I am trying to copy a note and all of its children from one tinderbox file to another. If I copy the note in outline view and then paste into the destination tinderbox only the parent gets copied, not the children. How can I copy and paste all of it? (e.g. glossary note with all of the children glossary entries)
Why doesn’t tinderbox let me export and import a note or a file in tinderbox format?
Unintentional lazy assumption alert! Why would you assume the children to be copied? In a Map view, copying a container copies it and its contents.
Outline view tip: try collapsing the container before copying it. If so, the collapsed container and its contents are copied. Else, only the selected container is copied.
In outline view, expand the container and select the container and its children. Copy, then Paste.
This is actually quite flexible, allowing you (for example) to copy a container CHAPTER 4 and its children TOPIC A, TOPIC B, etc., but not its grandchildren.
If I copy the note in outline view and then paste into the destination tinderbox only the parent gets copied,
Actually, I just tried this. If I select a container in Outline View and paste it into a new document, the pasted material includes the container and all its descendants.
The result is nuanced and depends on whether the copied container is expanded or not when copied:
I’ve not tested other views, and as such I’d not be surprised is the outcomes were different. Our ‘intuited’ assumptions are a false guide to actual behaviour. Older views (map, outline, chart, treemap) are less likely to have unexpected outcomes. ‘Unexpected’ all depends on one’s sense of ‘expected’. No fault there, but unexpected outcome != bug.
BTW any chance are you copying an agent with aliases? Aliases will NOT be copied over to a new file.
Given that an agent makes aliases of notes in the current document surely one would not expect any alias to copy as there is no original in the new doc to be matched (through there may be matches to notes already in the new doc)?
Still as the hare has now been set running, is there somewhere you have seen documentation that suggests copying an alias would be possible? (without also copying its alias).
FWIW, I just tested the current v10.1.2 and alias are *never8 copied. Even if you select/copy an alias and its original note, on pasting to the new doc, only the original is pasted. IOW, if you need an alias in the new doc you need first to paste its original and then create a new alias of it in the IOW, if you need an alias in the new doc, you need to paste its original and then create a new alias of it in the target document.
Mark, with my post, I was not suggesting that Aliases could ever be copied or that the documentation was not there. As @tinderlove was not clear on the hierarchy of the notes being copied, I thought they may have been trying to copy an agent and its children (just a guess).
2 posts were split to a new topic: Using aliases as a proxy for pasting items to another TBX
To avoid confusion, I’ve updated current alias behaviour during copy/paste in the article on Copying or Moving notes within Tinderbox.
This is the behaviour seen as at v10.1.2.
I’ve moved the suggestion for new alias features to a separate thread. No censure implied, but it allows for discussion of the edge cases arising. 