4.1.7 Other Diagram Editor commands
Undoing/redoing changes
You can undo and redo all editing operations in the Diagram
Editor. To undo the last operation, click the undo icon on the toolbar, or
select Undo from the Edit menu. To redo the most recently undone
action, click the redo icon on the toolbar, or select Edit | Redo. The
menu items on the Edit menu show the name of the operation to undo or
redo.
To perform multiple levels of undo/redo operations at
once:
| 1) | Select
Edit | Undos/Redos... to see the list of possible operations (Figure
4–24). |
| 2) | Select
the last step you want to undo/redo. |
Figure 4–24. Undos/Redos.
The number of undo/redo
steps is unlimited within a transaction, but committing or abandoning will reset
the undo/redo buffer. Also please note that the undo/redo buffer is global for
the whole of MetaEdit+. As it is possible to have the same conceptual object in
many graphs, this means that changes made in one editor can be undone/redone
from another editor or from the MetaEdit+
Launcher.
Cutting, copying and pasting elements
To cut or copy elements:
| 1) | Select
the elements to cut or
copy. |
| 2) | Select
Cut or Copy command from either the Edit menu, pop-up menu
or toolbar. |
Paste elements by selecting
Paste from the Edit menu, or from the drawing area pop-up menu if
there are no selections, or from the toolbar. Pasting elements simply creates
new representations of the same objects: if you change a pasted object’s
properties, you are also changing the original object. In contrast, the simple
properties of pasted relationships and roles are copied, so changing them will
not change the original elements; objects contained in the elements’
properties are not copied.
If you need to have true copies instead, breaking the
links with the original elements, use Paste Special. To invoke Paste Special,
select
Edit | Paste Special.... A dialog will open for defining the depth
of the copy (as in
Figure
4–25)
Figure 4–25. Paste Special.
The options in the Paste
Special dialog are as follows:
 | No
Copy provides the same results as the normal Paste command, i.e. only a new
representation but of the same
object. |
| Copy
to Depth copies the contents of the elements down to the level entered into
the number field. Elements below that level are shared with the
original. |
| Deep
Copy makes full copies, i.e. works like Copy to Depth to an
unrestricted level. |
More details about
copying to various depths are given in the description of the Replace Tool in
Section
3.3.5.
