Reusing content across documents

Content moves between documents by copy and paste. This page lists what arrives with a paste and what is left behind, how to repair a pasted interactive component, where a paste lands, and what the two clipboard version messages mean.

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 console icon button (tooltip Validation console). 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:

1. Restore the main component when you pasted an instance. Bindings and actions are edited on the component.
2. Check the destination's variables. Create the missing ones under the names the pasted expressions use (Variables).
3. Rebind the properties that lost a binding (Binding a property). They show their last value, so nothing looks broken on the canvas.
4. Pick the variable again in each Set Variable action.
5. Re-target the actions that lost their target (which layers an action can target).
6. 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: after restoring it, go through the interactions of its layers yourself.

Where a paste lands

Where: Ctrl + V, or right-click → Paste. The context menu follows the same rules as the shortcut; right-clicking a layer outside the selection selects it first.

Selection when you paste	Where the content lands
Nothing, on the page you copied from, when everything copied came from one parent	In that parent, on top, at the same position.
Nothing, in any other case	On the page, centered in the view.
One frame, artboard, component or component set	Inside it, on top. In a Flex frame it becomes the first item.
The frame you copied, still selected	In that frame's parent, directly above it.
One layer that is not a frame, or several layers with the same parent	In that parent, directly above the layer you selected first.
The same, inside a Flex or Grid frame	In that frame. In a Flex frame it becomes the item right after the layer you selected first.
Layers with different parents	In their closest common parent, on top.
A text layer you are editing	Copied text goes in at the caret. Copied layers follow the rows above.

• Position. Content pasted into its original parent keeps its coordinates. In another frame each axis is decided on its own: the coordinate stays where the content would overlap the frame, and the content is centered on that axis otherwise. The view scrolls to the result.
• A frame that can't hold the content, such as a component pasted into a component, gets it pasted outside instead, and a message says so.
• Paste to replace (Ctrl + Shift + V, or right-click → Paste to replace) swaps every selected layer for the clipboard content, centered on the replaced layer. The content takes over that layer's place in its layout. In a Flex or Grid frame, the replacement inherits the item's order, cell, span, alignment and Fill setting; a frame that replaces a Flex or Grid frame also inherits its Hug content setting. Outside a managed layout, the replacement inherits the layer's Constraints and aligns to the edge the layer was pinned to. It is disabled for layers inside an instance and for slots.
• Plain text pasted with exactly one text layer selected replaces that layer's whole content. With any other selection it becomes a new text layer.
• While you edit text, Ctrl + Shift + V is Paste without formatting instead: it inserts the clipboard's text and drops its formatting.
• One bitmap image pasted with Ctrl + V while only shapes or vector layers are selected becomes their fill instead of a new layer.

Pasting from Figma follows the same rules; what is specific to it is on Import.

Clipboard version messages

Copied layers, and formatted text copied out of a text layer, include the app version loaded in the tab they were copied in. A tab left open during an update can run an older version than a tab opened later. A paste between tabs whose versions differ is refused with one of two messages. Both also apply to layers converted from another tool's clipboard.

Message	Cause	Fix
Could not paste outdated clipboard data.	The content was copied in a tab that runs an older version than this one.	Reload the tab you copied in, then copy again.
Could not paste clipboard data copied from a newer app version. Reload the editor and try again.	This tab runs an older version than the one the content was copied in.	Reload this tab, then paste again.

Related

• 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.
• Keyboard shortcuts — macOS forms of the shortcuts above.