# 7.3. Cut/Copy/Paste and the Clipboard

The "clipboard" is a concept familiar to most people who have used modern word processors. It is a piece of your computers memory which is set aside as a temporary storage space. You can "Cut" or "Copy" text from your document into the clipboard. You can then move to another part of the document, and "Paste" this text back into the document at the new position.

The most common use for the clipboard is to move or coppy text which you have already entered into one part of your document to another part of the document or to another document.

To do this, we will begin with a test sentence

| In the country of Westphalia, in the castle of the most noble Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, lived a youth whom Nature had endowed with a most sweet disposition.

Using the mouse or keyboard, you select the phrase "most noble".

Now select Edit->Copy from the menubar or press Ctrl-C.

This has moved a copy of the selected text to the clipboard.

You now place the mouse cursor between "lived a" and "youth whom" and click once.

Now select Edit->Paste from the menubar or press Ctrl-V

The resulting sentence is:

| In the country of Westphalia, in the castle of the most noble Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, lived a most noble youth whom Nature had endowed with a most sweet disposition.

## 7.3.1. The Copy Command

The "Copy" command can be invoked 4 ways:

- By selecting Edit->Copy from the Menu bar

- By clicking on the toolbar.

- You can use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-C

- You can use the mouse to highlight the text. That text is automatically moved into the clipboard.

The "Copy" command moves a copy of the selected text to the clipboard. The original sentance is unaffected.

## 7.3.2. The Cut Command

The "Cut" command can be invoked 3 ways:

- By selecting Edit->Cut from the Menu bar

- By clicking on the toolbar.

- You can use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-X

The "Cut" command moves a copy of the selected text to the clipboard. The selected text is then deleted from the sentance in your document.

## 7.3.3. The Paste Command

The "Paste" command can be invoked 3 ways:

- By selecting Edit->Paste from the Menu bar

- By clicking on the toolbar.

- You can use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-V

The "Paste" command inserts a copy of all the text in the clipboard at the current position of the cursor. The clipboard is unaffected. (So another paste command will produce yet another copy of the text in the document.)

| If no text in the document is currently highlighted, the "Paste" command inserts the text at the current position of the cursor. If there is selected text when the "Paste" command is executed, the selected text is replaced with the contents of the clipboard.

Remember: You are not limited to the bounds of one document. If you "Copy" (or "Cut") text from a document, you can "Paste" this text into another open document.