Working within a single view
- Drag. Always moves the selected note(s). There is no key override to force a copy. Retains all formatting except links, though link mark-up (coloured text) is retained. Option drag of a single object duplicates the object and drags the duplicate. Option-Shift drag of a single object makes an alias of the object and drags the alias.
- Copy/paste. Retains all formatting and links
- Cut/paste. Retains all formatting except links/link mark-up.
Working within a single TBX file
- Copy/paste. Retains all formatting and links
- Cut/paste. Retains all formatting except links/link mark-up. Thus, to move text and retaining its links you must copy/paste before returning to delete the source text.
- Drag. There is no support for dragging objects between document windows.
- See notes below about intrinsic attributes and prototypes.
Working across different TBX files
- Copy/paste or cut/paste. Retains all local formatting except for links: only those links between notes in the pasted selection are retained.
- Drag. There is no support for dragging objects between documents.
- See notes below about user and intrinsic attributes, and prototypes.
Intrinsic attribute values
The values of intrinsic attributes are not maintained when copied within or between documents, because the value is intrinsic to the source note. If it is important to capture and copy the source note's exact value for an intrinsic attribute, consider caching the value in a user attribute (or one of the System's 'Sandbox' group).
Copying between documents and User attributes (and their values)
If a note is copied and pasted to a new document, only those attributes existing in both documents are are fully transferred. Thus it is important to implement any necessary user attributes in the destination TBX before the actual copying of notes. N.B. $KeyAttributes holds the names of notes as text strings so a pasted note's Displayed Attributes may continue to list attributes from the source document even though they do not (yet) exist in the current document.
Duplication and links
If a note with links is duplicated, any outbound links are duplicated, none of the inbound links. All inbound links remain linked only to the source of the duplicate note.
Prototypes
Duplicating prototype notes. (see also) Duplicated notes retain the source note's prototype ($Prototype). For notes that are prototypes themselves, if Note A is a prototype for note B, then duplicating A makes a new prototype note but the duplicate no longer has a prototype link to B (i.e. B retains inheritance from A). The duplicate does have copies of other non-prototype outbound links for A, it is only A's prototype links that are not duplicated. Copying and pasting a container within a document results in the notes in the pasted container using the same prototypes as notes in the source container.
Prototypes between documents. If a note or agent is copied and pasted to a different TBX document, the new item does not inherit its source's $Prototype value, unless the source note's source prototype is included in the selection. This is a defensive assumption by Tinderbox as it cannot be sure pasted notes are from the current TBX and thus that all source prototypes exist. If it is intended some/all pasted notes will use prototypes from within the destination document, these assignment must be made manually (or via agents, etc.) after the notes have been pasted into the destination document.