the copy paste gadget doesnt work and the book acknowledges this and doesnt propose an alternative???
is there a tool that im missing? every automation game and mod that i played actually encorages you to make blueprints for useful items that youre gonna be making at different places, why doesnt this mod have any way to do this?

That's because there is no alternative. Also Nomifactory is a modpack, not a mod. From what I remember, the closest you can get is with Schematica for 1.12, but idk how good that is or if it even works in this pack.