Copy Paste buttons not working

[soulglowdeej]

I think I've come across an annoying bug in InDesign, as I'm unable to copy paste, or option/alt drag an interactive button to copy it.

Doing the action does do something, as there's a very small bounding box and you can see the item in the layers panel, but there's nothing visible on the artboard/page. If I change the button to a symbol (as opposed to an interactive button) it works...

I've trashed the preferences but no luck...any ideas fine Adobe InDesign users? 

[BobLevine]

Are you sure you have the button selected and not just an object that's part of it? 

[soulglowdeej]

Thanks for asking Bob, but yup...I've even dragged it to it's own solo layer and it still won't allow it. Pretty sure it's a bug with interactive buttons. I should've mentioned that the troublesome buttons have a rollover element...bog standard buttons aren't an issue.

(InDesign v18.3)

[BobLevine]

18.3 hasn't hit the US yet so I tried it on 18.2.1 and it works fine. You can try rolling it back to see.

Let us know.

[soulglowdeej]

Ah...well I'd recommend holding back on updating if you're happy with the current version. It seems to like pausing on document scrolls.

My work-around was to turn the buttons to symbols (and then undo the button to symbol action so i've at least got one button to use as reference), paste the symbol, and keep that as a master element to copy.

hmmmm...I tried to recreate a simple button in a new document and that works fine. So it might be a document related thing rather than a program thing; which is odd. But at least once this one's out of the way, it should work 🙂 

Thanks for trying to help Bob - it's really appreciated 🙂 but as it seems isolated to a document I'll stop taking up your time. Thanks again 🙂

[BobLevine · Accepted solution]

If it's just that document, try the IDML route.

[soulglowdeej]

Damnit! I used to do that when I got issues in the past and forgot...that's solved it! 

Thanks Bob. You're awesome!

[davidk92134446]

Would you mind explaining what you mean by  the "IDML Route"? This problem is doing my box in. Thanks.

[soulglowdeej]

Really simple... Go to save as, and in the file type area at the bottom of the save window, choose idml 🙌

[Viktoria24203226e6hj]

Hi, I am encountering the same Issue. I saved it as IDML, and NOW at least alt+dragging works to copy but I need to copy past a button to multiple pages with paste in place and for that this doesn't help.
Any suggestion?

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Viktoria24203226e6hj,  

Glad to hear that saving as IDML helped with alt+dragging! I tested this on my end and was able to copy and use paste in place without any issues. Could you share your InDesign version and OS details? Also, if possible, a short screen recording of your workflow would help me understand what’s happening.  

Looking forward to your update!  

^

Abhishek

[johnr67380114]

IDML did nothing for me. What an awful bug.

[mikemccoole]

This is crazy, what on earth has happened to InDesign's interactive PDF functions!? 
All working functions seemingly point to the, frankly unseable, ePub option and you have to hack a simple navigation menu! I've just spent an an age getting buttons to work in PDF only to find I now can't copy&paste, drag paste or replicate in anyway the hard work I have just done (FYI it pastes weird, unclickable tiny bounding boxes). Crazy.

Paste on new layer, paste in new document, paste in masters, paste in new page, resave as IDML, drag pastes... nothing. 

[Chris_ThinkMarshStudio]

No idea if you'll see this reply two years on but I've worked out a workaround - needed on my 30 page ID file.

Context: Button Nav at the top of each page.

I set the buttins in the A-Parent, on a Layer above the content (otherwise the buttons would be behind the content)

Then applied to all pages.

Then – crucially > unlocked the buttons from each page. Anyhting on the A-Parent Page is if course locked by default. 

This took 20mins but saved me 2+ hours.

Hope it helps,

Chris

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Chris_ThinkMarshStudio

Just for clarification - technically speaking, objects placed on the Parent Page are not "locked" - they belong to the Parent Page and need to be overriden on the regular pages. 

And depends on how you then modify those - they are still linked to the original object from the Parent Page - so you need to be careful what you do to the original object.