Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Annotations

Cut, copy, and paste annotations into any map window or into any layer that appears under My Layers in the Layer Legend.

To cut or copy a group of annotations, select multiple annotations before performing the cut or copy operation (Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click to select multiple annotations). For example, you can copy paste or move an annotation from one User Layer to another.

Pasting annotations to User layers has certain advantages over pasting them to the default map. User Layers aren't dependent on any map, but are available to all maps. Annotations added to User Layers can be configured and changes are replicated across all maps in which that user layer is displayed. For details, see Related Topics below.

To cut, copy, and paste annotations

Using the Ribbon toolbar, with the Annotations tab displayed and the annotations to cut or copy displayed on the map, click Select ().

If working with annotations on a User Layer, that layer must be both selected in the Layer Legend (so that its annotations are visible), and displayed as the current layer in the Layer drop-down list in the Annotation ribbon toolbar (so that its annotations are selectable). Below, a User Layer is being selected from the Layer drop-down list.

Click the annotation to cut or copy. To select multiple annotations, either Shift+Click or Ctrl+Click the desired annotations. Ctrl+Click a selected annotation to remove it from the selection. Shift+Click doesn't allow you to clear a selection.

The selected annotations show node selection handles indicating that they are selected. Below, a triangle and a circle are selected.

To cycle through multiple overlapping annotations, hover the cursor over the annotation group and press the SPACE Bar. Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click while cycling through annotations to select multiple annotations.

Select from the following options:

Drag the annotation(s) to the desired location. Where multiple annotations are selected, dragging any one annotation will drag the entire group.
To copy the selection so that the original is preserved, click Copy ().
To cut the selection so that it can be moved to an entirely new area, click Cut ().

Depending on whether you're pasting the annotation(s) to a different location on the map, or to a User Layer, do one of the following:

Navigate to the desired area of your map, and then click either Paste () to display the pasted annotation offset from the original copied annotation, or Paste to Original Location () to paste it directly over top of the originally copied annotation.
Click either Move Selection or Copy Selection followed by whether to move or copy it to a new or existing layer. If moving to a new layer, using the Create User Layer dialog box, navigate to the location in which to create the new layer and then type a name for the desired layer and click Save. If moving the annotation to an existing layer, select the desired layer from the My Layers drop-down list and then click Save.
Click Save User Layers ().

The annotation is pasted to the same geographic coordinates in the new window providing those coordinates appear within the map extents defined by that window and that another annotation doesn't already occupy that location. Where the geographic coordinates are not within the extents of the map, or another annotation already occupies the desired location, the annotation is simply pasted in the centre of the current window. Where multiple annotations are pasted at once, the first annotation selected is pasted in the centre of the map and the offset between all the selected annotations are maintained. When an annotation is pasted multiple times, each paste is offset slightly down and to the right.

To delete the selected items, press Delete ().
To remove a single node from a line or polygon annotation, with Select () enabled right-click the node and select Delete Node from the context menu.