I just spend what feels an eternity to copy and paste some characters from one file to another. I am afraid I have to misuse this forum to let of steam. I apologise if my words sounds harsh.
The manual says :The options LSB, Width, and RSB copy the respective metric values into the target glyph(s). If you select both Width and RSB, the value of the right sidebearing will take precedence over the width value.
In fact: if you want to copy the spacing, and why should I ever not want to copy the spacing, I have to keep the checkboxes for LSB, width and RSB unchecked! This copying and pasting is already not very easy to use as it requires a hidden menu option. Once you found it then it seems you have to do the opposite of what the manual makes you think that you need to do. The manual should say: 'The options LSB, Width, and RSB do not copy the respective metric values into the target glyph(s), but maintains those that are already there. ’
Just copying glyphs as they are? Why not simply copy and paste, without the Option key?
The problem is that components may refer to different shapes in the host font, that is why copying and pasting is not as straight-forward as you’d imagine it.
To make sure that we are on the same page: these options are for applying the metrics of the source glyphs to the metrics of the target glyphs. This is unrelated to what you wrote in the first paragraph where you referred to copying complete glyphs.
I just tried it again in Version 2.5.2 (1172), and it transferred the spacing as advertised.
I want to copy characters with outlines and/or components, anchor points and the metrics. If I copy and paste without the option key: instead of copying the selected character from the active master, into the selected slot in the other file, I get a new glyph with a suffix added to the name, from the wrong master. So that is not what I want. So I must use the options. And when setting the metrics check-boxes, I get the outlines from the source file and the metrics from the destination file, which is the opposite of how I interpret the manual.
I want to select a character in a font and copy. Then select a character in either the same or a different font, and then paste it into that place. That is what I have been dong for a very long time in various other font tools. I guess the additional complexity is not as much the issue of components, but the different masters. A simple copy and paste without options would be from active to active master.