in center) but this is not happening as you see on video.

9 hours ago, MikeTO said:

even Paste would paste it on the next page

When you use paste inside the image is still on the correct page it only looks like it was pasted on another spread beacasue of an incorect offset / position of image as child relative to circle as a parent.

2 minutes ago, Hangman said:

I can't replicate that... for me, a simple copy/paste will paste the object using the same X and Y coordinates as the source object but relative to the selected spread or page that is clicked on, on Canvas (not in the pages panel) since in doing so the zero Y value is set to that of the selected page.

Same for me @Hangman. The simple copy / paste work's how it should. Only Paste Inside not.

[Hangman]

Hi @bbrother,

Out of interest, if you enable Transform Origin in the context toolbar does the origin remain centred in the Gremlin image when using Paste Inside or is it offset?

[bbrother]

The transform Origin stays in the center of the image. But the position of the image relative to parent layer center is badly calculated.

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, bbrother said:

The transform Origin stays in the center of the image. But the position of the image relative to parent layer center is badly calculated.

I figured that was likely the case but thanks for confirming...

I was just curious since there is a known bug affecting lines in a multi-page Publisher document where the transform origin for the line gets increasingly offset when the line is pasted on subsequent pages so I wanted to confirm a similar thing wasn't happening here when using Paste Inside with the Windows version...

[bbrother]

@Hangman I know that line bug you're talking about, but that's not it in this case.

This should be an easy fix for devs. Simple math.

1. Get the center [X,Y] of the image and circle.
2. When paste inside place image as child layer of circle. 
3. When placing position the image so it's center [X,Y] will match circle center [X,Y].
4. Properly redraw everything on canvas / spread. Simple as that.

[Hangman]

Hi @bbrother,

I agree... as mentioned above, it should ideally work in the same or a similar way to pasting inside a picture frame and it seems somewhat odd that double-clicking the shape in the layers panel first then allows paste inside to work as it should...

[bbrother]

21 minutes ago, Hangman said:

it should ideally work in the same or a similar way to pasting inside a picture frame

Right to the point. This should work like 1:1 when pasting inside the image frame. I have nothing more to add

[MikeTO]

5 hours ago, Hangman said:

I can't replicate that... for me, a simple copy/paste will paste the object using the same X and Y coordinates as the source object but relative to the selected spread or page that is clicked on, on Canvas (not in the pages panel) since in doing so the zero Y value is set to that of the selected page.

Your page zoom/scroll may be making you think it never pastes on a different page when pasting inside.

This is how Affinity works. The test case is a 1 x 1" rectangle at X:7.5,Y:0" in on the right side of page 1 of a facing pages document copied to the clipboard. The target object is  a 1 x 1" rectangle at X:1, Y: 1" on the left or right side, as stated below. It's better to have the rulers off for this exercise as the area of the page under the rulers counts as visible.

• Page 1, page is fully within the viewport: Select the target rectangle and paste inside - it pastes inside using the page offset so the object isn't visible.
• Page 1, page is scrolled down so that the top 1" and a bit is not visible - Affinity pastes inside using the original X:7.5" but with Y of 8" plus the 1" and a bit you scrolled down, for a Y of 9.0 something. This happens because Affinity will not paste an object that is fully off screen so it compensates - why it over compensates with this much offset is a mystery to me.
• Page 1, page is scrolled down so that the top 4" and a bit is not visible - Affinity pastes inside using the original X:7.5" but with a Y of 8" plus the 4" and a bit you scrolled down, for a Y of 12.0 something. Or it would have, but because the page is only 11" tall, Affinity then pastes is on page 3 with a Y of 0.0 something, subtracting 1" for the gap between pages or something like that.

If you also shift the page to the right in the viewport, you can get it to paste inside onto page 2 but it's just more of the same.

6 hours ago, bbrother said:

It's not irrelevant. This is crucial.

Sorry, I wasn't disagreeing with you, I was just pointing out that the example I was talking about used paste inside, the same would have happened with paste. I fully agree that paste inside doesn't work properly.

As I wrote earlier, the way to fix it is:

1. If the copied object overlaps at all with the selected object, paste the copied object inside it without adjusting the X/Y coordinates. Trust that the user positioned the copied object as desired before copying or cutting it and paste it in the same position.
2. If the copied object doesn't overlap with the selected object, paste the copied object inside the selected object while adjusting the X/Y coordinates so that the pasted object is visible inside the selected object. i.e., set the pasted object's offset to 0/0 from the current Transform panel anchor.

Doing this would ensure that the pasted inside object is always visible after pasting and is never on the wrong page.

[bbrother]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

Your page zoom/scroll may be making you think it never pastes on a different page when pasting inside.

You are wrong. It is not pasting on diferent page/spread.
It stays on the correct page. You can verify this on the layers panel.
Image is not visible in the parent layer beacuse of  strange offset of the X/Y coords.

[bbrother]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

If the copied object overlaps at all with the selected object, paste the copied object inside it without adjusting the X/Y coordinates. Trust that the user positioned the copied object as desired

I do not agree. A simple solution is better and easier for developers to implement.
The image should be pasted inside and centered as in the case of a picture frame. The user can then manually make some changes if they want.
No need of extra code to verify the position selected by the user.

[MikeTO]

21 minutes ago, bbrother said:

I do not agree. A simple solution is better and easier for developers to implement.
The image should be pasted inside and centered as in the case of a picture frame. The user can then manually make some changes if they want.
No need of extra code to verify the position selected by the user.

I disagree, too, but that's okay, there's more than one way to do things.

If I've precisely positioned object A over object B so that it will be clipped in a certain way, I would like to be able to cut object A to the clipboard, click on object B to select it, and then choose Paste Inside. Object A would be moved inside B and clipped the way I want. Your suggestion would centre A over B and force me to drag the object back to where I had already positioned it.

44 minutes ago, bbrother said:

You are wrong. It is not pasting on diferent page/spread.
It stays on the correct page. You can verify this on the layers panel.
Image is not visible in the parent layer beacuse of  strange offset of the X/Y coords.

Neither of us is wrong, we're just using different terms. Yes, the object is still part of page 1 and not on page 3 from an object hierarchy perspective, but it's positioned over page 3 which is what I was trying to say.

[Hangman]

I think we may (or may not) be talking at slight cross purposes so for clarification...

My response to your earlier comment:

17 hours ago, MikeTO said:

But when it happens for me on macOS, the fact that it's Paste Inside is irrelevant - even Paste would paste it on the next page.

Was specifically in relation to "even Paste would paste it on the next page", rather than in relation to Paste Inside. The outcome for Paste Inside is different on Mac and Windows as you clarified in your original response to @bbrother's screen recording where you said:

17 hours ago, MikeTO said:

I can't duplicate that on macOS with the the same page/window/zoom setup

Replicating @bbrother's screen recording using the same page/window/zoom setup on Mac results in the object maintaining the same X, Y coordinates when selecting Paste Inside, unlike on Windows where there is a 432.1mm vertical offset with the object remaining on the same page as shown in the layers panel in the screen recording (as you've now clarified in you last post).

When purely copying and pasting on Mac, regardless of the page/window/zoom setup the pasted object is always pasted in the same position (as mentioned above) relative to the selected page...

When using Paste Inside the story is a little different. I can't think of any logic for why Paste Inside with a normal shape doesn't replicate the behaviour of a Picture Frame, as in I can't think of a single instance where you would want Paste Inside to maintain the source positioning if that source positioning is outside that of the target object, that feels like it obfuscates the intended logic of 'Paste Inside' a little like me trying to put an object in a box but when I release the object it ends up outside the box...

Paste Inside

Taking your example scenarios I see the following results (on Mac)

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

• Page 1, page is fully within the viewport: Select the target rectangle and paste inside - it pastes inside using the page offset so the object isn't visible.

To achieve this means having to scroll so that Page 1 appears fully in the viewport after previously selecting the target object on Page 2 or 3 but I'm a little unsure what you mean by "it pastes inside using the page offset so the object isn't visible."

Assuming we have the top left corner selected in the Transform panel then for me, the 'Pasted Inside' object X coordinate is always minus 1 inch (i.e., relative to the X coordinate of the selected spread) matching the source object relative to a full spread but the Y coordinate is dependent on the exact positioning of Page 1 in the viewport and will change accordingly but regardless, it is negatively offset in the Y axis relative to the target object but for all intent and purpose it's positioned approximately halfway down the page...

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Page 1, page is scrolled down so that the top 1" and a bit is not visible - Affinity pastes inside using the original X:7.5" but with Y of 8" plus the 1" and a bit you scrolled down, for a Y of 9.0 something. This happens because Affinity will not paste an object that is fully off screen so it compensates - why it over compensates with this much offset is a mystery to me.

This very much depends on whether your page zoom is set to 'Zoom to Fit' or if you've zoomed in so that after scrolling Page 1 down so that the top 1" and a bit is not visible the target object is visible or not visible in part or in whole. Based on your Scenario 1, I'm assuming you mean with the pages set at 'Zoom to Fit'...

In the instance where you may have zoomed in so that post scroll neither the source nor target is visible then Paste Inside will replicate the result from Scenario 1 but assuming that we are still using 'Zoom to Fit' so that the source object is no longer visible in the viewport but either all or a part of the target object is then when using 'Paste Inside' the pasted object will mimic the source object relative to the selected page, which in this instance is the page of the target object, i.e. pages 2 and 3 so the pasted object appears at X 7.5, Y 0 on the target page, I'm not seeing a Y value of between 8 to 9 inches...

 

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Page 1, page is scrolled down so that the top 4" and a bit is not visible - Affinity pastes inside using the original X:7.5" but with a Y of 8" plus the 4" and a bit you scrolled down, for a Y of 12.0 something. Or it would have, but because the page is only 11" tall, Affinity then pastes is on page 3 with a Y of 0.0 something, subtracting 1" for the gap between pages or something like that.

Again, this is not what I'm seeing, the object pasted inside always appears at X 7.5, Y 0 relative to the selected target object assuming the target is either fully or partially visible in the viewport.

When the target is not visible at all in the viewport the object pasted inside is negatively vertically offset so it appears centrally in the viewport relative to the vertical position of the source page.

This all perhaps suggests I'm doing something differently to yourself so I think it may perhaps be helpful if you could make a screen recording to demonstrate what you're seeing and we seem to be missing...

[bbrother]

3 hours ago, MikeTO said:

If I've precisely positioned object A over object B so that it will be clipped in a certain way, I would like to be able to cut object A to the clipboard, click on object B to select it, and then choose Paste Inside.

For that you should use layers panel not "Paste Inside". See video bellow.

 

 

[touchingewe]

This is still an big issue for me on Windows 11 with Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 (possibly in designer but haven't tested it).

Initially on the first page created paste in place works. However on subsequent pages it doesn't and the item pasted in goes off the bottom of the page instead of being pasted in the correct position within the selected item.

For every page added it seems to add to the amount it goes off the bottom vertically.

It is supposed to work as per the documentation but clearly doesn't, the layer option mentioned above is not a suitable option when you have many many layers and the two items aren't necessarily together, here's a link to the documentation:

Paste Inside (affinity.help)

I've attached a sample Affinity publisher file showing the issue, I just created a new file and unchecked facing pages. The file has three pages with a parent item in the center of the pages and a grouped child item pasted into the parent item on each page. The child item was placed in exactly the same place on each page before cutting it then using past inside. On page 1 the "Child Item" is exactly where it should appear in the "Parent Item" If you view the layers on each page and expand the "Parent Item" then select the "Child Item" you can see that on pages 2 and 3 the child item is offset, increasingly so on page 3.

I hope the attached file helps maybe there is a setting that we are missing but it should work as described in the documentation out of the box.

Paste inside issue.afpub