25 Alt-drag Duplication. 25 of 95.
25/GESTURE PHYSICS/25 of 95
Alt-drag Duplication
A modifier can mean copy instead of move.
Best experienced with a pointer.
The problem
Without a modifier, every drag relocates the original, so duplicating items requires a separate copy command.
The solution
Alt-drag leaves the source in place and drops a copy at the destination.
Experiment
Play with the values
Modifier
0.55
How it works
- The drag starts as a normal move.
- The Alt or Option key is watched for the whole gesture, not only at the start.
- While the modifier is held, the cursor changes to show that this is a copy.
- The source stays in place when the gesture is a duplicate.
- Drop either creates a copy or moves the original, depending on the modifier at release.
- Modifier state is cleared when the gesture ends so the next drag starts clean.
Seen in
Design canvases
Alt-drag duplicates shapes without a separate copy/paste step.
File explorers
Option-drag copies files between folders instead of moving them.
Slide editors
Holding Alt while dragging clones objects across the board.
Timeline tools
Clips can be duplicated by modifier-drag onto another track.