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janessab710
New Participant
August 22, 2017
Answered

Adding or Merging Swatches when pasting artwork into file

  • August 22, 2017
  • 9 replies
  • 4793 views

In older versions of AI when I copy and paste art into a file that has a swatch of the same name it would ask me if I wanted to "add or merge swatches".  But now it is just automatically merging them without asking.  I can not find how to turn that dialogue box back on.  Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Correct answer Mike_Gondek10189183

In the spirit of full disclosure I can now say that I must have been very sleepy last night when I made my initial post and did not notice that I had indeed created one of my test files as CMYK PANTONE 300 and the other file used the Spot Color version. That is why I did, in fact get the Swatch Conflict dialog that was shown in my original post so easily. So I think that we can be definitive that the colors must be mismatched in order for that dialog to appear no matter the version of Illustrator.


Hi Bill,

Additional conditions are needed for the error to show than  the numbers mismatching. Below for example the error would not occur.

The numbers mismatch, but  they are both spot. This is what I suspect the original post is inquiring about.

For the error to come up you minimally need

  • one swatch to be CMYK or RGB
  • the numbers to mismatch
  • the names to be exactly the same

9 replies

G
good_ease4875
New Participant
July 18, 2025

i am looking for the answer to this same question

A
Community Manager
Anubhav MCommunity Manager
Community Manager
July 25, 2025

Hello @good_ease4875,

Could you share more details, like the version of the OS/Illustrator installed, and a small screen recording of your exact workflow and the problem, so I can better assist you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

J
janessab710Author
New Participant
August 24, 2017

Thanks for all your help

G
gfdsgfdg fgfdsgfd
New Participant
September 17, 2019
anyone find a fix for this?
    Monika Gause
    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    September 17, 2019
    A fix for what? Please describe your issues in some complete sentences step by step. Thank you.
    J
    janessab710Author
    New Participant
    August 23, 2017

    The issue is in older files I have swatches with the same name but different values (colors are different), a bad habit I used to have.  I needed to access older art and when I would cut and paste, colors would change in the new file.  I used to get around this by adding swatches instead or merging.

    I am trying the different tests you are describing but haven't gotten the dialogue box to pop up yet.

    Ton Frederiks
    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    August 23, 2017

    Maybe we can replicate your problem if you share and old and a new file that gives the problem.

    You can share with CC, Google, Dropbox or another sharing system.

    J
    janessab710Author
    New Participant
    August 23, 2017

    I just tried a test with files created in CC 2017 and I am still not getting the dialogue box

    Bill Silbert
    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    August 23, 2017

    As I said above I had no problem getting that dialog window. The test I did was that I defined a PANTONE color in my swatch panel in two test files. Drew a square filled with that color in both, then copied and tried to paste a square from one into the other and got the warning. Is it possible that you didn't make sure that the PANTONE color had been defined in the swatch panel?

    J
    janessab710Author
    New Participant
    August 23, 2017

    I tried resetting the dialogue boxes in preferences, and that didn't work.  I am using CC 2017, the only thing I can think of is the files I am having an issue with were made in an earlier version of Illustrator. 

    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Community Expert
    August 23, 2017

    What version of Illustrator are you using?

    I'm not getting that error in CC 2017.

    Bill Silbert
    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    August 23, 2017

    I tested this with Illustrator CC 2017.1 and it works the way that it always did with the dialog window shown below:

    I am sure that it is not something that I turned on when I customized my preferences so I'm reasonably certain it is still the default. I even looked through all of the preference files and could not see anything about this feature. I even thought that the Ask Options in Edit Colors might somehow be involved but that didn't prove to be the case. The only other thing that occurs to me is that if you upgraded to CC 2017 from an earlier version and you did not reset your preferences that could be a factor. It has been my experience with all of the CC 2017 programs I use that they did not work properly until I had gotten rid of all earlier preference files.

    To reset preferences:

    For Macintosh Users: With Illustrator closed launch a Finder Window in column view and click on your home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the following two files and delete them: “Adobe Illustrator <Version #> Settings” (earlier versions of Illustrator might just say “Adobe Illustrator”) and “com.adobe.Illustrator.plist”. When Illustrator is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

    After you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, it is a really good idea to create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

    For Windows Users: Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching Illustrator and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset.

    Bill Silbert
    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    August 23, 2017

    Or maybe Jeff found what I couldn't see!

    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Community Expert
    August 23, 2017

    Hey Bill,

    This is weird!

    I'm not getting that warning in CC 2017. I Trashed Preferences and I'm still not getting the warning.

    Jeff

    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Community Expert
    August 23, 2017

    Give this a try.

    Go to Preference (Command + K on Mac [Control +K on Windows]).

    In the General section, press "Reset All Warning Dialogs" and OK to apply.

    Monika Gause
    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    August 22, 2017

    Should be a global swatch - is it?

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