Reusing components across documents
Components and other content move between documents by copy and paste, and each document keeps its own copy. This page lists what arrives with a paste and what is left behind, and how to repair a pasted interactive component.
Moving components between documents
Documents do not share components: a component pasted into another document is an independent copy, and an edit on either side never reaches the other (Components belong to one document).
| What you copied | What arrives |
|---|---|
| An instance | The instance with its overrides and input values, and its main component, which arrives hidden like a deleted one. |
| An instance of a variant | The same; the whole component set arrives hidden. |
| An instance with swapped nested instances | Every component that a nested instance or a swap uses arrives hidden as well. |
| A main component or a component set | A visible component or set. Instances copied together with it follow the pasted copy. |
| One variant without its set | A standalone component. |
| Component inputs | They travel with the component: the inputs, the bindings of its layers to them, and the values each instance assigns. |
| A variable binding on a property, a text range or an instance's input | Removed. The property keeps the value it last showed. |
| A Set Variable action | The action with an empty Variable field. Its value or expression stays. |
| The expression of a Set Variable or Conditional action | The same text, unchanged. |
| Any other action | The action. A target stays when it was copied too and the action can still reach it where the paste lands (which layers an action can target); any other target is emptied. |
| Object behaviors | They travel with their layer. |
| Images | They arrive with their layers, in any workspace. |
| Custom fonts | Nothing: a font has to be available in the destination's workspace. |
- The main component arrives hidden. The pasted instance works at once. To edit its component, select the instance and choose Restore deleted component, which puts the component on the current page (Deleting and restoring a main component).
- Variables never travel. They belong to their document. Within one document, bindings survive a paste (Duplicate and paste).
- Expressions find variables by name. A pasted expression reads the destination's variables of the same names. With a name missing, it fails each time it runs (→ Set Variable, Conditional).
- A missing font stops the paste. The Missing Fonts dialog lists each font the destination's workspace lacks. Replace Fonts pastes the content in the replacement fonts you pick; Cancel pasting pastes nothing. To keep the typeface, upload the font to that workspace first.
Repairing a pasted interactive component
Where: left toolbar → the Validation console button. An entry selects the layer that carries the action and opens the Interactions tab.
A pasted component that read or set variables has lost those references. Rebuild them in the destination:
- Restore the main component when you pasted an instance. Bindings and actions are edited on the component.
- Check the destination's variables. Create the missing ones under the names the pasted expressions use (Variables).
- Rebind the properties that lost a binding (Binding a property). They show their last value, so nothing looks broken on the canvas.
- Pick the variable again in each Set Variable action.
- Re-target the actions that lost their target (which layers an action can target).
- Read through the expressions of Set Variable and Conditional actions. The console doesn't check them: an expression that fails shows only as a warning in the preview's debug console (Errors).
For layers pasted onto the canvas, the Validation console lists each action that is missing a variable or a target. A component that arrived hidden has no entries while it stays hidden; restoring it adds them.
Where a paste lands
Where pasted content lands, Paste to replace and pasting onto a selection are on Pasting layers and content.
Clipboard version messages
The two messages that refuse a paste between tabs running different app versions are on Pasting layers and content.
Related
- Pasting layers and content — where a paste lands, and Paste to replace.
- Components and instances — what a paste within one document creates: an instance, a variant, or a moved component.
- Binding rules and edge cases — bindings on duplicated and pasted layers.
- Import — bringing in files and pasted content from other tools.