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Participant
June 20, 2013
Answered

ALT Drag for Duplicate not working in CC

  • June 20, 2013
  • 13 replies
  • 68652 views

I use the alt (option) drag to duplicate items all the time. I just made the switch over to InDesign CC from CS6, and now it doesn't work. The odd thing though is when I hold down alt and hover over an object, my cursor does change to the double arrow, as if the duplicate function is going to work. But when I go to drag (obv. while holding down on alt), and let go, the object simply moves with no duplication occurring.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas on how to fix this?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Jimbo8364

I found if I went to Preferences > Interface > Options and changed Live Screen Drawing to "Immediate" it solved my problem.

13 replies

Rozberries
Participant
February 9, 2016

I tried updating the Interface settings and restarting InDesign again. No luck. Shift drag and Shift+Option drag are NOT working and this is a serious impact on my productivity.

Any work Adobe? This start on my last update.

Rozberries
Participant
February 9, 2016

Actually I might have solved my own question. This is a bug that I similar to one I occasionally run into with Ilustratror because I noticed that the Space Drag wasn't working either.

I need to shut down my Browser (In this case, Chrome) and open it up again. It clears up the click/drag bug.

Participant
January 17, 2017

I cant see that option.-.....

ChrisDLR
Participating Frequently
January 5, 2016

Seriously, any chance this could be fixed? None of the workarounds fix this to function the way it used to.

Best I can manage is that I can alt + drag  to copy a single page at time unless I want the duplicate pages to be hurled to last page as opposed to the next page in sequence or wherever I tell it to go. I design sets of cards and web banners sets in a series that routinely go 50 pages deep, so having to scroll all the way down to retrieve a duplicated set is infuriating.

jolaflor
Participant
January 6, 2016

This might sounds crazy.. but shut down all your other applications and try it again. For me this issue and one other issue in Photoshop was fixed by simply closing Chrome.

You can also test this by opening your file in a fresh new User Account and see if the issue exists, if it doesn't then you know something running in the background is interfering with InDesign.

ChrisDLR
Participating Frequently
January 6, 2016

It's not crazy, I haven't tried that. It unfortunately didn't make a difference.

I have two machines that I alternate between, one strictly has design programs on it and the only background program is CC itself, the other a combination of my home and work. Neither of them work in the way it used to.

Participant
December 16, 2015

grrrr, same problem here...

Participant
August 15, 2015

Just upgrade to 2015 and this is also happening to me. Really stupidly annoying. Changing the interface preferences didn't seem to work either...

Paul Syng
Participant
June 15, 2015

It's finally working again :-)

Jimbo8364Correct answer
Participant
April 6, 2015

I found if I went to Preferences > Interface > Options and changed Live Screen Drawing to "Immediate" it solved my problem.

Participant
April 13, 2015

Thank you Jimbo8364 It works now :-)

Participating Frequently
March 3, 2015

This still does not work for me and quite frankly it's bloody annoying. I hold down the Opt key and try to replace footage and I get the little plus arrow indicating that it should replace the media but nothing gets replaced. ARG!!!!!

Peter Spier
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 3, 2015

Paul,

You'll get more help for your problem if you post in the forum related to your product (not sure what that is, but replacing footage is not something one does in InDesign).

Participating Frequently
March 3, 2015

AH yes. Got derailed there I guess. Now that "CC" applies to 40 products I get confused easily. Wasn't paying enough attention. Sorry. Seems like no delete function on these forums? Another great feature by Adobe.

Participant
November 7, 2014

I'm glad I found this post. I couldn't understand why they would get rid of such a common workflow. Holding option and command doesn't work for me, but holding it for 3ish seconds does. Terrible user experience in the CC 2014 Adobe programs. If Adobe programs were a website, they would have already been abandoned by their users because of bad load times and terrible user experience. Shortcut keys are the bread and butter to your programs, why would you mess with how they behave?

JBoyer7810216
Participant
October 1, 2014

I was annoyed when this featured seemed to be missing, too! But then it worked for me when I held 'option' AND 'command' (I have a mac). Just have to get used to using the extra button now.

Participant
September 15, 2017

This doesn't always work! Can't figure out the magic.

Garry Bradley
Inspiring
April 27, 2014

I think I've solved it. Instead of ALT and immediately moving the object keep your mouse held down on the object till the transform box disappears then ALT drag. Must be a weird CC thing.

Just an addition to this, the latest beta version of Mavericks 10.9.3 has seemed to have fixed this now. I've ALT dragged a box and it's duplicated as of old. Must have been a known bug that Apple have fixed. I'm sure it wont be long till they bring the release version out and all will be well in the InDesign world again.

Participant
June 27, 2014

Hello,

i just got a new iMac (OS X 10.9.3) and installed the latest Adobe Software (Indesign CC 2014) and experienced the same. Thank you for answering my problem, but i have to admit, that this is rather annoying: i have to waaaaaiiiiit untill i can copy the box. This is not very user-friendly and interrupts my working process.