Frame editing > Tools Index

Copy frame

Here and elsewhere in the program, the camera represents the copying function. Matters are a little complex when copying frames, because there are two copy types: Physical and virtual (see Options menu, Copy options), two concepts that require a detailed explanation. As the difference is really fundamental for using Calamus efficiently, you should study the process carefully by trial and error, so that it really gets under your skin.

We will start with the simpler type:
Physical copies.

When you make a physical copy, you create a new, completely separate frame which happens to have exactly the same shape and contents as the one you are copying. Once you have made a physical copy, you can change either or both frames any way you want, treating them as two different frames that only have the same size and the same contents by chance.

Now the slightly more complicated case:
Virtual copies.

Like a physical copy, a virtual copy is a separate frame, and here too you can change its shape or position without affecting the frame you copied. However, the contents of a virtual copy are not just equal but the same as the original, so that the copy shares all of its contents and characteristics. The information is therefore only stored once, for all frames together. This means that when you change the contents of one of the frames (no matter whether original or virtual copy), the contents of other(s) will change correspondingly. So much for theory. In practice, when you change the contents of a frame that originates from a virtual copy frame, Calamus will ask if you want the change to apply only to the current frame or to all the frames linked to it by virtual copying. If you want the change to apply only to the current frame, then it will of course be removed from the list of virtual frames, since it is no longer identical to the others; it becomes a physical copy (or original) by default. Incidentally, you can group virtual frames without affecting their virtual nature.

Things become more critical however with piped text frames described in the Special functions for Text frames chapter. Virtual frames can not be connected to such text piping chains, because piping chains are intended for use with different original text in every frame. Things are similar when you you make a virtual copy of a text frame which is already in a piping chain. In this case, an alert box will appear, allowing you to cancel the operation or make a physical (rather than virtual) copy irrespective of the set copying mode. The physical copy will contain all the text in the piping chain. You can select whether physical or virtual copies of frames are to be produced by using Copy options from the Options menu. Further description will be found under that menu entry.

Once again: You will save many hours of frustrating work, unpleasant surprises and inefficient working if you take some time to familiarize yourself with the nature of physical and virtual copies and play around with them a bit. Doing this will teach you far more than you will get from reading this description.