Am creating a book for my grandaughter and having problems with the set-up. At creation time, I want facing pages in the same file. But when it comes time to print, things must be rearranged. When I copy from one file and paste into another, I lose all the formatting and the objects are seen as one unit which I cannot ungroup. Have read through the help and tried all the variations on Copy and Paste, and can't seem to get around this... BTW, the same thing happens when I copy/paste in the same file, but Duplicate takes care of that.

I saw in another post where there was an issue with Mac and X11 awhile ago, and am wondering if I need to change something - but don't know what.

Mac 10.6.8
Xquartz 2.3.6
Technically Challenged User

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Sharon175 wrote:Am creating a book for my grandaughter and having problems with the set-up. At creation time, I want facing pages in the same file. But when it comes time to print, things must be rearranged. When I copy from one file and paste into another, I lose all the formatting and the objects are seen as one unit which I cannot ungroup. Have read through the help and tried all the variations on Copy and Paste, and can't seem to get around this... BTW, the same thing happens when I copy/paste in the same file, but Duplicate takes care of that.

I saw in another post where there was an issue with Mac and X11 awhile ago, and am wondering if I need to change something - but don't know what.

Mac 10.6.8
Xquartz 2.3.6
Technically Challenged User

Thanks for any help you can provide!

You might be thinking about this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11527#p42444

Have a read of the first few posts there from myself and ~suv, but be warned that the thread heads off topic quickly thereafter

Yes, I think part of what you're experiencing is the Mac copy/paste bug (http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... or_objects). That's what you're describing as "one unit which I cannot ungroup". Apparently the objects have lost their "vectorness". The faq item offers some options, but if you can't use them for some reason, there still may be a way around it.

Part of the problem might not be related to that bug. When you copy more than 1 object which reside on different layers, they are all pasted into one layer. I can't remember why this happens, so I apologize that I can't explain it. I think of it as kind of an Inkscape fact of life, lol.

Instead of copying objects from one file, and pasting in another, you might try File menu > Save a Copy. It saves an entire copy of the document, while still retaining the layer info. It's truly an exact duplicate of that file. To my knowledge, it's not affected by that bug. (I could be wrong.) Then when you open that file, you can delete the unneeded content. If it's just a few objects that you need to copy/paste, out of many, this might end up being too tedious. So I guess whether you want to change the options in the Mac system, or use Save a Copy, probably comes down to your personal preference (unless I'm wrong about Save a Copy not being affected by the bug).

PS - I had this reply ready when the site went down this morning. Just got back and see Xav has posted. But I'll go ahead and post anyway, since it contains some additional info

You guys are the best!!!!!

Was able to follow the links to an actual screen shot of the X11 Preferences screen and there were the correct settings! Have tested inside the same file and moving to another file and both work like a charm!

The "Save a Copy" option does work, but when I am combining the pages (face to face pages 3 and 4 - actual print needs to have pages 3 and 8 in the same file and 4 and 7 in another) still could not combine.... does that make sense?

I do not think I use any other application that touches X11 (but then how would I know?). The one post indicated some frustration with having to switch the preferences back and forth, but I don't think that will be an issue.... time will tell.

At any rate, thanks again for the responses and for sharing your expertise -

brynn wrote:Yes, I think part of what you're experiencing is the Mac copy/paste bug (http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... or_objects). That's what you're describing as "one unit which I cannot ungroup". Apparently the objects have lost their "vectorness". The faq item offers some options, but if you can't use them for some reason, there still may be a way around it.

Part of the problem might not be related to that bug. When you copy more than 1 object which reside on different layers, they are all pasted into one layer. I can't remember why this happens, so I apologize that I can't explain it. I think of it as kind of an Inkscape fact of life, lol.

Instead of copying objects from one file, and pasting in another, you might try File menu > Save a Copy. It saves an entire copy of the document, while still retaining the layer info. It's truly an exact duplicate of that file. To my knowledge, it's not affected by that bug. (I could be wrong.) Then when you open that file, you can delete the unneeded content. If it's just a few objects that you need to copy/paste, out of many, this might end up being too tedious. So I guess whether you want to change the options in the Mac system, or use Save a Copy, probably comes down to your personal preference (unless I'm wrong about Save a Copy not being affected by the bug).

PS - I had this reply ready when the site went down this morning. Just got back and see Xav has posted. But I'll go ahead and post anyway, since it contains some additional info

I found this solution very helpful. I'm working on a Mac and although I tried changing XII Preferences, as suggested by others, it didn't work for me. Brynn's solution worked and although it may seem a little "top-heavy". It's simple and I'll be able to remember it in the future. So, I say, thank you!