The Clipboard - A simple guide to Cutting, Copying and Pasting

Cutting, Copying and Pasting.
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Modern computers contain a powerful feature to allow programs to interact with each other - the "clipboard".  This is an area of the computer's short-term storage (its RAM) that every program should be able to access - data can be placed on the clipboard from anywhere or transferred to anywhere from the clipboard.  The clipboard can hold one piece of data at a time: whether that is a piece of text, an image, some "rich text" (formatted text, perhaps with images), a file reference or a bunch of computer data that is specific to a certain program.

If data is transferred to the clipboard and is removed from its original place, this is known as "cutting" the data.  If it is transferred to the clipboard but also remains in it's original place, the process is known as "copying" the data.  The process of transfering data from the clipboard to a certain location is known as "pasting" the data - please note that the data will still remain on the clipboard after it is pasted!

Note that when a file (rather than any other data) is copied, only a reference to it is placed on the clipboard and the action of transferring the data only takes place once the file is pasted.


Copying and Pasting Text
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Imagine you have found some text on a website that you wish to save to a text document.  To do this, you can copy the text to the clipboard and paste it in a program that works with text documents.

1. Ensure the website is open in your web-browser (this might be Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox, Apple Safari, Midori, K-Meleon or any number of other web-browsers).

2. Select the text you wish to copy.  You can refer to the steps here if you like: https://pastebin.com/T3gVS6TC .

3. Place your mouse poiner over the selected text and click the *right* mouse button, being sure to release the button rather than holding it down.

4. A menu (a list of options) should appear.  From this list, *left* click on the word "Copy" (once again releasing the button as part of the click).

5. If you have not yet started a program into which to paste the text, do so now.  If you want to retain the formatting (the appearance) of the text, start a word-processor (such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Wordpad, Apple Pages, Libre Office Writer, AbiWord, Corel WordPerfect or any other of the multitude of word-processors available, depending upon what is installed on your computer).  If you merely want the unformatted text and don't care about what any of it looks like, you can open a simple text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad, Borland TextEdit, Notepad++, Leafpad, VIm or any of the almost limitless number of text-editors that exist, again depending on what is installed on your computer).

6. Depending on the program that you have started, there may be many different ways to paste the text.  Many programs will have a menu bar at the top with a horizontal list of titles that open vertical menus when clicked with the *left* mouse button.  If yours has this, it probably has the menus titled "File" and "Edit".  Click with the *left* mouse button on the word "Edit".  A menu will appear that should contain the word "Paste" as one of the options.  Click on this option with the *left* mouse button.  If your text program does not have a menu bar (or even if it does), it may have some form of toolbar with icons (pictures) representing the various commands.  The standard icon to represent the "Paste" command is a picture of a clipboard with a piece of paper on it (or partly coming off it), though the program in question may use a different symbol.  If you place your mouse pointer over the icon, a label containing text describing the function of the icon should appear next to or beneath the icon, therefore you can check if an icon does indeed represent the "Paste" command.  If you have found the icon representing the "Paste" command, click it with the *left* mouse button (once again releasing the button as part of the click).  If you cannot find the icon in question or the program you are using does not have either a menu bar or a toolbar, there are two other methods that may allow you to access the "Paste" command.  The first is to place your mouse pointer over the area where text is typed into and click with the *right* mouse button (like you did on the webpage - remember to release the mouse button as part of the click).  A menu should appear.  Locate the word "Paste" on this menu and click with the *left* mouse button (releasing the button as part of the click).  If for some reason this method also fails, there is a way to paste using the keyboard: simply press and hold down the key marked "Ctrl" and then tap and release the "V" key, then release the "Ctrl" key.  This is a standard key combination and should work almost everywhere.  If you are using a Mac, the "Command" key should be used instead of the "Ctrl" key.  Occasionally programs use a different key combination (such as holding down the Shift key (marked by an outline of an up arrow) and tapping the key marked "Insert" or "Ins"), but the "Ctrl+V" combination is the standard.  Though this can be the quickest option if you are used to it, I leave it here as a last resort as it requires getting used to.

7. The text you copied should appear in the area where you type text, as if by magic!

8. You will probably want to save this file.  If your program has a menu bar, click with the *left* mouse button on the menu entitled "File" and then again on the command "Save".  Find somewhere to save it, type a filename into the filename textbox and click the "Save" button with the *left* mouse button.  If your program has no menu bar but does have a toolbar, the icon you are looking for looks like a floppy disk (a square, often blue, with a white rectangle at the top and a grey rectangle at the bottom with what looks like a notch in it).  Click on this icon with the *left* mouse button.  If your program has neither a menu bar nor a toolbar, it probably requires a keyboard command to save.  The most common is to hold down the "Ctrl" key and then, while it is held down, tap the "S" key (then release both - "S" key first), however this is not universal.  Once the "Save" window appears, find somewhere to save it, type a filename into the filename textbox and click the "Save" button with the *left* mouse button.

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You can copy and paste text within a document using a similar procedure.  You can also move text around by using the "Cut" option and pasting it.  Many things are possible thanks to the clipboard.

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Sorry if the article above is to simple and thus sounds patronising - It's difficult to know how simple to make things like this.