Support Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V so that Pasted Action Buttons Are Immediately Registered as Independent Objects in PAfE

Dear team,

Summary

Allow existing Action Buttons to be duplicated using standard Excel Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V and have each pasted Action Button immediately registered as an independent Action Button.

Description

When working with Action Buttons in Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel (PAfE), users can currently create an additional Action Button by dragging an Action Button from the Action Button Task Pane onto the worksheet.

However, when an existing Action Button is copied using the standard Excel Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V workflow, the pasted button is not correctly registered as an independent Action Button.

The copied Action Button remains functional on the worksheet, but it does not receive its own independent reference in the Action Button properties.

For example:

• Original Action Button: Sheet1!G3:run

• The user selects the existing Action Button and uses Ctrl+C

• The button is pasted to Sheet1!J5 using Ctrl+V

• The copied button remains functional

• However, it does not appear as a separate Action Button with its own reference, such as Sheet1!J5:run

This creates a discrepancy between the Action Button displayed on the worksheet and the Action Button definitions available through the properties/task pane.

Expected Behavior

An existing Action Button should be duplicable using the standard Excel Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V workflow.

When an Action Button is copied and pasted to another location, PAfE should create and register the pasted button as a new, independent Action Button.

The copied Action Button should:

• receive its own reference corresponding to its new worksheet/cell location;

• appear immediately as a separate Action Button in the Action Button properties/task pane;

• retain the configuration of the original Action Button as the basis for the copy;

• allow its properties to be independently edited;

• remain fully functional after being pasted.

The new Action Button should be immediately registered and displayed in the Action Button properties/task pane without requiring the user to switch to another Excel tab, reopen the workbook, or otherwise refresh the report.

For example:

Original Action Button

Sheet1!G3:run

Copied Action Button

Sheet1!J5:run

The original and copied buttons should then be treated as two separate Action Button objects.

Each Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V operation should create a separate Action Button instance. Multiple paste operations should therefore result in multiple independently registered Action Buttons, each with its own worksheet/cell reference.

Current Behavior

When an existing Action Button is copied using Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V, the pasted button remains functional on the worksheet.

However, the copied button is not correctly registered as an independent Action Button in the Action Button properties and does not receive its own reference corresponding to the new worksheet/cell location.

The current behavior can therefore result in a functional button on the worksheet that does not have a corresponding independent Action Button definition in the Task Pane.

Current Workaround

The current way to create an additional Action Button based on an existing configuration is to use the Action Button Task Pane and drag the Action Button onto the worksheet again.

While this allows users to create another Action Button, it does not provide the same convenient workflow as the standard Excel Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V functionality.

Users commonly expect existing Excel objects to be duplicable using Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V, particularly when they want to create multiple buttons with similar configurations.

Use Case

Reports frequently contain multiple Action Buttons with similar functionality.

For example, a report may contain several buttons that:

• execute the same TurboIntegrator process;

• refresh or recalculate data;

• use similar configurations but are positioned in different parts of the report;

• require only minor changes to their properties or parameters.

Being able to copy an existing Action Button using Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V would provide a natural Excel workflow for creating these additional buttons.

The copied Action Button should inherit the original configuration while becoming an independent object whose properties can subsequently be modified without affecting the original.

Paste Targets

The expected behavior should apply when an Action Button is pasted:

• to another location on the same worksheet;

• to another worksheet within the workbook;

• where supported by Excel/PAfE, to another workbook within the same Excel session.

In each case, the pasted Action Button should receive an independent reference corresponding to its new worksheet/cell location.

Requested Enhancement

Please enhance PAfE to support Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V for existing Action Buttons.

The pasted Action Button should be created and immediately registered as an independent Action Button object with:

1. its own worksheet/cell reference;

2. its own entry in the Action Button properties/task pane;

3. independently editable properties;

4. the original Action Button's configuration as the initial basis for the copy.

Each paste operation should create a separate Action Button instance so that multiple copies can be created and managed independently.

Existing Action Buttons that may already have been created through previous Copy/Paste operations and are not independently registered should continue to function as they currently do. The requested enhancement applies to new Copy/Paste operations.

Scope Clarification

This enhancement request specifically concerns duplicating an existing Action Button using Excel Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V.

The behavior of Action Buttons when they are moved is separate from this request.

IBM is currently investigating a separate behavior related to the Action Button Task Pane not refreshing the reference after a button has been moved. The move scenario can currently be refreshed by switching to another Excel tab or reopening the Excel report.

This enhancement request is therefore specifically about providing standard Excel Copy & Paste functionality for existing Action Buttons and ensuring that the pasted button is correctly registered as an independent Action Button immediately after the paste operation.

Tested Environments

The behavior has been observed with:

• PAfE 2.1.22

• PAfE 3.1.10

and in:

• PAW Local

• PAW SaaS

The behavior has been reproduced with Action Buttons configured to:

• refresh/recalculate data;

• execute a TurboIntegrator process.

Thanks in advance.

With best regards,
Vitalij