If many of the recipe items or variables you want to create are similar, you may find it easier to create one recipe item or variable and copy the remaining items you need. You save time by copying an existing recipe item or variable because you only need to change the information that differs between the original item and the new copy.
The Recipe Builder allows you to copy a recipe item or variable by selecting Copy from the Edit menu. When you select this command, the Recipe Builder copies the entire row of the selected item to the clipboard.
After copying the recipe item or variable, you can insert it into the recipe as many times as you need using the Paste command. Each time you paste a copied item, the Recipe Builder inserts it above the currently selected row and renumbers the spreadsheet as shown in the Renumbering the Recipe Spreadsheet figure.
To copy a recipe
item or variable:
- Select a cell in the row you want to copy.
- On the Edit menu, click Copy. The Recipe Builder copies the entire row.
- On the Edit menu, click Paste. If the recipe item or variable is not unique, an error dialog box appears.
Select the Keep Item button to retain the valid parts of the recipe item being pasted or select the Discard Item button to prevent the item from being pasted into the recipe. To cancel the entire operation, select the Undo Paste button.
If you prefer, you can copy data from a third-party application (such as Excel) and paste it into the Recipe Builder. When you do this, the Recipe Builder reads the data from the standard system clipboard and pastes the data into the recipe. The Recipe Builder pastes the data in the order of the spreadsheet column format starting with the first column in the recipe. Before pasting data into a specific column, the Recipe Builder evaluates its syntax for that column. If the syntax is invalid or if the Recipe Builder has difficulty pasting the data into a column, the error dialog box described previously in step 3 appears.
To avoid this situation, set up the columns in your third-party application to match the display format of the recipe. Make sure that the data in the columns that correspond to the Identifier and Formula columns conforms to the syntax for each column. Also make sure the column that corresponds to the Verify column contains the text ON or OFF. For more information about identifier and formula syntax refer to the section Spreadsheet Columns.
The number of columns you paste into the recipe can be greater or less than the number of columns in use by the display format. If the number of columns you are pasting is greater than the number of columns in use, the extra columns are not used. If the number of columns is less than the number of columns in use, the Recipe Builder either leaves the corresponding cell blank or uses the default value for the cell if it has one.
You can leave any cell in the third-party spreadsheet blank. When you paste a row with blank cells into the Recipe Builder, the program either leaves the corresponding cell blank or uses the default value for the cell if it has one.
See Also
Inserting Recipe Items or Variables
Moving Recipe Items or Variables
