Terry's TMG Tips

Drag & Drop to Copy People

This page created 21 May 2002

Version note: Applies to TMG 8 & 9

While it is possible to use drag and drop to copy or move people between Data Sets, it is not a method I recommend. In fact, I recommend disabling the feature, in Preferences > Program Options > Project Explorer. The reasons are:

• Drag and drop only works from the Project Explorer. As I explain on the main page of Copying and Moving People article, the Project Explorer is not generally the best tool for selecting the people to be included.
• Selection and dragging of the desired people seems awkward and prone to error to me.
• The result of the operation is to open the same screen you get when you use the Add > Copy Person(s) or Edit > Move Person(s) menu command.

My recommendation is to just use the menu commands directly.

But for those who would like to try the process, here's how you do it:

Open Project Explorer – Open the Project Explorer and arrange it so that you can find the people you want to copy or move.

Select the People – Select all the people you want to include in the Copy or Move operation. If you want to select a contiguous group, click the first one, then hold shift while clicking the last one. To select a discontinuous group, hold the control key while clicking each additional person. (This is standard Windows procedure.)

Important: After selecting the last person, do not release the mouse button!

Drag – While still holding the mouse button down, drag to the right or left, but staying within the Project Explorer window (if you drag up or downward, you may select additional, unintended, people). If you want to Move, rather than Copy, hold the control key while you drag. Drag until the cursor changes to a silhouette of two people (for Copy) or a single person (for Move).

Drop – After you get the silhouette cursor, you have a choice. If there is a person who is in the target Data Set in view in the Project Explorer window, drop on that person. This presets the Copy or Move Person screen that opens to the correct Data Set. If no person in the target Data Set is readily available, just drop anywhere in the Project Explorer window, and you can select the correct target Data Set in the screen after it appears.

Complete Screens – Complete any desired options on the "Data Types to Include" tab (Copy Person only), and click OK. Verify the correct people are included on the Confirmation screen, and click OK on it.

Copyright 2000- by Terry Reigel